In the wake of last weekend’s Lions victory over the Bears, Chicago players began whining to the media that Israel Idonije (a former longtime Bear himself who is now with Detroit) was tipping off his new team’s offense against his former team’s defensive scheme.
The Bears think former teammate Israel Idonije tipped off the Lions on Chicago’s defensive calls
As a result, Reggie Bush had 173 all purpose yards and a touchdown while the Bears’ defense had trouble all day getting to Matthew Stafford. Jim Schwartz even denied the claims and we moved on from there.
However as it turns out, Idonije did in fact help his new team game plan against the Bears according to quote he game Mlive.com’s Kyle Meinke:
“I mean, I did anything anyone would do in a transition situation,” he said. “Nothing out of the ordinary or unique to any situation.
“I’m a Detroit Lion, period. My allegiance is to the Detroit Lions. I’m inside here. I have nothing to do with the other 31 teams. My focus is to help my team Sunday in, Sunday out, period.”
Now based off what Idonije had to say, there’s a couple of conclusions that I can draw form this whole thing.
- With multiple teams probably offering bounties to take out opposing players (yeah New Orleans wasn’t the only team taking part in that), Idonije is absolutely right, this isn’t out of the ordinary.
- The Bears who went to the media about this have to be the biggest bunch of whining babies in the League. If Ndamukong Suh all of a sudden played with the Bears you can sure as hell bet they would be prying him for information on the Lions’ defense.
- The Bears might be the dumbest team in the league, again for multiple reasons. A) Since this is so common (more than likely) throughout the League wouldn’t it be common place to change up the defense knowing a 9-year former teammate was now on the other team? B) You’ve played the Lions what 18 times the past nine years? I’m sure what Idonije had to say was already in support of what the Lions were already planning to do. C) So Marc Trestman and the new regime changed absolutely nothing from what Lovie Smith has done prior? Even with Brian Urlacher gone?
You’d think they would change things up before the Lions head to Soldier Field later on in the season. But based off what I’ve seen so far I wouldn’t count on it.
