FanHouse AdewaleOgunleye

As we have done since the FanHouse began, I'll be taking a look every week at some aspect of line play. You can read more features in the series here. Check back every Thursday for a new Between The Lines.

When the Redskins signed defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth to the largest free agent deal in NFL history, the contract came with a lot of expectations. One game into his Redskins' career, there are already columns asking, is that all there is?

Haynesworth had four tackles against the Giants. He had no quarterback hurries and no sacks as the Redskins lost 23-17.

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

When the Bears made one of the biggest offseason splashes by trading for Jay Cutler, they were left without a first-round pick. Many Bears fans would argue this was a blessing in disguise, considering general manager Jerry Angelo's rocky history with first-round picks (David Terrell, Cedric Benson, Rex Grossman, Michael Haynes).

Still, there were more needs than just quarterback on this team for the near future. Would Angelo be able to fill all those holes with a bunch of second-day draft picks?

After the Bears made the announcement of their franchise-shattering acquisition of Jay Cutler, they didn't rest. Within a few hours, they announced they had also agreed to terms with venerable left tackle Orlando Pace. I'll admit, I was overly excited about the two new Bears, as were all my Bears fans friends -- which is weird, usually at least one of us disagrees about player movement. Make no mistake about it, though. We aren't delusional. This team is far from complete and the die-hards know it.

With the team still a decent amount below the salary cap and several holes left to fill for 2009, here's what I think the Bears should do.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

The Bears surprised everyone by being a respectable football team in 2008. Most expected them to completely unravel, winning maybe three of four games. Instead, they took down the Colts in Indianapolis to kick off a winning season.

Along the way, though, they blew several key games and ended up severely disappointing their own fans by not winning a very winnable division -- not to mention one additional win would have garnered a wild card.

In the NFC Championship game two years ago, Reggie Bush took a swing pass 88 yards to the house. The last ten or so were accompanied by Bush pointing back at the Bears defense before doing a flip into the end-zone and dancing the night away. Of course, the Saints had only cut the Bears lead to two, and didn't score another point en route to a 39-14 loss.

Several Bears were a bit peeved by this at the time. Adewale Ogunleye was in the field, and got the chance to tell Bush what he thought. "I told Reggie that was unprofessional," Ogunleye said.

"He's a rookie and he's going to be a hell of a player in this league. But for him to point back and taunt, that was no class. I swear I was a second away from punching him. I'm glad I didn't. I ran right to him and said, 'Be professional in this league.'"

Olin Kreutz -- who was fortunately on the sideline or he certainly would have punched Bush, just ask former teammates* -- didn't like the act either.

The Vikings' convincing win over the Bears last Sunday night didn't come without costs. Specifically, defensive end Jared Allen was fined $10,000 for the unforgivable act of using the football as a prop: after registering a sack, he pretended to give CPR to the ball. Apparently, the league will not tolerate pretend-lifesaving on inanimate objects.

Allen, in his first year in Minnesota, has been successful at racking up both sacks as well as fines. He's at 10.5 for the former and, well, substantially more for the latter:

Allen has now been fined $90,000 by the NFL this season. He was fined $75,000 for hits on quarterbacks Matt Schaub and Aaron Rodgers, $5,000 for jumping on a pile late on a run against the Bears and now $10,000 for using the football as a prop during a celebration.

A few Bears' players also received invoices from NFL offices, but defensive end Adewale Ogunleye wasn't one of them. Evidently, the league didn't think enough of Gus Frerotte's dive (see YouTubes above) to bother with fining Ogunleye, which probably explains why officials didn't throw a flag on the play, either.

Actually, I don't know that Frerotte was flopping. Maybe a bump in the back really did send him flying face-down to the turf where he lay motionless for a few seconds. He is 37 and prone to freak accidents, so who knows.

I don't care if the Lions go 0-16 -- and they probably will. There is no way they are worse than the St. Louis Rams. The Chicago Bears dominated every facet of the game this week, but the Rams are getting pretty used to being embarrassed, as this is the third straight week they've faced a deficit of at least 21 points at halftime. The score could have been much worse, but the Bears completely shut it down in the second half.

I believe the overall futility of the team was nicely summed up at the 11:15 mark of the fourth quarter. The Rams were trailing by 24 points, and faced a 4th-and-2 from the Bears' 28-yard line. It would have done very little to impact the game if they tacked on three points. Regardless, Jim Haslett sent out the field goal unit. The crowd booed quite loudly -- it was actually the most noise made by Rams' fans all game -- so Haslett reacted and sent the offense back out on the field. Only now they didn't have enough time on the play clock to run a play, so they had to use a timeout.

After the timeout, the Rams did gain the first down, but then threw an interception a few plays later.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Brian Griese threw 67 passes on Sunday, completing 38 of them for 407 yards. The Bears never sacked him once.

To watch an opposing quarterback drop back to pass 67 times and never put him on his back has to be frustrating for a defensive player. And Bears defensive end Adewale Ogunleye says it's all about attitude.

I was actually surprised that this many Bears fans thought their team was going to win Sunday night in Indy. There isn't much optimism emanating from the Windy City these days when the topic of conversation is their beloved Halas Hall residents. So I looked around to see if anyone without bias thought the Bears could win.

No one at sportsline even thinks they can cover.

ESPN, while not ballsy enough to pick against the spread, doesn't have a Bears pick.

Peter King, while obviously putting a ton of time into his analysis, has the Colts -- and check out the side poll. Over 95 percent of the voters have the Colts winning.

FanHouse's own Will Brinson has the Colts in blowout fashion.

And so it goes, on and on and on ... no matter where you look. There are a few people who think the Bears can cover, but I didn't find a single entry where the Bears were the predicted winner.

It makes sense. To illustrate why, let's first go over what the Colts have to do to win.

A number of you aren't going read this because as Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen says, the public prefers to follow news of celebs and sports figures who are "[expletived] up." The rise of the sports blog generally hasn't be driven by fans' desire to read do-gooder stories. (Though I have to say, I think that would be an interesting niche sports blog).

In any event, I want to highlight a few stories in the news this week that talk about NFL players doing good in the world.

The New York Times had a great article yesterday about four NFL players with ties to Nigeria visiting the country in March. They must have been an impressive display of defensive linemen big people: NY Giants' Osi Umenyiora, Houston Texans' Amobi Okoye, and Chicago Bears' Adewale Ogunleye and Israel Idonije.

It was Okoye's idea for them to all go to Nigeria as a group, figuring they could do more good works together than separately. They also could get scared together as the bus they were traveling in got broadsided by a truck on the first day of their trip. The article is certainly worth a read.

Another article worth checking out is the continuing help that Tampa Bay running back Warrick Dunn gives to single parents looking to purchase their first homes. He does this to honor his police officer mother who never owned a house. She was shot while working her off-duty security job, and a 17-year-old Dunn along with his grandmother found themselves taking care of his five siblings. To date, his foundation has helped 77 single parents buy their first homes by providing a down payment and home furnishings. (Here's the donation link).

The next time you feel like ragging on athletes for being a bunch of "turds", ask yourself what you are doing to make this world a better place. Athletes are like the rest of us imperfect people. Some do good, some do bad, and some get busted for being a smiling black guy who loves his mom on a boat full of white women in bikinis boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest.

(Photo of Dunn as the first winner of the Home Depot Neighborhood MVP award in January. Photo Credit: Scott Halleran, Getty Images).