Unser Chat » The Chicago Bears are parting with veteran guard

LAKE FOREST http://www.lionsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-jahlani-tavai-jersey , Ill. (AP)and linebacker Jerrell Freeman.Two people familiar with the situation said Tuesday the Bears have decided to decline their option on Sitton for next season and release Freeman. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the team has not announced the moves.A four-time Pro Bowl lineman, the 31-year-old Sitton spent the past two seasons in Chicago after an eight-year run with Green Bay. He signed with the Bears after the Packers released him just before the 2016 season. Sitton dealt with rib and ankle injuries last season and missed three games.Article continues below ...The 31-year-old Freeman suffered a season-ending pectoral injury in the opener last year and was suspended for violating the league’s policy against performance-enhancing drugs in each of his two seasons with the Bears. The second violation resulted in a 10-game suspension in late October.Freeman said on Twitter at the time that he also suffered a potentially career-ending concussion in the opener, providing context to the drug violation. He said he downplayed the severity of his head injury to family and friends.Freeman led Chicago with 110 tackles in 2016 despite serving a four-game suspension for his first violation. He played for Indianapolis from 2012-15.The Bears went 5-11 last season and finished last in the NFC North for the fourth straight year. Chicago fired coach John Fox and replaced him with Matt Nagy.NFL Network first reported the Bears are declining Sitton’s option, while Pro Football Talk was first with the news on Freeman.— A defense lawyer representing the former president of Pilot Flying J truck stop chain has made his closing arguments in a case in which four former employees of the chain are accused of conspiring to defraud customers in a rebate scam.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports attorney Rusty Hardin told jurors Tuesday that the case is a civil matter and shouldn’t be in criminal court. Hardin’s client Kyler Murray Jersey , Mark Hazelwood, has been on trial with the three others since November in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga. Hardin also said former sales executive Brian Mosher, who previously made a plea deal and testified for prosecutors, falsely accused Hazelwood.

Pilot Flying J is controlled by the family of Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam. The Haslams haven’t been charged with any wrongdoing. The governor has not been involved in the company in recent years.

Federal prosecutor Trey Hamilton presented his closing argument Monday http://www.arizonacardinalsteamonline.com/byron-murphy-jersey , and former sales staffer Heather Jones’ attorney, Ben Vernia, argued her case Monday. Hamilton is to give a rebuttal argument Wednesday.

On Tuesday, attorney David Rivera said former Pilot Flying J Vice President Scott ”Scooter” Wombold was an honest supervisor. Rivera said Wombold didn’t realize Mosher wasn’t telling his customers that he was reducing their fuel discounts.

Former sales staffer Karen Mann’s lawyer Andy Isabella Jersey , Jonathan Cooper, told jurors that Mann didn’t know her boss and his salesmen were lying to trucking companies about the cuts she made at former executive Arnie Ralenkotter’s command. Cooper said Mann never lied to anyone.

”She wanted to be part of a team,” Cooper said. ”She was not trying to cheat anyone.”

Ralenkotter, a former sales director Clelin Ferrell Jersey , pleaded guilty and testified on the government’s behalf.

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Information from: Knoxville News Sentinel,