Bears GM Ryan Pace to address moves — and Mark Sanchez

SHARE Bears GM Ryan Pace to address moves — and Mark Sanchez
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Ryan Pace signed Mark Sanchez last week. (Sun-Times media)

PHOENIX — Fans should get an explanation on why the Bears signed Mark Sanchez.

General manager Ryan Pace is expected to address the addition of the backup quarterback, along with other issues, at the NFL’s annual owners meeting Tuesday at the Arizona Biltmore.

Sanchez was signed Friday to a one-year contract to back up Mike Glennon and perhaps mentor a drafted quarterback.

Pace also figures to be asked about Deiondre’ Hall, the cornerback who was tasered early Sunday morning after spitting in a police officer’s face. He was charged with three misdemeanors after being arrested outside a bar in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

The Bears still were investigating the incident Monday.

Pace last spoke March 10, the day the team announced the signings of Glennon, safety Quintin Demps, tight end Dion Sims and wide receiver Markus Wheaton.

Small ownership vote

This week, owners will vote on a small shift in ownership, one that will not affect the majority rule.

One of Mugs Halas’ two children is selling their ownership stake back to the Bears, a team spokesman confirmed. The stake is less than 10 percent of the team’s shares.

The transaction needs to be approved by the league’s owners at the meetings, where chairman George McCaskey and his 94-year-old mother, Virginia, will be in attendance.

The move will have no affect on who controls the team. George McCaskey has reiterated often that his family has no interest in selling the team.

Mugs Halas, Virginia McCaskey’s brother and former Bears president, died in 1979.

Bears WR testifies

Receiver Deonte Thompson testified at Aaron Hernandez’s double-murder trial on Monday in Boston. The two were college teammates at Florida from 2008 to ’09.

Thompson, who was re-signed last week, referred to the former Patriots tight end as “my guy” when asked to identify him in the courtroom.

Thompson testified that he saw Hernandez in New Orleans after Thompson’s Ravens won the Super Bowl in 2013, and invited him to party in Florida later in the month. They went to Tootsie’s Cabaret, a strip club in Miami.

Hernandez is accused of shooting Alexander Bradley. He feared Bradley would tell police that he killed two men a year earlier.

Follow me on Twitter @patrickfinley.

Email: pfinley@suntimes.com

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