Bernstein: The Horror, The Horror
We may never recover from this. It has happened.
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We may never recover from this. It has happened.
When Theo Epstein was introduced as the man in charge of Cubs baseball, he made clear his common-sense philosophy behind player contracts.
Matt Forte is a very good NFL running back. He has multiple strengths, minimal weaknesses, practices hard and stays healthy. And it's great to see the Bears again not need him to do much, in another convincing win.
Ask most coaches how they view their life's work, and you'll get an answer like this: "I consider myself a teacher, first and foremost."
I want to care only that the Bears dismantled and humiliated Detroit, ran their record to 6-3, and established themselves as something more than a fringe postseason contender. But I have been seeing football more through a cloud of anger, revulsion and sadness.
They hurt to read, I won't lie to you. You cannot un-know them or un-see them. You will stop multiple times in the 23 pages of the grand jury report, needing to avert your eyes or shudder.
Yes, he's maddening. And he looks like that guy in college who you always wanted to punch in the mouth, just because. But Jay Cutler has also proven himself as the best QB in Bears history.
Here's a guy who was offered a contract worth $6 million per year, with $13-14 million guaranteed, turned it down, and is now -– amazingly -- the peoples' proletariat. Amid international protests over the disparity between haves and have-nots, his quest for more is a cause célèbre.
When it comes to the cult of Tim Tebow, I guess I'm just going to be Left Behind.
Theo Epstein and his lieutenants don't look like baseball executives – more like luxury-box fans at a Dave Matthews concert – but their presence is about to bring an ironic turn to the north side.
Though a loss to the Bucs would have fluttered the dovecoats, the message sent from London was plain as a pikestaff: keep your wig on, and your chin up. 24-18.
Lovie Smith does appear to have his own supply of paper towels, though, that he's been able to pull out of the supply closet, to unroll as needed to mop up the pessimism (and who would engage in that, dare I ask?) and keep his team from slipping into the abyss.
Thanks to a once-thought-impossible confluence of circumstances -- Boston's historic collapse, an opening at Clark and Addison, and one man's desire to leave the nurturing nest of his home city and spread his wings -- Theo Epstein is reportedly ready to be the Cubs' top baseball executive for five years and many millions.
Bad drafts, bad signings, desperate trades and hamstrung, stubborn coaches have the Bears staring at a dark road.
Kenny Williams lost his poker bet, after he pushed Jerry Reinsdorf's chips to the middle of the table and birthed a regrettable marketing slogan.
Dear David Stern, Billy Hunter, various grim-faced lawyers, union representatives, hired-gun economists, and rank-and-file ballers: don't take this season from Derrick Rose.
This one was a must-must, a necessary condition for continuing one's emotional investment in a severely flawed Bears team, even if one may know better.
It's not a biographer's job to make you feel good. Apparently, author Jeff Pearlman has succeeded in angering a sizable number of naïve Chicagoans and Bears fans, based on early response to his new book.
The reasons for the Bears' inefficiencies are many, and shared. But, really. Somebody get open.
Pardon me while I laugh. I'm sorry. It's a reflexive reaction I have when too many people around me are making their serious faces and speaking in grim tones. I'll understand when you kick me out of class.
I was steeling myself for an afternoon of mawkish sentimentality, with Fox Sports presenting a football game through the prism of death – cameras tracking Brian Urlacher all afternoon, announcers consumed with his feelings after he buried his mother just the day before. Thanks to the tone set by Urlacher himself and reflected by Lovie Smith, however, it turned out I was wrong.
The NFL has turned us all into crackheads. We have to have it, and can't live without it. When we get it, we binge on it until it's gone, and then we start looking for it again.
The Island of Cautious Pessimism is a comfortable place to be. You've been here before, too, at one time or another. I've seen you. I remember faces of like-minded Bears fans who wait with me for the inevitable.
As we focus once again on the sheer joy of watching huge men clobber each other until their brains leak out, I'm picturing the next four months for the Bears, and here's what's in store.
The reports of paranormal activity in the Cubs' offices began last month. The sightings were frequent, and the stories shared similar, telltale characteristics.
