The 2014 Chicago Bear season is all but over. A 5-8 record, mathematically eliminated from playoff consideration, a preponderance of injuries, an ineffective offense and a sieve-like defense has the fans not angry, but pissed off. The newspapers, radio stations and social media have called for everyone to be fired: President Ted Phillips, GM Phil Emery, Coach Marc Trestman, the coaches, particularly defensive coordinator Mel Tucker and most of the players, especially QB Jay Cutler. At this point, it appears that the only man who won’t be with the team next year is Tucker, whose defenses have been nothing short of horrible.
Newspaper reports have estimated that it would cost the Bears $16 million to clean house, not counting the hiring new people to replace them. Part of the anger is due to the high expectations of the team, front office and fans before this season started. Cutler led one of the most potent offenses in the game in 2013, which led the team to sign him to a seven-year, $126 million contract with $54 million guaranteed. Despite bringing in coaches to improve his performance, Cutler leads the league in turnovers, hidden by statistics that have him breaking all Bear single season passing records and an excellent QB rating.
Trestman is on the hot seat, not so much because of the losing, but the very loose ship he’s run. Letting linebacker Lance Briggs miss a practice before a game to attend the opening of a restaurant he invested in opened the flood gates of speculation that the inmates run the asylum. Open displays of frustration after Cutler turnovers have been common this season with even the relationship between Cutler and main target in Chicago and Denver, Brandon Marshall having reportedly soured.
Since the NFL is certainly media savvy, the NFL Network has reported that the Bears were suffering from “buyer’s remorse” having signed Cutler to the big deal since they could have placed the franchise tag on him, paid him top money for this season, but not be locked in if he didn’t play well. Reports continued with the Network quoting that people inside the Bears’ camp were frustrated with the quarterback’s play management and especially complaining about Cutler’s refusal to audible out of bad run plays has “absolutely killed” the team.
None of this is exactly a surprise to Bear fans, who have given up on Cutler. However, the team had to find the “leak” and it turns out that it was offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer. Kromer reportedly told this to a reporter from the Network as well as a local reporter.
Last night, Kromer addressed the whole team. While he reportedly adamantly denied he said anything about the franchise having buyer’s remorse for Cutler’s blockbuster contract. Kromer did admit to being frustrated with the quarterback’s play management and expressing that to Ian Rapoport as he left Soldier Field on Dec. 4 after the fifth loss in seven games. Cutler was in the room for the admission and according to one source, Cutler shook his head during Kromer’s apology. Rapoport reported the Bears had remorse over Cutler’s contract and went on to say Cutler’s refusal to check out of bad run plays has “absolutely killed” the team. Kromer’s apology was emotional and tear filled according to all reports.
The local papers are saying that Kromer should be fired immediately for “speaking out of turn and not keeping it in the locker room.” Why? The body language of the offense and defense after turnovers says exactly what Kromer has said. And Cutler looks like a man whose got his millions, his pretty reality TV star wife and two kids, and he doesn’t give a sh#t, which has not exactly endeared him to the Soldier Field faithful.
My thought – STOP CRYING KROMER! Maybe you shouldn’t have spoken to the press, but you are telling the truth, and being honest. To be honest, you were probably going to be fired anyway, but even historic offensive minds Don Coryell and Mike Holmgren could get Cutler to change. Cutler has a cannon for an arm, but he makes bad decisions and poor throws, often off his back foot. While the defense and suspect special teams have certainly helped destroy the Bears’ chances in many games this season, Cutler’s continued improvement was supposed to help keep the Bears at least in the mix of a very competitive NFC North Division.
Aaron Kromer said what lots of people, inside and outside of the organization are saying. Like many whistle-blowers and people who dare speak truth to power, Kromer is going to pay; not with his life, but certainly with his job. His bosses may be out of work with him, but I bet they’ll all agree with what he said.

Americans love football. We know this. Nothing can stop the passion for football: not head injuries, not domestic violence, not performance enhancing drugs can keep us football fans from descending on the stadiums, bars, or just the barca-lounger to watch football.
I have a question however: with the new College Football Playoff system, will anyone watch the other several dozen bowl games? They used to be a treat, a rite of passage for the new year; something to do while sobering up. But this year, we have a true Final Four: No. 1 Alabama will play No. 4 Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, while No. 2 Oregon will face No. 3 Florida State in the Rose Bow, with the winners playing each other.
We have clamored for this for decades – a decisive way to determine a champion on the field, not by computer or in some popularity contest by coaches or sportswriters. (Although we still have a flawed system since a group of people, some with as much background in football as former Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, determining who the top four teams are. And Baylor, TCU and a couple of other schools have a legitimate argument. But there will be such teams every year.)
So, the question will be, unless you’re a fan of say, Illinois or Louisiana Tech, will anyone watch the Heart of Texas Bowl? In the past, with a system that bred argument, someone might want to see the “lesser bowls” to see teams you might not have seen during the year. But with cable and satellite television, you could see these teams play, or at least highlights on YouTube. Will the casual fan tune into non-ranked teams in these bowls, even the bowls with the 5-10 ranked teams in the nation, or just wait for the games that truly mean something?
I know that in the past I would turn games on if I’m just vegging out, and I will probably do that still, but will anyone else?

I have not posted about police violence against black men since the Ferguson, MO decision/protests, so I have not written on the Eric Garner decision, but one of the more asinine comments on the cause of the incident has come from Sen. Rand Paul. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t dignify his comments with a response, and I have not, but when his sentiments are the basis of a Chicago Tribune column by John Kass (his e-mail is jakass – “jackass” – too funny) published today; I had to reply via e-mail:

Mr. Kass,

I hardly ever read your column, mostly because I avoid the news portion of the Tribune because it is a racist, right wing, overly conservative media outlet and has been so for generations. My wife has me keep the subscription for the sales advertising, and I read the arts section, the comics and the sports. My news I get elsewhere to keep from gagging on the right wing nonsense (it is amusing that the paper was nearly bankrupted by billionaire bastion of industry and man who said that billionaires work so much harder than the rest of us, Sam Zell).
Unfortunately, I read your column today in which you blasted the protestors of the Eric Garner murder, which is expected from a writer for the Tribune, but I was surprised to see you siding with Rand Paul, the faux Libertarian who changes his opinions like a wind sock in a hurricane. Taxes are the reason Garner was murdered by the police because he was cutting into their tax revenues by selling cigarettes individually. Taxes, the greatest evil in history according to the billionaire oligarchy, who have sold this load of bile to the Tea Party and have been happily aided by like minded media columnists like yourself.
Somewhere, Ayn Rand is in orgasmic ecstasy like no woman in history. The definition of society is “people living in organized communities with shared laws, traditions, and values,” and to fully participate in society is the rule of law, and the payment of taxes. Schools, garbage, police, military, roads, fire departments, and so many other things are paid for through taxes, But to the rich, who can certainly afford it, they don’t want to pay for anything – they can afford to have private contractors do these services. This message has filtered down to the great unwashed who have bought into Ms. Rand’s selfish objectivism that we owe nothing to anyone but ourselves. So, Taxes are the great sin, and anyone who gets relief is a moocher, that is, until I get laid off, or I’m getting Social Security. More of the fear and hatred of the “not we.”
If anything, poor people are anything but lazy. Garner was hustling to feed his family and doing whatever he can do to make it happen. For all of the pooh-poohing that white people do about drug dealers (white people buy the majority of the drugs), in a society that educates them poorly, has limited means of getting ahead, and those that have are fighting to keep what they have from being taken away by the 1`%, these young men and women are true entrepreneurs, but using your own argument, they are cutting out Big Pharma. The easiest thing to do would be to legalize drugs, sign up all of the street hustlers by Big Pharma and sell the drugs. More tax revenue, more jobs, more money in the economy, and maybe this country will finally learn that Prohibition DID NOT WORK! People who want to get high are going to do so.
It has been the plan for decades to destroy the Federal Government, and the easiest way to do that is to kill the money stream. Have everyone fight the big bad taxes – no one should pay for anything their group (white, mostly) doesn’t benefit from. You will notice that I am not arguing for or against the “crime” of selling cigarettes individually. I think that police have better things to do with their time. And perhaps Garner should have been more mobile to keep out of sight of police while committing his victimless crime.
Like Sen. Paul however, you are making a WIDE reach to push a propaganda campaign on a human tragedy that has, at its base, a much more basic and human issue. But that would mean supporting “those liberals” and militant black people. But that would be too easy, and it wouldn’t support the conservative agenda that you support lock and stock and barrel and what you continue to peddle to the unknowing masses.
Sincerely,
Tony Fernandez

I have been a subscriber to Rolling Stone magazine for decades and I still do. The political coverage, the in depth articles and the celebrity profiles make the magazine. I always glance at the record reviews because they have been co-opted for many years (I have wondered if the reviews are bought and paid for, like radio airplay in the 1950s and 60s – even now?).
Rolling Stone, which began as a counter-culture magazine supporting rock music, broadened its coverage of hip hop and pop music, but the magazine hasn’t printed a negative review of any major artist’s release. Back in 2009 here on evilopinion, I reprinted something I found online quoting RS on each post-Bill Berry R.E.M. album/CD and each one got high marks (4 or 5 stars) with almost every review calling that CD “a return to classic R.E.M.” (Put in R.E.M. in the search engine on this site and give it a read, from February 2009.) It is funny reading what they wrote about 2004’s Around The Sun, which was passable, but they said similar things about Reveal in 2001 which was bad, and even the almost unlistenable Up from 1998. A few months ago, RS published a bad review of the latest CD from group Foster The People. I’m not much of a fan of that band, but I chuckled and wondered if the group’s record company didn’t pay enough money to Jann Wenner?
Their fawning over the entire career of vacuous country/pop diva Taylor Swift has been sickening to read. Every new CD from Ms. Swift has been lauded as a masterpiece. So, I must admit surprise that when RS announced its Top 50 albums of 2014, Swift’s 1989 wasn’t at the very top. (It came in tenth.) I went through the list counting how many of the CDs I had purchased, and when I got to the top 2, I wasn’t at all surprised. At 2 was Bruce Springsteen’s High Hopes album and at number 1 – U2’s Songs of Innocence. Yes, the album that was forced upon everyone who has iTunes. Now I love Springsteen and U2 (just look back at my personal best of lists from the past – also on this site), but I think more of the Springsteen CD because it shows the New Jersey juggernaut trying some new sounds and textures by including Audioslave/Rage Against The Machine sonic guitarist Tom Morello to the E-Street Band.
Songs of Innocence is a retread – the band enlisting popular producers like Danger Mouse to liven up their sound to little effect. I admit that “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” has grown on me, but all of the U2 albums since All You Can’t Leave Behind haven’t really stretched the band at all. My favorite U2 album is Achtung Baby (along with Zooropa it would be in my top 10 stranded on a desert island discs). This was a band experimenting with its sound, more European, most rhythmic.
Anyway, back to Rolling Stone. This is a magazine that local Chicago rock critic Jim DeRogadis left because he gave a major release a bad review and the magazine refused to pan the disc (I don’t remember what it was), and the other Chicago critic Greg Kot has done very little if anything for Rolling Stone. It is because, as I tell participants in the classes I teach at work, all you have is your reputation and integrity; once its lost, its impossible to get back.
Rolling Stone should know better than to think they can get away with it. In the Internet Age, you can look up old issues and reviews, so your hypocrisy is out in cyberspace forever, for all to see.
So, I plan on doing my list of top 10 music discs of the year in a week or two, and while U2 and Springsteen may be on it, they won’t be number 1 and 2 (and I started putting the list together LONG before RS published their list).
As to Rolling Stone, I read the portions of the magazine that I feel aren’t bought and paid for; but I NEVER, EVER believe any music reviews they publish. This week is just the latest example.

It’s been a week since the Grand Jury failed to indict Darren Wilson in the murder of unarmed black teenager Mike Brown, and while the rioting seems to be over, the protests comtinue including some in downtown Chicago last weekend. On my way to see the David Bowie Is exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, there were a lot of protestors on the Magnificient Mile carrying signs and banners. It was peaceful, fortunately, but I did see cops watching the demonstrators with resignation.
However, some police are not as calm. Yesterday, five members of the St. Louis Rams ran out of the field with their hands over their heads in the “not armed, don’t shoot” poise that has become the symbol of the protests. Apparently, some police groups don’t appreciate the symbolism and have told the NFL that it should penalize the players with fines or suspensions. Now, the NFL, also known as the “No Fun League,” certainly doesn’t condone controversy, but in this case, with players of the home team of the Ferguson, MO area doing the demonstrating (and the Ray Rice ruling – see next post), I don’t think that the NFL is going to do much, nor should they.
But I have to ask, are police more on edge than ever before? I have known a lot of police officers over the years, especially when I worked for Andy Frain as an usher, and for the most part, they were pretty much of the “take people as they come” philosophy, but maybe because I was never deemed a threat, I never saw that side of them? I do remember some cops who worked at the old Chicago Stadium tell me that if I ever got into a problem, give their names and it would be easier for me.
That came back to me over the weekend. I had parked and was walking toward Ryan Field for the Northwestern/Illinois game (the less said about the game, the better). Anyway, I was crossing Central at Gross Point, which is a weird angled intersection because Gross Point runs north and east from just west of downtown Evanston. The non-turning traffic had gotten the light and I was crossing the street with the light. A white SUV turned from southbound Gross Point onto westbound Central and the woman driving the car must have gotten too close to the policeman who was one of six officers directing traffic/herding the pedestrians. Suddenly, he yelled “pull the car over, pull the car over.” The woman pulled over and the cop ran to speak to her. I don’t believe she got a ticket, but this Evanston cop, white, male, taller than me (I’m nearly 6’2”) just went off. Now, there are bad parts of Evanston, but we’re not talking about a cop who regularly patrols the South or West Sides of Chicago. It was a sunny, crisp, clear, relatively warm day for the end of November. I had to wonder what might have happened if I had been driving: ticket? Arrest? Worse?
That’s the key to the whole story, as a black man, you have to be constantly aware of your surroundings: suspicion reigns. Cops look at you like you’re trouble; clerks in stores look at you like a thief, or at least someone who can’t afford whatever it is they’re selling. (There have been more than a couple of times when I pulled out my gold Amex card and told a clerk that, yes, I think I can afford whatever it is I’m looking at.)
Perhaps it is the election of a black President of the United States that just has certain segments of people freaking the f%^& out! Just look at the GOP aide who trashed the First Daughters on social media over the weekend. She first gave a lame apology, then resigned. (Personally, I’m surprised that FLOTUS didn’t get into Air Force One and go to kick the woman’s ass.) However, crime statistics say that crime is down, although not in poor neighborhoods. I can see how officers who regularly work in these areas would be extra sensitive (PTSD, perhaps?), but cops in general? These aren’t the 1960s when there was unrest in the streets, but the police response in Ferguson has upped the ante significantly.
Once again, there is a call for dialog. What has that gotten us so far? Not much. Will more dialog do any good? Probably not.

We have played 12 weeks of the 2014 NFL season and the contenders and pretenders have identified themselves. Teams like the Packers and Broncos are at the top of the heap, and teams like Jacksonville, Tennessee, the Raiders yet again, and the Bears are making plans for the offseason.
The other thing that is obvious about this time of the season is the injury count. Arizona had been one of the top teams in the NFC but injuries, most notably the season ending injury to quarterback Carson Palmer has the Cardinals reeling. Every team has their injured players, but one has to ask now: does anyone need a running back? Because Ray Rice is available.
Rice of course, was filmed punching his then fiancée is an elevator, and at first, he was suspended for two games, which drew outrage from many sources, especially after a video tape became public of the actual punch (the first video showed Rice dragging the unconsciouos woman from the elevator. At that time, the Ravens dropped Rice, and commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Rice indefinitely.
As usual and expected, Rice and the NFLPA appealed the suspension, and last week, an arbitrator lifted the suspension. It appears that Goodell and the Ravens front office have some explaining to do. According to Janay Rice, the team wanted her to apologize to her husband for her part in instigating the incident. As I’ve said, sometime people can take an argument too far, even women, but, unless the woman is violent, there is no need for a professional athlete, who could kill someone in the right circumstance, hit a woman that way.
However, the verdict was harder on Goodell. Goodell has long said that the league never had the initial video tape and that Rice and his wife had not told the whole truth in the hearing held in June after which Goodell gave the initial two game suspension, but Mrs. Rice in interviews today (and backed by the arbitrator’s ruling) said that both of the Rice’s were honest in all testimony since they knew that there was video tape of the incident. Add to that the fact that the league apparently had the first videotape long before Goodell said they did, plus the fact that there were no records taken of the initial proceeding shows that Goodell took a very lax stance on the incident and only changed when the second tape was released.
The biggest problem for Goodell was that he lied about it. The “new sheriff in town;” the man who said he was going to clean up the NFL (and came off as condescending and somewhat racist in his rulings and statements) is now being told, yet again, that the Emperor has no clothes. If you remember, ESPN suspended Bill Simmons on September 24th for calling Goodell a liar. I thought then, and still think now that he was absolutely right.
But he brings billions of dollars into the teams’ accounts, and to the owners, Goodell’s bosses, that’s all that matters. Since winning is all that most front offices, coaches and many fans care about, I don’t doubt that Rice will be playing; probably not this season, but he will get another chance. It will be up to the court of public opinion if all of the fans will be happy about that.

As has been detailed here and in numerous places, the world of college sports is changing. The Big 5 conferences have in many ways broken away from the NCAA; players could be considered employees, meaning paying players and covering their health. These are things that will cut significantly into colleges’ and universities’ profit margins. It was expected that perhaps some small schools may not be able to compete in the new environment.
Is that what is happening at the University of Alabama-Birmingham? Long a perennial NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament participant, it appears that the school is about to fire athletic director Brian Mackin and will be shutting down its football program, UAB is undergoing a university-wide yearlong comprehensive strategic planning study that includes the evaluation of the financial viability of football.
It would be different if UAB has been bad, but it looked like the program was on the rebound this season under first year Head Coach Bill Clark. Last weekend, the Blazers beating Southern Mississippi 45-24 to become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2004, the school’s lone bowl appearance.. By all accounts, Clark has done a miraculous job, taking an underfunded program that hadn’t had a winning season in a decade and was so downtrodden that his predecessor, Garrick McGee, quit on his own accord after two seasons to become offensive coordinator at Louisville.
The last FBS school to drop football was Pacific in 1995. UAB’s football program got its start in 1991 as an NCAA Division III school and once tried to hire Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, then an LSU assistant, in 2006.
This being the South, I am flabbergasted that any program would not have enough supporters to donate money to save the program. And there are: the UAB Football Foundation had pledged to raise millions for the Blazers if Clark’s contract were extended, non-conference opponents were scheduled for beyond 2016 and if the university’s administration committed to supporting football. The Birmingham City Council also recently passed a resolution of support for the program.
It also doesn’t help that many UAB supporters believe that the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees that oversees the school may have an ulterior motive to shutting down football. According to this conspiracy theory, supporters believe the board wanted to shut down their football team because of a feud with former athletic Gene Bartow and to eliminate any competition with the Alabama Crimson Tide. Considering how big the Alabama program is, one has to wonder.
When I heard about this, my first thought went back to the University of Oklahoma President who said in the 1960s that he wanted to build a university that the football program would be proud of. As I keep saying, in many communities in the South and elsewhere, football is important; to the point of being more important than it should be.
I feel for the players, coaches and season ticket holders at UAB, but again, I have to wonder if this is the first instance of the wave of the future: small colleges and universities dropping football because it’s too expensive?