Despite being baseball opening day week, most Chicago sports fans are yearning for football. This is not unusual when the baseball teams performed so horribly last season and hope is not springin eternal. While I was on vacation, Chicago Bear GM Phil Emery pulled off his biggest move to date. He renegotiated QB Jay Cutler’s new contract to give the team more room under the salary cap then went out and signed prize free agent, former Minnesota Viking DE Jared Allen.
The Bears were uncharacteristically bad on defense but fielded a pretty good offense, which was a 180o difference from the usual state of affairs. The pass rush was nonexistent, and the Bears waived Julius Peppers, a big money free agent signed three years ago but whose performance declined sharply last season. Peppers signed with the Packers, and it appeared that Emery was done, resigning CB Peanut Tillman. So it was a surprise when Allen signed; the Bears weren’t a team considered in the running for Allen. Allen is a couple of years younger than Peppers, but he brings a 11.5 sack per season average to Soldier Field, and unlike Peppers, Allen does not have a reputation for taking downs off.
This level of optimism this early is a big change for Bear fans. The league hasn’t even held its draft yet, but the signings give Emery, Head Coach Marc Trestman and the front office a lot of options coming into the draft. Bear fans are getting excited.
Still, they aren’t the happiest football people in Chicago. That title belongs to Cutler and the Bear offensive tackles. They no longer have to face Allen twice per season.

It was announced today that Tiger Woods is having back surgery and will miss the Masters. The television networks might miss him, but Woods hasn’t been a factor in a major tournament in years. Honestly, he won’t be missed (not that I watch golf anyway).

ESPN and SI.com are reporting that Phil Jackson is very close to a deal to take control of the New York Knicks’ basketball operations. Jackson, of course, played for the Knicks and despite winning 11 NBA Champions as a Head Coach in Chicago and Los Angeles, in his heart he has always been a Knick, where he won one title as a player.
Now, Jackson would no longer have to deal with the wear and tear of being a traveling head coach, and he would have the ultimate final decision on the direction of the team, much like Pat riley has done in Miami.
The biggest question is will owner James Dolan, who has stepped over GMs in the past be able to let Jackson run things? Jackson had a difficult time with GM Jerry Krause in Chicago, but little strife from Laker owner Dr. Jerry Buss (of course, he was dating Buss’ daughter). Dolan is a brash hands-on owner who knows a lot less than he thinks he knows about basketball.
There are two other big questions: what happens to GM Steve Mills? Mills has only been in charge since December when Glen Grunwald was fired. Reports say that Mills will take another decision-making position in the organization but can he and Jackson co-exist?
Finally, how will having Jackson running things impact the coming free agency of high scoring forward Carmelo Anthony? It looked like he would certainly entertain other offers, including perhaps the Bulls, but with Jackson has had superstars at all of his teams: Jordan and Pippen with the Bulls and Shaq and Kobe in L.A. and won championships with them. Does ‘Melo think that now he has a real chance to be the centerpiece of a contender?
All good questions; we will see.

I used to be a basketball fan. The grace, the fluidity, and way the game was played was just magnificent. Today, with everyone standing around; passing between two or three players; the game is dull, which is why I no longer watch. However, Wizards center Marcin Gortat, son of an Olympic medalist boxer, has an idea to liven up the game significantly: take a page from the NHL and allowing fighting.
In an interview, Gortat suggests that the NBA should adopt the NHL’s approach to managing fights by instructing the referees to step back and let two players settle their differences by engaging in a fight. “I would say I would loosen up a little bit the rules about the fighting fines, Gortat said. “That’s what I would loosen up. Because today you go to an ice hockey game, and the one thing they’re waiting for is a fight, you know what I’m saying? So if they could set it up something like that in the NBA. That if there are two guys and they have a problem, if they could just separate everybody. During the game. Quick, 15-20 seconds, throw few punches, then referees jump in and break this thing up. I think the game … these two guys, they resolved their problem. They’re both suspended and they’re leaving. But end of the day, they fix the problem between each other, fans are super excited, and I think that would be a pretty cool idea [chuckles].”
Fighting, like it or not, is in the DNA of hockey. When a player goes after the other team’s star, especially if a penalty is not called, then comes retribution. Sometimes players fight just to get their teams excited. The enforcers know who’s on the other team that night and a lot of times, they tell the other, we’re gonna go.
Basketball was never step up as a true contact sport. Yes, there is banging under the boards, but basketball was designed as a non-contact sport. Except for the “Bad Boy” Detroit Pistons of the 1980s and 1990s, basketball is grace and speed. Not punches.
And the NBA has a frightening example to look to: the Kermit Washington/Rudy Tomjonovich incident. Those who remember will probably never forget: in a game between the Lakers and Rockets, Washington got into a skirmish with some of the Rockets players and Tomjonovich came running toward the action, he said, to try and settle things down. (This is believable since Tomjonovich’s arms were down at his side, not in a fighting position.) Washington say Tomjonovich out of the corner of his eye and swung, catching Tomjonovich square in the face and breaking multiple bones in his face.
It took Tomjonovich, a top scoring forward of the time, a couple of years to fully recover and many say that he was never the same player after that. Washintgon was suspended, but he was considered a PR disaster and never really was a starter for the rest of his career. Just a couple of seconds and these two men were effected forever.
Do we really want the NBA to have enforcers like Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn? Considering the proximity of the court to the fans, and the brawls that have occurred lately, is this safe to have brawls on the court? Hockey has the boards and the glass, and hockey players are supremely talented skaters; all it takes is two feet to rush out on a basketball court.
I know Gortat and of course, he may have a huge advantage being a boxer’s son, was joking, but this is a VERY bad idea. But it would probably get me to watch basketball again.

Does anyone other than me find it contradictory that the 13 part update to Carl Sagan’s groundbreaking “Cosmos” is on nine Fox cable networks?
First, the show is hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, a doctor of astrophysics, so he’s very smart, and he happens to be African-American. Second, the portion of the first show I was able to see last night detailed a Medieval scientist who was excommunicated, imprisoned, and eventually burned at the stake for heresy by the Roman Catholic Church of the time for suggesting that not only did the sun not revolve around the Earth, but that the sun was nothing but another star in an infinite universe.
Of course, this is part of the same Rupert Murdoch owned system that owns Fox News (which, not coincidentally, did not simulcast the show). Of course, Fox “News” is the propaganda network that caters to the bigots who hate President Obama (another very smart African-American man) and to the worst of the anti-intellectual crowd.
And it shows in its very first episode (with more instances to come I hear) of scientists encountering severe, even violent opposition from the Church (and not just Catholicism). Fox News is the network of the “War on Christmas” and supporting the Arizona law allowing businesses to discriminate against gays and others on the basis of religious beliefs.
As I mentioned, I only got to watch part of last night’s premiere, but as a big fan of the original “Cosmos,” I will be seeing all of the episodes either live or on video and hope to get the Indignant Girls to watch as well. I just wonder how Murdoch can reconcile the dumbing of America that he broadcasts 24/7 on one network while promoting such an intelligent show that clearly promotes science (and does somewhat paint religion in a poor light) on nine other networks?

There is a problem when something works well – someone wants to copy it or do it BIGGER. Last Saturday night’s outdoor Blackhawks game in a driving first period snow was a wonderful event (your friend and humble narrator had the opportunity to go but passed due to the pain of getting in and out of Soldier Field, but it’s good that he didn’t – a stomach flu bug raced through the house last weekend which would have made the game unbearable).
The snow, the setting, the 61,000 jammed in Soldier Field made some people, most notably Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to think about attracting the biggest event in American sport: the Super Bowl. The game was just held successfully in the New Jersey Meadowlands (although a major snow storm just missed wrecking the game by a day or two). So, despite a gargantuan pension deficit, and having just closed 51 schools, mostly in minority areas of the city, Emanuel thinks that building another 5,000 seats in Soldier Field will help attract the NFL.
Personally, I think that the NFL got lucky in New York, especially in this terrible winter. Again, had the storm hit Super Bowl Sunday, the fans would have had much trouble getting there and leaving, television would have been difficult to see in the snow, and worse in my opinion, you would be settling the league championship with which team has the better snow cleats. That is no way to crown a champion.
Chicago is a wonderful city; I should know, I’ve lived in a around it all my life, but there are MUCH more important budget priorities than adding seats to the Close Encounters spaceship inside the Soldier Field edifice, then spending money to try and attract the NFL. I was also one who was happy that Chicago’s Olympic effort went for naught. Yes, it would be nice to have a major event like that here, but the Olympics especially, would require a lot of construction: for new event venues; for infrastructure. The people of the city and surrounding area would be severely inconvenienced by big road and project construction that would go on for years. Even a Super Bowl would bring sacrifices. And since almost all Olympiads end up losing money, do we need another money losing proposition in the City of Chicago? There are more pressing needs for funding than a mayor’s pipe dream.
As my friend Tom Watson says – “I am a Democrat on my most conservative day,” but while Emanuel is a Democrat, I don’t know if I would support him. Closing schools while pushing for more charter schools, leads the list of questionable decisions that the Mayor has made while in office.
However, based on a typical winter, an outdoor Chicago Super Bowl could be a disaster. Wind chills below zero, snow, lots of VIPs trying to be seen, very few if any fans. It would be a nightmare.
Let’s hope calmer heads prevail.

Athletes in general have this aura of being tough, manly men. I mean tough physically, mentally and emotionally. Often, they are; but there is always a type of athlete, usually playing particular positions that are considered “less” tough, or at least “flaky.” Placekickers in football are in this group, little guys who can kick a spheroid a very long way. Hockey goalies often have unique temperaments.
Usually, the skaters on a hockey team are more likely to fall into the “tough guy” category. So it was strange to see one of the great in the game have a perceived slight that I would call decidedly not tough. Martin St. Louis is a great hockey player, one of the best; a certain Hall of Famer in the not-to-distant future. He had spent all but two years of his NHL career with Tampa Bay, helping to bring the franchise a Stanley Cup Championship. He wore the captain’s “C” on his jersey.
And at 38, St. Louis, renowned for his conditioning regimen and extreme fitness was still performing at a high level this season: tied for sixth in the league in goals (29) and tenth in the league in points (61). All that came to an end starting with the selection of the 2014 Team Canada Olympic squad.
Heading up the committee to pick the Canadian team was Tampa Bay General Manager and Hall of Fame player Steve Yzerman. According to reports, “Stevie Y” did not overrule the rest of the selection committee when they decided to leave St. Louis off the Olympic team. The Lightning GM’s relationship with the team’s captain reportedly turned toxic in the wake of that perceived snub, so much so that even the eventual inclusion of St. Louis as an injury replacement couldn’t soothe the raw feelings.
So, yesterday, St. Louis forced Yzerman to do the unthinkable: trading St. Louis the Rangers for winger Ryan Callahan and a pair of draft picks. It is apparent that Yzerman made the best deal he could under the circumstances. St. Louis didn’t want to play for him and with a full no-trade clause, St. Louis only wanted to go to one team and he had the power to ensure that New York was exactly where he went.
Yzerman was able to extract as much as he did from Rangers GM, Glen Sather: a 2015 first rounder, and a 2014 second round pick that converts to a first if the Rangers advance to the Eastern Conference finals. That’s a very real possibility with St. Louis in place to lead the offense. However, will Callahan bring Tampa Bay a better chance at Lord Stanley than St. Louis? Callahan is a character guy, but he’s not the player he’s replacing. Plus, he’s an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, so the Bolts likely will see him skate away after the season and get no compensation whatsoever.
I admit that I’m surprised at St. Louis. He has always been a character guy too, and since Vincent Lecavalier left town and Stephen Stamkos injured much of this season, St. Louis was definitely the face of the franchise, and seemingly rejuvenated. I understand being proud and wanting to play for his country, but there were tons of great Canadian players, who didn’t get to play in Soshi. Plus, it probably would have been easy for Yzerman to pick his own captain, but the pressure on the men who are in charge of the Canadian roster have tons of pressure on them. Canada always believes (with some justification) that it is the country with the best hockey players and the Olympics are the place to do just that. Rather than just do the easy thing, Yzerman did not pick St. Louis although as I wrote above, he was an injury replacement and has a Gold Medal like the rest of the team.
Martin St. Louis continues to be a great hockey player and a certain Hall of Famer, but in his pout that got him traded to New York, in my mind, St. Louis is a big baby.