We knew that change was coming for the Chicago Bears, but maybe not this fast. It was reported over the weekend that the Bears would hire Phil Emery as the new general manager and the team would make this official at a news conference today at 2:00. Other changes were to be expected, but the press corps will have another topic to ask about.
The Chicago Bears and personnel director Tim Ruskell have parted ways by mutual agreement. According to the Chicago Tribune, a league source said it was decided that new general manager should be able to structure the department the way he sees fit and hire the people who best fit the roles he creates. As a result, the Bears will have a director of pro scouting and a director of college scouting. It is unlikely the Bears will have a personnel director.
We won’t shed any tears for Ruskell; he is under contract through the 2013 draft and will be paid in full by the team. While it looks like a cleaning house of those hired by former general manager Jerry Angelo, Ruskell’s leaving is considered a surprise because he hired Emery to be his college scouting director for the Falcons in 2004 when Ruskell was the team’s personnel director.
So, let the changes continue – first Angelo and offensive coordinator Mike Martz; now Mike Tice replaces Martz, Emery replaces Angelo; perhaps the contentious relationship between the front office and Pro Bowl running back Matt Forte will ease a bit?
Let’s hope so, Bear fans.

Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin is a HUGE baby. Earlier in the season, Ovechkin was pissed over not playing in a overtime because his coach at the time Bruce Boudreau didn’t like the effort he was seeing from the two time NHL MVP. So, he has a hissy fit and did everything except sit in the corner and hold his breath until Boudreau was fired.
Alex Ovechkin also is a cheap shot artist. He has been suspended a couple of times, most notably to Chicagoans, after boarding then-Blackhawks defenseman Brian Campbell.
It was no surprise that Ovechkin was going to get suspended after launching himself to hit Pittsburgh defenseman Zbynek Michalek during Washington’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Penguins on Sunday ( funny, no penalty was assessed on the play). I say no surprise because I saw the hit and the forward left his feet to line up his shoulder at Michalek’s head.
So, baby that he is, Ovechkin announced that he will skip this weekend’s NHL All-Star game. He will forfeit more than $150,000 in his fit.
The NHL could use Ovechkin, the second most recognizable player in the game, because the first, Sidney Crosby, continues to sit out with concussion symptoms. That is exactly what Ovechkin wants, the NHL to kiss his ass and beg him to play. But, as great a player as Ovechkin is, no one is bigger than the game. Penalties and suspensions are supposed to send players a message that such behavior will not be tolerated. Ovechkin gets to hit people with impunity because he is such a big star, he believes he is above the NHL’s law (and also, the Capital players will protect their most valuable asset, so no goon can come over and kick his ass, which would be the normal reaction).
Before the season, The Hockey News picked the Capitals, and Boudreau’s new defensive outlook, to win the Stanley Cup, but I questioned that even then, but there’s no way for that to happen with a petulant superstar. The win Lord Stanley, you have to have every player playing together, doing whatever is necessary to win. Not taking dumb penalties and suspensions is part of that.
So Alex, sit and home and pout. And, until you grow up, I have a feeling that you may be the greatest scorer in NHL history without his name on the Stanley Cup.

It seems that sport seems to make computers go crazy. There is the BCS computer which has been wrong as often as right over the years. But there is no computer more bizarre than the tennis computer that determines and men’s and women’s rankings.
Case in point; once again, Caroline Wozniacki came into a Grand Slam tennis tournament ranked number 1 in the world, and seeded number 1 in the tournament. This time, it was the Australian Open, but once again, Ms. Wozniacki lost and again, long before the Final. She lost her quarterfinal match to Kim Clijsters 6-3, 7-6 (4), but finally, she will come out of this tournament without the No. 1 ranking she’s held for nearly 67 weeks.
Don’t get me wrong, Ms. Wozniacki is not the first player to gain the number one ranking without having won a Grand Slam, but I think she may have held it the longest without having much fanfare to the casual fan. I know that she lost her only Grand Slam final, the U.S Open in 2009, but other than that, on the big stage, she’s been a nonentity. It makes me wonder if she became number one by winning the Greater Bugtussle Open, and other lesser events. I don’t even know her record against the other top players, but you have to question the computer.
As I said, other women have held the top ranking before winning a Grand Slam title, including Kim Clijsters. Amelie Mauresmo spent time at No. 1 more than a year before she won the first of her two majors in 2006. Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina have held the top spot without winning a Grand Slam. I think that the 21-year-old Wozniacki has a lot of tennis in front of her, and perhaps the weight of being number one and the doubts that the public had about her being ranked number one will help her.

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.
– William Shakespeare (All’s Well That Ends Well Act iv. Sc. 3)

By now, everyone knows of the death of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno yesterday. The 85-year-old Paterno died 85 days after being fired by Penn State Trustees for not doing enough when allegations of child sexual abuse surfaced against then defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.
Although he technically died of lung cancer, Paterno was supposed to make a full recovery, but lots of people will say that Paterno died of a broken heart having been fired after 409 coaching victories and 56 years at Penn State, 46 as head football coach. Certainly, he made a difference in people’s lives – many of his players learned valuable life lessons playing for JoePa.
Unfortunately, it must be said that at the end of his life, he showed a disregard for young people. Of course, the most heinous issue involves that potentially dozens of young men raped by Sandusky – their wounds will never heal. But, as I wrote here before, I was concerned about Paterno’s priorities for the past several years as he pushed relentlessly for a Big Ten Championship Game, unnecessary due to there being a regular season except for the huge money, and another game to keep Big Ten schools from having another week of no practice before bowl games.
Never once did Paterno say anything about the studying and tests that yet another game would be lost by an extra game. Never was one word spoken about the extra wear-and-tear, and possible injuries that could come out of yet another football game per season.
But Joe Paterno was a football coaching icon; unfortunately yet another person whose good works will be overshadowed by poor judgment.

Super Bowl 46 is now set – a rematch from four years ago – the New York Giants vs. the New England Patriots. As to rooting factors, it’s a toss-up: New Yorkers make you want to root against them at every opportunity; and Boston are no longer the loveable losers, they have won and shown every bit as obnoxious as their New York brethren.
But I’d like to take a minute to discuss how the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers lost. The lead seesawed between the Ravens and Pats the entire game, but the Ravens drove down the field, and the Pats’ defense stiffened, bringing on Billy Cundiff to kick a 32-yard field goal to tie the game. But Cundiff missed wide left and Bill “I Look Like A Common Thug In My Grey Hoodie” Belichick and the Patriots are headed to Indy.
Then there was Kyle Williams, kick returner for San Francisco. He fumbled twice yesterday, both of which were recovered by the Giants. The gaffs led to 10 Giant points, including the game winning field goal in overtime. Up until then, the 49er defense had played very well, and Alex Smith had played QB well enough to win, but offense and defense are just 2/3rds of the game – special teams are the third leg of the stool, and without it, you won’t win many games.
Some people may be happy to see the Harbaugh brothers’ teams eliminated, but I don’t feel that way. Both of them should be disgusted today, but both men did all they could to get their teams to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, in Baltimore, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed have little if any time left as players. This may have been their last chance. The 49ers are a very young club – they should be contenders for years.
So, let the hype begin – two whole weeks of it. The most worthless extra time before a championship game in sports history (at least until this year with the BCS Championship Game played on January 9th.)

There have been and will be numerous articles and television specials to commemorate Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday today, and I’ll add my own birthday greetings to the man who may have been the most important sports figure of my life.
My grandparents, who were sports fans, but didn’t like strident black athletes or performers, were ambivalent toward Ali, or should I say Cassius Clay. They didn’t like him at all once he joined the Black Muslims. My folks hated the Muslims, mostly since they couldn’t call app white people devils, and even back in the middle 1960s, people in Chicago knew of the many children sired by the group’s leader Elijah Muhammad.
But as a kid, Ali was funny, flamboyant, a winner. No matter the Vietnam stance, the various wives and mistresses, Ali was our champion.
When he lost to Joe Frazier in the first fight, there were arguments which almost became fights themselves when the Ali faithful met kids who thought Frazier won (even though most of us couldn’t afford to go and see the fight on closed circuit television back then).
There is no way that this little blog will do Ali’s life justice – hell, I have several books on Ali and none of them do him justice. All of them together don’t do the man justice. He’s just so much bigger than life, it’s amazing to think that he is just one man and packed all of that life into 70 years on this planet.
Ali was loud mouthed, trashed Frazier mercilessly which made Frazier hate his until he died. As a boxer, he moved like no heavyweight before or since, and while he had a number of knockouts, he was not a big puncher. He hung on too long and paid the price. He should have quit after Manila, or at least after the second Spinks fight. But the Trevor Burbick and Larry Holmes fights should never have been staged. Would that have prevented Ali’s Parkinson’s Disease? Probably not, but it might not have been as severe.
As a religious leader, he left the Nation of Islam to embrace all people. He has been a symbol of goodwill for decades. But he remains a often divisive figure, his shadow so large that even mentioning so much in a brief blog, one realizes how much remains unmentioned.
Happy Birthday Champ, and may you have many more!

I wrote on Facebook yesterday after the football games were over that now that the Tim Tebow led Broncos and the dreaded, hated Green Bay Packers have been eliminated from the NFL playoffs, our long national nightmare is over. Bible-thumpers and cheeseheads can go back to their little lives.
Normally, if my team is no longer playing, I have to find teams that I want to lose. Despite beating the Packers, I can’t root for the Giants. I no longer have the burning hatred of Eli Manning I had when he came into the league and acted like a 3-year-old, in effect holding his breath until San Diego, which had drafted him, traded him to New York. However, Eli has played well, generally kept a low profile and played football, so I don’t despise him anymore
By the same token, I’ve never liked Coach Tom Coughlin, a throwback to the Roman Centurions who is wrapped so tight, it always looks like his head is going to explode. But, of course, the biggest reason not to root for the Giants are the New York fans, already so self-centered they barely identify the rest of the world on a map.
The same can be said of Boston fans, which make rooting for the Patriots difficult. It’s funny, before the Patriots first won their first title in the Tom Brady era, and before the Red Sox won; Boston fans were rabid, but you felt sorry for them because they hadn’t won in so long. But with the winning and Red Sox owner John W. Henry having HUGE bucks and a willingness to spend, suddenly, Boston fans became as obnoxious as their New York brethren.
So, that leaves San Francisco and Baltimore. As I’ve said repeatedly, I have no appreciation for the 49ers. Despite having the NFL Sunday Ticket at home, I have watched very little 49ers games, probably because they are the best team in a very weak division. I had met their coach, Jim Harbaugh on a couple of occasions and found him to be a likable fellow, and I know that Frank Gore is a great running back, but Alex Smith an elite QB? Nah, that couldn’t happen if he’d gotten a blood transfusion from Peyton Manning.
That leaves Baltimore; I’ve watched them and their defense is very good, but the aging Ray Lewis and Ed Reed are not the dominating defense that beat the Giants in 2000. Joe Flacco came into the league playing very well, and he has played a decent QB for the past several years, he remains too inconsistent to be considered an elite QB.
So, it would appear that I would be rooting for a Baltimore – San Francisco Super Bowl, but I don’t think they can defeat their opponents, so it means Patriots-Giants like it was four years ago. And I think it will be the same result – Giants over Patriots because the Giant defense is playing well and can give Brady problems, but the Giants can score on New England’s woeful secondary.