The NFL season is ¼ over and some interesting stories are evolving:

• The only undefeated teams after Week 4 are both in the NFC North division – the Packers (which is no surprise), and the Detroit Lions (which has to be). Not only are the Lions playing inspired football, they have been down by 3 touchdowns in the second half in each of the last two weeks and came back to win; doing so yesterday in Jerry Jones’ football palace, also know as the home of the Dallas Cowboys. It is one of the feel good stories of the season so far.
• And, as much as I hate to say it, Aaron Rodgers may be the best quarterback in the league. That really sucks.
• Another story is the Buffalo Bills. The previously woebegone Bills were undefeated until they let a lead get away from them yesterday in Cincinnati. They’re young; they need to learn how to win. They don’t have enough to make the playoffs, I think, but considering that no one expected them to be this good this early in the season, they have nothing to lose – they are playing with the house’s money.
• How good are the Chicago Bears? Or, how bad are the Chicago Bears? They looked good against the Falcons, didn’t against the Saints and Packers, then eked out a win over Carolina yesterday. One week, the offensive line can’t block; the next week, the team runs for over 200 yards. One week, the defense keeps the game closer than it should be against the Packers, the next week they give up over 500 yards. This team’s nickname should be Sybil.
• Speaking of the Carolina Panthers, I guess Cam Newton is the real thing. Averaging over 400 yards passing per game so far, it appears that the former Auburn star is going to be a big time NFL superstar.
• So much for the “Dream Team” – the Philadelphia Eagles are 1-3. Despite having Michael Vick and having signed a number of Pro Bowlers in free agency, the Eagles have sputtered, losing yesterday at home to San Francisco. Eagle fans are not amused.
• Hank Williams, Jr., singer of the theme to “Monday Night Football,” went on Fox News (surprised?) comparing President Obama to Hitler. “Are you ready for some hatred?”

• Welcome to the Big Ten Nebraska. Like Penn State over a decade ago, you thought you’d come into the league and dominate. At least Wisconsin gave you a wake up call early instead of thinking you’d cake walk through the league.
• No one can grab defeat from the jaws of victory like my beloved Northwestern Wildcats. They let Illinois drive down the field to win the game with .12 left. Two things make me angry – first, the Big Ten officials are showing their incompetence again. On a late touchdown, they called pass interference against NU when it was fairly obvious to anyone with halfway decent eyesight, that the Illinois player pushed off the get open. The second point is that A.J. Jenkins, who pushed off, set a single-game team record with 268 yards on 12 catches and tied a record with three touchdowns. Sometimes you have to shake your head at the coaching staff – you know they are going to be throwing to that guy – double cover him. Oh well, another long season in Evanston.
• The latest in the conference money grab is that the Big East has given its Commissioner John Marinatto permission to “aggressively pursue discussions” with certain schools interested in joining the league. Yes, let’s have the super conferences who fill their stands and coiffeurs but don’t pay the players and the schools’ “watchdog” is too busy making video games with players’ images that the NCAA gets to keep forever. No wonder the players are trying to make as much money as they can – they’re just following in the footsteps of their school administrators.

Since both Chicago baseball teams spent the summer stinking like cheese left in the sun for a couple of weeks, with the playoffs beginning later today, it comes down to who would I not want to see win?
I missed the exciting baseball on the last night of the season because I was at the Blackhawks – Red Wings exhibition game, but I was following the action on my smartphone. Who knew we would see two of the most epic collapses in baseball history this month? The Atlanta Braves had a 10½ game lead in the wild Card race at the end of August, but went into an epic swoon allowing the surging Cardinals to take the wild card away.
Since I despise the Cardinals, I will be rooting for the Phillies in one National League Division Series. The Phillies come into the playoffs as the prohibitive favorite in the Senior Circuit, and hopefully, will put the Cards out of their misery quickly.
The other NLDS pits the Milwaukee Brewers against the Arizona Diamondbacks. One would think that as a Chicagoan, I would root against the Brewers since the Wisconsinites are generally acting a fool with the Packers winning a title, the Brewers being good, and this weekend’s Wisconsin-Nebraska college football game. Actually, I have to admit that I don’t care much either way. This is the Brewers’ chance to shine because first baseman Prince Fielder is a free agent at the end of the season, and the Brewers really can’t afford to resign him unless he gives them one helluva home team discount.
In the American League, it is fun to watch the Red Sox Nation in turmoil. The Red Sox also collapsed in the Wild Card chase, failing to make the playoffs on the final evening to the Tampa Bay Rays. I used to feel for the Bosox, but since they’ve won twice, their faithful feel like the Red Sox now belong in the playoffs by divine right. Of course, being able to afford the second highest payroll in the game almost guarantees that you will always be in the running. This year’s setback however, appears to have demanded that someone take the blame for it, and already manager Terry Francona is not returning and GM Theo Epstein may be moving on as well (more on that below).
But it’s nice to see Tampa Bay, a team that has been able to compete with the big boys, namely the Red Sox and Yankees. The Rays face another team that I like – the Texas Rangers. The Rangers have never won a World Series; hell, they’ve never even been in one, but they are a good ball club. This should be an interesting series.
The other ALDS is a tough one – the Tigers are in the White Sox division, and, as such, I don’t want them to win. However, they face the Yankees, and the insufferable arrogance of New Yorkers in general and New York sports fans in particular, makes it absolutely impossible to root for the Yankees, even with a fellow Northwestern alum, Joe Girardi, as manager. However, it is difficult to root against Detroit since they have been ground zero in this economic disaster.
So, I guess I’m rooting against the Yankees and Cardinals, and that’s how it should be.

The dust had hardly settled after the Red Sox had been eliminated from the playoffs before it was suggested that Manager Terry Francona would not keep his job. The Chicago papers were heralding the possibility that Francona, who managed in the White Sox minor league system in the 1990s, could become the White Sox manager.
Well, now the Boston part has been confirmed; the Red Sox and Francona have decided to part ways after eight seasons and two World Series titles. Apparently, the decision was made last night, with Francona tired of the scrutiny of the job and differences over how things were handled this season.
Of course, the White Sox won’t be the only team with a managerial vacancy, and the White Sox may be frugal with the manager’s job since the team has a big player payroll, but White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf likes hiring people that he knows either as former players or front office personnel. The watch at this point is whether General Manager Ken Williams will be staying.
Although no formal announcement has been made, the North Side Cubs could also have a managerial opening, but to many, the bigger interest would be if the Cubs woo Red Sox GM Epstein. In the past, this would have been considered an impossibility – Epstein is a local guy, always looked at the Red Sox job as his dream. But having slain the curse of the Bambino not once, but twice, maybe the still youthful GM feels like he needs a new challenge? He ended a nearly 90 year championship drought in New England; would he be interested in trying to get lightning to strike twice, tackling the 102 year curse of the Billy Goat? And, with all of the renovations that the Ricketts family need to make to Wrigley Field, and several big salaries that could be purged, would the team be willing to pay Epstein enough money to think about moving?

It was made public today that the Italian basketball club Virtus Bologna has reached an agreement with Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant to play in Italy during the NBA lockout.
Reportedly, the sides have settled on a $3 million contract for the opening 40 days of the Italian league season.
Bryant, who spent much of his childhood in Italy, was in the country for sponsor appearances over the past two days but was flying back to the U.S. for labor talks with the NBA. Bryant is expected to get a work visa and return to Italy next week.
Unlike most of the other leagues that have had labor strife, this may be a first, many NBA players, concerned that the entire season will be lost, have signed to play in Europe, either on a limited basis in case the situation is resolved, or on firm contracts that will keep them in Europe for one or more years. When Major League Baseball or the National Football League have had their own lockouts, the players had nowhere else to play, and certainly not for similar money. Only the NHL players had the rival KHL to “defect” to. Mostly, it was the Slavic and Russian players who took advantage of this, since they were, in effect, going home.
It’s hard to know what, if any, impact this will have on the labor impasse, but if there were enough job openings in Europe, the NBA’s strategy of locking out the players in hopes that the players live from (multi-million dollar) paycheck to paycheck, may not work.

Canadians are mellow – much mellower than Americans. They are more civilized, I think, and I’m not saying so just because I married a Canadian. Why else would they have more guns per capita than the U.S. but far fewer gun crimes and murders that we that live South?
However, the line is drawn when it comes to hockey. Canadians go “bat-guano” for hockey. Just remember the riot in Vancouver, and the collective sigh when Canada won the Olympic Gold Medal a couple of years ago. One thing that I had never faced on my many trips to Canada was racism. I have never had a problem, but then again, I don’t play hockey.
The sport got a serious black eye last week when a banana was thrown from the stands as Philadelphia Flyers player Wayne Simmonds skated toward Detroit goalie Jordan Pearce in a shootout at the John Labatt Center, about 120 miles from Simmonds’ birthplace of Scarborough. Simmonds, who is black, called the situation “unfortunate.”
This week, Ontario police have charged a man for throwing the banana on the ice. Police have charged 26-year-old Chris Moorhouse of London, Ontario, with engaging in a prohibited activity under the provincial trespassing act. If convicted, he faces a fine of up to $2,000.
In the “two wrongs don’t make a right” department, Simmonds himself allegedly used an anti-gay slur against New York Rangers’ agitator Sean Avery during an exhibition in Philadelphia, but the league didn’t punish the forward because there wasn’t conclusive evidence.
I hate to be on the side of political correctness, but in either instance, it’s just wrong.

The talk of Chicago is the excerpt of the upcoming book “Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton,” written by Jeff Pearlman, in the current edition of Sports Illustrated. The late running back has been almost deified around here; tough, playful, hard-working, everything a football player should be.
What is causing all of the ink here are some unflattering assertions regarding the personal life of the late Chicago Bears Hall of Fame running back. The book alleges that Payton was involved in several extra-marital affairs, including the fact that both Payton’s estranged wife Connie and his mistress attended his Hall of Fame induction in 1993. The two women met for the first time shortly thereafter.
Now, there’s no greater admirer of Walter Payton than I, but that was an open secret. Payton, and later, Michael Jordan were well known for having numerous dalliances with women around town. I have always found it a little weird that Payton’s ex-wife carried on his legacy (public appearances, speeches, charitable activities) after he died since they had divorced (I assume it was for the children).
What was unknown, but could be suspected was that Payton reportedly downed painkillers like candy. Sources who claimed that Payton routinely mixed a cocktail of Tylenol and Vicodin following his playing days; nitrous oxide (laughing gas) was another vice of the one time NFL leading rusher.
Unfortunately, this can’t exactly be a surprise either considering what we know about professional athletes and these substances. Considering Payton’s small size compared with the men trying to tackle him; and the huge number of rushes he ran in his career, I’m not surprised at all that Payton took painkillers.
Pearlman also learned from his interviews Payton’s former agent and executive assistant also recall receiving calls at all hours of the day from him, threatening to commit suicide. Again sad, but in light of the suicide of Payton’s teammate Dave Duerson, and what we are learning about brain injuries that athletes are suffering as a result of contact sports, I can’t be very surprised about that.
It will be interesting to see the response to the book. Already Payton’s coach and Chicago icon Mike Ditka has blasted the book; other former teammates have come out against the book. The Chicago Sun-Times contacted Connie Payton and she confirmed the suicidal tendencies and the infidelity, but she says that she never saw him taking excessive painkillers.
Personally, I won’t be reading the book, not because Payton was such an idol of mine, but that I know much of the story, and can imagine the rest. The people I feel for are Payton’s kids who not see their dad’s life exposed for all to see.