The San Diego Chargers announced that its former coach, Don “Air” Coryell died at the age of 85. Coryell was one of the great offensive minds in the game, and was the architect of the Hall of Fame careers of Charlie Joiner, tight end Kellen Winslow, and especially quarterback Dan Fouts. He led the Chargers to 2 AFC Conference Finals and won over 100 games in college and the pros,
However, Coryell’s Chargers never made the Super Bowl due to lack of running game or not enough defense, and some have said that this failure kept Coryell out of the Football Hall of Fame. If so, it’s a shame, because those San Diego teams were awfully good regardless, and the offense remains the blueprint for the spread, the West Coast, almost every passing offense in use today.
I recently got a replica Dan Fouts jersey – I’ll be wearing it one day this weekend in memoriam of Don Coryell.

I have watched very little World Cup Soccer, but I have kept track of what’s going on, and all I can say is that the officiating has been atrocious. Goals get disallowed, mysterious red and yellow cards get issued; for the global showcase for a sport to be marred by such is appalling.
Finally, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has stepped in, apologizing to England and Mexico for the refereeing errors that helped eliminate them from the World Cup and he stated that FIFA will reopen the debate on introducing video technology.
Looking closely, don’t those officials look like Big Ten football referees?

I have avoided the LeBron James watch since he is not a free-agent until Thursday, but once again, many are calling the Chicago Bulls the front-runner. The team traded Kirk Heinrich the other day to make even more room under the NBA’s salary cap so that they can add James to a bumper crop of young talent like Derrick Rose, and Jaquim Noah.
There are some positives, but I see just as many negatives from LeBron James’ perspective. First, there is lots of money, but he was going to get that anyway. And, in a bigger market than Cleveland, he will get more endorsements, but again, James is an NBA marketing department all his own. But, it is Chicago, and James would be playing on the court that Jordan built, the United Center.
But before the people of Cleveland find another reason to hate Chicago besides the billionth replay of Michael Jordan scoring over Craig Ehlo, there are some downsides. The primary one I see is that I just don’t see the Bulls being a championship caliber team with James alone. Cleveland tried to put everything into building a team around James including bringing in Shaquille O’Neal, and the Cavs couldn’t even make it out of the Eastern Conference, much less the NBA Finals. James is great, and teaming him with Rose would be a great scoring match, but I don’t see the Bulls being deep enough, or, if they throw all of their available money at James, how they could afford another player, preferably another inside scorer and defender, that the Bulls need.
And finally, if I were LeBron James, I wouldn’t want to play in the same uniform as Michael Jordan. To my mind, Jordan is the greatest offensive player in NBA history under seven feet tall and even though Jordan didn’t finish his career in Chicago and he now owns the Charlotte Bobcats, he is still a local icon. Jordan spends much time here to be near his children, and an appearance at the United Center, even during a Blackhawks playoff game and wearing a Hawks sweater didn’t quell the passion and high regard that Chicago fans have for him. Jordan could still be elected mayor of life of Chicago despite leaving, the highly publicized divorce, and reports of infidelity much more than even Tiger Woods.
If James doesn’t win a title in Chicago, and in fact, if he doesn’t win multiple titles (not that he has to match the six titles in the Jordan era, but it wouldn’t hurt), James would pale even more in comparison to Jordan, a ghost he never played against, and probably can’t even defeat.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out, and if he does end up here, I’ll be happy for the Bulls and the fans. But I’d question James’ decision every day until he wins an NBA title, and I think, eventually, so would he.

My amusement in watching the White Sox beat up on the Cubs again this weekend was only heightened by the dugout blow-up of Cub pitcher Carlos Zambrano. After giving up a 4-run first inning in Friday’s game, Zambrano had another tirade like the one that resulted in the fight between he and catcher Michael Barrett a few years ago.
This time, however, he was taking it out on first baseman Derrick Lee, one of the classiest guys in the game, and Aramis Ramirez, the third baseman who has been battling injuries all season. Zambrano came into the dugout yelling and screaming at Lee, blaming them for not diving at shots that went down the line for doubles in the inning. The problem with this logic is that neither Lee, Ramirez, nor any other major leaguer in the history of the game could have caught the 3-run home run Zambrano threw to Carlos Quintin.
Cub manager Lou Pinella sent Zambrano out of the dugout, and GM Jim Hendry suspended the $91 million basket case. This is the second time in two years that the Cubs have had to suspend a highly paid player (last year, it was Milton Bradley, of course). Zambrano though hasn’t been the same since he signed the big contract. Every win has been his, every loss has been someone else messing up.
So, the Cubs have to play with 24 men (you can’t bring up someone to replace a player suspended by the team, and while the popular wisdom is for the Cubs to ship Zambrano elsewhere, who would take on this clubhouse cancer? And one has to question Hendry, a guy who spends lots of money on two head cases that not only didn’t help the team win, but may be better once the crazy person leaves? I’m not saying that there needs to be IQ tests or psychological examinations for baseball players, but the Cubs are becoming a sub-.500 insane asylum.
Pitchers can be weird. Bill “Spaceman” Lee was strange; Mark “the Bird” Fidrych was unusual; Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrbowski had an unusual pre-pitch ritual on the field. Even perhaps, the best left handed pitcher of the past 30 years, Steve Carlton, who shunned interviews during his career because his world view was, at least, a bit strange. But none of these pitching eccentrics threw teammates under the bus like Zambrano. Sport is supposed to build teamwork and camaraderie; but I guess Carlos Zambrano was out of school the day they covered that one.

We knew it was coming, we just didn’t know how quickly. Chilled Champaign is still in the Stanley Cup and the Cup remains on its tour of Chicago, but already, the team is moving on, looking to 2010-2011.
As I said, we knew that the team had salary cap problems. Fourteen players are signed for around $30 million for next season and the salary cap is expected to be around $56 million. The superstars are signed, fortunately: Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews each signed five-year extensions in December worth $31.5 million each. Marian Hossa (12 years, $62.8 million deal) and Duncan Keith (13 years, $72 million deal), and Brian Campbell are owed big money.
Someone had to go.
No one expected it to be Blackhawks’ playoff star Dustin Byfuglien, who had 11 goals in the postseason. But it was Byfuglien along with defenseman Brent Sopel and forward Ben Eager to lowly Atlanta in return for first- (24th overall) and second-round picks in this week’s NHL draft as well as forwards Marty Reasoner, Joey Crabb and Jeremy Morin. Atlanta also receives prospect Akim Aliu in the deal. In another deal, the Hawks sent center Colin Frazier, a restricted free agent, to Edmonton.
When I got to work yesterday, people who know how big a Blackhawk fan I am were asking me if I was upset about this, and no, I’m not. Byfuglien was a terrific player IN SPURTS. He did not come to play every night and if you’re paying someone $3 million per year, he should be bringing his A-game every shift.
Think I’m kidding? He disappeared early in the Flyers finals series; some say it was because of defenseman Chris Pronger, but Byfuglien knew Pronger was coming, he knew it was going to be tough guy on tough guy. It was only later in the series when Byfuglien took charge and started scoring goals. And people, let’s remember that Byfuglien posted a -7 plus-minus for the regular season, and a -3 for the playoffs and that is with all of the goals he scored in the playoffs.
Also, it should be said that the biracial Byfuglien could be a big hit in Atlanta. Hockey has had a hard time catching on in the south, but Atlanta has a huge African-American population, especially middle-class African-Americans. He may be a hugh hit there for new fans that never watched hockey because they (mistakenly) didn’t think there were any black players on skates.
Sopel was great in blocking shots in the playoffs, and Eager was the team enforcer, but those are roles that don’t merit big money, and there are hungry young guys, who didn’t play in the championship run, that would like their chance. They will get it.
“Cost certainty” was a rallying cry of the owners during the last labor fight between labor and management, and a salary cap was the way this is accomplished. We knew that there was too much long term money out there to be paid, and that heads would have to roll. I was on the record as saying that this past year may have been the best (and perhaps only) chance to break the 49-year Stanley Cup drought. But hockey, like all of the other professional sports, is a business, and the players know that. One of the biggest faults I’ve had over the years with Chicago fans is that we fall in love with our heroes and when they no longer are the players they once were, we are reluctant to part with them, through trade or retirement.

I’m all for using the City of Chicago as a film set. When done correctly: “The Dark Knight,” an old Chuck Norris movie called “Code of Honor,” “The Fugitive,” among others. Unfortunately, the City doesn’t make value judgments, which is why bad films like “Chain Reaction,” with the worst major actor around – Keanu Reeves.
If quality was a concern, obviously we wouldn’t allow the worst director currently working (and for my money, the worst ever; yes, even worse than Ed Wood), Michael Bay to even get off a plane at O’Hare
Despite his bitching and moaning that “Transformers 2” was his last action movie, the City’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications announced that Bay and company would be coming to Chicago from July 10-Aug. 19, for “Transformers 3.” I thought he was tired of the bad notices on all of his films and that he wouldn’t be doing the third installment, but I guess the billions of dollars raked in by the first two films (obviously by people with low IQs or as an excuse for groping in the seats on a date) was too much for the talentless Bay.
Mayor Richard Daley earlier in the month announced that the sequel would contribute $20 million to the local economy and create more than 200 jobs, including 10 internships for Chicago Public Schools students.
Apparently, the film will be closing LaSalle Street (8 p.m. July 9 to 5 a.m. July 12); the Michigan Avenue bridge (8 p.m. July 16 to 5 a.m. July 19); and Upper Wacker Drive (9 p.m. July 18 to 5 a.m. July 22) although it is said that most of the filming in Chicago will take place during daylight.
I hope so. I work on Wacker Drive; I would love to ask Bay what’s it like to make successful crappy movies.

I have been working from home 2 days this week due to an illness to the Indignant Youngest Child, and the first day was Wednesday. I was happily surprised to find that DirecTV has five extra channels devoted to Wimbledon, and it doesn’t cost anything extra.
So I watched some of Venus Williams’ first round match, a few minutes of Roger Federer, but I was amazed when I found one match on the third channel of 5. There were two men I had never heard of: American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut playing on Court 18. Ordinarily, I would have passed by, but I noticed that the first round match, continued from Tuesday, was in the fifth set with both men at 15 games apiece.
Ordinarily, if a set is tied 6-all, the players play a tiebreaker, first player to seven points winning by two, wins the set. Tiebreakers are used at Wimbledon, but not for the final set, which I think is a good thing. Instead of winning a couple of points, players have to break the opponent’s serve and hold serve to win.
I first turned on the match at around 10:30 AM. I did some work, tried to take case of the child for awhile, and then went back to it: 25-25; 35-35; 45-45. All the while, these guys looked worse and worse. It seemed like they would fall over at any minute, especially when returning serve. They would just be too exhausted to run down shots, and just when you thought that guy was done; he would get his serve and then do the same thing to the other guy.
It was kind of sick, watching these guys pushed to the brink and beyond, lose their game against serve, and then repeat. Back and forth, few points were even won on the opponent’s serve. It was also kind of the worst part of men’s tennis – a serving show.
At 56-56, the sun going down in London, about 4:00 PM Chicago Time, I had to go pick up the Indignant Older Daughter, but I said to myself, they have to let these guys go and rest and just pick it up again on Thursday.
Back at work on Thursday, I looked periodically to see what had happened to these poor bastards, locked in “combat,” neither getting nor giving any quarter. Finally, Isner won the longest tennis match on record by beating Mahut 70-68 in the final set at Wimbledon.
Picking up at 59-59 in the fifth set Thursday, the match continued on serve with no break points until the American hit a backhand passing shot to finish the contest in front of a packed crowd on Court 18.
Isner finished with a total of 112 aces and Muhat 103. The first-round match surpassed the 11-hour mark stretching over three days. The fifth set alone went over 8 hours. It was amazing, and I am glad I got a chance to watch some of it.