There is a soft spot for heroes of your youth. The baseball player who was your favorite; the hockey player who scored the Stanley Cup winning goal. There’s no position in sports more followed than quarterback of football teams, especially those who are in the Hall of Fame and iconic. Why are there constant commercials with Joe Namath pitching medical plans for senior citizens? Does anyone in the hallowed 19-25 demographic know who Joe Montana is, and why would that lead young people to drink Guinness? (It is curious that Montana is featured in Notre Dame clothes and highlights, not the 49ers.)
Old quarterbacks get interviewed, more often than necessary probably. This past week, we heard from two iconic quarterbacks: Brett Favre and Jim McMahon. In one instance, a man is showing how out of touch he really is; in the other, with no f%^&s to give, calls out his old team and praises its rival. Favre, former Green Bay Packer Hall of Famer showed his full ignorant, privileged Mississippi bumpkin self said that people were being turned off by politics in sports and players should keep politics off the field. Favre, a Trump friend and supporter has been critical of players, and as so many of others of his ilk, shown no knowledge of history, all the more ironic because this is the week Major League Baseball celebrates the first game played by Jackie Robinson, ending segregation in the sport.
Sports has been at the forefront of social change for decades. Beside Robinson, Muhammed Ali, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Roberto Clemente and so many other athletes have used their notoriety and fame to often spoken truth to power. Favre said, “When I turn on a game, I want to watch a game. I want to watch players play and teams win, lose, come from behind. I want to watch all the important parts of the game, not what’s going on outside of the game.” Last I checked, I haven’t seen one athlete stop any game to talk about police brutality and inequality. Brett Favre just doesn’t like anyone saying something he doesn’t agree with. White boy Favre hasn’t had to face any challenge greater than opposing defenses. Somehow, sexting pictures of his penis to a female reporter who did not want it isn’t worth speaking about. Neither is an opioid addiction long before it became a plague across the country.
On the other hand, Jim McMahon’s comments weren’t particularly surprising or news to Chicago Bear fans. McMahon, the only QB to lead the Bears to a championship and arguably the best quarterback to play in Chicago since Sid Luckman, said that the Bears are “when quarterbacks go to die.” The team’s emphasis on defense and the running game has hurt them in having a top flight QB. This is true, just days before the NFL Draft that has the Bears picking 20th in the first round leaving them unable to draft one of the top 5 signal callers coming out of college this year. The last time GM Ryan Pace made a big move, they traded numerous picks to move up one spot to draft Mitch Trubisky, who has finally left town this year in mediocrity.
What has fans grumbling is that McMahon said that in all of the teams he played for in the NFL, the Packers had the best operation in the league Curiously enough, McMahon finished his career and earned a second Super Bowl ring backing up, you guessed it, Brett Favre. “It was the best team, or the best organization, that I’ve played for of the seven teams I’ve played for,” McMahon said. “By far. From top to bottom it was great people.” Of course, McMahon is suffering from CTE symptoms, but that doesn’t stop him from speaking his mind and most Bear fans would not only agree, they would buy the Punky QB a beer in any bar in town (not that this happens anyway to the member of the 1986 Super Bowl Shuffling Crew).
To summarize – Jim McMahon is a truth-teller; Brett Favre is a MAGA man. Which do you want at a picnic (once the restrictions are lifted)?

I get a number of phone calls, I’m sure, like you, every day in attempts to separate me from my money. Some are farcical – the unending attempts to update my car’s warranty[; some are frauds telling me to contact them or I will be in trouble with the IRS, or FBI (the youngest daughter has been getting these lately; I answer her phone as I have done in the past “Skokie Police Fraud Bureau”). Some are for legitimate charities, and we get a number of them that we have supported in the past.
Because I am unemployed and actively looking for work, I take all of the calls, in the chance that there will be a call from a headhunter or potential employer. Even though the potential work people are not privy to my home land line, I still answer these calls, mostly to silence the ringing since my wife is usually on a conference call and the phone ringing disturbs her meetings. Also, occasionally I get an actual person who I can pull the fraud police comment on, or sometimes I’m just in a bad mood and want vent a little of my frustration onto them. However, I had a really good one today that I have to share with you. Ordinarily, I think of what I want to say after they have already hung up, but the mind was working today.
Occasionally, we get calls from various police support organizations. Most of them are as fraudulent as to “FBI” calls, but they usually have a real person on the other end of the line. Usually, I just hang up or say no and hang up, but today, I was in a particularly fun mood and as I wrote above, the mind was working. So, I get this man for the police benevolent society or some such, and he says he’s on a recorded line (which is probably a lie, but it gets me going). The man is about to enter into his spiel, but before he could go on, I said to hold it a minute. I wanted to know if any of the money they were collecting would be used to train police officers on the difference between a gun and a taser? “But but” was the reply. I asked if the funds would be going to people killed mistakenly by police officers? I said will any money I give help me from getting killed by a policeman?
“Click.”
Every once in awhile, you get a good one off. I’ll have to keep that one ready for the next time…

I have felt for a long time that officials, referees and umpires have a hidden agenda when calling games. It could be that they don’t like a particular player or coach or team. In the past we’ve seen referees gambling on games which certainly will impact a game. More often than is admitted, it is the huge ego of the official – needing to send a player a message not to upstage the ref. The worst is that a league or college conference has a vested interest in who wins a game. During the Bulls’ championship years, there were calls made in game that were so egregious and seemed to occur just to keep the other team in the game or lengthen a profitable series. It appears to me that Big Ten officials make questionable calls for Ohio State or any other team ranked in the top 10, being so hungry to win a National Championship.
Then, there is the concept of the “make-up call.” An official makes a mistake and looks for the next call to go against the other team to make-up for it. More than that though is making the same number of calls against both teams. That sounds nice, but it is the official version of the participation medal. Every team gets the same number of calls despite what is actually happening on the field/gridiron/ice.
Some of the strongest perceptions of impropriety has been the NHL. It was believed that Hall of Fame referee Andy Van Hellemond had a bias against the Blackhawks because he was mad at the Wirtzes (Bill or Arthur) for keeping referee salaries low in contract negotiations. Now, there is finally a smoking gun.
Referee Tim Peel, an official who has scored low on league rankings of calls, was caught on a hot mic in the Detroit/Nashville game Tuesday night. Shortly after Nashville forward Viktor Arvidsson was sent to the sin bin for tripping Detroit defenseman Jon Merrill, a rink-side TV microphone picked up an official saying: “It wasn’t much, but I wanted to get a f%^&ing penalty against Nashville early.” He called a penalty because he wanted to? That’s not how we imagine sports if to be officiated.
The NHL stepped in quickly firing Peel less than 24 hours after the incident. The NHL determined that voice was Peel’s and said that the ref would “no longer be working NHL games now or in the future.” The statement from NHL Senior Executive Vice President Colin Campbell continued, “nothing is more important than ensuring the integrity of our game. Tim Peel’s conduct is in direct contradiction to the adherence to that cornerstone principle that we demand of our officials and that our fans, players, coaches and all those associated with our game expect and deserve. There is no justification for his comments, no matter the context or his intention, and the National Hockey League will take any and all steps necessary to protect the integrity of our game.”
I think that the only thing the NHL is sorry about is getting caught. I think there has been an open secret that make-up calls exist, and that referees are human and may hold grudges against teams or players. I also believe that the league tries to stop this practice as the playoffs go on. I believe that the proper team has won the Stanley Cup for the most part.
Although the days of “going to a fight and a hockey game broke out” are long gone, one has to wonder about teams that a bigger and try to play a more physical game? Should the calls be even when one team is hacking the hell out of its opponents?
Maybe the NHL will take a long look at make-up calls and quietly clean up it’s act. I’m not sure they will however.

The country is enthralled with the NCAA Basketball Tournaments. Despite Covid-19 delays and stoppages; no fans in the stands; numerous testing, the tournaments are perhaps more popular than ever for the outlet to the masses. However, finally, one message that has been made for a long time is finally getting attention – vastly different treatment of the Women’s Tournament.
This year, the men are playing in Indianapolis and the women are playing in San Antonio. The tournaments each have their own organizing committees, structures and set ups. The disparity in the tournaments was highlighted when a Stanford coach shared photos of respective weight rooms at the tournaments. The men’s workout facility was expansive with lots of weights, racks, benches and overall equipment and space. The women’s area had one rack of 12 dumbbells, some yoga mats and an exercise bike.
The NCAA added more weights to the women’s area—still far fewer than the men have—and they added some flashy lighting, which social media ridiculed. Unable to clean up their own mess, the NCAA released a statement saying the weight room disparity was because of space issues at the convention center in San Antonio, but they were eventually able to bring in more equipment for the women’s teams after the public outcry.
This is ridiculous, but about far more than a weight room – It’s a long history of women’s collegiate sports receiving less attention and respect on the national level. The disparity comes with fan attendance, food, swag bags and facilities, and prominent figures in women’s basketball are speaking their minds. Not just about the inequities, but that the NCAA is allowing it to happen. The Women’s Tournament is not allowed to use the term “March Madness,” there aren’t the same kind of advertising stickers on the floor like for the men. It’s disgusting.
Newsweek reported that one legendary women’s basketball coach said that, for so long, women’s athletics were just happy to have a seat at the table, even if they weren’t the topic of discussion and if they were only getting “crumbs.” Former Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said gender inequality “is hardly breaking news. While I appreciate the outrage, the fact that there’s a huge disparity between men’s and women’s sports is hardly breaking news,” McGraw tweeted Saturday. “We have been fighting this battle for years and frankly, I’m tired of it.”
McGraw, who led the Irish to nine Final Fours and two national championships (2001, 2018), said she’s “tired” of turning on the TV to see “NCAA basketball tournament” to only find out it’s the men’s tournament. She referred to the NCAA’s Twitter accounts called March Madness and Final Four, but they only cover the men’s game.
McGraw went on to say the inequities between the men’s and women’s teams are typical with things like “facilities, food, fan attendance and swag bags,” and even that doesn’t really bother her that much.
“What bothers me is that no one on the NCAA’s leadership team even noticed,” McGraw said. “While corporations across the country are scrambling to hire women and set up diversity & inclusion teams, the NCAA had an opportunity to highlight how sport can be a place where we don’t just talk about equality but we put it on display.
NCAA President Mark Emmert, as clueless and ignorant a person as anyone running a major sport, has said that the women game does not make money, despite the fact that the ratings are just a little bit behind the men, and there are 77 sponsors of the telecasts, up 15 from last year. The NCAA is lying as to how much the women bring in and an audit should be conducted and the results reported to Congress.
It is long past time that women get their due in everything, work, sports, life; and they should not be harassed, battered, sexually assaulted. The old white men running the NCAA obviously believe they are immune. Not only are they not immune, they should be held to a much higher standard!

This is the time when white supremacy and male supremacy are getting attention and finally being dealt with. The #Metoo and #Timesup movements have brought long overdue attention to the issues of sexual abuse and sexual harassment. Documentaries about Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, and most recently Woody Allen along with the criminal prosecution of Harvey Weinstein and other famous people should have alerted men that the old rules don’t apply. I guess that some don’t believe that the rules apply to them too.
Which brings us to Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson. One of the best young signal callers in the NFL, he has been largely a model citizen during his time in the league. The Texans are perhaps that most dysfunctional and inept franchise in professional sports (yes, even worse than the Buffalo Sabres); former Head Coach/GM Bill O’Brien traded top talent getting little in return, and the mess in the front office led to Watson wanting to be traded and future Hall of Fame defensive lineman J.J. Watt to be released and sign with Arizona.
Watson was the prize – the top QB available. Only the sudden announcement that Seattle’s Russell Wilson was pondering a trade matched the excitement over Watson. The sides remain at odds: the team says that Watson is not going to be traded; meetings between Watson and the new coaching staff have not changed Watson’s mind.
Watson’s world changed last week as at first one, then three now up to 12 women are suing the QB for harassment by exposing himself during massages. It certainly changes the squeaky clean image that Watson had built for himself and makes no just a trade, but his NFL career at risk. One can no longer disbelieve these types of charges out of hand, and certainly, the sheer number of women coming forward gives even more credence to the first woman’s story. As I’ve written for a very long time, I come from a background where you root for Black people doing well, especially in situations where Blacks have been given limited opportunities and have been given a very short leash when the opportunities did come.
I have said numerous times that I feel for young male athletes; you really cannot completely envision the number of women who throw themselves at athletes (I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t seen it back when I was an usher). Who can you trust? Who does want you for yourself, not the millions? As the same time however, you can’t help but see these very powerful men destroying their careers or ending up in prison because their status allowed them to become sexual predators. Evidence gathering is even easier as, in this social media world we live in, 35.13% of the world’s population have smart phones, which means there are 2.87 billion people with cameras on their person.
It certainly appears that Deshaun Watson cannot keep his towel closed when getting a massage. It will cost him massively as well it should. It is a shame than athletes and other famous people seem to be ignoring the victims or still believing in their invulnerability.

To be a fan of the Chicago Bears, one has to set one’s expectations low. Lower than any other team in Chicago because most people can still remember the other teams winning championship(s). The Bears’ Super Bowl Shuffle team won the franchise’s only Super Bowl in January of 1986, so anyone younger than say 41 or 42 would only know the team from documentaries and books.
Since that title, the Bears have been in just one more Super Bowl which they lost. The rest of the time has generally been a disaster on and off the field. Never the most beloved family, the McCaskeys were generally scorned especially when the Bears were trying to get taxpayers to pay for the “Close Encounters” stadium inside Soldier Field. A couple of time Richard M. Daley (the son) got votes for publicly denying the funding. On top of it, then CEO the late Michael McCaskey had all of the charisma of a throw rug. It was easy to hate the Yale alum, considered smug and aloof.
OF course, eventually, Soldier Field did renovated with the McCaskeys forced to put up a significant share of the costs (which is not good for family cash flow – the McCaskeys and the Steelers’ Rooney families are the only ones who’s wealth comes primarily from being the founding owners of their football teams). However, the Bears have a history of drafting Hall of Fame running backs and linebackers, but there is no team more snakebit at the quarterback position than the Bears. The best QB to suit up for the Bears retired in 1950 – Sid Luckman. He held most of the team’s passing records even as the NFL loosened up on offense many times over the years. In fact, only flaky Jay Cutler has been able to break Luckman’s records. Other than Cutler, only Jim McMahon, perhaps Eric Kramer or Jim Miller have been better than mediocre. Yes, the Bears reached the Super Bowl with Rex Grossman and fair results with Kyle Orton. There’s never more attention paid to the position than over the past 4 years.
GM Ryan Pace traded four picks to move up one slot in the NFL Draft to take Mitchell Trubisky, passing over eventual superstars Pat Mahomes and Deshaun Watson. Trubisky took the starting role from Mike Glennon and led the team to the NFL Playoffs and a 12-4 record and one Pro Bowl appearance as an alternate. Coach Matt Ryan, a former assistant to KC’s Andy Reid who also worked with Mahomes, was hired to get the best out of Trubisky who Pace loved for his big arm and mobility. Pace overlooked, as did many of the scouts, that Trubisky only played 13 games as a starter and North Carolina went 8-5. Trubisky’s main fault was an inability to read defenses, which led to bad interceptions and overthrows.
No one is more popular than the backup QB on the Bears, and last year, the Bears spent a fourth round pick and accepting the contract of Nick Foles, who got hot and won the Super Bowl and was named MVP of that game. Jacksonville bet big on Foles and he showed what he had shown before – streaky. The Jaguars saw his imperfections and dumped him on the Bears. The 2020 season started with Trubisky who showed his usual poor performance. In came Foles who was on a bad streak, and Trubisky played well, leading the team to a late season run and the playoffs, but against teams with the worst defenses in the league. Another poor performance against the Saints made the team came to the same conclusion that the fans had done seasons before – Trubisky wasn’t going to be an elite QB.
Letting Trubisky go and having only Foles left the Bears in trouble – only the 20th pick in the 1st round meaning that they won’t be able to pick a top QB or trade up in the draft. Two of the best QBs in the league today: Watson and Seattle’s Russell Wilson were available, but the Bears didn’t have enough to trade. They were latched on Wilson and reportedly offered 3 first round draft picks, and a third rounder. The Seahawks turned down the offer and so the Bears signed Andy Dalton, former Bengals starter who was expendable when the Bengals got the number one pick and drafted Joe Barrow. Last season, Dalton played mediocre after Dak Prescott suffered a grisly, season ending ankle injury. Prescott recently signed with the Cowboys to a mega-contract and Dalton was free again. The big thing is the Bears could have signed him in the offseason last year instead of Foles and kept the draft picks.
Ryan Pace has shown very little success in his time as GM of the Bears, and he has a particularly poor record at the QB position: Glennon, Trubisky, Foles and now Dalton, a formerly Pro Bowl level QB who has gotten old and regressed. (In fact, Sportsbook William Hill dropped the Bears Super Bowl odds from 40-1 to 50-1.) This latest temporary fix will be Pace’s last. The McCaskeys, now with Goergo McCaskey in charge decided to keep Pace and Nagy, in great part because they are too cheap to pay for multiple GMs and Head Coaches. Bear fans were aghast and remain so with Andy Dalton.
Bear faithful are in full mutiny mode now. The defense, which was stellar two seasons ago is still very good but aging. The offense remains a mess: even with Dalton, the offensive line played horribly last season and other than Allen Robinson, who is not happy after being given the franchise tag again instead of a long term contract, was the only reliable offensive weapon. With the possibility that the pandemic will be much better by the time the NFL season starts, people will be spending top dollar to watch a mediocre at best football team. The faithful love defense, so that will keep people excited, but the offense will once again be a potential train wreck.
The Bears have shown incompetence before, but never as publicly and embarrassingly as this week.

I believe that everyone knows that I am a huge hockey fan. I have had the NHL Center Ice package for many years; I watch hockey nearly every day. As a media watcher, I was curious that it was announced that NBC Sports Network would cease to exist; sports would be moved to other NBC channels and the current station would have other programming. My reaction was – what then happens to the NHL programming.
I should have known that there was something happening, and there was: the NHL announced a seven-year contract with Disney owned ESPN. Ordinarily, one would think that this would be good news. The NHL returning to the Worldwide Leader in Sports will be more publicized. Unfortunately, some of us have a long memory; hockey used to be on ESPN but the NHL was an afterthought. With college basketball, the NBA, the NFL and MLB, hockey was treated as the poor dumb stepchild – games shown on tape delay late at night, an afterthought on Sports Center.
Of course, there was only one channel back then. Now there’s ESPN 2, ESPN News, ESPN U and ESPN +, the streaming service. The need for programming is greater than ever before. However, I am frightened. Disney has a track record of making short-sighted decisions that are only driven by the bottom line. Many long term reporters have been laid off because while ESPN and Disney have been hugely profitable, but not generating a huge enough return on the shareholders’ investments. NBC did a good job with hockey – it was the bellwether for the station. When NBCSN was Versus, the NHL had no national presence and NHL could command tons of time.
I am fearful about this announcement. I enjoy being able to watch every game on cable and also streaming on my iPad. I have a feeling that the programming is going to be horrible or much more expensive. Maybe the worst thing of all is that we will have to listen to Barry Melrose. He does have great suits and wonderful hair.