I have been watching football for over half a century now, and I think that for someone who barely played the game, I’m fairly astute. I can read defenses, and identify offensive and defensive tendencies. That said, I hardly ever listen to the television announcers except for down and distance, and with the constant graphic with the score and situation on the screen, I usually don’t even need that. However, I got taught this weekend and changed my opinion about a player.
It has been written and said that Tony Romo is one of the best television analysts on NFL games. I thought so, but most often, I have the “Game Mix” on my television watching football, so you see up to 8 games at the same time, and you get to choose which game’s audio you’ll listen to. I am an audio channel switcher, so I never hear any analysis for very long. Until yesterday when I was paying more attention than usual to the Kanas City-Tampa Bay game, the match up featuring the last two Super Bowl winning quarterbacks – Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes.
Like many writers, I have never been a Brady fan, giving him credit for the talent and accuracy he’s shown and championships he’s won, but since his is a bit of a sniveling jerk, enjoying the mixed success he’s posted in Tampa since leaving New England and Bill Belichick. In yesterday’s loss, he threw some incompletions that looked like Brady was done. It was time for the 41-year-old to accept that his time was up and retire. Then came Romo, who criticized the scheme Brady’s in, how little time he has to throw the ball, and how many of the throws actually should have been caught. After reviewing the tape with Romo talking, I decided that I was not only wrong, but wondered what Bryon Leftwich, the team’s offensive coordinator was doing. Running longer routes instead of the shorter routes that were so successful with the Patriots which forces the offensive line to protect longer, doesn’t make any sense. I have to wonder who should be coaching – Leftwich who had limited success as a quarterback or Brady, who has won 5 Super Bowls?
Often, I get confused, thinking Romo sounds like Boomer Esiason to me so I don’t pay much attention to what he’s saying, but I will be more attentive to Romo in the future because he really taught me something yesterday and kept me from writing an idiotic piece here on evilopinion (for a change).

I admit that I was very bored in the early stages of the lockdown back in March/April with nothing to watch: no movies; no restaurants; and especially no sports. I admit that life improved immeasurably when the NHL, the NBA and Major League Baseball went into full or partial bubbles and played games. Hockey was especially great for me with games played nearly all day, and no player testing positive for Covid-19.
As much as I love football, I questioned whether the games should be played. Long time readers know that I was all for the Big Ten Conference to postpone its games until Spring 2021, but the conference moved forward and I admit to enjoying Northwestern’s 5-game winning streak which was just ended at Michigan state this weekend. So far, football, bot pro and college has had its share of positive tests, but not enough to bring the games to a halt.
Until now that is. Yesterday, the Denver Broncos didn’t really have a quarterback since the league placed all four of the team’s signal callers under the Covid-19 protocol. The QBs showed poor judgement by meeting to watch film last Tuesday together without masks or social distancing. The team begged the league to give them an additional day or two to play the game, but the league refused. They asked if an assistant coach could play – no dice. As a result, the Broncos lost 31-3 to New Orleans at home, a situation that should have made life more difficult for the Southern home, dome dwellers. A vital game, the Steelers and Baltimore Ravens has been postponed from Thanksgiving night to tomorrow night (maybe).
The Big Ten Conference has been hit hard too and its getting worse. Ohio state and Wisconsin have already had two games cancelled each. Northwestern’s game this Saturday at Minnesota has been canceled. About 110 games have been cancelled or postponed as of now, and the status of the conference championship games and winners is subject to question.
The second surge and perhaps upcoming surges from people traveling and having Thanksgiving gatherings may make the situation even worse. Will the NFL and NCAA be able to finish their seasons satisfactorily. College basketball is trying to start, but can it? The NBA is trying to start December 22nd and the NHL is trying to start January 1. A vaccine is reportedly close and starting to be distributed. That should help except for the morons who are scared of everything and think that getting a vaccine that may save their lives and the lives of their relatives and neighbors is an infringement on their personal freedoms.
As a sports fan and pundit for a long time, I hope it works out for the best, but one has to wonder if the luck is starting to run out.

Back when I was an Andy Frain usher, former Indians/White Sox owner Bill Veeck used to sit in the first row of the center field bleachers at Wrigley Field. A Tribune writer interviewed Veeck which was one of the funniest interviews I’ve ever read. One Q&A I’ll never forget: the writer asked Veeck what he would do if he owned the Cubs? Veeck responded that he would build lots of driveways at Wrigley Field. The interviewer was confused; what do you mean by that? Veeck remarked – “so I can back up the truck.” That is the status of the 2020 Chicago Bears.
The Bears have gone from Super Bowl contenders in 2018 posting a 12-4 record before losing in their first playoff game. The 2019 version showed significant regression in quarterback Mitch Trubisky which caused the fans and media to reign scorn down on Trubisky, Head Coach Matt Nagy, and especially GM Ryan Pace, who traded a number of valuable picks to move up one place in the first round to take Trubisky over Deshaun Watson and all world QB Patrick Mahomes. Nagy was brought in to develop Trubisky since he was a coach to Mahomes and worked under Andy Reid’s system.
Instead, Trubisky regressed every year. Attempts to clean up the mess included bringing in Nick Foles, the inconsistent QB who got hot and won the Super Bowl and Game MVP award for the Eagles, but who signed in Jacksonville and couldn’t keep the starting job (just as he had lost the job with the Eagles a couple of years before the Super Bowl. As it turns out, Foles couldn’t keep the starting job in Chicago either, with an injured and horrible offensive line, no running game to speak of and it appears week in and week out that Nagy is overmatched and whose offense has been as effective as Bambi was against Godzilla. Finally, back came Trubisky last night against the hated Packers. This time, two interceptions and a fumble lost for a Green Bay touchdown were Trubisky’s downfall as the Packers won 41-25 In a game that wasn’t that close.
The fan base is howling to fire everybody – Nagy and Pace and President Ted Phillips, even though he has little say in the football operation. Besides being cheap, the Bears never fire coaches mid-season, and I usually agree with that philosophy, but in the second half, down 27-10 the defense, the strength of the team obviously no longer cared. Huge holes opened for Packer runners; Aaron Rodgers looked like the best QB of all time, carving the Bear defense like a Thanksgiving turkey. I have always said that coaches need to be fired when they’ve lost the team and Nagy has lost this team. No one is listening to him on either side of the ball. Nagy said today that the team had to show character.
Nagy has lost the team and 5 more games with him on the bench is not going to make any difference. The offense is the worst since the fill-in-the-blank bad old days of Rick Mirer or Bob Avellini. The defense is let down by the offense and doesn’t care. Since we can’t fire the McCaskey family as owners, drastic action is required. No time to waste giving Nagy or Pace hope. Fire them now and beat the rush.

The 2020 election is over, but the division in the country is as yawning a chasm as ever. As much as some people don’t want sports and politics to mix, sport has always been an important step in racial equality. What does that mean now? There was the Colin Kaepernick incident and failure of the NFL to reinstate him remains a stain on the league, but so far, no player has asked to be traded based on a racist owner.
In the NBA however, superstars James Hardin and Russell Westbrook have asked for trades to leave the Houston Rockets. Harden, the league’s top scorer reportedly turned down a $103 million, two year contract extension. Both players are under contract for the next two seasons at $133 million combined, The Rockets are owned by Titman Fertitta, owner of the Golden Nugget Casinos and Landry’s a Texas based restaurant and entertainment company. He is also a huge supporter of Donald Trump. How much that has to do with Harden and Westbrook’s demands is unclear (Harden feels his championship window has closed in Houston and he wants to be traded to the Nets where Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irvin will play in 2020-2021), but it has been mentioned in the media.
Why is the NBA more political than the NFL? The NBA got rid of one of its own when they bounced Donald Sterling from the club after racist comments and his past discrimination against people of color in housing came to light. Plus, the NBA is overwhelmingly African-American and nearly all of the superstars in the league are Black, young, and not afraid to speak out since someone will employ them because they’re superstars. NFL Ownership are almost uniformly just to the right of Attila. They have a monopoly, and while this league is also predominantly African-American, the superstars, the quarterbacks are almost all white (although that’s changing rapidly with Mahomes, Watson and Lamar Jackson). Having sent a message with the banishment of Kaepernick, the black players are less likely to make a fuss, although again, that may be changing. In baseball, African-Americans make up around 6.5% of players, but if you add Latins, that percentage is about 33%. There is even less leverage in baseball.
.I bring all this up to ask, where are the fans in all of this? Should they be apolitical, if that’s even possible? By saying that athletes should “shut up and dribble/tackle/pitch” that is a political statement. These people don’t want the real world in their sports even though there is a rich history of athletes doing exactly that: Robinson, Clemente, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Ali. All of these men faced public pressure on account of their stances. Today’s athletes are much richer, and the country is much more tolerant than in years past. But if you agree with the athletes, what should you do?
Let’s take the Chicago Cubs. Owned by the Rickett’s family whose matriarch authored emails that were leaked to the press with all kinds of racist content. One son, Pete, is governor of the conservative Nebraska, and was photographed on election night two weeks ago posing for pictures maskless, including holding a baby, in clear contradiction of strong recommendations to wear masks with the latest, deadliest outbreak of Covid-19. Nebraska has realized 14,000 new cases, up 14%. The only non-conservative in the family is sister Laura who is gay. Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javy Beaz don’t have a lot of choice in who to play for, there are only so many jobs in the Major Leagues. However, many people who are relatively progressive, hold their collective noses and go into Wrigley Field.
Long before the Ricketts bought the team, I lost my love for the Cubs: unknowing fans who were still happy after a loss because they at least saw a Sammy Sosa home run; and then scalping their own tickets and not sharing the revenue with the other team as required by MLB rules. OF course, Sosa is long gone and the Tribune Company that owned the Cubs are too. I didn’t change my stance, especially after finding out about Joe Ricketts’ past and reputation. The other kids try to hide Papa away for PR purposes, but they all know that he is still the richest member of the family by far. Todd, the most public owner of the Cubs led Trump’s Midwest Fundraising Campaign. I am very proud to have not given the Ricketts much money in all these years; the family and I attended the Northwestern-Illinois football games several years ago, the only time I’ve been in Wrigley Field since the Sosa game in 1999. Yes, the Marquis Sports network is on my satellite TV package, but it’s part of the bigger package, not easily removed. I also avoid Papa John’s pizza, Home Depot, Chick-fil-A, and of course, that pillow guy’s product.
As politics becomes more divisive (I think it’s time to split into two countries) everyone, players, fans, coaches and even owners need to decide where they stand.

When Derek Jeter took a minority interest in the Florida Marlins, there was skepticism. Up to then, celebrity owners in team sports hadn’t won much of anything. Maybe it was the dual championships by the Magic Johnson owned Lakers and Dodgers in the same year that broke the log jam. Plus, the Marlins made the playoffs this year for the first time in 12 years. Of course, for a franchise that began as an expansion team in 1993. In 27 years, they won two World Series, better than the Cubs, White Sox and Red Sox ended streaks and the current streaks by the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers.
With all of that positivity, CEO Jeter made another bold move by hiring 52-year-old Kim Ng as General Manager, the first woman to hold the position in Major League Baseball. As it turns out, the story has a local angle, Ng began her baseball career in 1990 as an intern with the Chicago White Sox. After that, she has spent 30 years in baseball; spent two years working in the American League office before the New York Yankees hired her. She became the youngest ever assistant general manager at 29. She contributed to three World Series Championships with the Yankees, then left for the Los Angeles Dodgers where she was vice president and assistant general manager. She spent the last 10 years as senior vice president of baseball operations for Major League Baseball.
As pleased as I am for this triumphant step, one has to ask why a woman has to work for 30 years before getting this opportunity. Ms. Ng is 52, Theo Epstein who is leaving the Cubs is 46 and has been the GM or Head of Baseball Operations for over 20 years meaning that he got the job in his 20s. This woman has had to wait 30 years to get the opportunity while the good-looking white guy was given an opportunity with no experience. Yes, Epstein did a great job and probably will do a great job somewhere else before he’s done, but to have an Asian woman work decades to get a shot, it is a bit disingenuous to be completely happy about this hiring other than giving this woman a shot at last.

Everyone knew that Theo Epstein would end his career with the Chicago Cubs soon. His contract expires in 2021 and Epstein has been talking about looking for new challenges. Today, instead of waiting for next year, Epstein resigned. The word is that GM Jed Hoyer will be moving up to the President of Baseball Operations job.
It makes sense for the Cubs especially. Now Hoyer can openly search for a new General Manager and have him/her (more on that later) installed in time for the Winter Meetings. It is expected that some of the Cub core that won the team’s first World Series in 106 years won’t be here next year, and since Chicagoans have a habit of falling in love with their athletes, it could be a tough PR winter for the North Siders.
Epstein has been quiet about his future plans with speculation that he wants to be a owner. Other say that the 46-year-old photogenic Epstein could have a future in politics.
No matter what happens, he headed the Red Sox when they broke their 80+ World Series draught, and ended the “lovable Losers” era at Wrigley Field. For that at least, he probably won’t have to buy himself a drink at any bar in Boston or Chicago.

Just as I was beginning to be alright with the White Sox hiring Tony LaRussa to be the team’s next manager, the PR wheels are coming off the decision. I was thinking – he’s a Hall of Fame manager, the young players on the team could learn from him, and he speaks Spanish so he should communicate with all of the Latino players. Never mind that he’s 76-years old, has been out of the dugout for nine years, was a staunch supporter of steroid cheat Mark McGwire, and has criticized athletes for participating in peaceful on field protests.
I should have added a previous drunken driving offense. Of course, it happened in 2007, so if it’s just the one time, everyone deserves a chance at redemption. The problem here is that LaRussa was arrested for DUI last February, then made the type of comments that makes my flesh crawl. It is the “Don’t you know who I am?” reaction to the police officer (never mind the fact that no one was injured after the traffic stop). It wasn’t good when Michael Irvin said it when caught with prostitutes and drugs in a Texas hotel room, and it doesn’t count now.
This is bad enough, White Sox fans were already dubious of the hire, which was obviously the work of Owner Jerry Reinsdorf who never got over Ken Harrelson firing LaRussa the first time he managed the White Sox. He’s too old – people said; he’s out of touch with today’s baseball in the use of advanced statistics. What made this story hit the front of the sports section is the fact that the team knew about the DUI arrest and hired him anyway. Reinsdorf is the owner and managing partner of the team, so he can do what he wants, but if he just ignored LaRussa’s drinking and driving history, it is extremely obnoxious. Drinking and driving has been taboo for decades now; again, if he did it once, that’s bad, but if no one was injured or killed, and there was not even any damage, OK – go forth and sin no more. It is obvious that Tony LaRussa has a problem in decision-making. If you’re overserved, catch a cab, set up a designated driver, what ever you need to do.
The team has refused to comment until the legal case is over, but top free agent pitchers have already ruled out the White Sox because of the uncertainty of having this very old possible alcoholic at the helm. Trevor Bauer, who just won the NL Cy Young Award and is one of the biggest name free agents available questioned the decision for the reasons I’ve listed above. Marcus Stroman another free agent who would have fit nicely in the Sox’ staff said that there was no way he would pitch for the Sox with LaRussa. It’s one thing to hurt the team in PR meaning butts in seats, which hits Reinsdorf right in the heart, but now, this blunder is hurting the team on the field. Most pundits say that the White Sox are a starting pitcher, DH and right fielder away from being serious World Series contenders. I’m fairly certain that Reinsdorf wants to win one more World Series before he dies, and on the face of it, bringing a three time World Series winner, seven time participant makes sense, but as in most sports, the game has changed, especially in communicating with and motivating young players. The attention around this incident will be a distraction to a young team who will miss Ricky Renteria, to many, the only MLB manager they’ve played for.
It’s not too late. AJ Hinch was hired by the Tigers and Joey Cora is going right back to Boston where he was when he and Hinch were suspended for cheating with the Astros in 2016 and 2017. Hiring either of them, despite their World Series pedigree, would have been an even greater distraction. I still think Sandy Alomar, Jr. would be a good fit. There are lots of other candidates available too, younger, closer to today’s analytics, closer in age to the players.
However, Jerry Reinsdorf is stubborn. Anyone who would allow a six-time NBA championship team with the GOAT Michael Jordan to be broken up to appease GM Jerry Krause, certainly won’t be swayed by LaRussa being convicted in the court of public opinion.
Chicago fans are tired of dealing with this very old, out of touch millionaire and White Sox fans will vote with their money and stay home.