I have hardly ever seen a professional football team go from disaster, to glimmer of hope, back to disaster in just three weeks counting a bye week, but then again, there has been few teams like the 2016 Chicago Bears. I think that expectations were low for the Bears this season, and the team lived up to those low expectations. Going 1-6 in the first seven games, Bear fans looked for a severe beating as the Vikings came to town for a Halloween game on Monday Night Football. Everyone was surprised when quarterback Jay Cutler, injured since early in the season, played his most effective game, completing 20 of 31 passes for 252 yards, 1 TD and no interceptions.
All of a sudden, the Bears showed signs of hope. The team was reportedly the most confident 2-6 team in the league – winnable games on the schedule, beginning with Tampa Bay, no one running away with the NFC North Division with the Vikings and Packers stumbling.
Sounds like a good plan: Tampa played horribly at home, very inconsistent. The Bears were favored; unfortunately, no one told the Buccaneers. Jay Cutler reverted back to his “Bad Jay” ways – throwing two bad interceptions and fumbling away the ball. The Buccaneers looked like world killers, beating the Bears 36-10.
Long suffering Bear fans got tired of Cutler’s antics long ago; long term readers of this space know that I have been the last man on the Cutler bandwagon, but even I’ve seen enough now. Cutler’s decision making is suspect at best, and thinking about him as a gunslinger like Brett Favre, or John Elway or Dan Marino is a mistake. The gunslingers threw their fair share of interceptions, mostly trying to squeeze the football into a small space between the receiver and the defender because they have powerful arms. Cutler has a powerful throwing arm, but his picks always miss the receiver by yards; its hardly ever a fight between the receiver and defensive back.
Now, it is time to let Cutler go. There’s no serious salary cap hit to let him leave; he needs a fresh start and so do the Bears. Now, is there a QB in the draft ready to become a starter from Week 1? None stands out; there are some intriguing possibilities, but it’s going to take a smart offensive mind and great scheme for anyone to succeed. John Fox has not shown himself to be an innovator, and the Bears have never been successful with a mobile QB, which is the template for many college QBs. If you bring in a college quarterback, you are going to overpay them based on potential and the best college QBs come into a positive situation in terms of talent and scheme.
The talent situation is not good and is ever worse with star, franchise tag receiver Alshon Jeffrey tested positive after the Tampa game for PEDs and is suspended for then next 4 games under league policy. There was a question whether Jeffrey, often injured, would be returning to the Bears anyway, but now, do the cheap, risk averse Bears want to commit big money to a talented, brittle, PED user?
All in all, things do not look good for the Bears in the short term or in the long term. The coaching staff has been mediocre; the draft picks, many of whom were injured much of the season, are finally starting to show potential; but the Bears have decades of futility drafting quarterbacks.
It’s not pretty. It may be too early to make a final call on bringing back Jeffrey, but Cutler needs to be cut – now!

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany has had a very successful tenure, if the only measure is in making lots of money for the member universities. The Big Ten Network has been a big success, generating more money for the schools than Notre Dame earns from its NBC deal. The conference has expanded to the East, first with Penn State, then with Maryland and Rutgers – more cash. The conference followed most of the other major conferences by adding a conference championship game in football, and a conference tournament in basketball. Both unnecessary because they devalue the worth of the regular season, plus take more time away from classes and studying in the name of cash.
In many ways, Delany can do almost anything since his ideas have been money machines. The athletes, the ones who are supposed to be helped most by a university education, get shafted. So, Delany, like a villain in an old serial, has proposed having one Friday night conference game per week starting next season. Here is another money maker that takes one day away from studying, healing from the previous game, just hanging out. Plus, Friday nights have traditionally been the province of high school games. As popular as pro games in Texas and elsewhere, high school games are often broadcast on local stations on Friday nights. Now, the high school games are competing against Big Ten games.
For once, there has been some push back, coming from a familiar source. When the conference announced the championship game, Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald argued against it because of the loss of study time, potential injury, sheer number of games. No one, least of all Delany listened. So when Fitzgerald protested the Friday games, the conference announced that the Wildcats would play not one, but two Friday night games next season. No punishment intended there, huh?
I have been a frequent critic of Delany and that trend continues. A question that I have for a lot of people and institutions is “how much money do you need?”How much money is enough?” The universities are very rich; huge endowments; high tuitions. The revenue sports – football and basketball – pay for the “non-revenue” sports, and that is a very good thing. For tennis and golf and field hockey and lacrosse to survive, the big sports foot the bill, and that’s OK. Still, if all of these sports are being funded appropriately, and there’s money for scholarships, how much money do these athletic departments need? More important, who speaks for the athletes? When do they get to be students? When do they just get to be kids?
One thing’s for certain – Jim Delany, the Athletic Directors and the University Presidents don’t dive a damn.

Well, the entire world knows that the 108 year championship draught suffered by the Chicago Cubs is a memory. The city partied as in no other championship, which for Chicago is a lot when you think about it. After the Blackhawks won in 1962 and the Bears won in 1963, there was a long period of not being good enough.
We saw 2 Hall of Famers, two of the best to ever play: Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers have incredible careers with the Bears but the rest of the team was not us to their standards. Four Hall of famers were on the 1969 Cubs: Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and Fergie Jenkins, but the famous end of season swoon and championship by the Miracle Mets that year was heartbreak for everyone who was alive at that time.
The Bulls… were an expansion team created in 1966. A few good years with Norm Van Lier, Jerry Sloan, then later Reggie Theus and Artis Gilmore, but no titles. The White Sox: the South Side Hit Men, Dick Allen and Bill Melton, but again, no championships.
In the 1980s, close but no cigar: the 1983 White Sox swept in the ALCS by Baltimore; in 1984, the Cubs lose to San Diego with the most furvent memory: the ball going between Leon Durham’s legs. Then came 1985 – the Super Bowl Shuffle Bears; they were loud, boisterous, characters one and all, but they were also the best team on the planet with the 46 defense destroying all but the Miami Dolphins and the number 1 offense in the league that year (people forget that). Should have been more, but they couldn’t hold on. The 1989 Cubs won the NL East but went out to the Giants 4 games to 1. A Wild Card berth in 1998 beating the Giants in the one game playoff, but then folding 3-0 against Atlanta.
Meanwhile, this gentleman named Michael Jordan, with the help of Scottie Pippen did the unthinkable – built an NBA dynasty winning six championships in 8 years, coming up short two years because Mr. Jordan’s initial retirement. On the North Side, 2003 will be synonymous with losing to the Florida Marlins in seven games. For all of the hate directed at Steve Bartman, if Cub Shortstop Alex Gonzalez makes the play on Miguel Cabrera’s grounder, the Cubs get out of the inning and are three outs from the World Series. He didn’t, they lost game 6 and the Marlins won 9-6 in Game 7 and that was it.
Fortunately, with the Bulls dynasty over and the Cubs coming up short, the White Sox put it all together in 2005 for that franchise’s first World Series in 85 years. The Cubs won back-to-back division championships in 2007 and 2008 but couldn’t get out of the playoffs. Of course, the Blackhawks have their own little dynasty going, winning 3 Stanley Cups in 7 seasons. Last season, the young Cubs reached the NLCS, but lost to the Mets, much like the Bulls had to get past the Pistons in the 1990s and the Blackhawks had to get past the Red Wings.
Leaving the Cubs as the only major sports franchise from our town without a title – until last night. Two long suffering franchises: the Indians hadn’t won in 68 years themselves, but Cleveland won its first major title this spring by the Cavaliers. The market is bullish on Cleveland; but they were overshadowed by the 108 year draught of the Cubs. We fans got a series for the ages – two terrific teams who battled for six terrific games, and then game 7, a knuckle-biter, strange game with leads, leads blown, two runs scored on a wild pitch, a tying home run in the 8th inning; a 17 minute rain delay, then the Cubs scoring two runs in the 10th and holding off a furious Indians rally for the title.
The town went nuts and will be crazy for months. This championship will be more than the White Sox, bigger than the Bulls’ championships, even bigger than the Blackhawks titles. The only thing that comes close was the Bear title and the books and stories on that team are still local best sellers today. The Cubs title will overshadow them all because of the long wait.
Enjoy everybody.

With the Cubs in the World Series, fans have been writing on the outfield walls with chalk sending messages to dead family members who never got to see the Cubs in a World Series, much less win one, (Personally, I kept waiting for someone to write “Clapton Is God!”)
But it is hard not to think about the fans who lived and died (figuratively) with the Chicago National League Ballclub.
My thoughts go out to my grandmother – O.D. Young – sports fan extraordinaire, Cub fan. My grandfather and great grandfather were American League fans, my grandfather of the White Sox, my great-grandfather an Indians fan since he lived used outside Cleveland. O.D. was the counterbalance – rooting for the Cubs and White Sox. She used to manage grocery stores in the Chatham and other areas of the city, and so knew Ernie Banks, who used to shop there with his first wife. She got me a ball with facsimile autographs of the 1969 Cubs that I still have.
Growing up, both Chicago teams were on WGN and we watched them both. The Cubs had 1969 which depressed all of us kids especially. We just knew the Cubs were going to the World Series, until they didn’t. The black cat, Don Young, I remember it all and hated the Mets for years afterwards. The young me didn’t like the White Sox as much because, in 10-11 year old reality, every time the White Sox were on, they’d pitch Tommy John, who would get shelled but back then, Chicago Public School students could get free tickets for straight A’s and perfect attendance. I always got straight A’s and never missed a day, so I got lots of tickets, and we would go to games – to the chagrin of my folks, I always wanted to go to doubleheaders – two free games instead of one. First, one of them would come with me, but they were happy when, at maybe 11, they would drop me and a friend off at Comiskey, and we would go see the game and they would pick us up afterwards. Probably a chilling statement to a parent of today, but that’s what they did. We would sit in our seats for awhile then try to get closer. We didn’t run around too much because I always had to score the game.
My feelings for the White Sox greatly improved when they traded Tommy John (before the shoulder surgery that bears his name) to the Phillies for Richie “Dick” Allen – still my favorite baseball player of all time. He was brash, he was arrogant, but he could hit, played an excellent first base and was a terrific base runner. All of us tried to hit like him. My grandmother had retired and she and I would take the train to Wrigley. In those days, Tuesdays were Ladies’ Day – all women got in free and sat in the back of the upper deck. She’d buy one general admission ticket for me, she’d get in free and we’d watch baseball. One of my strongest memories is watching Roberto Clemente roam right field and gunned some poor Cub down at the plate from deep right field. Amazing!
When she got too old to go to games, she would sit and watch the Cubs and yell at them when they did something bad on the field. Watched third strikes were particularly upsetting to her. When I worked at the ball parks, I got her an autograph of Harry Carey, who I saw everyday at Wrigley. I never was able to get her an autograph of her favorite Cub – Andre Dawson.But I did meet a lot of Cubs: Leon Durham, Bill Buckner and his wife, Steve Sanderson and his wife – two of the nicest people one could ever meet. The same could be said about Rick Suttcliffe. Others weren’t so friendly – Ron Cey and Larry Bowa come immediately to mind. But I still rooted for both teams – the fans were knowledgeable (I was out there during the days of the Lee Elia tirade and the fans knew bad, non-hustling baseball and they let everyone know it).
But Wrigley became more of a theme park than a baseball palace. The Indignant Wife and I went to a game that the Cubs lost 5-1 but the fans were still happy because the one run was a Sammy Sosa homer. That was just wrong to me; Pete Rose said that in Cincinnati, people come to see the Reds win, at Wrigley, they come to see the Cubs play. Then the Tribune Company who owned the Cubs at the time started scalping their own tickets. That was the last straw – I no longer liked the Cubs, a feeling that lasts to this day.
But now they’ve won and I’m happy for the team, if not the bandwagon jumping fans. There’s two things that would make this World Series title more palatable for me: first, the end of Steve Goodman’s insipid “Go Cubs Go” song. It’s horrible and now, I’m going to hear it even more over the next few months. (Goodman’s “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request” is much better but not a rousing anthem.) Finally, there was one “fan” who annoyed me more than any other – Ronnie “Woo-Woo” Wickers. Besides just being annoying with his “Woo Woo” cheer which resounded throughout the park. Plus, he never had any money and was begging for tickets or trying to sneak into the park, or if he got a ticket, try to sneak into the cheap seats, like he could pass unseen in his Cubs uniform and “woo woos.” Worse would be after the games, him following some white guys like a pet, hoping that someone will buy him a beer.
Wickers is ill now – I saw a picture of him from earlier in the playoffs, with a walker and an oxygen tank, still in a Cub uniform. I do hope he’s happy now.
So, as an ex-Cub fan, I congratulate all of the true fans. Back when I was working, the adult film actress of the 1970s and 1980s Seka had season tickets. I saw her everyday – she was very nice. I think about her today (her website says that she lives in Kansas City – I’m sure she enjoyed the Royals winning last year, but she’s probably happiest about the Cubs). Of course, there are a lot of tributes to those who never saw this while alive: Harry, Jack Brickhouse, Banks, Santo, my grandmother. If there is an afterlife, I’m sure they’re partying too.
Party On!

Well, tonight is game 1 of the 2016 World Series and the big story, especially around where I live, is the first WS appearance of the Chicago Cubs in 71 years, the longest streak in history. Which of course, is nothing compared with the 108 year championship draught that the Cubs are trying to end with just four more wins.
Their opponents are almost as long-suffering however. The Cleveland Indians haven’t won a World Series in 69 years (1948) but they have been in three series since then: losing to the New York Giants in 1954; and then in more recent times, losing to Atlanta in six games in 2995 and then losing to the Florida Marlins in 1997. Winning would be more of a moral imperative if it weren’t for the Cavs winning the NBA title last summer. Prior to this, the city of Cleveland has celebrated no championship in any professional sport since the Tribe in 1948.
The monkey is off the backs of the city. LeBron James returned to Ohio to lead the Cavaliers to the promised land, but Cleveland still suffers from severe economic decline, and of course, the Browns. Chicago has had 10 titles in the past 26 years, most of any major city ahead of Boston and New York. (doubt me? Look it up!) There have been six Bulls titles; the Super Bowl Shuffle crew in 1985, the White Sox in 2005 and the Blackhawks in 2010, 2013 and 2015.
There is no fan base more patient, hungrier for a title than the Cubs. One hundred eight years of futility; 70 years without a World Series appearance; in fact, when Dexter Fowler leads off tonight for the Cubs, he will be the first African-American to play in a World Series with the Cubs (the last appearance in 1945 was one year before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier).
I know some White Sox fans are not on the bandwagon. Their hatred is that of a billion, billion beings. While not expressly rooting for them, I’m not rooting against them. Even White Sox Owner Jerry Reinsdorf said that it would be good for the city for the Cubs to win it all. The team is very good with no players to really dislike. Manager Joe Maddon is wacky and seems like a great guy to hang out with. I have seen some people say that they don’t’ want to root for the Cubs because of the Ricketts’ family’s support of Republicans and Donald Trump. Yes, that’s problematic (and I resisted the urge to yell at Tom Ricketts when he was in the next section to mine at the Nebraska/Northwestern football game and few weeks ago), but what do you expect? Tom Ricketts is governor of Nebraska, and the very rich do go Republican in general and daddy Joe Ricketts is a hard line right-wing crank. However, Ricketts sister Laura, an open lesbian is supporting Hillary Clinton. But if you stop rooting for teams because of their ownership, there wouldn’t be a Dallas Cowboys fan alive.
Unfortunately, I have already heard far too much of the insipid “Go Cubs Go” song and will likely hear it a lot more going forward, I have seen more Cubs jerseys, hats, shirts and “W” flags, hats and shirts than ever before. Since the regular Cubs fans are annoying, it’s not a far stretch for the bandwagon jumpers to be at least as annoying. (I’m trying to think if Blackhawks latecomers were as annoying, and perhaps they probably were, but I was too happy to care.)
So, while I’m not on the bandwagon by any means, I hope the Cubs can win.
If they do win, let’s hope that the fans don’t start acting like Yankee fans, or worse, the Red Sox Nation.

If there is a silver lining to the Donald Trump campaign for President, it’s that women’s rights issues and sexual and spousal abuse are coming to the forefront much more now. Of course, we have to hear the rudest, most vile comments imaginable along with hearing about incidents against women that make one’s blood boil. Unfortunately, the NFL has once again dropped the ball, badly, on the issue of spousal abuse by players.
The biggest blot on the league’s image was the initial four game suspension issued to Baltimore Ravens running bank Ray Rice. Despite the existence of a video from a hotel elevator in which Rice cold-cocked his then-fiancée (now wife), knocking her unconscious. Once the video became public knowledge, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gave Rice an indefinite suspension which lasts to this day.
One year ago, the Dallas Cowboys signed Greg Hardy to an $11 million contract after having been found guilty of domestic assault which was overturned on appeal because the woman refused to cooperate any more. He was not resigned this season after 35 tackles and 6 sacks, even though Owner Jerry Jones called Hardy “a leader of our defense.” He is out of football at present.
Of course, all of these players are African-American, so it was with a great deal of shame that it turns out another player has abused his wife, with far less severe consequences, at least at first. Josh Brown, a kicker for the New York Giants admitted to domestic violence in letters, emails and a journal, according to police documents. The documents were part of Brown’s final case file by the King County (Washington) Sheriff’s Office stemming from a May 22, 2015, arrest following an incident with his wife, Molly Brown. The sheriff’s office and prosecutor’s office initially decided to postpone the filing of charges, pending further investigation, with the sheriff’s office recommending that the prosecutor’s office file charges of two counts of fourth-degree domestic assault. As of September 2016, charges had not been filed.
Molly Brown told police that he had been physically violent with her in more than 20 instances during the past several years. In the documents released last week, Brown admitted he “had been a liar for most of my life.” He claimed to have a porn addiction and having been abusive to women all the way back to the age of 7, after being molested as a young boy. “I objectified women and never really worried about the pain and hurt I caused them,” Brown wrote in an email. There was also a 2013 “Contract for Change” signed by Brown, his wife and counselor Jerry Price. Item No. 2 states that Josh Brown had physically, verbally and emotionally abused Molly. In a letter to friends in 2014 that Josh Brown warned would be hard to read, he admitted to carrying an overwhelming sense of entitlement. He said he viewed himself as God and that Molly was basically his slave.
While it is not clear if the Giants or the NFL were aware of his written admissions, the King County Sheriff’s department in a follow-up report, stated that Molly said that the league was aware of one incident involving her husband. She told police that Brown invited her and her children to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii in January. He said that she would have a separate room.
At some point, Molly Brown told police that Brown showed up “drunk and was pounding on her door to let in. Molly refused to let Josh in, and eventually had to call NFL and hotel security. Josh was escorted away from Molly’s room and the NFL ended up having to put Molly and the kids up in a different hotel room where Josh would not where they were.”
The Pro Bowl incident apparently got some action; the league did suspend Brown for one game without pay in August for violating its personal conduct policy, and he sat out the Giants’ season opener. The NFL’s domestic violence policy establishes a six-game baseline for first offenses but allows for aggravating circumstances that can make the suspension longer or mitigating circumstances that can make it shorter. While it’s no surprise that Brown objected to the suspension, it is more than a little troubling that the NFL Players Association argued that there should be no suspension, but the NFL determined that the one incident about which the original report was filed required it to act.
Still, the Giants showed their indifference to the issue by re-signing Brown during the offseason to a two-year, $4 million deal. The team has supported him despite the arrest and allegations, with Giants co-owner John Mara saying in August: “I believe all the facts and circumstances, and we were comfortable with our decision to re-sign him.”
Well, under the light of media reports and Public Relations scrutiny, the team’s comfort has ended. Last week, Brown was placed on the league’s exempt list, Goodell’s sh%t list where abusers go until the smoke clears. He did not join the Giants on their trip to London to play the Rams (replaced by former Bear Robbie Gould), and this week, the team finally gave him his release.
Of course, Brown is Caucasian and did not suffer the same public hand wringing that the black athletes received. Rice originally got four games, Brown seems like he is just as bad as Rice if not worse, but he got a one-game suspension. What does that say about the league’s attitude toward its African-American players? Goodell has often come off as a “Great White Father;” coming in to severely punish black players and act condescendingly in the process.
Unfortunately, sports teams generally field anyone who can help the team win, although Rice and Hardy are out of football now in great part because no one wants to face the P.R. predicament if they sign the “tainted” players. Of course, this problem is bigger than football – many people are disgusted over the Cubs acquiring closer Aroldis Chapman because he was involved in an alleged domestic violence incident with his girlfriend in Davie, Florida at Chapman’s home on October 30, 2015. In the incident, he was accused of choking his girlfriend and firing eight gunshots. No charges were filed by the police, and his attorney issued a statement denying the allegations. Although he was not charged due to inconsistency in his girlfriend’s reports and lack of physical evidence, the MLB banned him for 30 games as a result of “Chapman’s use of the firearm and its effect on his partner,” ending May 9, 2016.
As players are just “assets” to be used until they can no longer perform to the highest standards, a blind eye is too often turned to their behavior off of the field/ice/court. I don’t know if any team will take a chance on Brown, but I don’t doubt that someone will be more likely to take a chance on the white guy.

Long time readers already know that I’m no fan of professional sports’ commissioners. They are mostly odious little lawyers with one thought on their minds: maximize revenues for the franchise owners. Other then that, they punish the players for discretions on and off the field, often treating the players like little children at best, like scum at worst.
Particularly loathsome was Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. Selig, former used car salesman and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, presided over the game during two work stoppages most galling the 1994 players’ strike that cut short the season and cancelled that year’s World Series. Baseball suffered when the games resumed, but Selig used the Iron Man streak and generally classiness of Cal Ripken, Jr. to help promote the game.
However, Selig needed more to lure the fans back, so, he turned a blind eye to the explosion of the use of performance enhancing drugs in his sport. Long standing records fell like dominoes, especially home run records. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa obliterated Roger Maris’ single season home run record before Barry Bonds obliterated their feat. Of course, all three men have been linked to PEDs with only McGwire actually admitting to doping. The 1990s and early 2000s were so dirty with drugs among batters and pitchers, no achievement from the era can be viewed without some skepticism.
Selig, showing his used car background, was not above coming up with other gimmicks. Interleague play was first, a novel idea that has now been mostly ignored by the sport and by the fans. Only where there are two teams in the same city/state, do these games even matter to the fans. Interleague play has been scaled back significantly and it isn’t missed.
There’s one more Selig gimmick that needs to be retired. In 2002, he got the not-very-bright idea that, to make the All Star Game more relevant, the league that wins gets to host the World Series. So even if the NL Pennant Winner has more wins than the AL Winner, if the AL won the All Star Game, which is an exhibition after all, they would host four of the seven games. Which is where we find ourselves – the National League Champion Chicago Cubs finished nine games ahead of the AL Champion Cleveland Indians with a 103-58 record. The regular season should mean something, which gives a team a goal. Even going back to the old way it was settled when I was a kid is better – alternating who had home field advantage year by year. I remember knowing who’s turn it was each year for the World Series.
So, to have a meaningless game played with the majority of the players not benefitting from the outcome is just silly (although it should be noted that there were seven Cubs in the All Star Game this year including the entire infield – the first time an entire infield from one team was honored). The Cubs would have been worse off if one of their players had injured themselves by hustling in the All-Star Game trying to get home field. Talk about counting your chickens before they’re hatched…
So, it’s time to end this sill stunt – give World Series home field advantage to the team with the best regular season record. It happens in the NBA and NHL – it’s time for MLB to join the crowd.