Windy City Mumblin' 12/11 - Sports Edition

Welcome to another edition of Windy City Mumblin' - which is basically me complaining about things that I don't have enough to write a full post about, so they get kind of lumped in here together. This week, I'm going to be talking about sports primarily, since the majority of the issues that I've been thinking about have to do with either our sports teams or sports in general. Hit the jump for the mumblin'.



Bear-Trap

- How exactly does beating the St. Louis Rams give anyone on the Bears a reprieve? Lovie, Ron Turner, and especially Jerry Angelo should still be on the hot seat now, if not more than before, after barely beating a terrible 1-10 (at the time) Rams team by one touchdown. That's the same as a loss in my book, since if the Rams were a good team and not, you know, the Rams they would have easily won that one. And yet, the story now shifts to the Bears making their trade-mark "Oh it's a new phase of the season, and we're one and oh". No Lovie, it's the same season and you're 5 - 7. But you deserve to be 4 - 8 but you got lucky that theere is at least one team that is worse than you. Actually, the teams that the Bears have beaten are a combined 15 - 45, mostly because the 5 -7 Seahawks and 6 - 6 Steelers brought that up 11 wins. Without those two teams, you're looking at a combined  record of 4-32. That's a real feather in your cap boys. Let's not mention that you barely beat the Rams and Cleveland, and only won the games against Seattle and Pittsburgh because both of their kickers missed easy go-ahead field goals.

-But what is most maddening is that there is no talk of any coach aside from Ron Turner losing their job, and it sounds more and more like Angelo is practically untouchable. Lovie still hasn't drawn any fire really either, except from me and my incredibly prescient Fire Lovie Smith article  which was written after the loss to Cinncinatti which dropped the Bears to 3-3, and started their tailspin where they went 1-4 before beating St. Louis. But the main problem here is Angelo, who built this dog team and yet doesn't get any of the blame for everything that has happened. Ignoring, for now, how his inability to draft any talented players has meant that more drafted players have walked out the door in his tenure than have become superstars and therefore our team is old as dirt and getting older and more injured every season. Ignoring how players who get injured never recover properly and spend the remainder of their time with the Bears on the injury list, or ignoring how we overpay guys who aren't producing squat and let guys go who fill a valuable need on the team. Instead, I just want to point out how we have nothing this year as far draft picks go, despite potentially holding some very high picks. If the Bears finish at 6 - 10, which is at this point generous for me, then they would potentially be giving away the 9th pick in the first round and the 44th pick in the second round. Now the first round pick I have no complaints with, I would have made the deal for Cutler too in a heart beat so Denver deserves that pick. But the second round pick is going to Tampa Bay because we traded it for Gaines Adams, who was recently benched and didn't play Sunday because he's terrible, and the thing is that TB knew he was terrible too, so why did we give up a second round pick for him??! Terrell Owens was traded to the Eagles for a 4th Rounder! T.O in his prime for a 4th rounder, but Gaines Adams is 2nd round pick material??!!! Adams has three tackles (3!!!!) in six games with the Bears. Last Sunday, back-up linebacker Jamar Williams had 20 in one game! He equaled Adams' season totals in the first quarter!!! How do you justify giving up the 44th pick in the draft for this joke?!!

- The thing that really makes me so furious is that now I'm forced to root against my team. I'm pulling for them to lose games badly since it seems to be the only thing that will wake the people of this town up. Lovie has job security solely because our owners are cheap, but if they get blown out of the water one or two more times this season then Lovie is gone. If they lose to the Lions and/or the Vikings second-string (I SERIOUSLY doubt that Childress will play Favre at Chicago in the cold when they already have the 2nd seed locked up) than Lovie is gone. If they finish 5-11 then Lovie is gone. If they go 6-10 and play hard against the big teams they still face, Lovie will probably keep his job and Turner will be sacrificed to appease the city of Chicago, and Angelo will laugh about it. I need more. Even if the Bears go on a tear and win most of their games (I would say all but there's no way in hell they beat the Packers Sunday) it still wouldn't convince me that Lovie is the right man to lead this team. If you ask me, judging by the way they've been playing lately, the players on the Bears don't believe Lovie is the right man either. Send him packing.

Sports Ramblin'

-The ongoing saga of Tiger Woods continues, with this week his mother-in-law having to be rushed to the hospital after collapsing and Gatorade announced that they were dropping the Tiger Woods themed drink. The latter is not really that big a deal, the company said that it wasn't entirely motivated by the "scandal" but it was also financially motivated and didn't fit their business model anymore, plus it tasted like piss and no one ever drank it. But with Tiger's mother-in-law, I have to say enough is enough. I have no way of knowing this, but I'm sure that the constant pressure and paparazzi presence led to this recent collapse, so I think that it's time for people to back off this story. I think that mostly people just get the sick thrill of finally getting some dirt on Tiger, the quiet and reserved greatest golfer ever has finally let them in and proved he's human so they're having a field day with it. I don't want this to come out wrong, but in a lot of ways I don't blame Tiger and I understand why it happened. I'm not supporting this, I'm decidedly against anyone cheating on their wife/girlfriend/partner/sheep/whatever. The thing is that his entire life was built around golf and being the best there ever was, and then as soon as he became an adult he was in the limelight constantly. Tiger grew up always competing, always trying to be better than anyone else, so that's how he lives his life too. I can't imagine what it would be like to never lose, to always have be the one that comes out on top, but Tiger does and it's all he knows. This same thing happened to Michael Jordan because he is such an unbelieveable competitor. So I don't blame Tiger Woods, and I don't think that his life should ruined by this scandal. It's not like he was sexting 14 yr. old male pages at the Capitol building, or using state funds to fly to Brazil to see his mistress, or propositioning men in a bathroom. Cause if he was, he would be a Republican politician.

- Dear God, please convince the Bulls to fire Vinny Del Negro before he ruins any chance of Derek Rose being a superstar. Right now Rose is slumping big time in his second year in the league, and the rest of the team has flat out quit on Vinny. For crying out loud, he's a head coach in the NBA who goes by Vinny! Vinny is the name of the guy that you're sister is dating, or that your daughter brings home for the holidays. Not someone who coaches a professional basketball team! This year the only good thing for the Bulls is how good Joakim Noah has been playing, something that I am thrilled about because I was one of the only people that was stoked when we drafted him and I love being right. I love being right almost as much as I love Ricobene's. The best is when I'm right about something while I'm eating Ricobene's watching the Bears win and getting a lap-dance from Jenna Fischer. Man, what an Arbor Day that was...

- This past Monday on Monday Night Raw (WWE wrestling for the uninformed) Mark Cuban hosted and at the end of the episode Seamus (I think that's his name) put Cuban through a table, which caused the Dallas Mavericks to rush the ring and chase Seamus off. Two things: 1.) My god this Seamus guy is pale. I'd only heard about him and hadn't really seen him in anything until this incident, and sweet Jesus you can see his bones cause his skin is translucent. 2.) I think it's awesome when sports figures host Raw, especially when they get in on the action like this. Ben Rothleisberger and the Steelers Offensive line had a showdown with Chris Jericho and the Big Show, and then celebrated the win with DX which was really cool. And now, for someone like Cuban to agree to get put through a table is just terrific. I like Cuban, and while he may be an insufferable jack-ass for everyone else, Dallas Mavericks fans love him which is rare with any owner but with someone like Cuban it makes sense cause he really cares about his team. Guys like Dan Snyder and Donald Sterling, those are the real jackass owners in sports, not Cuban who genuinely cares about winning and supporting his fans. And agrees to get put through a table, which I'm sure David Stern watches every night drinking a warm glass of milk while laughing himself asleep atop a pile of money and strippers.

-Since I breached the walls of talking about wrestling, I'm going to keep talking about it for my last item: I love CM Punk. The dude is flat out awesome, and his character now is brilliant. The way he addresses the crowd with his big "I'm evil" smile and yells things like "I'm going to save all of you" before GTS-ing somebody is great stuff. Plus, he now has a "monster" in his corner with the reformed Festus who just flat out likes demolishing people, so much in fact that Punk keeps losing matches cause Festus wants to demolish people as soon as he can. Look, I know you want to destroy Matt Hardy man, we want you to destroy Matt Hardy too, but wait til Punk beats him! Not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things, but Punk should be World Champ still, not losing to chumps like Hardy and R-Truth. It looks more and more like they're going to put the belt on Batista, a guy who makes drywall seem like a more entertaining champion. Give the belt back to Punk! Honestly, I mostly like Punk because he's from Chicago and proud of it, going as far as wearing the Chicago flag as his wrestling attire. The Second City Saint is my favorite now, and I want him to get that belt back and soon. That's all.