Hillenmeyer on Injured Reserve
Hunter Hillenmeyer’s 2010 season has met its end as the Bears placed him on IR with an undisclosed illness believed to be concussion-related.  If Nick Roach is unable to play in Dallas, that would leave Brian Iwuh, talented but inexperienced, as the only backup linebacker on the active roster.  It’s a sad day for a good guy but my favorite part of this story is the names of the guys trying out at Halas Hall today: “Marcus Buggs (Vanderbilt), Blaze Soares (Hawaii), Nate Triplett (Minnesota) and Donovan Woods (Oklahoma State) all had tryouts.”  Those all sound like movie characters.

Too Early To Start Thinking About 2011?
The Bears might have one of the league’s easiest schedules in 2011, as they’ll square off with the NFC South and AFC West.  One of the marquee matchups will certainly be Jay Cutler’s regular season return to Denver to face the Broncos.

Peanut Defends Lovie (While Not Defending Lovie)
I expected to read Fred Mitchell’s article about Charles Tillman and hear more pro-Lovie babble but I was taken aback but this terrific quote from the Nut:

“Coach (Rod) Marinelli’s approach to the defense is just ‘Monsters of
the Midway.’ Just taking it back to the old school Black-and-Blue
division. Back to the Dick Butkus days when it was hard-nosed, physical
football. If you came into Soldier Field, you’re in for a fight. I think
these last couple of years, we have kind of gotten away from that. Rod
is doing a pretty good job of every single day reminding us about that.”

“We have kind of gotten away from that” is a very, very telling phrase.  Here’s hoping the defense continues to reflect Marinelli’s Midway Monster mantra.

Telander the Enemy? 
Rick Telander may be welcoming his role as enemy of this crop of Chicago Bears but he won’t be my enemy as long he writes as entertainingly as he did Tuesday.  The opening was my favorite bit:

Maybe they don’t like us (”us” being media humans).  Maybe they eat with their hands.  Maybe they snarl when they whisper.  Maybe they sacrifice baby harp seals before each game.

But you know something?  They’re linebackers — the sporting equivalent of assassins — and it don’t matter.

This group of Bears is simply better when they’re expected to stink.  I’d think that was a generalization but it has been playing out that way since 2001.  The low expectations leading into the 2008 season led to an inspired, opening night win against the Indianapolis Colts.  The Bears lost their next two games.  Here’s hoping that history does not repeat itself.