IS LANCE BRIGGS OVER YET?
Per a Patrick Finley report in the Sun-Times (and many other reports), Lance Briggs left the Bears locker room during Brandon Marshall’s tirade after the team’s humiliating loss to the Dolphins:
“I just left because I could see where things were kinda going,” he said on his weekly Comcast Sports Net show, which airs Tuesday night. “And I knew that when you get emotional there are moments when, you get in an argument and both people are emotional, you’re not going to get anywhere, continuing to argue.”
So let me get this straight. Lance Briggs is the team’s most veteran presence and supposedly leader of an entire side of the ball. Instead of sharing his views with Marshall and the team or, you know, leading…he LEFT THE LOCKER ROOM?! Has any player revealed themselves to have less character over these past two seasons than Lance Briggs? From his Twitter outbursts regarding the team moving on from veterans to his refusal to speak with media for much of 2013, Briggs has become a player whose brilliant prime in Chicago is starting to fill like a distant memory.
CHANDLER JONES OUT FOR PATS
I am not the biggest Chandler Jones guy in the world, especially after spending much of yesterday watching every snap he’s taken in 2014. Yes he can be a productive sack man but he’s useless against the run and often goes invisible for quarters at a time. That still doesn’t prohibit him from being one of the best defenders on the Patriots. He’s out Sunday. Details from ESPN:
Patriots won’t have an easy task in replacing Jones, who has made numerous key plays including a blocked field goal that he returned for a touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings.
On the season, Jones has 4.5 sacks and 21 total tackles as well as a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Jones also has been the main defensive end opposite Rob Ninkovich as Jones has played 414 of 478 defensive snaps this season (86.6 percent).
Rookie defensive lineman Dominique Easley, the Patriots’ top pick from the 2014 draft who has battled shoulder and knee injuries this season, projects as a potential fill-in for Jones.
This is not a good defense, with or without Jones. But are the Bears a good offense?
DBB SIDE GIG: ART OF MEN
I have been spending a lot of my time working with an organization called Art of Men. The organization was founded upon a single premise: providing an outlet for men across the country to engage in social projects in their community. We will be launching major initiatives in Chicago this coming year. This past weekend we brought 75 seniors from a Manhattan center to their first Broadway musical. You can read about the event and see some amazing video by clicking here: ART OF MEN: SENIORS.
Here are two amazing videos that summed up the experience. One of our seniors, Maria Vasquez, anticipating the experience of seeing her first Broadway show after sixty years of living in New York City:
Here is Maria inside the Music Box Theatre, after the show:
I recommend everybody go and check out the site at ArtofMen.org and if you have a few extra moments, click the Join US button and sign up. There’s nothing required after sign-up. But since we launched the site only a week ago it would be great to start populating it.
A FEW QUESTIONS TO PONDER…
(1) Why didn’t Brandon Marshall light up the Bears locker room at halftime? The team was just as awful over the first thirty minutes as they were over the entire sixty.
(2) Do we read into Jay Cutler not appearing with Waddle & Silvy for his weekly spot? Treatment? I have no interest in re-watching the Dolphins game to see if there were any particularly rough hits. The Bears didn’t bother playing the game once. I ain’t watching it twice.
(3) When did this word “elite” become such a debate topic? Who gives a shit if a player is elite? Why is Phil Emery even wading into the waters of this discussion? Eli Manning is a borderline terrible regular season quarterback. He doesn’t have to give back the Super Bowls, does he? Jay Cutler had a team in the NFC title game. He had the following year’s team poised for a run. He can get it done.
(4) Why are the Bears blindly supporting Jordan Mills? He’s a late draft pick not some millionaire first rounder. If there is a better option, play the better option! It doesn’t end Mills’ career to be benched once. Sure didn’t end Terry Bradshaw’s career.
