I am not one of those people who has ten bets on the Super Bowl. I can’t keep track of that much action. I love betting the coin toss, sometimes the length of the national anthem, and then I’ll have two or three strategic choices. Today, I present those choices. All odds are from DraftKings Sportsbook.

Bet #1: Saquon Barkley UNDER 113.5 rushing yards. (-110)

Steve Spagnuolo is spending every single minute of his preparation on limiting Barkley, the best offensive player in the sport this season. Will he? Yes, to a degree. I think Barkley is still going to get 15-20 carries and might even get near 100 yards. But the Chiefs are good tacklers at the back of their defense, and they will limit Saquon’s big play ability. (And if you believe that Barkley will be under this number, you might consider parlaying it with the Chiefs on the money line.)

Bet #2: Patrick Mahomes OVER 6.5 rushing attempts (+107)

The liability on this Chiefs roster is the ability of their offensive tackles to protect and the Eagles present the most dynamic front Kansas City will have seen in months. Patrick Mahomes combats that liability with his legs, frustrating defenses with a series of conversions on 3rd-and-six. This should be a close game, where every one of those conversions feels massive in the second half.

Bet #3: Chris Jones OVER .25 sacks (+114)

Why not? He’s Chris Jones, and all you need is for him to jump on Hurts at the end of miscalculated scramble. Jones had a down year in the sack department, but these are the Chiefs, and this is for the championship. If they’re going to win a third straight title, Jones will be part of the story.

$100 bet wins $745.69

Roads, come to an end.

Our journeys, a memory.

But new paths emerge.

I don’t care who wins the Super Bowl this Sunday.

And honestly, I rarely do.

There are exceptions to this, of course. I cared very much when Rex Grossman and the Bears went to Miami to square off with Peyton Manning and the Colts. Too much, to be honest. And if the Bears ever got back to the final Sunday of the NFL season, I’m sure I would care too much again. But unless there are individuals I know involved, or individuals I seriously like/dislike involved, I find it quite hard to emotionally invest in the entire enterprise.

One time I was on a flight from Queens to Jacksonville and was seated across the aisle from Tom Coughlin. He was reading a biography of John Wooden, and I introduced myself. For the whole of that flight, Coughlin asked me questions about MY life. He wanted to know how a musical was constructed, what my work habits were, how we cast, etc. I never even got to tell him I had this website! But I also never rooted against Coughlin again, especially in those two Super Bowls. To the contrary, there is no scenario where I would ever root for Tony Dungy or Aaron Rodgers.

The Super Bowl is important, to the two teams playing and their fans. For this writer, when the Bears are not involved, the Super Bowl is about the $500 box I share at the Copper Kettle and trying a new wing recipe in the air fryer. (This year’s will be a sriracha honey thing.) It’s a solemn occasion, marking the end of the NFL season, a season that seems to move quicker and quicker the older I get. As someone who only roots for one team, my sporting focus shifts to the Premier League, and the four golf majors on the horizon. But I don’t have a dog in the soccer fight, and unless Tiger Woods can suddenly walk again, the same can be said for golf. (I root for Rory McIlroy but I’ll be honest, I’m tired.)

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People are upset Randle El is following Ben Johnson to Chicago

Assistant HC in the new job title in addition to being the WR coach. Have to imagine it comes with a pay raise too

By far my favorite Antwaan Randle El moment. Against CHI ironically ⬇️pic.twitter.com/j9zlPrtJJy

— Ben Bosscher (@BosscherBen) January 25, 2025

Nobody happier for Jamo than his coach

Remember the last game against the Bears? Antwaan Randle-El was stern and let him have it for the dumb penalty

It’s all tough love. He cares about seeing him get the most out of his ability. That’s coachingpic.twitter.com/swMShQeTbF

— Jim Costa (@JimCosta_) December 22, 2024

Declan Doyle is the new offensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears. What does it mean?

• Ben Johnson is now firmly placed in the lineage of Bill Parcells, which trace through Sean Payton to Dan Campbell. (The Dennis Allen hiring at DC furthers this.) Few coaching trees have been more successful than that of Parcells, and everyone in Chicago should hope that continues.
• A friend who has worked with Declan texted me the following: “He’s a stud. Outstanding hire. He’s a super genius.” Said another friend, “Guaranteed to be a head coach down the road.”
• This is an interesting hire for Johnson, and in many ways it’s a legacy hire. Young coaches pride themselves on their staffs getting hired around the league and that is surely what Johnson is projecting here.
• I’m not particularly interested in Doyle’s family tree. Don’t care that his dad was some awful college coach. (Most college head coaches are awful people.) Don’t care that Mike Ditka is his uncle. (Would prefer to see an end to the hero worshipping of the 1985 club, name of this site notwithstanding.) Declan is his own guy.
• I would be slightly surprised if Johnson doesn’t add a veteran coach to his offensive room, and his interviewing David Shaw suggested such.

Johnson’s coaching staff,

Established and impressive.

Did Bears get it right?

Right before the 2020 season, I wrote an article about how Ryan Pace had mortgaged the Bears’ future foolishly, chasing a contention window that had already closed. The sentences that ended that piece: “The 2020 Bears should be a pretty good team. Fans would be wise to enjoy that, because 2021 and beyond don’t look as though they’ll be quite as much fun.”

Five years later, I wish I had been wrong, and I suppose I was wrong about 2020. That vintage went 8-8 and was not particularly good. But the four seasons since have been downright miserable. During that stretch, the Bears have:

• Finished 21-47, the 2nd worst record in the NFL.
• Finished 5-19 in the division, averaging barely more than one win in six attempts per season against their main rivals.
• Suffered through two losing streaks of at least ten games, the only such streaks in the 100+ year history of the franchise.
• Cycled through three head coaches.
• Been outscored by a cumulative 312 points.

Besides losing a lot, the offense has been a particularly brutal experience. In the last four years, that unit has:

• Averaged only 19.2 points per game, ranking an average of 24th in the NFL each year.
• Allowed 229 sacks, the most in the NFL in that span by over TEN sacks. (They’ve ranked in the bottom 7 in sacks allowed all four seasons.)
• Cycled through five offensive coordinators, the best of whom could charitably be described as adequate.
• Spawned seemingly a million film studies about how the offense lacked any sort of clear plan or cohesion.
• Made me scream at my TV in frustration roughly 25 times per game due to a stupid mistake you don’t expect a varsity high school team to make (not getting the play call in on time, running the 14th WR screen in a row, getting conservative as soon as they get into long field goal range, etc.).

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