These will be a bunch of random thoughts about a host of things happening around the Chicago Bears.
- Virginia McCaskey is not well. And things inside the McCaskeys are not either. The family has rarely been in this much turmoil over the last thirty years and there are some close to the organization who believe a sale might actually be on the table once Virginia passes. (Reminds of Michael not killing Fredo until after his mother is dead in Godfather Part II.)
- One of the major issues facing George is replacing Ted Phillips, who is set to retire in 2023. George doesn’t have to plan to do it and is ill-equipped to handle any of the duties currently performed by Ted. (He’s also not particularly interested in doing that much work.) Bears fans have never understood that the team’s connections around the league are Ted’s, not George’s, and ultimately, it’ll be Ted that leads the process of finding his replacement inside Halas Hall. (Also look for Cliff Stein to be an internal frontrunner.)
- Listen, I don’t know if the new CHGO Sports will be successful or not, but I do like many of the people involved. I do know it’s continuing a movement in sports media away from the written word and almost exclusively to the podcast format. That depresses me. I got into this game because of the work of Mike Lupica in the Daily News and Jerry Izenberg in the Newark Star-Ledger. I came to love writing about movies because of Roger Ebert in the Sun-Times. As I grew older and discovered the likes of Hamill, Breslin and Royko, I found there was a place for a unique style in an old medium. Newspapers may not be what they used to be but it’s sad to think their legacy is being lost, especially in the sports genre.
- James Daniels has been a focal point of #BearsTwitter but Ryan Poles was less than impressed with the guard in his initial evaluations of the roster. It’s not that he doesn’t think Daniels is a good player. He does. But the inconsistency is alarming.
- “What if the Bears let Daniels walk and broke the bank for Terron Armstead at tackle?” Armstead will be 31 this season and has never played 16 games. I don’t see a rookie GM taking that financial risk.
