As unpleasant as any conversation about Ray McDonald may be, there is still a football discussion needing to be had as the Bears must now replace a potentially key part of their defense. There’s no question the Bears made the right call in cutting McDonald. He needed to prove he could stay out of trouble and he didn’t. By releasing him they became a better organization. But they will be a worse team if young players don’t step up because McDonald was going to be the team’s best defensive lineman.

Read More …

If you ask me, this is one of my best radio appearances to date. This is a passionate conversation about Ray McDonald, domestic violence in the NFL and how the league must address their growing problem of a league comprised of unlikable men.

• I questioned the social responsibility associated with the Ray McDonald signing at the time the move was made. The Bears displayed none, overlooked a history a sketchy behavior towards women, and gambled on a bad guy not being bad for the year he would spend under contract with the Bears. George McCaskey did not want his organization to make this move. This is why. The reward was not worth the public relations risk.
• Easy for Kyle Long to Tweet “good riddance” about McDonald after McDonald does what he did. He also Tweeted this when the move was made: “If yall don’t like second chances I can go back to folding t shirts and sticking the shoe room at the surf shop lol.” If you read about McDonald, you’ll realize the Bears didn’t give him a second chance. They gave him a fifth chance.
• I know a lot of people. None of them have beaten a woman. None. It ain’t that hard to NOT do. McDonald is a bad human who should never be allowed on an NFL field again.

The Bears on Tuesday signed Ray McDonald.

When I heard that, when I heard the team I spend so much time thinking about and cheering for signed this man with a checkered past, my initial reaction was a simple, “Ugh”.Ugh as in how could the Bears overlook a track record of violence towards women in the name of good defensive line play. Ugh as in how could this new Bears leadership be so eager to ship Brandon “Tartikoff” Marshall to New Jersey for less than a Rutt’s Hut ripper in the name of personality problems while bringing in McDonald on the recommendation of their new defensive coordinator alone. Ugh as in how, after the NFL’s dark troubles of 2014, could the Bears so willingly enter that conversation in 2015?

(The Tribune provides a legal timeline for McDonald HERE.)

But there was an even worse Ugh. Ugh as in the realization that the first time McDonald buries Aaron Rodgers or Matthew Stafford or Teddy Bridgewater I will be the first one to applaud and forget all his transgressions.

Read More …