Happy Friday Chicago!
I want to kick off the newsletter with some housekeeping items.
Firstly, the NFL posted its most-watched championship games of all time Sunday, which means the “War On Football,” like the “War On Drugs,” is officially dead. People are still smoking crack on the corner, and they’re still wearing Bears hats.
The people that used to tell me 10 years ago that football would be dead in 20 years are running out of time. Right now, the world ending — and thus ending football — is more probable than the sport or its most prestigious league ceasing to exist.
I can’t even remember who I used to argue with that about, but in writing this it feels like I’m dancing on their graves. I hope they’re still with us, though. But just so they know that they were wrong, and I was right.
The “football is too dangerous, but I still watch” loser crowd has been replaced by perhaps a worse crowd, which is angry that the broadcast pans to Taylor Swift as much as they pan to the Goodyear Blimp’s live cam. Both of them will go extinct. And I’ll still be crushing 4,000 calories screaming at my TV with glee. I’ve lived through it all, and I live for their tears.
(The 60-year old men that have been trying to avoid racism charges while criticizing running black quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson are finally in a good spot. They can point to Pat Mahomes and say, “No, I think he’s good!” That sounds ways better than the “he needs to stay in the pocket like Tom Brady or Peyton Manning” assertions they were left with a decade or two ago.)
I live for this shit like I live for LeBron’s downfall, and the second housekeeping item of note is that we have Baby Bronny blaming his coach and everyone else on the roster for his team’s shortcomings, midseason, yet again. He’s one of the greatest players of all time, but he’s indisputably the biggest coach killer of all time.
To get over the strange feeling of somehow slightly missing everyone I’ve ever met on an idle Monday night in January, I grip on tight to the rope that leads us to LeBron James’ downfall.
Some people would call that “seasonal depression,” but I avoid the sun at all times, so we can rule that out. I call it the “winter harvest,” because the time I put in now zeroing in on his failure will bear fruit come springtime. I’ll be a better man when the leaves return.
The winter time is best for laying down the seeds of success. I’ve said it before, but there just has to be something wrong with these people that have nice weather year round. Every time I visit a warm-weather state in the winter months, I shake my head and say, “I’m not buying it.” I’m onto them, though I haven’t figured out quite yet why they’re going to hell.
You don’t just get summer all the time. It’s not how it works.
You keep hugging the equator, while I keep hugging that rope to Bronny’s downfall. I’ll go buy some items from the brick-and-mortars to keep small businesses around here in Chicago. I’ll make sure I don’t miss a LeBron airball or complaint while you go galavanting around in the palm trees.
Last week, I was in both Phoenix and Florida. Right after I put “bi-coastal” in my Instagram bio and PHX and FLA with airplane emojis on my story, I yearned for the bitter cold weather of Chicago. I dreamt I was back home where I belonged, like an Irish immigrant that would never see his family again for the rest of his lifetime.
You don’t get summer all the time, just like you shouldn’t get to be a (bi-coastal) millionaire without completely blowing a gasket once per week at a sudden G-chat or Teams notification, once per week, for at least five years (maybe ten).
Real men were molded in the winter back in high school, when the only January weekend activity that existed was burying yourself in a rap album with the worst photoshopped cover art you’ve ever seen, a case of Busch Lite, and a couple of nicotine products purchased at the local gas station for the Bad Boys.
If you don’t become a criminal after that, you’re set up for success the rest of your life.
It’s more invigorating to want summer than to have summer, just like everything else, and that’s why Midwesterners are better off and every Bears fan will always want another quarterback, no matter who we have (including Caleb).
So, on that note, God Bless the Midwest, God Bless Football, God Bless Bron Bron’s downfall, and ladies and gentlemen, start. your. engines!
The other reason you can’t get out of the rabble and cold for too long is you miss the daily sports talk. You miss two days and there’s three coaches hired, 13 different takes emerging from those hires, and a lot of work to do.
But it feels good to be back in the thick of that misery.
We’ll start with the most important hire of the last couple of weeks, which was Shane Waldron as the Bears next offensive coordinator.
Here’s what I wrote about Waldron two weeks ago:
Shane Waldron is a solid candidate. He’s in an odd situation: the Seahawks have performed well, and his offense has performed well, but he’s out of a job after the Seahawks decided to move on from Pete Carroll. The Seahawks have been 7th, 12th and 13th in offensive DVOA underneath his watch. He’s a mix of an up-and-comer and a guy that’s done it before, if we’re wary of another Luke Getsy situation.
I don’t love that we’re constantly bringing in guys that have run OK offenses and OK defenses, but I’m generally fine with this hire.
Yes, fine is all you’re going to get. I really don’t have a super strong opinion on this one, and sort of felt like this is where the Bears would land all along.
The first positive is, as mentioned above, that he has actual experience calling plays. And his offense has been competent in the meantime, with an above-average quarterback and an average- to below-average one.
Another positive is that he’s not coming from an organization led by an offensive coach. The Rams and 49ers guys are as enticing to me as they are to you, but man, do they worry me at times. Example given, Luke Getsy (underneath Matt LaFleur). You’re just flying much more blind with those hires.
Plus, Waldron actually is from the McVay “coaching tree,” as he was the Rams passing game coordinator from 2018 to 2020. In that sense, you’re getting the best of both worlds.
The Seahawks fans seemed to have hated Waldron. This is not a concern to me. I don’t think there’s more than four fanbases who are satisfied with their offensive play caller. Just like every MLB fan thinks their team’s bullpen sucks, every NFL fan thinks they could do better calling the plays than their team’s offensive coordinator.
I am a bit concerned that Pete Carroll — generally not a very outwardly critical guy — did seem to express displeasure with Waldron at least one time during the season.
“I’m concerned about everything we’re doing right now,” Carroll said in November after a 31-13 loss to the 49ers, reportedly referring to Waldron. “That night last night will make you challenge everything. There are questions to be asked and answers to be found. That’s where we are right now.”
Reportedly, that was due to not getting Jaxon Smith-Njigba involved enough. The good news is that, for now, the Bears do not have anyone that needs to be “more involved” in their offense outside of D.J. Moore.
Still, it’s not as if Waldron was canned.
The Seahawks offensive metrics were underwhelming last year. But they were about in line with a team that went 9-8 and missed the playoffs:
It was also their worst year under Waldron.
This is all context for my “fine” take. It’s a fine hire, and I’m not sure whether it will or won’t work out.
And, while I think the Bears handling of the head coach role is despicable, it at least seems as if the Bears handled this search like Big Boys. They interviewed every single worthy candidate (in my mind) on the market, and their entire braintrust came to a collective decision. They deserve a pat on the head for that, and a brownie point.
Plus, that search did seem to lead to the subsequent hiring of Thomas Brown as passing game coordinator. I could be wrong, but I don’t think the Bears have even had this type of position in most years prior to this upcoming one. Seems like something they probably should have figured out.
Here’s what I wrote about Brown last week:
Brown coached one of the worst offenses in the league this year with the Panthers, but did not have much to work with. He was also voted as one of NFL players’ favorite assistants in an NFLPA poll prior to the season. He’s down on the list for me, but that’s still worth noting.
An experienced offensive staff that knows what it’s doing. If only Justin Fields could have lived to see the day.
Nevertheless.
The Bears also hired a defensive coordinator in Eric Washington, who comes over from the Bills where he was a defensive line coach and assistant head coach. Right now, the only bar he needs to clear to beat out his predecessor is “not get fired for mysterious reasons by human resources two weeks into the NFL season.”
Washington has plenty of NFL experience, including with the Bears from 2008-2010 coaching the defensive line. He was a defensive coordinator once before, from 2018 to 2019 with the Panthers. It’s worth noting that those were the last two years of the Ron Rivera era in Carolina, so that’s why he left.
It sounds like Matt Eberflus will continue calling the plays anyway.
The coach hiring season has come and gone.
This is me being a fool, but I do have to wonder, did the Bears catch a break? A lot of coaches, including guys like Mike Vrabel, Ben Johnson, Bobby Slowik, and Bill Belichick did not get jobs this run around (or chose not to take them). Could the Bears have an out, in the case that Eberflus underperforms this year?
I certainly won’t get my hopes up. But, I’m filing that away.
P.S. Jim Harbaugh is no longer the coach at Michigan.
Ah, the first “Bulls may stand pat at the trade deadline” report has surfaced. A tradition unlike any other under the man Arturas Karnisovas, who has failed me more than any person in my life over the last decade. I trusted you, I believed in you, I loved you. And you threw it back in my face. I may never be able to love again.
Now, do I believe those reports? Not necessarily. I don’t see a world in which someone doesn’t get moved before the deadline. But, if the Bulls do stand pat — and this term is overused, but not here — I genuinely cannot think of the words to describe how pitiful that would be. The only team, essentially, to not make a move of substance over the last three deadlines. And a team that has been stuck between the no. 6 and no. 11 seed during those time periods.
What I think I’ve gathered is that AK values LaVine far more than the rest of the league. For one, buddy, he doesn’t want to be here. He doesn’t love you like I did, and you love him. It’s getting embarrassing, particularly because he’s bad.
I don’t know how many times I need to write it: cut your losses, move on from LaVine immediately — no matter the trade package. Though he’s my favorite player, there’s a very strong case to be made that not trading Alex Caruso would be malpractice, if he can yield you two first round picks. Heck, trading DeMar DeRozan would make as much sense as any move — he is 34, on a team going nowhere, in the last year of his contract.
But, of course, the Bulls not making a move (or moves) would be in line with their longstanding modus operandi: be kind of bad to kind of good at all times, with no hopes of winning a championship at any point in the near- or long-term future.
Do you know how frustrating it is to root for a team that, when good things happen, there’s actually a drawback, because that will mean the team will do bad things in reaction (like not make any trades)? Well, I guess if you’re reading this, you probably do know.
And, if you are reading this, I assume you care about my notes about the current state of the actual basketball team, too.
As much as anything, this Bulls section acts as a diary, as I have so many thoughts night to night that need to go somewhere, at some point, or else I’ll lose my mind.
Since we last spoke, they have had two of the more maddening losses of the season. They stomped the Suns — in Phoenix — for about 2.5 quarters, before completely collapsing and allowing Kevin Durant to hit shot after shot.
Two things here, which are larger issues with this team. The Bulls have been plagued of late by god-awful third quarters, and their fourth-quarter offense in close games is abysmal.
A DeRozan backdown from 40 feet, into a contested 16-foot jumper, is about the worst strategy to employ in those situations. The Bulls do it nearly every time.
That leads to ugly possessions, and ugly losses. Take the Raptors game this past week, in which the Bulls lost a game they had no business losing. The Raptors were doing this thing called “double teaming,” and the Bulls looked like a 4th grade basketball team seeing a press for the first time.
Not only was the 34-year-old DeRozan seemingly shocked every time the double team came, but the other cast members were not cutting or coming to the ball. This blame goes to DeRozan first and foremost, to Billy Donovan secondly, and to the others on the court as well.
The Bulls had six assists in the second half total, and had six turnovers in seemingly ten possessions down the stretch.
Coby White shot just 10 times, and barely saw the ball in the fourth quarter. The next night, the Bulls won in Charlotte thanks to 35 points on 22 shots from Coby.
The good news is that, since that Nov. 30 game when LaVine first sat out, the Bulls are 18-12. Across the season, that’s a 49- to 50-win pace. Unfortunately, they started off 5-14.
The bad news is that, this far in the season, the Bulls have a near identical record, offensive rating and defensive rating to last year at this time.
The other bad news is that Pat Williams, who the Bulls have missed (believe it or not), is out indefinitely with acute bone edema in his foot. Based on minimal research, that seems 1. bad 2. rare 3. an injury that could only be plaguing a Bulls player.
I hope Dalen Terry gets well soon from his ankle sprain, but man has it been nice to see the rookie Julian Phillips get some tick instead. He’s actually talented, unlike Terry. He’s a freak athlete, he hustles, and he is actually knocking down threes (not his strong suit coming out of college).
I actually think AK may have something in this guy. Williams’ and Terry’s injuries will allow us to see more of him. He does need a little bit more arc on his jumper, but that’s an easy fix.
Plus, Torrey Craig, who’s better than all three of those guys, is nearing his return. The Bulls desperately need more three-point shooting, and he provides that. He was one of the only guys who actually played well through the first 20 games or so.
The Bulls had the chance to get to .500 by January’s end. The Raptors and Suns losses killed them. You know what that means? February’s road to .500 starts NOW!
LETS GO BULLS!
Tom Ricketts helped infuse billions of dollars into the PGA Tour this past week. He also is not sending the team’s broadcasters to Spring Training for most of the games (they’ll broadcast remotely).
I’m just leaving that there, as my “don’t criticize the Cubs owners considering every other owner in this city” promise to myself is still standing. But there is an expiration date on that.
The Cubs no longer have the opportunity to miss out on Cody Bellinger. My guess is that he ends up in Chicago again, but that deal is a must have now, and not a luxury — though I’m not sure it ever was the latter.
They did sign Hector Neris to a one-year deal (with a club option). The right-handed reliever is a welcome addition. He had a 1.71 ERA across 68+ innings with the Astros last season, and has generally been solid over the course of his career. It’s only a $9 million deal.
It appears his fastball has fallen off a bit velocity wise, but everything else remains. I doubt he’ll turn in the same year he did in 2023, but the Cubs needed another surefire option in the bullpen.
The waiting game for all other signings continues.
Thank you, as always, for reading today’s newsletter! I’ll be back next week, and am now just realizing that I forgot to write about the new Sox park plans. They (and you) can wait. Tell a friend about the newsletter today, and comment below.
Dalen Terry, my brother, get well soon! But please, please take your time and make sure you are 100% healthy before returning. I think it may be best for you to take this season off, and maybe the next one, so that you're ready to roll for the 2025-2026 season.
Someone needs to start forwarding this newsletter to AK so he actually has a pulse on how Bulls fans are feeling. He has to be so delusional.
No need to worry about another JSN situation with Waldron, because GOOD NEWS is everyone on the Bears sucks besides DJ Moore.