Still Gotta Come Through Chicago

Football, Save Us!

Happy Friday Chicago!

Last week, graduate school increased my student loan interest rate by another tick — the second time in a year — “due to the current economy.”

Times are tough for the institution with a $14 billion endowment, it appears. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and that’s why I’m happy to step in and pay a higher rate so they can “maintain the costs of the program.”

The only thing I love more than life itself is maintaining the costs of programs. I’m here to do my part. And I know that when the economy turns around, the good people over there will lower that interest rate. I just know it.

For now, don’t mind me while I pull myself up by the bootstraps and help others that are down on their luck.

I am left with one gripe, though.

What does “due to the current economy” mean? Am I allowed to ask that question? Is there ever a good economy? Is there ever “good times,” according to any douche bag that ever makes a declaration about the current state of the economy?

I don’t think I’ve heard one institution or C-suite type ever say that, “you know, everything is going well.” It’s always dire. The chips are always down.

And don’t worry, this isn’t Volume 2 of the Communist Manifesto.

It applies to people I talk to everyday, too. “Times are tough, you know?” No, I actually don’t know. Please elaborate.

You say that every time I talk to you, so either you have clinical depression and should talk to someone or you’ve personally placed a woe-is-me weight on your back and don’t feel like taking it off.

“It’s tough out there right now.” Is it? Or do you hit “easy apply” on LinkedIn and then watch a “Friends” marathon on a Tuesday? Have you fallen on hard times due to external factors or do you just kind of suck ass?

I don’t think I’ve heard a single person suggest we’re living in good times since I started paying attention, I don’t know, two decades ago.

So, naturally, I need to zag. I might just become a “Life is Good” t-shirt wearer, injecting nauseating positivity into every conversation I’m ever in. Not only can I not complain, co-worker, but I find it hard not to bust into a musical score every time I leave the house. That’s how awesome my life, the economy, the biz, and everything else is going.

That may be insensitive to those genuinely gritting their teeth through a rough patch, but if there are bad times, that suggests there are good times in the world, too. I’ve got to find them, even if no one else wants to.

First, I take a second to remember when the world shut down and I was running on a 1996 treadmill in my parents basement, watching reruns of Jordan Bulls games, which were the only thing on TV. Then, I can acknowledge that there’s worse places to be right now than in front of my computer waiting for a Bears preseason game to start.

That’s right, the Bears play tonight. And that, by definition, means that hope springs eternal.

We have a blank slate, and there’s so much to fill it up with.

Embrace that hope and excitement you feel right now. We’re in the good times, right here, right now. And even if the Bears go 6-11 this year, we’re still in the good times — right now — because we don’t know that yet.

My Dad called the Bears to win over 8.5 games this year a betting “lock” today. He doesn’t even bet on sports. On one end, I don’t want him to get hurt. He’s sisyphus thinking this will be the last time he rolls the boulder back up the hill.

On the other end, I want to tell him to go for it.

You don’t shoot down preseason optimism, just like you don’t tell a child he shouldn’t follow his dreams, even if he has no discernible or unique talents or skills.

That’s why the 2015 Cubs are my favorite team ever. We were just chasing cars.

Look at the map! That’s where you are right now. Of course you’ll remember the World Series or Super Bowl win, but what you’ll most cherish is the lead up to it.

It’s like the Saturday pregame before someone makes you go to a place with flashing lights, a DJ, and a bunch of dudes wearing cologne.

It’s like the courtship phase of a relationship. That’s the good part, not the (ugh) marriage. “But I’ve loved my husband for 33 years!” Shuuttttt up.

Right now, the stakes are low and my vibes are sky high, even in “this current economy.”

Because, if months from now, the Bears blow a 14-point second-half lead against the Packers, I’m going to be put a wet suit on, jump in Lake Michigan and swim until the Coast Guard needs to come get me when I start choking up water and losing the feel of my breaststroke 80 yards from shore.

Being excited is a good thing. It means you’re alive. Don’t temper expectations, even if we’ve been down this road before. If you do, you may miss the only good part.

You may miss the good times.

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It’s always worth tipping a hat to Davis Mills, who may inadvertently end up as one of the most important (non) Bears players of the 2020s.

Manning v. Brady is what Mills v. Rypien evoked tonight. What performances!

Training camp has just opened, and because I’m fired up for Week 1, pictures of George McCaskey walking around Lake Forest make me smile. He looks like a thoughtful grandfather that cares more about making kids’ days than he does about the bottom line.

This is a departure, of course, from what I feel most years: that he is a bumbling fool walking around with an atrocious outfit on, begging for a DUNCE sign to be slapped across that forehead of his.

There’s not a ton you can take from a game with no starters playing, only a few days after pads were thrown on for the first time in seven or eight months.

But you can take small bits and pieces. The defense looked awful and discombobulated, once again unable to create any semblance of pressure on the opposing quarterback. The depth up front already seems like it will be a nagging problem throughout the year, even if everyone is healthy.

The running back room, on other hand, seems to be shaping up to be one of the best that the Bears have had in a long time. Roschon Johnson, I forgot how much I enjoy watching that guy play. Khalil Herbert is capable of being a starting back in the league. And then, of course, there’s D'Andre Swift.

On the new kickoff rule, I think I like it? It’s far more exciting than whatever the “kickoff” had become over the last few years. That’s for sure. If they wanted more excitement, they probably just could have moved the ball back. But this appears to be a mixture of more excitement, and less risk for injury. It works for me.

This could go the wrong way for the Bears, but I’m very curious to see how this all pans out. What trends emerge. Who is the team that puts the wackiest player types out there? What strategies will be adopted early and late, what adjustments will be made as the data set grows larger?

I’m generally not a big change guy, particularly in sports that have basically been played the same way for over a century. But early signs on this change are promising.

I hope that Velus Jones Jr. is out there when the regular season comes. He has made some seriously bone-headed plays during his short career. But I can’t give up on him. And if there’s one thing he does really well, it’s returning kicks. I imagine he wasn’t out there tonight because that ultimately is the plan, to have him out there.

When “ESPN Welcomes You To The Following Presentation of the National Football League,” I almost seized up from the chills that ran down my spine. The cicadas are singing and football is back.

The Bears signed D.J. Moore this week, who I think remains one of the most underrated players in the NFL. I could not have been more impressed with his play last year. He’s been fantastic every season in the league, and never once had a stable situation. That is the sign of a difference maker. He ranked sixth in the NFL in receiving last year, on a team that didn’t pass the ball well.

Moore inked a four-year, $110 million extension that comes with $86.2 million guaranteed. That tied him to the Bears through the next six years.

CeeDee Lamb is about to get a bigger deal than that, or at least a higher annual average, and he’s not as good as Moore.

What makes Moore an outlier is not just his production, though, it’s how he carries himself through those unstable situations. The majority of the top receivers are dismayed from one week to the next, their quarterbacks never knowing if they’ve done enough to keep them happy.

Then there’s Moore, who backed Justin Fields tirelessly — leading some fans to incorrectly think that meant he’d be out on Chicago if they moved on from Fields — and now he’s backing Caleb Williams.

“I think Caleb is going to be excellent,” he said. “He’s going to be a superstar. I just wanted to be a part of that.”

That’s not a flip-flopper, in my mind. That’s a good dude who has the emotional maturity to put his teammates first.

The annual average on that deal will put him behind at least six receivers in the NFL, and many more will pass him in the next couple free agency periods. And the best note yet — he hardly ever misses games!

This has all the makings of a fantastic deal for the Bears, and I think he’ll be underpaid again only a year from now.

Hard Knocks is just four days away.

BEARS WIN, #BEARDOWN

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I’ve been dreading the inevitable turnover from positive *vibes* to negative ones here, but it’s time to rip the Band-Aid off.

The Cubs debuted this god awful Motorola patch on their jerseys Thursday, squeezing every penny they can with a roster that can’t climb back to .500 and a GM who admits that he doesn’t like to do big deals.

I’m just sad about Christopher Morel, man. I’ve loved watching him since he came up and homered in his first major league at-bat. He had his flaws, but his energy made up for it.

And, though this year has been rough for him, none of his issues ever convinced me he’d be a long-term liability. Of course, he immediately homered twice with the Rays. Hoyer even admitted his peripherals suggested he’s having a better year than his basic numbers would show.

That’s just a guy I would have gone down swinging with.

None of that is to put down the return in the trade, though. Isaac Paredes is a really good player, and it seems as if Jed Hoyer said “enough is enough” on the third base situation. He’s prioritizing security over long-term potential, which is fine, but the Cubs have not won a playoff game since 2017. That’s seven years ago.

Paredes was an All-Star this year. He’s a competent fielder and a really good hitter. He has 16 homers this year and had 31 homers last year. He’s immediately one of the best three hitters on the roster.

There’s some concern about his game translating to Wrigley Field — he hits a lot of left field corner home runs, but I don’t think that will ultimately play out like the pessimists do. He’s not a Difference Maker, but he is a good player who will be with the Cubs for at least the next three years.

That could be a signal that Hoyer is tired of his own bullshit, that the Cubs should really try to excel at every position in 2025 and beyond, but that’s what we’ve been expecting for the last two years anyway.

Hoyer should take a look at the Cubs roster in 2016 and the Red Sox rosters during the Theo Epstein years in the early 2000s. That wasn’t a bunch of plunky guys on good deals who came together through the power of “performing above expectation.”

Both teams had a bunch of bonafide studs, guys who could hit the ball out of the park from the beginning of the season to the end.

Again, I don’t think Hoyer’s job is close to in jeopardy. And he is good at signing guys like Seiya and Shota, and trading for guys like Michael Busch. But it’s time to put up or shut up. It’s tiresome.

It’s been just three years since the selloff, yes, but it’s also been a long time since the Cubs really had a shot at making a dent in the playoffs. That should be unacceptable.

I also don’t understand not trading Jameson Taillon at the absolute peak of his value this year. I have a sneaking suspicion he will not be a 3-ERA guy for the next two years.

I can’t even get excited about the prospect return for Mark Leiter Jr., either. Who knows, who cares. Let’s get the show on the road.

(But PCA does look far better at the plate, at least he’s worth watching.)

The stands are packed, it’s August, and Mike Tauchman just hit a walk off. And I don’t really care. Now, how sad is that?

At least it’s the Cardinals.

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Before the Bulls traded Lauri Markkanen, I thought he was a bum. He wasn’t getting any better, he seemed to have a shitty attitude, and I didn’t think he was going to work out long term — for anyone.

Two years later, he was an NBA All-Star.

I think Eloy Jimenez and Yoan Moncada are non-committed, lazy baseball players not worth investing in further. That may very well be true.

But it’s so hard to separate the chicken and the egg these days with the White Sox. Pedro Grifol is a total buffoon, but he’s also not responsible for the Sox losing every — not hyperbole — game.

Michael Kopech was up and down, up and back down his whole tenure with the Sox, too. But not a single White Sox fan would be surprised if he turned around and posted a 2.5 ERA the rest of the way with the Dodgers, striking out every other batter.

When the Cubs traded Eloy and Dylan Cease to the Sox for Jose Quintana, the former’s fans were queasy and the latter’s were ecstatic. But we forgot that being traded to the White Sox meant these players would be on the White Sox.

Now Cease has a no-hitter under his belt and a 3.42 ERA with neither the Cubs or the Sox. Eloy has turned from “potentially the best power hitter in baseball” to a take-a-flyer guy.

The Sox were like the Bulls in another way at the deadline, shooting themselves in the foot while trying to turn an extremely dire situation into something positive.

Garrett Crochet wasn’t traded due to a contract wish. Luis Robert wasn’t traded because of the type of potential he and so many other White Sox players have had over the years — undeniable, yet fleeting.

Not only have they not won since July 10, their deadline didn’t exactly inspire confidence. The prize of the deadline last year was Korey Lee, and his year has done nothing to inspire confidence.

The Erick Fedde return was objectively abysmal. Even when Chris Getz gets it right, he can’t capitalize. He’s also already starting to sound like a guy that doesn’t particularly know what he’s doing, even to a layman. But that shouldn’t be a surprise.

At this point, if you call Jerry Reinsdorf “a competitor” who “wants to win,” your employer should fire you. It’s a slap in the face to everyone.

The Bulls and Sox are in constant despair, but don’t worry, the Reinsdorfs have money to make United Center into Disney Land, too.

This feels like just yesterday.

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