Still Gotta Come Through Chicago

Harbaugh's Next Move; BULLS WIN

Happy Friday Chicago!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed one of the greatest weekends of the year.

Once you get all the “cherishing family, giving thanks, yada yada” stuff out of the way, you can sit down, relax, and enjoy a celebration of something that almost all Americans besides my grandparents can agree on: that football is awesome.

It was a great time to reflect on how far we’ve come over the past five years. In 2018, you’d have a guy thinking he was edgy hit you with a “the NFL won’t exist by 2040” take at a party. If I didn’t need to go to the bathroom, i was headed there anyway.

I’m a fervent defender of the environment and all its species, but I’m glad to say that guy is nearing extinction.

As we near the end of 2023, more people are watching football than ever. That’s in part a reason to celebrate — we shut the dimwits up. It’s also part of the problem, too, though. Hold that thought.

I had a college professor once do three straight lectures on why watching football is immoral. He had us read a book on it, too, which felt like reading Mein Kampf.

I was never shy about getting in a good old argument with the prof for the sake of solid discourse in higher education. I told him I didn’t think it was immoral to watch football because, if I had the ability to play at that level, I’d be in the league myself.

He wasn’t having it. So, we went back and forth for about 10 minutes, as half of my classmates uncontrollably nodded off.

Two Sundays later, a few friends and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings. My professor was there drinking a beer with two others, watching the NFL.

He later wrote me a recommendation later, but it’s possible he agreed to it only because I caught him in the act of watching a football game that 20 million other people were watching. I had blackmail capabilities.

I hope he’s doing well, and I hope he’s allowed himself to continue watching football, his moral compass be damned.

Fewer conversations around the demise of American football is a win.

But we also missed the chance to thin the herd.

Because, over the last five years, college football stakeholders have finally acknowledged how much of a cash cow the sport is. It always has been, of course, but they don’t need to hide it as much now that NIL exists, which allows players to make money.

That money has led to new TV deals, new conferences, and more playoff spots. The casuals sticking around has piled on top of all of that.

That all has me yearning for things I didn’t even think I liked at the time: limited cross-conference games, only two national championship hopefuls and bowl games that really, really mattered.

Now, every athletic department votes for the demise of tradition while their salary raises 35%, because they’ll be getting $15 million more per year, because their school joined the Big Ten.

One of the best and most important iterations of Ohio State vs. Michigan took place on Saturday morning. As Liev Schreiber put it in the HBO doc “Michigan vs Ohio State: The Rivalry,” the game unfolded “like a celebration, a 100-yard homage to all that played, coached and cheered during this storied rivalry.”

“An autumn ritual, the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is as engrained in Midwestern culture as stoicism and self-reliance. Like the fruits of the season’s harvest, the game is a gift. A cycle of life that links generations and bonds hostile neighbors.”

It turns out that TV money is better than stoicism, self reliance and the gift of “The Game” or a season’s harvest.

I couldn’t help but think that, sooner or later, “The Game” won’t feel the same. After all, now that Big Ten will be nearing 20 active participants, divisions will no longer exist. It’s possible that, even if Ohio State-Michigan is the last game of the season, it won’t be as high stakes. They could play each other in the following week for the Big Ten Championship, and they could even play each other again weeks later in a 12-team playoff.

The game could be closer to just another game if we continue down the path we’re on. That’s a damn shame.

More, more, more will turn out to be less. I know this to be true. We should have gotten the “football is dying” crowd out while we could. Keep the head-scratching CTE “studies” coming, or we’ll have the majority of fans vying for a 24-team playoff sooner rather than later.

Of course, none of the TV partners — who now run the sport — are acting in the best interest of student athletes. Those student athletes will be traveling from Washington to New Jersey on a weekday to play a sport, or be forced to play three more games than they would have just five years ago, if they’re so lucky to make the playoff and “have a chance.”

When Pat McAfee is DJ’ing the RAISING CANES NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP in a dome in 2030, I won’t even have the heart to tell you I told you so.

Instead, I’ll be locked into the league that has been about money, openly, the whole time: the NFL.

That’s because the NFL will be the beneficiary of all the changes coming to college football.

My biggest wish is to make this disheartening shift in my favorite sport a net wash.

The only way to do that? For Jim Harbaugh to feel the same way as I do. And I have an inkling he does.

All roads, then, would lead to him back to your and my Chicago Bears, this time as a head coach. He brought glory back to Michigan, and he can bring it back to Chicago.

“The Chicago Bears are another organization I have heard has had some conversations about that, depending on what decision they make with this coaching staff that’s in place, and of course what they do with that quarterback situation,” The Athletic’s Diania Russini said on FS1 this past week, regarding Harbaugh.

Now, I do have a feeling that George McCaskey probably is in the camp of “Harbaugh is a cheater we won’t stand for here.” That’s because he’s a well-intentioned imbecile.

Calling him a well-intentioned imbecile is a little bit harsh without even knowing his actual opinion on the matter, but just know I think that description fits no matter his take on Harbaugh.

Coincidentally, a lot of this would fall on Bears President Kevin Warren, who played a hand in the downfall of college football during his time as Big Ten commissioner. It’s unclear if Harbaugh and him have a positive relationship. After all, Warren tried to cancel the 2020 season initially.

But, speaking of five years ago and what people thought, just three years ago, everyone also thought that Harbaugh should be fired at Michigan.

Now, he has to chance to ride out into the sunset as a national champion. If Michigan wins, I have no doubt Harbaugh will be elsewhere next year. (They’ll have to get through the IOWA HAWKEYESSS first).

The Bears proved over the last two weeks that, no matter their warts, they are on the way up. Things are starting to click.

They have a chance to act like a winning organization for once in their modern existence. The Cubs nabbed Joe Maddon on the ascent in 2014, and repeated history just last month with the hiring of Craig Counsell.

When you’re looking to rid an organization of its unsuccessful stench, you hire a winner to shift things into gear. Harbaugh has won everywhere he’s gone. If he doesn’t win in Chicago, I’ll be miserable that we’re the exception, but won’t regret giving it a go.

I didn’t always want Harbaugh. And I won’t be upset if we get, say, Ben Johnson. But of late, every day that passes has me yearning for him more.

He’s taken back one rivalry at Michigan. Now, it’s time for him to cash the checks that Ryan Poles wrote when he said “we’re going to take the North and never get it back” last year.

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It’s probably better off if the Bears lose. But once that ball kicks off, all bets and draft picks are off.

That’s what being a Bears fan has been like the last two years.

And, in the last two weeks, their play has been inspiring and perplexing. It’s hard to know what to feel. Matt Eberflus’ defense continues to improve, but he continues to make head-scratching decisions. He also is about 51 years behind on learning how to talk.

Justin Fields played fantastic against the Lions. I even thought he looked good against the Vikings while being handicapped by Luke Getsy’s screen-pass strategy that can only be categorized as a bit at this point.

At the same time, he fumbled twice. And that’s not an anomaly. It’s a pattern.

That’s all on the micro side of things. On the macro side of things, you of course also have a potential no. 1 pick and another potentially high pick depending on wins and losses from here on out.

Just like I yearn for Harbaugh, I yearn for a time when I can watch the Bears and just root for the success of every single person donning Bears gear, full stop.

I personally am firmly in the camp that Fields, with capable coaching and the draft capital we have, is the guy to roll with moving forward at quarterback. Again, not having to take a quarterback in this year’s draft would be of such value to the Bears’ positioning.

But I’m also not going to die on that hill. For instance, I think Fields is far and away the most talented Bears quarterback I’ve seen in my lifetime. He may be the most talented Bears quarterback ever.

That’s intoxicating, and part of the reason why I thought any talk of moving on from him over this last offseason was utter nonsense. I can also recognize that that is, in some ways, a fallacious argument.

It is true that Fields being the most capable bears quarterback ever is not in and of itself a reason to keep him. That’s more a stain on the Bears past, though I do think Fields is also highly talented in comparison to his contemporary peers.

The Bears past struggles should not be part of the lens in which we — and the front office — view the future bears. It’s just hard not to take that into consideration.

With that being said, I think his issues are fixable, and that his talent far outweighs his shortcomings.

The first thing we need to do is get him with Jameis Winston in the offseason, and have Winston’s buddies do those fumble drills with him where they’re slapping the ball with pads as he works on five-step drops.

I kid, but sacks and fumbles need to be a focus commitment of his and the organization’s moving forward if this is going to work. It’s hard to commit to anything, though, when half the team — including the staff — is in limbo.

It’s also becoming increasingly clear to me that Ryan Poles knows what he’s doing. His haul for the no. 1 overall pick is sending Panthers fans into a dark place. The players he chose this offseason are finally showing their worth. The most recent draft class, frankly, looks quite good.

It’d be unfair to not mention that Eberflus’ defense has gone from one of the worst in the NFL to, well, one of the better ones in only a couple months.

Two things can be true, though. Eberflus knows how to run a defense. He also is not a head coach. This is evident in his in-game decisions (what an awful challenge that was on Monday night), his press conferences, and his internal hiring.

And it’s still nice to see this team get some wins. That was our first division win since 2021, and it turns out, players like to win games.

Going to bed Monday, I felt like the Bears really had things going in the right direction for the first time in a long time.

There’s still a lot of ball left to be played. But, it’s nice to feel that way every once in a while.

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I moved this past week, which was completely miserable outside of one gift: I did not have the ability to watch the Bulls during their dreadful 5-game losing streak.

But, then, on Thursday, they went out there and beat the Milwaukee Bucks.

The win is not as interesting as who contributed to the win. Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan were both out.

Unfortunately, I cannot dive into the game because I did not have eyes on it, though everything I’ve read refers to the Bulls’ play as “inspired” and tempo-driven.

It’s not exactly surprising that the Bulls played better without the guy who is trying to force his way out in a trade. LaVine is a bad team basketball player, he’s selfish, and his general attitude toward the team and the coaching staff is poisonous.

They’re not good with or without LaVine, but at least without him, we’ll be able to see if the Bulls actually have something in the young guys they do have. It’ll also give those guys the ability to stretch their wings a little bit, something they can’t do under the dark cloud of LaVine.

The idea that this team’s problem is Billy Donovan is comical. The roster is awful. The “best player” is the 4th or 5th most impactful guy on the team. Trade rumors hang above. There’s nothing Donovan — or any coach in the NBA — can do about that.

There was a report yesterday that Arturas Karnisovas may prefer to deal other players and see what the team looks like with LaVine still at the center. All hyperbole aside, that may set the Bulls back another three years.

LaVine — like James Harden, like Kyrie Irving — is going to get his way. He’s going to pout his way out of here. The Bulls won’t get a good return for him, but they’ll eventually be at the “enough is enough” point. I’m already there.

I’ve accepted the return won’t be there. If anyone is dumb enough to trade for LaVine, they can have him. Let’s rip the Band-Aid off and move on.

The Bulls are in danger of two lost seasons in a row, which is unacceptable. But unacceptable to whom? Certainly not ownership.

The future of the team is in the hands of imbeciles. Unlike McCaskey, I don’t even know if I’d call them well intentioned.

I’m just glad they embarrassed LaVine by beating the Bucks Thursday night, utilizing strategies such as “passing,” “playing hard,” and “teamwork.”

The Sox have already gotten busy this offseason with some trades.

They suffer from the same problematic, top-down ethos that the Bulls do. But at least Chris Getz, the Sox’ new GM, said he didn’t like their team as currently constructed. That admission alone positions the Sox above the Bulls.

Somehow, the Bulls are 6-14 in a year they meant to compete, and everyone knows the house is on fire except for the people on the top floor.

They followed their delusions into the abyss, and now we’re all getting a taste of rock bottom as a result of that.

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