Still Gotta Come Through Chicago

Antennas and a Beautiful Bye

Happy Friday Chicago!

One of the least-informed arguments in existence is the one over who has the best “sports town.”

I think Chicago is great and that it’s likely one of the best sports towns in the country. I also don’t live anywhere else, and haven’t really lived anywhere else, so I wouldn’t know, would I?

I’m sure Boston is pretty great year round for sports, as is Philadelphia. I’m sure New York is a great sports town when the teams are good. For obvious reasons, the best sports towns are likely to be in areas of the country where you’re unlikely to have a lot of other hobbies or other things to do. Cold weather climates.

The argument I can make for Chicago, without talking out of my ass, is that fans are generally dedicated to most of the teams no matter their current rate of success. Bears fans treat rooting for their team as an opportunity, and rooting for a bad team is better than not rooting on a football team at all. The United Center is filled every Bulls season, as is Wrigley Field.

Sox fans don’t show up to the games, but no one could blame them. They’re also a good argument against the idea that boycotting a season will lead to material change from ownership or the front office. The Sox were near-last in attendance in 2023, and they trotted out the worst team of all time in 2024.

If anything, Jerry Reinsdorf is so arrogant that he believes it’s the fans fault when they don’t show up. Or it’s the stadium’s fault. Not his.

Chicagoans’ ability to keep their sports teams relevant — and considered “major brands” — is a testament to them, and them alone.

That’s probably the most logical argument for Chicago as the best sports town. Whereas other cities may care deeply about one team, they lose interest quickly in other teams when they’re not competitive. Chicago’s teams are cherished year in, year out, with success only maximizing fan output, while ineptitude — which is common — just barely lightens it.

That could be the ultimate curse, too. Owners rest on their laurels, knowing the dog will come back wagging its tail in the morning, whether it’s fed a steak today or a cup of kibble.

The COVID-19 year notwithstanding, the Cubs haven’t won a playoff series since 2017. They haven’t played in a real playoff series since then, either. Before 2016, they famously hadn’t won a World Series in 108 years.

The Bulls have been to the Eastern Conference Finals once — once! — since Michael Jordan retired for the second time after the 1997-1998 season. Bulls fans are not considered tortured because of seasons in the 1990s, which are now a quarter century old.

Bears fans, meanwhile, still talk about a Super Bowl won 50 years ago. They haven’t won a playoff game in nearly 15 years.

The Sox haven’t made the playoffs twice in a row in Jerry Reinsdorf’s entire tenure — again, if you exclude the COVID year — and have one World Series appearance to show for in their lifetimes.

It’s been tough sledding for Blackhawks fans of late, but for the purpose of this exercise, it’s not fair to put them in the same conversation as the others, with three Stanley Cups this century.

Through all of the above, we’ve stuck around. I’ve watched 200+ Chicago sports games pretty much every year (yuck). I’ve paid thousands of dollars directly to these franchises year and year out, through ticket, beer, merch and hot dog purchases.

I may be reaching my boiling point now, though, with the new sports networks each team is creating to maximize revenue. I already have a TV package that doesn’t carry Marquee Sports Network (I’m now a cord cutter, forgive me father for I have sinned). I watch the games on my laptop or stream them to my TV, unable to switch channels. That runs me around $30 per month.

And now the Bulls, Sox, and Blackhawks have launched the Chicago Sports Network (CSN). It’s going to be free, they said. Unfortunately, organizational rot and incompetence generally isn’t isolated to the field or the court.

In a surprise to no one who had been paying attention, the rollout of CSN has not gone smoothly. The network looks horrible, and the programming is going to be awful. That’s alright — I just want to see the games.

Too bad.

With the Blackhawks season already well underway, and the Bulls starting this week, CSN has a deal only with DirecTV, “U-verse TV”, and “Astound TV.” No deal has been reached with Comcast, no deal with YouTube TV, and no deal with Hulu. The latter two, apparently, will never be sitting down at the table with CSN.

Therefore, as everything moves to stream, CSN is moving away from it. Their argument is that you can buy an antenna — what? — to watch the network for free. But of course the antenna strategy works only in some areas, and only on some nights.

Despite the fact that hardly any of these teams are successful, fans of the Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs, and Sox now need to make an event out of watching their favorite team play. They need a strategy. And it’s costing additional money, even when they’re sitting on the couch.

I’m pointing my antenna toward the moon, the score just became visible — the Bulls are down 37 in their 73rd game in the season. I refresh the mouse on my laptop, the Cubs big free agent bullpen signing has just blown another save. Cha-Ching!

I love having shit shoveled on my face, crawling back up to the surface, and reaching out a $100 bill to the owner.

Can I have a hot dog too, please?

LETS GO BULLS!

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Multiple reports surfaced this week suggesting that Jerry Reinsdorf is now “open” to selling the White Sox. The Celtics owners waited to get their second title this century to open up selling discussions, Reinsdorf waited until he oversaw the worst team in modern baseball history.

Specifically, The Athletic reported that he has had discussions with “a group led by former big leaguer Dave Stewart.”

Yeah!! said the White Sox fans. No!! said the White Sox fans.

If Reinsdorf is considering selling the Sox, Stewart’s group — to me — seems like a worst-case scenario. They don’t have big pockets, they’re not like the new-age owners that recently bought the Phoenix Suns, the New York Mets, or the Washington Commanders.

Stewart was the Diamondbacks GM and failed miserably. Something tells me he’d have a hand in baseball operations if his group were to take on majority ownership of the White Sox.

The question remains whether this is actually a consideration. If it is, there will no doubt be other suitors for the White Sox besides one of Tony La Russa’s other friends.

Where us locals see the White Sox as a beaten down, battered organization, some billionaire(s) see them as a major sports team in Chicago with a die-hard fan base that needs awakening, as well as a lease at Guaranteed Rate Field coming up before the end of the decade.

For the normal-ish rich guys — the ones that just want to own a sports team — the Sox look like the dream of a lifetime, not Chicago’s black sheep.

But I wouldn’t put it past Reinsdorf to sell to someone he knows, and someone he also knows won’t operate the team all that differently from the way he did. I earnestly believe that Reinsdorf gets peeved when fans get mad, that he’d rather stick it to them than help them find happiness.

It also could be true that Reinsdorf is again using this as a point of leverage to get public funding for a new stadium, as Stewart’s group also has tried to bring sports teams to Nashville (a rumored city for the Sox to relocate to in the past).

The Sox are the only team that has to deal with a dueling club in the same league, in the same city. But given the aforementioned disposition of the Chicago sports fan, it’s honestly impressive that Reinsdorf has turned them into the one team with little to no allure, and little to no juice.

I really do believe that he hasn’t even considered such things, however. If he is considering selling, I don’t think it’s an admission that he hasn’t done a good job. I think it’s an F-U to fans, one that I don’t think would land like he thinks it would.

But, also, after Reinsdorf’s teams just launched their own sports network, it doesn’t seem like a logical time to leave. If this was even a consideration before, I’m not sure the new stadium or the new sports network would have been as prioritized as they have been.

Of course, he is definitively not selling the Bulls.

Jerry may be bluffing, he may not be. If he does sell, of course it’s good news. But Sox fans better hope the team lands in the right hands. Yes, almost anybody is better than Jerry.

But, speaking from someone who roots for a team led by Arturas Karnisovas, the only thing more depressing than a bad regime is a bad regime finally done away with, only for another bad one to follow.

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The best musical note in the world is the drum beat between the first playing of “Bear Down, Chicago Bears” and the second playing. Waiting for that drum beat to turn back into the fight song is better than any beat drop an EDM head has ever experienced.

It just doesn’t get old. It was great the first time they played it in the bar at 9 a.m. local time on Sunday, and it was great the last time they played it past 11 a.m. local time.

As the marathoners neared the finish line this past weekend, the Bears were finishing off a second consecutive blow out of another NFL team. The sun was out, a chill was in the air, and in that moment, all was right in the world.

And the best part is that it’ll last another week, at least. A bye week at the wrong time is a double whammy. The Bears lose, and you don’t get your fix next Sunday, while hoping and praying that a turnaround is around the corner.

But the Bears won, and so now the team can get healthy, and you can maintain your glee. I’m going to be getting healthy too.

Kyler Gordon needs to rest up that hamstring, and I need to remove myself from Sunday Fundays for the foreseeable future. Consider me inactive for the next few weeks. I’m on IR.

It turns out the sky was not falling after three games. The Bears have successfully made it through their must-wins early in the season, and they’re trending in the exact direction they need to be heading into the tougher part of their schedule.

Next up is Washington, who is a formidable opponent. But then there are a couple more very winnable games before the Packers come into town in Week 11. Then, the Bears have to play the best division in football six times over the last eight games (plus the San Fransisco 49ers).

The Bears may not be a playoff team, but they certainly have a chance at 4-2. At 3-3 or below, with that schedule over the final eight weeks, there was no chance.

Instead, the schedule has allowed the Bears to take their lumps, to recognize their shortcomings, and come out of it largely unscathed.

Prior to the season, I think 4-2 at this point would be about as greedy you could have gotten projection wise. The Bears are there, and they’re blowing out lesser competition.

Good teams beat other good teams. But they also blow out the bad ones. We’re halfway there.

It was another slow start, on both ends, which I wrote about in detail last week. Based on how the team is built — and based on who they’ll be playing the rest of the way — that just cannot continue.

Shane Waldron’s play calling and design was fine — and even good — after the slow start. But the first drive needs to be emphasized in the bye week. The Bears cannot be falling behind to the Vikings, Lions, and Packers. It just won’t work like it has against the Titans, Jaguars, and Panthers.

I could do without the few pre-snap penalties per game, too.

Wait, I almost forgot.

The relationships we built over the summer and the spring, guess what, that paid off, didn’t it? Easy to hang out with each other, right? Practice, play the games, right? And do it for the brother next to ya. That was it right there. But have to get better.

Matt Eberflus speeches on repeat, right? BOOM!

Eberflus missed another easy challenge opportunity when a Jags receiver clearly let the ball hit the ground in the first quarter Sunday, on what became a first down.

Unfortunately, we can’t forget about the bad when it’s obvious the little things, the details, are going to matter a lot more moving forward. Those details hurt against the Colts, they didn’t hurt against the Jags. But they will hurt in the future, just like the slow starts.

It’s worth it to recognize that now. You won’t be surprised when one of those Flus decisions is the difference in Week 11.

As always, though, there’s the other side of it. Eberflus’ defense remains rock-solid, even with half of the defensive backfield out. Tyrique Stevenson was out, and so was Terell Smith. Jaquon Brisker was out. Gordon got hurt in the third quarter.

Still, the Bears held the Jaguars to 16 points, much of which was scored in garbage time. Eberflus’ defense has now surrendered 21 points or less in every game since the Week 11 loss in Detroit last year. The Bears also technically kept their home winning streak alive, extending it to nine.

Genuinely, I feel the same way about the Bears three “play callers” today as I did in Week 2, following the loss to the Texans. Williams is young and will make mistakes, but is clearly a special talent capable of being the best Bears QB ever. Eberflus is a great defensive coach, but a head coach in over his head. Waldron has glaring shortcomings, but probably will improve as the season goes on.

My thoughts haven’t shifted on those three guys, but the collective improvement from the entire team has been impressive.

Williams had the one bad throw, which resulted in an interception. He still seems to be unsure on his deep ball at times.

And he still was 23/29 with four touchdowns and 226 yards passing. But wait, there’s more. AND HE CAN RUN! Four carries for 56 yards, to boot.

The two touchdown passes to Keenan Allen were throws that not many guys on planet earth can make. And for Allen, who isn’t going to create a ton of separation in his waning years anyway, he’s the perfect target for these throws — particularly near the goal line.

Cole Kmet had 70 yards and snapped the ball a few times as the back-up long snapper. Great game for Cole… and already tired of hearing about him playing backup long snapper and winning Special Teams Player of the Week. We get it.

D'Andre Swift again had well over 100 all-purpose yards, proving he’s more than capable as a back, just in the right situations. I like that, for the most part, Waldron has learned what works and what doesn’t over the last couple of weeks.

Enjoy the bye week, friends. Afterward, we won’t come up for a breather until January. And that’s a privilege.

#BEARDOWN

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Remember the Bulls previews of the past on Still Gotta Come Through Chicago? I lived for this shit.

Hyping up the young talent, excited to watch a team blossom, assuring you they’d hit their win total over for the year. I sounded like state media, dammit.

How the mighty have fallen.

If anything, I’d advise the under on the Bulls win total of 27.5 this year.

I am down bad heading into this Bulls season, maybe more so than ever before. A new regime is here, and they’re almost as bad as the previous regime. The Bulls are rebuilding, after a failed three-year attempt to win a playoff series. They tore things down, but not at the right time.

They’re bad, but not bad enough. At least four teams will finish with worse records this year. Not only will the Bulls be uncompetitive, they’ll also need a lot of luck to get the no. 1 pick in next year’s draft — and not just some luck.

They sold on Alex Caruso too late, and did not get the right return for him. They sold on DeMar DeRozan too late, and the riches of that deal actually went to San Antonio because the Bulls did not have enough cap space to accept Harrison Barnes in return — something bad teams should be able to do. They refused to sell any pieces for draft capital during the last two seasons, despite clearly being out of contention.

They still haven’t sold on Zach LaVine, and he is unlikely to garner much of a return when he is dealt at some point over the next year.

LaVine wants to rehab his image after asking for a trade, but not realizing that no one in the league wanted him. The Bulls are trying to rehab his image so they can trade him two years after they should have. Frankly, they deserve each other.

The Bulls also paid Patrick Williams, who I still have stock in. But, as Karnisovas is wont to do, they paid him $90 million when no one else was likely going to offer him more than two thirds of that.

Oh, and I should mention here that I still don’t know how I am going to watch their games.

There’s rookie Matas Buzelis, of course. His progression will be fun to watch, and I think he’ll be good a couple of years from now. Coby White is a stud, but will once again be fighting with Zach LaVine for touches.

If the Bulls had gone all in on the rebuild at the right time, I would enjoy watching Jalen Smith, Talen Horton-Tucker (Chicago!), Ayo Dosunmu (Chicago!), White, Buzelis, and Williams make the most of a shitty year. I don’t mind watching basketball through that lens.

But given the missteps that got them here, I have a hard time getting excited about Wednesday’s opener.

By then, though, I’ll be on my apartment’s roof, holding an antenna toward the sky, in the rain, trying to watch the pregame show. Screaming…

LETS GO BULLS!

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See you next week. Thanks for reading another addition of Still Gotta Come Through Chicago. New readers, subscribe above! Everyone, comment below.