Letters to the Editor
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America's Team
No, the Redskins are America's team because Dan Snyder and Joe Gibbs are doing to football what Bush and Cheney are doing to America.
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Bears D-cline
Not to be an echo chamber here, but the Bears's defense was short 3 pro-bowl quality players last night: Brown, Harris and Vasher. They'll stay without Brown & Harris for the rest of the season, however long that is, but Vasher should be back soon.
I think (and I hope I'm not wrong) that they have enough depth to still be pretty darn good even without Harris and Brown. The fill-ins won't be as good, but given the rest of the talent, they should manage. My biggest concern, this year and every year, is which Peanut Tillman is going to show up on any given play. The one that gets roasted (especially on the run) more often than his Planters namesakes, or the one with the closing-minutes pick?
The biggest boost the defense will get is a little rest, which might be more frequent now that the offense in general and the running game in particular is starting to gel a little more. Of course, that rest won't materialize if Hester keeps running back kicks all the way home. I'm guessing they'll take the points and strap it on.
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Top seed, not yet
King, the Bears clinched a first-round bye. They do not have homefield throughout in the NFC, yet.
If this no-turnover Rex shows up, no one in the conference is as strong as the Bears, especially off Lake Michigan in January. Steve Smith won't be there this year.
Brees and Bush would be a nice matchup, but there ain't no roof over Soldier Spaceship.
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The only America's Team is the Cubs
And that's only because they lose a lot. When you win, you make enemies. Dallas didn't accomplish anything with the "America's Team" nonsense but make a lot of enemies.
I can remember when, as a Chicago kid growing up, I went from classifying the perfect Sunday as one when the Bears won and the Packers lost to one when the Bears won and the Packers AND Cowboys lost.
Don't be so quick to take on the mantle of "America's Team", New Orleans. You'll regret it.
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"Good Rex"
Last night, "Good Rex" played. With Good Rex, Da Bearss can win. With Bad Rex, they still have a decent chance because of their defense. Now, admittedly, having three mainstays out can't help. Getting even one back will help significantly, as will having the rest they'll likely get with the first-round bye. This late in the season, that week's downtime will be magic, and I for one doubt Lovie Smith will let any rust accumulate during that stretch.
As for "America's Team" being any team, anywhere, who cares? Short of Da Bearss, my three favorite NFL teams are, in no set order: Whoever is playing the Packers, whoever is playing Dallas, and whoever is playing the Vikings.
And as for the Cubs, well, let's see if their offseason spending spree (thankfully, lots of it on pitching) will make any difference come April through October. It's far too early to tell now.
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Old Ball/New Ball
Why did Stern make the foolish decision to use the new ball? All synthetic balls are either too glovey and sticky or too slick. And the weird groove design? Come on.
Where I play basketball, we've got a joke about big men choosing basketballs -- they always get it wrong. What could be worse than a *lawyer* choosing the basketballs?!
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Bears
Judging from the makeup of that crowd, and sales of the Urlacher jersey, the Bears are serious candidates for America's team. As they always have been.
Also, Hester sure was the story of the game. Along with his two spectacular runbacks, he was also burnt to a crisp all night playing corner. Once Vasher comes back, they will be fine. Hester is a third string corner, and had limited experience playing the position in college.
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New Ball PETA Friendly
Excuse me if you've already heard this, but I heard one of the sports-talk radio network guys from ESPN or Sporting News say the other night that the wife of the Spurs or Rockets owner, I can't remeber which, pressured the Commish to change to a synthetic ball becuse she didn't want animal skins used.
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Mountain out of a molehill
The discussion regarding the NBA's new ball has gone to some absurd lengths.
I don't know the details of the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and if the CBA says that the league must consult with the Players Association before changing the ball, then they have a legitimate grievance.
And even if it doesn't, clearly it's in the best interest of the league to consult with the players before making a change.
That said, most American workers have had the experience of employers forcing them to change tools, to the detriment of their ability to perform their jobs. I had to switch from Macs to PCs, and I didn't like it, but I adjusted.
In other sports, baseball seems to tinker with the ball (though clandestinely), but the players don't complain. Other rules are changed in sports without consulting the players, and there doesn't seem to be much complaint. Were the players consulted about adding the three-point shot? More recently, were they consulted about changing the hand-checking rule?
It's also not clear that the new ball is hurting the players' performance. I don't have the time right now to do the research, but is field goal percentage up or down over last year? How about turnovers? Scoring? My impression is that offensive statistics are actually up this year, so it seems like the new ball isn't hurting performance to a significant degree.
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Da Bears
As a Bears fan, their performance on defense made me very nervous last night. My wife can attest to my constant screams of "This is supposed to be the best defense in the league?!?!" all night long. And I don't buy the argument that three of their starters were out. That's only 3 of 11 guys, and with defensive rotations, it's more like 3 out of 16 or 17. Their absence should not have made the defense THAT bad.
The Bears didn't really show themselves to be much better than the Rams last night. Take away Hester's two TDs and it was virtually a tie.
I have a theory about Grossman, though. His last terrible game was in freezing, windy weather in Chicago. He kept trying to chuck the ball and it got lost in the bad weather. I predicted last night that he would do well because they were playing indoors, and he did. I think he may be one of those QBs who does much better when you remove variables such as bad whether. If I'm right about Grossman, and their defense doesn't step up, the Bears are "not gonna have a very good time" in the playoffs at home.