By Simon Evans/Reuters with the Beachwood Added Value Affairs Desk

St Louis Rams fans were left distraught by the NFL’s decision to move the team to Los Angeles on Tuesday, the second time the city has lost its franchise.
NFL owners voted overwhelmingly to give Rams owners Stan Kroenke approval to move the team to Los Angeles for the start of the 2016 season.
The city’s original NFL team, the Cardinals, who played in St Louis from 1960, left for Arizona after the 1987 season, but the Rams took their place, moving to the Midwest from L.A in 1995.
Fans in downtown St. Louis expressed a mixture of sadness and rancor at the decision with anger directed at Kroenke, who masterminded the move.

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Posted on January 13, 2016

By Jim Coffman

Dowell Loggains? Seriously?
I’m not completely against the hire but I sure don’t love the process (apparently interviewing no one from outside the Bears’ current staff), or the priority (kowtowing to the quarterback).
All it took was one season in which the Bears’ signal-caller wasn’t the biggest problem – and Jay Cutler was still a problem, just not the biggest – and now the quarterbacks coach is the automatic next offensive coordinator? Everyone remembers that the Bears finished 6-10 right? And they did so against an easier schedule than faced by any of the other 6-10 teams, so they draft 11th in the first round instead of 8th?
And now Loggains must be promoted to replace Adam Gase because he would work best with you know who?

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Posted on January 12, 2016

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

So did his butler. Plus: Crow and the Breadman; Jay Cutler’s Minivan Is Back; White Sox Whiff; and The Chicago Fire Are About To Do Something.

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Posted on January 8, 2016

By Lisa Rapaport/Reuters Health

A 25-year-old former college football player who sustained repeated hits to the head showed signs of brain damage after his death that may offer fresh clues about how concussions impact athletes, U.S. researchers report.
The young man had what’s known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a traumatic brain disorder that can only be diagnosed during an autopsy. He died of cardiac arrest related to an infection in his heart, but the autopsy showed signs of brain damage consistent with CTE, researchers report in JAMA Neurology.
“There is a common perception that CTE affects only professional athletes; this case as well as many others shows us that contact sports athletes at the amateur level are also at risk for the disease,” lead study author Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University said by e-mail.

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Posted on January 5, 2016

By Jim Coffman

Chicago shrugged.
As they called it a season with a 24-20 loss to the Lions, the Bears (6-10 and out of the playoffs for the eighth time in the last nine seasons) seemed more inconsequential than ever. Did you hear the Bears lost again? Um, yeah, but how about Jimmy Butler? And Corey Crawford’s even better.
What are the Cubs going to do to add starting pitching? And will the Sox (the Sox!) sign Yoenis Cespedes?

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Posted on January 4, 2016

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

A 2015/2016 review/preview. Including: Being The Blackhawks; Cartoon Cubs; As The Bulls Turn; Not Bowled Over By John Fox; Let’s Talk About The White Sox Cubs; The City’s Most Inconsequential Franchise; and Party Of The Year.

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Posted on January 2, 2016

By Thomas Chambers

The Chief doesn’t seem real big on year-end compilations.
I’m figuring it’s about dealing with the issues of the day at hand, moving ahead. So I’m gonna need a hook, an angle, a dodge, a lead.
So here it is: As we speak, American Pharoah is safely and securely ensconsed at Coolmore Ashford Stud in the paradisically named Versailles, Kentucky. You look at the Coolmore roster and your jaw drops with the thought of these horses, and the progeny they have already produced. The MLB All-Star game has absolutely nothing on these guys!
But the ‘Pharoah will make it his own palace, at least for now. Cover charge: $200,000.

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Posted on January 1, 2016