Chicago -
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Get Garoppolo. Plus: Super Bowl Scenery Chewing; #BearsBoycott; ACL U; As The Bulls Turn, Turn, Turn; The Toewster Is Back; Brain Disease Strikes Mike Adamle; and Baseball’s Worst Idea Since Using The All-Star Game To Determine Home Field For The World Series.
Posted on February 10, 2017
By J. Douglas Coatsworth/The Conversation
Among the 100 million-plus people who watched the Super Bowl on Sunday: approximately three million youth athletes athletes who play the game themselves, many reflecting on a season of intense competition, hard-fought battles and the tenacity of elite professional athletes.
Entangled in the enthusiasm and attention to professional football is the conversation of concussive injury and how playing professional football is related to brain injuries, neurocognitive problems and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
The National Football League has taken steps to protect their players from head injuries, such as changing rules and improving equipment, yet as the Wall Street Journal reports, rates in 2015 declined only slightly.
And while most of the media attention is directed at professional athletes, concussion and brain injuries are also a concern for soldiers in the military and for millions of youth athletes. Rates of concussion in these groups have led researchers and medical professionals to identify concussion as a public health crisis.
Posted on February 6, 2017
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
We are not amused. Plus: Garoppalooza; Mrs. Coach And Boy Coach At The Super Bowl!; The Super Bowl Is A Weird Animal; The NFL’s Legacy Ownership Problem; Peak Jimmy Butler; Not Wild About The Blackhawks; We’re Sad About Elena Delle Donne; Zigs And Zags; Cubs Stockpiling Broken-Down 35-Year-Old Pitchers; and National Everything That’s Wrong With College Football Day.
Posted on February 3, 2017
By Natasha Julius
I know, I know. I’m late with this year’s Super Bowl bet. What can I say? My ability to excoriate pop culture figures has been dulled by the ascendance of a gigantic man-baby. But enough about my home life; neither the second round of motherhood nor the president’s second childhood is really the issue here. The issue is, Lady Gaga is largely immune to mockery.
Sure, there’s plenty of standard cracks concerning her originality and general thirst. But you can’t fault the woman’s enthusiasm or endurance; she’s logged respectable work in genres as varied as dance pop, jazz and alt-country. And she’s done it all with a kind of aggressive vulnerability that might not be visionary but is certainly sincere. She’s invested in both her music and her messaging in a way that a lot of pop stars simply aren’t, and that’s weirdly compelling.
Plus, she’s a great showman. Consider that, the NFL’s brief flirtation with Adele aside, Gaga likely punched her ticket for this gig when she belted out the Star-Spangled Banner at last year’s Super Bowl and completely overshadowed Chris Martin’s mewling, Bruno Mars’s garbage bag suit and at least half of Beyonce’s backup dancers.
Posted on February 2, 2017
Pat Tomasulo, Super Bowl Edition
If the NFL had a mom, it’d steal money from her purse while she was sleeping. pic.twitter.com/fCuANJLKpH
— Pat Tomasulo (@pattomasulo) January 26, 2017
Posted on February 2, 2017
By The National Bobblehead Hall Of Fame
MILWAUKEE – The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled on Thursday an extensive lineup of Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series Special Edition Bobbleheads.
Each limited edition bobblehead is officially licensed by the Chicago Cubs and MLB and is available in the National Bobblehead HOF and Museum’s online store.
The following newly released bobbleheads are expected to arrive in May:
Posted on February 2, 2017
‘Well Lookee Here!’
“USA Football, the national governing body for amateur football, intends to introduce a drastically altered youth football game in response to declining participation and increasing public belief that the game is not safe for children to play,” the New York Times reports.
“The organization has created a new format that brings the game closer to flag football and tries to avoid much of the violence in the current version. Among the rule changes: Each team will have six to nine players on the field, instead of 11; the field will be far smaller; kickoffs and punts will be eliminated; and players will start each play in a crouching position instead of in a three-point stance.”
Responded our very own Jim “Coach” Coffman: “Well lookee here!”
Posted on February 1, 2017
He didn’t fire.
Although California Chrome realistically would not have beaten Arrogate in the first Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park Saturday, his 9th place finish in the $12 million race, the richest in the world, was a disappointment to his many fans seeking at least a showdown between two of the best horses on the globe, if not an outright win.
But ‘Chrome had an excuse. After the race, trainer Art Sherman and ‘Chrome’s connections revealed that the six-year-old experienced fluid and swelling in his right front knee. A possible bone chip, the injury is treatable. He has had the issue before.
Posted on January 30, 2017
By Jim Coffman
Does Dwyane Wade understand yet? He attended practice on Saturday after the team’s younger players called him out for skipping it so much. And that practice certainly seemed to help as the Bulls bounced back from an embarrassing loss to the Heat on Friday night with a decisive 121-108 win over the Sixers on Sunday. The Bulls are now 24-25.
But Wade also spent time whining over the weekend about people having unfair expectations for how much work a 35-year-old basketball player should put in.
Let’s try one final time to make something clear to the veteran shooting guard: You and Bulls management can work out what your best schedule should be. I happen to think it is ludicrous for a player who is making $23 million this year to skip multiple practices, but that’s just me.
Posted on January 30, 2017
By Thomas Chambers
I’ve had God, and the gods, on my mind lately.
Last week, I got Matt “Guitar” Murphy’d when a Beachwood reader criticized my review of Disney’s Secretariat: The Impossible True Story”from 2010.
“Why do you have a problem with the Christian element? It made the movie that much better . . . just because you don’t believe in God does not mean others don’t . . . get over it,” she said.
For me, the review stands for itself, so I’m putting a halt to all of this right now before it goes totally whack.
Posted on January 27, 2017
