Chicago -
By Dan O’Shea
We join this NFL season already in progress.
So, you figured you’d be too busy watching the Cubs and Sox play their way to a crosstown World Series to pay attention to your fantasy football league draft. You just hoped all the buzz about J.T. O’Sullivan, Ray Rice and Darren McFadden was warranted, and then phoned it in.
Well, we’re coming up on Week 6, and here’s what you’ve missed, position by position:
Posted on October 8, 2008
By Ricky O’Donnell
Even days later, a lot Cubs fans are still devastated after watching their team get swept in the playoffs against the Dodgers. Really, they should be. This may have been the best Cubs team ever, and to see it all come crashing down in the course of three games is a lot to handle. Even though the team had a great year, it feels unfulfilled. I said last week that all a fan should really hope for out of their favorite baseball team is a division title. Baseball teams are, after all, built to win over the course of 162 games, not five. But it was a little different for the Cubs this year. From the onset it felt like their year. Any fan that is irrationally upset probably deserves to be.
When my White Sox got eliminated last night, I was bummed but not devastated. It’s always disappointing anytime your team’s season ends without a championship, but the Sox were never supposed to be in this situation anyway. While the Cubs’ hopes were sky high from the beginning, the Sox just sort of rolled along. No Sox fan should take this elimination too hard. They still had a really good season.
Posted on October 7, 2008
By Jim Coffman
It has been a long time since I enjoyed 60 minutes of Bear football more than Sunday’s dismantling of the Lions. And sure Detroit is detritus, but that doesn’t mean they won’t win some games later this season, especially at home (actually, maybe not – their schedule is tough enough that they could eventually open this season with double-digit losses in a row). The Lions were coming off a bye, playing in their dome and they have a quarterback (Jon Kitna) who has proven capable of at least respectable offensive output.
|
But the Bear defense was dominant right from the start and all the way through. It took the offense a while to get going but once it did there was no stopping it. The play-calling was conservative early on and the run game never gained real traction but the Bears were committed enough to pounding away early to open things up for Kyle Orton. And soon enough the fast-rising quarterback just blew the doors off with great throw after great throw. There was one significant screw-up – Devin Hester’s fumbled punt return – the whole game (and when the other team punts eight times, basic probability demands a bobble doesn’t it?) And that didn’t happen until after the Bears led 31-0.
Most importantly, thanks ever so much to Lovie and the guys for quickly changing the subject after the Cubs debacle. The only bright side after the North Siders succumbed so incredibly meekly was that at least they got off the stage before kickoff Sunday.
Posted on October 6, 2008
By Eric Emery
Here’s the funniest thing I’ve heard about the 2008 Bears:
“The Bears should be 4-0.”
Here’s the news flash: “If my aunt had nuts, she’d be my uncle.”
Posted on October 3, 2008
By Rick Kaempfer
I was listening to WGN on the way home from the game yesterday and David Kaplan was not-so-subtly laying the blame on the Cubs fans because we got quiet after that grand slam and didn’t inspire the team to come back.
But here’s a message for Cubs players. It’s not that we’ve stopped supporting you. There are logical explanations for what you think you’re seeing and hearing.
Posted on October 2, 2008
By Tom Latourette
Cub fans, every year you feel hope
But then Cub fans, all your team does is choke
Because Cub fans, you’ve been cursed by a goat
And a fellow fan named Bartman
Cub fans, had a bad century
All the Cub fans, perpetual misery
99 years, is a very long time
Many tears shed in the Friendly Confines
Cubs beat Detroit in five in 1908
No one’s alive who saw 1908
Tinkers, Evers to Chance, part of a dynasty
Who would have thought, the last World Series we’d see
Posted on October 2, 2008
By Eric Emery
Americans are united about one thing these days: Our government stinks. Since few agree on how to make our economy better, perhaps our representation needs an easier and a less important arena to manage – the NFL. Here some of the important questions facing the NFL and answers we might receive in return from our politicians.
* Raiders owner Al Davis reportedly interviewed replacements for head coach Lane Kiffin before he actually fired him on Tuesday. Should the league interview replacements for Davis before stepping in and bailing out the franchise and selling it as a distressed asset?
* How should Republican team owners react to her future proposals after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says this: “The other 31 owners need to work together to find a solution to this problem. Together, strong cooperation results in a stronger league. It’s much like the strong cooperation within the House of Representatives, except for the eight years of Republican rule that have allowed greed to compromise the strength of America. In fact, Republicans have done more to ruin America and the NFL than Al Davis will in 242 lifetimes.”
* In the wake of the brutal helmet-to-helmet hit put on Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin last week, questions are once again being asked about player safety. Which subcommittee should the NFL send this issue to in order to most properly bury it?
Posted on October 2, 2008
By Ricky O’Donnell
As great as John Danks, Jim Thome and Brian Anderson were last night, the White Sox aren’t AL Central champs without assistant general manager Rick Hahn’s five-year-old son. When the Sox and Twins flipped a coin months ago to see which team would play at home if a play-in game was needed, Hahn’s son told his dad to call heads.
I can say with near certainty that if the kid got it wrong, the Sox wouldn’t be headed to Tampa Bay. If last night’s game were held in the Metrodome, you could bet A.J. would have dropped the ball during his collision with Michael Cuddyer at home plate, Danks would have gone down in the third inning with shoulder trouble, and Carlos Gomez would have hit for the cycle. Is there a worse building on the planet than the home baseball stadium of the Minnesota Twins? I think not.
Posted on October 1, 2008
By Jim Coffman
Alex Brown slipped around a blocker and arrived at the ball carrier with no time to spare. Something had to be done or the guy was going into the end zone for the touchdown that would have given the Eagles the lead with less than four minutes left. And that something was . . . a good old-fashioned headlock. Brown grabbed hold of Correll Buckhalter’s noggin and he didn’t let go until the Eagle running back headed down toward the ground about a foot short of the goal line (we knew it was about a foot because Subway commercials had repeatedly reminded us exactly how far that is oh about a dozen times during the previous few hours). It wasn’t exactly a textbook tackle but it did the job.
|
It is hard to imagine a bigger early season win. With a loss, the Bears would have fallen to a lowly 1-3 with all three losses suffered against conference foes. By snatching away a pulse-pounding victory, the Monsters actually moved into a tie for the top spot in the NFC North with the suddenly reeling Packers (quarterback Aaron Rodgers may have separated his shoulder in Green Bay’s loss to Tampa Bay – the Packers have only rookies as back-ups).
To the highlights . . .
Posted on September 29, 2008
By Marty Gangler
I have to admit that I didn’t watch very much Cub baseball this week. Which felt really weird except that for most of my life (and yours) the last week of the season is typically irrelevant. And this was no different – by Cubs standards. But it mattered to the Mets and Brewers, which was really odd to watch (I did watch a little) because one team wasn’t really trying and the other was trying really, really hard. But here we are with the playoffs looming a long few days away and the question becomes, “What should I do from now until then?” Well, we here at The Cub factor feel your pain and will offer you a few tips. As this year has to be considered the best chance the Cubs have ever had in their 100 -year World Series drought, we know that a good majority of you fans out there will be a wreck once the playoffs begin – and you haters out there will also be a wreck hoping the Cubs lose. So here’s what to do, Cub Factor style.
* Go pet a goat, it can’t hurt.
* Study up on past Cub playoff defeats. There aren’t that many and you’ll impress others at Cub gatherings and the water cooler at work.
* Send good vibes to Mark DeRosa’s leg and read up on his blog.
Posted on September 29, 2008
