By Mark Otten/The Conversation

Legendary football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant famously said, “Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships.”
Since Bryant’s retirement in 1982, his adage has been perpetuated widely in sports media, applied to other sports and debated vehemently.

The thinking goes that while offense may be flashy and exciting, solid defensive play – less noticeable, but more steady and predictable – forms the foundation of successful teams.
So is there any truth to the adage?

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Posted on January 15, 2018

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

(It’s mostly the media.) Plus: There Is No Longer Any Doubt That Ted Phillips Is The Theo Epstein Of The Chicago Bears; The Truth About Nagy’s Press Conference; Cubs Stove Still Cold; Rick Hahn Off The Chain; Blackhawks Season Increasingly Looks Lost; Loving Lauri; Saban’s Tide; Illinois Still Sucks; and Schweinsteiger!

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Posted on January 12, 2018

By David Rowe and Jung Woo Lee/The Conversation

The small South Korean town of Pyeongchang, host of this year’s Winter Olympics, has suddenly become the epicenter of one of the most dangerous games in world politics.
Amid escalating tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and just after the United Nations and United States stepped up their already extensive sanctions regime against North Korea, an Olympian-cultivated olive branch has been offered.

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Posted on January 11, 2018

By Mike Luce

To paraphrase Nick Saban, if the College Football Playoff Committee were expanded, debate would still rage over which teams were left out. Even if the bracket allowed for eight, 12, or 60+ (a la March Madness, as Saban called out) slots, we would suffer through weeks of who-is-in-who-is-out blathering.
As you watch – and we highly recommend that you do – the final tonight, beware of commentary on who deserved to play and skepticism driven by this year’s bowl (playoff and otherwise) results. The dominating narrative will be “Should Central Florida have made it”? The Knights (#10 in the final AP rankings released – before bowl season – on December 3) finished an undefeated 13-0 season with a solid win 34-27 over #7 Auburn in the Peach Bowl.
Many consider UCF’s omission sign that the current system tilts the selection process in favor of the so-called Power Five conferences. (A better name for the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-12, and SEC may be The Cartel but that’s for another Report.) UCF fans, contrarians, and most of Orlando (there’s a parade at Disney World!), and, let’s not overlook the Governor of Florida, have declared the Knights national champions by the transitive property, as Auburn defeated both teams playing in tonight’s final game. No matter. Such arguments are fun but a distraction. Sit back and enjoy the game tonight.

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Posted on January 8, 2018

By Jim Coffman

There is nothing wrong with the Blackhawks that a four- or five-game winning streak won’t fix. There is nothing wrong with the Blackhawks that a four- or five-game winning streak won’t fix. There is nothing wrong with the Blackhawks that a four- or five-game winning streak won’t fix.
This must be our mantra for the foreseeable future. The squad just passed the halfway point of the season! There is still plenty of time for goodness sake after the Hawks posted a rock-solid 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday afternoon!
And sure, the 5-4 loss to the expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights two days prior was rough. (And again, for gosh sakes, why the “Golden Knights?” Why not a nickname with some sort of connection to your outrageously unique town? “Golden Knights” is the lamest team name since the Utah Jazz.) After that game the Hawks again found themselves alone in last place in their seven-team division.

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Posted on January 8, 2018

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Ryan Pace hire, too. Plus: Get Bill!; Cubs’ Stove Goes Cold; Say It Ain’t So, Niko; Q-Less?; Congratulations To The University Of Central Florida, National Champs!; Local College Basketball Teams Still Suck; Rick Hahn Continues His Unleashed! Tour; and Schweinsteiger Is Back!

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Posted on January 5, 2018

By Jon Marcus/The Hechinger Report

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – Max Aaron may have been the 2011 men’s junior figure-skating champion, 2013 U.S. national champion and 2015 Skate America champion, vying for a spot on the U.S. team in next month’s Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
But all his grandfather wants to know is when he’s going to machan a leibedik – Yiddish for “make a living.”
Aaron, who is 25, is working on it. He balanced his grueling training schedule with classes toward a degree in finance at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.
A onetime hockey player who switched to figure skating after breaking his back in high school, Aaron took his competitive nature with him to the university, where he was determined to outdo his classmates.
“I look at, they got a 99 – I’m going to get 100,” he said during a break from the rink in the World Arena Ice Hall, where aspiring and elite Olympic skaters train.

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Posted on January 5, 2018

By Jim Coffman

You can’t build through the draft when you have half as many picks as your primary rivals.
Is that somehow complicated? Did I miss something?
Last year, Bears general manager Ryan Pace made one of the most ill-advised trades in Bears history when he gave up three valuable picks to move up one spot to No. 2 to make absolutely, positively sure he could draft utterly mediocre-so-far quarterback Mitch Trubisky.
I have said this before and I will now say it again (and again in future columns I’m sure): A good general manager coming off a 3-13 season and needing to build through the draft would have traded down to take Deshaun Watson, the quarterback the Texans took with the 12th pick in the first round.

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Posted on January 2, 2018

By Thomas Chambers

Like a fine watch, the Stockholm Syndrome set in well before Sunday’s game.
On Saturday, the Tribune’s David Haugh, as usual, took a swipe at the fans.
“If Fox had connected as well with the public as he did his team, perhaps the embattled coach would have encountered more support in his final weeks than the apathetic acceptance of his fate.”
Apathy by who? Except everybody. Wrong word. It’s patience, fans waiting for Fox’s key card to be confiscated.

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Posted on January 1, 2018

The Dysfunction Continues Even Without John Fox

“There’s little doubt Ryan Pace will be ‘fired up’ when next he meets the media with another major announcement,” Barry Rozner writes for the Daily Herald.

The Bears’ general manager is always fired up.
At the John Fox news conference announcing the new coach, he was fired up. When he signed Mike Glennon for $18 million, he was fired up. And when the Bears approached the 2017 season with tremendous optimism, he was fired up.
After a 5-11 season, there’s little doubt he will be fired up about the future, just as he was after 2015 and 2016.
At 14-34 following three awful seasons, Pace must be the luckiest executive in Chicago sports history.
Pace has compiled the worst three-year stretch at the helm of the football operation since the late ’90s, when Michael McCaskey was overlord and de facto GM for player personnel director Mark Hatley, who never acquired the GM title.

Yet somehow Pace’s job seems safe – as do the jobs of team president Ted Phillips and team chairman George McCaskey.
I don’t ever want to hear the word “accountability” come out of any of their mouths.

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Posted on January 1, 2018