As a brand-new, still-unpacking-my-bags resident of the Chicagoland area, I've encountered a lot of what I expected: Cold days that seem to suck the color from the world, bad drivers, lots of beer, and people who waste about a year of their life drawing out their a's.I’ve also encountered the Chicago sports fans, who are currently an unfortunate mix of Midwesterners forced to cheer on baseball teams that either suck (the White Sox) or drastically underachieve (the Cubs). For football, they naturally root for the once-great Bears, which in this city means rooting against Rex Grossman.
I’ve never been Rex’s biggest fan. During his years at Florida, while I did see the potential for him to grow into a big-armed TD machine in the NFL, I never took a liking to the guy. Still, I never wished him any ill will either, something Bears fans are all-too-eager to do. I don’t even know if anyone wanted him to perform well this year. He was booed, cursed at and ridiculed. Now he’s been deservedly demoted, for at least this week, to the bench, and Bears fans have rejoiced mightily over this since the official announcement came.
My question is: Why?
Bears fans living in Chicago should be good football fans; it’s not like they have the ocean or nice weather to distract them. However, it seems that in the fog of their Grossmanitis, they’ve been unable to see that the team just really isn’t very good.
Their highly-touted defense took a step back this off-season, and a litany of injuries has made them even less effective. Brian Urlacher finally learned two years ago that tackling people is better than hitting them hard, but unfortunately he’s been the only real bright spot of the defensive side of the ball. On offense, 58 year-old Brian Griese takes over for Grossman, and even if we’re willing to stipulate Griese can throw the ball more than ten yards in the air, who is going to catch it? Bernard Berrian (whom Chicago claims will be a star because “he’s athletic”) has been cutting off routes they’ve personally offended him, Desmond Clark doesn’t have double-digit catches for the season yet, and Mushin Muhammed only occasionally seems aware that he’s playing in a football game. The running game consists of Thomas “Can’t Break Tackles” Jones and The Bad Adrian Peterson, who is destined to cause short-lived excitement for the nest five years of fantasy drafts when owners think they’ve found 1st-Round quality in the 10th-Round.
The Bears are just not a good team right now. They could certainly pull it together, but making the playoffs will not be easy as they are already two games behind the feel-good Packers and won’t be able to snag the Wild Card from the other divisions.
Finally, has there ever been a more unfortunate 1-2 QB tandem than Grossman and Griese? Any chance the Bears can sign Peter Gout, just for fun?
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Meanwhile, the rest of the NFL stands in awe of the Patriots and Colts, who seem destined to face each other once again in a battle for the AFC’s representative in the Super Bowl.The NFL’s best teams:
#1 – Patriots. Of course. Cheating or no cheating, this is a beastly team. I’ve maintained for three years that the resurrection of Randy Moss would come, and it’s nice to revel in it. 16-0 won’t happen, but this is already one of the NFL’s great teams.
#2 – Colts. Very, very good, but so far very clearly behind the Pats. Also, do you ever think about the situation Eli Manning is in? It’s not just that you are following your brother into a successful career. It’s like you’re Bill Gates’ kid brother Ned, and you are telling yourself, “I think I’ll start a software company.” Eli will only live up to his brother’s hype by being one of the top 5 QBs to ever live. Sometimes I wonder if Eli wishes one of them had just stuck to baseball.
#3 – Cowboys. Definately behind the top 2, but not by much. Their defense has shown weakness. Their success is in thanks mostly to Tony Romo, who has put “Holdergate” behind him faster than anyone could have imagined.
#4 – Steelers. I’m shaky on them since they are without a dominant receiver, but their defense has been so stout that they’ve made up for that. The Ravens are not as good as people think, and the Steelers should win the division by a few games. Coach Mike Timlin has been as fun to watch as anyone this season.
#5 – Packers. Oh, what the heck. They probably aren’t the fifth-best team, but when the Bears beat the Lions on Sunday, they will be two games up on the division and have a good shot to start the season 6-0. I don’t think Brett Favre’s success validates my existence in this dark world the way some ESPN writers seem to think, but I do love to see the guy do well.
I think the Chargers will get it together. I think the Saints will not. And the Falcons may give 0-16 a serious run.
Feedback is always welcome. Comment below or contact me at jsh421@yahoo.com
