CRYSTAL BALL SAYS 8-8
Bears look to be improved on defense, but offense has some question marks
Idon’t think I’m caving in to the hype that accompanies every Bears training camp, but it looks like the team won’t stop at winning the Super Bowl this season. We’re talking a dynasty, statues outside Soldier Field and sainthood for coach John Fox. Kidding. Kid-ding. No Chicago team brings out more optimism and more inches of newspaper stories than the Bears before the beginning of a season. It’s not just that we write about how intense the battle for the third-string cornerback job figures to be, and it’s not just that we know you’ll read every word of it. It’s that you’ll argue that the competition for the backup left-guard spot will be much more intense and entertaining.
The Bears went 6-10 last season in Fox’s debut in Chicago, a slight improvement from their 5-11 finish the season before. The optimism comes in large part from Fox’s history as a turnaround artist. The Panthers went 7-9 in his first season in Carolina and played in the Super Bowl the next. The Broncos went 8-8 in his first season in Denver, went 13-3 the next season and played in the Super Bowl the season after that.
So you can see why some of the more exuberant Bears fans are wondering what the weather is like in Houston, site of Super Bowl LI, in February.
My optimism stops at 8-8. Even with that, I wonder if I’m not Charlie Brown about to attempt a field goal.
The defense should be better with the additions of Danny Trevathan and Jerrell Freeman inside, meaning coordinator Vic Fangio should be able to have a bigger effect on games. But the offense decided against bringing back running back Matt Forte, and receiver Kevin White — the Bears’ first-round pick in 2015 — is still a big unknown after sitting out last season with a leg injury.
Jay Cutler is a big known. No, I see 8-8. Even then, I’m questioning my eyesight. Sox seem to play better after Sale stirs things up
White Sox players seem to worry inordinately about things that have nothing to do with baseball. And, against all common sense, it seems to help them play better.
Pitcher Chris Sale is the Sox’ chief worrier, and the team went 4-0 in the immediate aftermath of his ribbon-cutting ceremony involving the 1976 throwback jerseys. Or, if you prefer, the Sox went 4-2 after their players refused to pay the visiting clubhouse manager in Seattle, upset that part of the money would go to the Mariners’ corporate coffers.
And, of course, the Sox started the season 23-10 after Sale lost it when the team asked veteran Adam LaRoche not to bring his 14-year-old son to the ballpark so often — which is to say the team asked him not to bring his son to work every single day.
All of this is silly stuff, especially the uniform fiasco, though the Drake LaRoche controversy is a close second. I’ve made fun of Sale’s choice of causes, but it’s possible I underestimated a team’s
need to have something to rally around. It’s possible Sale could go on a hunger strike to protest the Sox’ sunflowerseed choice, and it would lead to a 10-game winning streak. Hey, don’t dismiss it out of hand.
Perhaps Sale is wired to be suspicious of management types. Perhaps he was the editor of the Daily Worker in a past life. Perhaps he wants to be traded. Or maybe he’s a little ticked that he’s playing under a very teamfriendly contract that he signed before he became one of the best pitchers in baseball. Whatever the case, he always seems to need fuel for his fire.
There had to be Sox teammates who were upset with him for cutting up jerseys he said were uncomfortable. There had to be some who thought his snip-fit was something a child would do. But they have been playing better since he was sent home Saturday. That includes two victories against the Cubs at the Cell.
Why couldn’t Sale have come up with something bizarre to protest when the Sox were losing 26 of 36 games after their hot start? To ask is to risk crawling inside his head. And nobody wants to go there. NHL commish Bettman strains credulity about CTE
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman isn’t dumb. Despicable, perhaps, but not dumb. Saying there is no link between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, as he did recently, is phony-baloney, and Bettman has to know it. But what he knows for sure is that he doesn’t want his financially challenged league paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in the future to former hockey players who need help feeding themselves.
Hence, his refusal to acknowledge a link between concussions and CTE, a degenerative brain disease.
‘‘The science just has not advanced to the point where causation determinations can responsibly be made,’’ Bettman wrote to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. He said the consensus of the medical community is that ‘‘a causal link between concussions and CTE has not been established.’’
Those sentiments might make him a hero among the owners, but they should make him a heel among the people getting concussed while making money for those owners. That would be the players.
For years, the NFL pushed back against the idea that its sport caused long-term brain trauma. But a senior official finally acknowledged last year that there indeed is a link. That’s because (a) the proof in the research is overwhelming and (b) the league has enough money to buy half of the planet. It has agreed to pay about $1 billion to former players suffering from the long-term effects of concussions. The NHL, meanwhile, doesn’t need anything else cutting into its profits. In a 2011 report, Forbes magazine said that five teams — the Rangers, Maple Leafs, Canadiens, Canucks and Oilers — made a combined $212 million and that the other 25 teams lost a combined $86 million. Nothing about that reflects financial health. A media-rights deal with Rogers Communications that began in the 2014-15 season has helped pour money into the league. But not enough money, apparently, to make Bettman see the light.