58 Comments - Saluki - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:18 pm: I don’t follow NFL football at all. I know that the Bears are awful and Jay Cutler is terrible. - Give Me A Break - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:22 pm: The Illini, Bears and Northwestern should all just call it a season right now and spare us and them the pain of what will be the rest of their seasons. - Trapped in the 'burbs - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:22 pm: It’s a gift of time. Since they’re not worth watching, I gain 5 hours a week of free time. - blue dog dem - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:24 pm: I hear St. Look in the market for a franchise. - blue dog dem - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:24 pm: St. Loo - Dee Lay - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:28 pm: Blackhawks pre-season starts September 28. - Huh? - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:28 pm: St. LOO? Is that an English water closet that has been beatified? New one on me. - Ravenswood Right Winger - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:30 pm: Never draft a WR in the first round of the draft. Too much bust potential. You can get a quality WR in the later rounds. Bears OL bad. Howard needs more carries than Langford. - He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:30 pm: Well, it could be worse, we could be Cleveland!!!! - Jim Shorts - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:31 pm: “Right” - blue dog dem - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:34 pm: St. Loo. That’s what us folks down here in Murphy call it. - Responsa - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:34 pm: White Sox baseball is vastly superior to Bears football. My interest in pro football ended a few years back when the player concussion/brain damage issues became undeniable. My friends and colleagues know not to bother to ask my thoughts on any Bears game because they know I will not have watched it. - Stones - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:40 pm: There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately it is a train. - jerry 101 - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:41 pm: I hope Jay Cutler has played his last game in a Bears uniform. I also wish that the McCaskey’s would just sell this team and enjoy the mammoth pile of cash that they’d get from such a sale. That is all. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:43 pm: They started the season with a center who had only ever taken ten snaps in pre-season at that position. Management malpractice. - skirmisher - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:45 pm: Isn’t there some law against impersonating a professional football team?? - Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:46 pm: “St. Loo” couldn’t hold on to the Cardinals or Rams. They’re not on the list anymore. - Annonin' - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:57 pm: No one really thought the outcome would be different? Did BigBrain make the game? Keeep him out of Wrigley - a drop in - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:01 pm: Not watching the Bears is heart healthy advice. - Stuck on the 3rd Floor - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:06 pm: No city in the country could’ve stopped ESK from moving back to LA. The Shield wanted a team in LA, a city with enough pull to tell the league it wouldn’t give them dime one. Hence, only option was to pick someone with the land & $$ to build it themselves. You can fault STL for letting the Bidwills leave, but the city did everything it could short of building a massively cost inefficient retractable roof on The Ed to keep the Rams in town. - Team Sleep - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:08 pm: Forbes places the value of the Bears at $2.45 billion. NFL owners are very skeptical of who they let into their “club”, but the current Titans ownership debacle means that the oldest McCaskey kids may have to convince the entire brood to sell a majority stake of the team to ensure the NFL does not attempt to force the McCaskey family to sell their interests (if an ownership fight breaks out). The family owns 80% of the team, so there could be internal strife and a power struggle unless Mrs. McCaskey bequeaths a clear majority to her five children who sit on the team’s board. Even if the oldest McCaskey boys attempt to sell the team, who would be able and willing to plunk down (or be able to borrow) the $2+ billion required to purchase the team?! I think Bears fans may be in for a longer McCaskey reign than they hope for. For reference here is Jason La Canfora’s piece on the Titans’s ownership situation: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/titans-ownership-could-face-more-nfl-discipline-over-compliance-issues/. - How Ironic - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:21 pm: If there is ANYTHING needing a ‘turnaround agenda’ it’s the Bears. Maybe Rauner can lend a Superstar to help with that? They sure don’t seem busy helping him out. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:24 pm: Here’s hoping the Cubs can keep us distracted from the train wreck that is the 2016 Bearsss, at least until November. Then the Blackhawks will be back! - Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:27 pm: Before the game, there was optimism that the Eagles’ young QB and less stellar defense than Houston’s would provide the meat of victory this week. In 3 hours time, hope of another win this season was questionable. - LizPhairTax - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:31 pm: Have to hope the McCaskeys estate plan like the Bears game plan and the vagaries of probate law save us. Go toward the light, Virginia. It’s safe there. Go. - illini - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:38 pm: — “St. Loo” couldn’t hold on to the Cardinals or Rams. — Well, you are half right, but towards the end many of us really did not care if the Rams left. That move, given Kronke et al, was inevitable. And so far this year I have not watched a single NFL game. - Tsavo - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:40 pm: Tourist “What is that smell coming from the lakefront, dead alewives washing ashore?” Bears fan “No, just our team playing in Soldier Field.” - illini - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:40 pm: Just realized my mistake. I have long ago forgotten about the Cardiac Cardinals. Sorry. - Skeptic - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:45 pm: — “St. Loo” couldn’t hold on to the Cardinals or Rams. — One could also argue that St. Loo was smart enough not to pay the $700,000,000 ransom that the Rams wanted. - Clark - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:47 pm: I’ve always liked Cutler, but we should get Garappolo to replace him, once he’s healed up. - BigDoggie - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:49 pm: With the constant flow of league television money and a fanbase that can’t leave a seat unsold in Soldier Field no matter how bad the product on the field, what reason do the McCaskeys have to spend more money?? To be a thoroughly depressing realist, there is no end to this in sight. - Team Sleep - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:52 pm: St. Louis (city) and St. Louis (county) should have found and utilized a better location for the Rams stadium. It was in the worst place possible. No real tailgating or pregame/postgame experience. The worst parking situation in the known universe. The more often I went to Rams games the more I realized how much the Dome’s location was to blame for lackluster attendance. - Skeptic - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 3:01 pm: @BigDoggie: The same has been said about the Cubs too. - AlfondoGonz - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 3:12 pm: With any luck, the Bears will not aspire to mediocrity this year, finish 2-14, and get a QB with a Top-5 pick. They need to punt this year. Pun intended. - Keyser Soze - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 3:21 pm: I hear that Howie Manziel is avaiable - Slugger - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 3:23 pm: GO CUBS!!!!!!!!!!!! - HRC2016 - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 3:26 pm: I agree, 2-14 this year. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 3:27 pm: == I think Bears fans may be in for a longer McCaskey reign than they hope for.== They’ve owned the team as long as they’ve been known as the “Chicago Bears”…I don’t see that changing. - ChicagoVinny - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 3:38 pm: Hockey is my only hope - The Magnificent Purple Wombat - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 3:43 pm: The Chicago Bears are on the clock… - G'Kar - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 3:56 pm: I’ve been a Steelers fan since the late `60’s. It irks me to no end when I think that a certain Illinoisan is a minority owner of the team. - Skepyic - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 4:02 pm: “I hear that Howie Manziel is available” How about Tim Tebow? - Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 4:17 pm: One has to hope that the Cubs advances during the postseason and that the Blackhawks get off to a good start once the puck drops. The Bears are not worth watching this season. - Jack Kemp - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 4:28 pm: Tebow plays for the Mets. Who is Howie Manziel? - siriusly - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 4:38 pm: All those jokes about the Cubs and Blackhawks are true at heart. But this is painful for all real Bears fans. Cutler lost that game last night. I truly think if we had a “decent” quarterback, there is talent on that team. But without leadership, none of them are going to play up to their potential. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 4:49 pm: I kept trying to count when Cutler dropped back. I don’t think I got to “three Mississippi” once before he had a defender in his face. Cutler is part of the problem, but the list is long, and it starts with a lack of cohesion on the O-line and a no-name running game. If you can’t run the ball, then defenses can pin back their ears and rush hard the whole game and there is nothing the Bears can do about it. You could tell from the play calling that they understand they need to get the ball out of Cutler’s hands almost immediately. And letting Robbie Gould go they way they did blew up in their face last night. - Boone's is Back - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 5:02 pm: Bad. So bad. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 5:05 pm: –Forbes places the value of the Bears at $2.45 billion.– Public records from Mug’s ex-wife’s feud with the McKaskeys have shown that Virginia controls 80% of the team’s shares, which are gifted among her 11 children when the time comes. Pat Ryan and McKenna Sr. have 20% and supposedly first crack if the McCaskey heirs ever decide to sell. Tavern talk over the years is that the family is deeply divided about selling or trying to hold on. The estate tax would be a load at 40%, about $784 million, at present estimated value. - Team Sleep - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 5:08 pm: 3:27 - yes, but other ownership deaths such as Georgia Frontiere and Ralph Wilson have led their heirs to sell and will likely cause the Adams family to sell the Titans. Anything is possible when the McCaskey boys actually come into possession of the franchise. $2-$3 billion is an awful lot of money to turn down. - Harvest76 - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 5:10 pm: I’m a Cubs fan so I must have missed something this year. Did football start already? - Team Sleep - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 5:13 pm: Word - that was how Stan Kroenke came to be the owner of the Rams. He bought out the Frontiere kids 60% by exercising his right of first refusal - which, in turn, kept Shahid Khan out of the process. Of course Kroenke had the straight up cash to make that purchase, and he is also self-financing the stadium in LA. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 5:18 pm: TS, it’s been reported that Reinsdorf has told his son to hold onto the Sox, but sell the Bulls when the time comes. Reinsdorf bought the Bulls in 1985 for $16 million. The Clips, the second banana in LA, sold for $2 billion two years ago. That, my friend, is a score. - Responsa - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 5:45 pm: My recollection is the opposite. I believe it was reported that Jerry urged his son to keep the Bulls and sell the Sox. But he is also reported to have said that he’d give up all 6 Bulls championships for another White Sox World Series ring before he dies. So who knows. I’ve kind of always guessed that his heart is with the Sox but Jerry the businessman knows that the future and the real family wealth rests with the Bulls. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 5:57 pm: –My recollection is the opposite. I believe it was reported that Jerry urged his son to keep the Bulls and sell the Sox.– Responsa, upon further review, your recollection is correct. My mistake. Thank you. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-07-28/sports/ct-spt-0728-white-sox-chicago-sports-20130728_1_jerry-reinsdorf-white-sox-michael-reinsdorf - Amalia - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 6:47 pm: oh watching the Sox is on occasion way better than the nonsense “hide the injuries” coach Fox is presenting once a week. Cutler was hurt. now it might be worse. omg. on to soccer. Arsenal beat Nottingham Forest today. - Amalia - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 8:27 pm: “Go toward the light, Virginia. It’s safe there. Go” from LizPhairTax that is spectacularly not nice. I know someone whose mom is in a breakfast club with her and Virginia is actually a wonderful person who talks football better than most fans. and even if she were not just a plain nice person, wishing someone to die is not nice. - Johnny's in the Basement - Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 8:58 pm: In Back in the USA Chuck Berry calls it St. Lou, and if it’s good enough for him….. - Diogenes in DuPage - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 9:09 am: Em-Bearassing Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.