Football Withdrawal, Week One
Today marks the First Sunday of the rest of our offseason, and there is absolutely nothing going on. The Cubs are a few days from pitchers and catchers, which sounds really nice but it's hard to get too worked up when it's two freaking degrees and we're 53 days from real Opening Day. The Bulls still suck, and are rumored to be shopping Big Ben. Woo hoo! Bring in another overpaid bum and call it even. That'll show Detroit! All that's left is some minor Bears news and the Pro Bowl.
Yes, I'm actually watching the Pro Bowl, but no, it's not really football. Not "tackle" football, anyways. It's more like flag football with a bunch of rough housers. Still, there's been one reason to watch for us Bears fans. The Devin Hester Experience. Any time you can watch Hester, you do it. He's had a few nice returns today, but his best return was a return he didn't get tackled on. No, he didn't score a TD, but he had a nice lateral off his back foot (like the Music City Miracle) to a wide open Jason Witten for a big gain.
As for the minor Bears news, Brian Urlacher had "minor" neck surgery a month ago and we found out about it a few days ago. The city naturally has its panties in a bunch, and Rick Morrissey is leading the charge. I might be in the minority in this, but I don't see what the big deal is. It's clear he was playing hurt this year, but obviously not hurt enough to miss a game. It required precisely the type of surgery that could wait until the first day of the offseason. And it did. But what about Jerry Azumah? What about Erik Kramer? They had neck injuries and their careers were over! If Brian's career is over, yes that would suck but there's not much we can do about it now. Ever hear the expression "no sense crying over spilled milk"? All we can do is wait and see how he recovers. If he doesn't, well, let's jump that hurdle when we come to it. It's not like the season's on the line and now we lost Brian. There's seven freaking months till opening day. Take a powder.