ChicagoSportsBlogs : Non Compete

With last Sunday's loss to the St. Louis Rams the Chicago Bears' chances of making the playoffs have now reached a level where we can stop talking about playoffs. Some of the writers in this town seem to think we are “a call here“, and “a play there” from being 5-5 and in “serious contention”. Bah. I doubt that. It's nice to see pride show up in spurts to help ease the bitter taste of another loss -- but this team was never a playoff contender. So now we can focus on better, more important issues with this team: the draft. It's time to plan for our future. Dick Jauron and staff are quietly packing boxes up and our GM Jerry Angelo should be watching lots and lots of college football. (and thinking how every team he watches has a chance at beating his.) The best way to get ready for the draft is to play the rookies. They've done this, except for Rex Grossman. It's time to throw the young cub out to the Lions. Or the Redskins and Vikings. Either way its time to see what he can do. We know what Chandler can do -- solid and shaky. Two mutually exclusive traits that equal “heartbreaking” losses. Kordell,on the other hand, is just plain confused out there. So throw the rook in there! The rest of the team thinks this is a sign of giving up on the season. Fellas, the season for you ended in week one when the 49ers beat the living crap out of you. Let's give the kid a shot -- the worst thing that can happen is that he is a winner -- and we start to cry about how idiotic the staff is for keeping him on the bench so long. Does it really matter at this point? Yes and  no. It matters for next year and it matters for our draft because you know another QB will have to be either signed in free agency or drafted to keep the roster full. I don't see Kordell here next year with a new coach, and Chandler will retire if he can remember where he is. So give us all a treat and lets start training camp a few months early -- Throw the kid out there and give him some plays.

Fables and fairy tales are wonderful stories that captured our imaginations when we were young. If you were lucky enough to have parents that cared enough to read to you -- you know what I'm talking about. But if you weren't so lucky to engage in such things with your family, I'll bet you were lucky enough to remember the fairy tale of Doug Flutie. It all started when he was at Boston College -- you know, the amazing pass he threw to save the day and defeat the Bernie Kosar led Miami Hurricanes. This was only the beginning for young Doug. His career would take him to America's 51st state of Canada and to the CFL, where he would dominate and continue to grow his legend. I'm not going to take your time recounting all the details of this great tale -- you can Google them yourself and find out. The point of this post today is to point out that these great sports fables turn out to be more than just stories of great victories and great leaders. In this case they are stories about born winners. Doug Flutie is, with no doubt in my mind, a born winner. He single handedly demolished a pretty good (yet overrated) Vikings football team. If he would have been given the chance last week, he could have pulled it out against his former team -- the Chicago Bears!

We ran "Bambi" out of town here in Chicago. Buffalo did the same thing. What I can't figure out is how this can happen when its vividly clear every time this guy steps onto the field -- he is going to win. Everyone in this city crapped themselves when he stepped onto the field against the beloved Bear last week -- mid game. I can only imagine the fear the Minnesota Vikings and their coaching staff felt when they heard the 41 year old Flutie was going to start against them. We got it wrong here -- this wasn't the story of Bambi -- Flutie is the wolf in this story. Go ask the Vikings -- they'll tell you.

Well -- I had some profound words of wisdom on the search for the new White Sox manager, but I got way too busy at work for me to post. So I guess I have no choice but to send my congrats to Ozzie Guillen for landing the job yesterday. Good Luck Oz, you're going to have major issues with this club of lallygaggers. Aside from needing a solid closer, watching either Carlos Lee or Magglio Ordonez get traded, and being stuck with your favorite ball player of all time: The Big Hurt/Skirt, you'll be fine! Oh, and did I mention you need to teach these guys how to play with heart?

Finally, lets remember that we made this decision because Ozzie is a former Sox player, fiery, and a Reinsdorf guy. Let us also remember that Cito Gaston didn't get the job because he won only 2 World Series Championships, is quiet, and a Kenny Williams guy. Now, I always want to see the local boys come back home and do good, but this is going to be a really tough battle.
Can Ozzie get this team to play for him? Does he have what it takes to keep these guys focused enough to actually play solid defense, scrap at the plate, and stop relying on the just the long ball? Can Ozzie bring an extra 10,000 fans to the stadium? That's what this boils down to. Will more of you closet White Sox fans make the trip down to 35th Street to watch Ozzie manage a team that should have won the division last year by 12 games? If you do, save me and Cito a seat next to you -- we're both eagerly waiting for that chance.