ChicagoSportsBlogs : Non Compete

Well, we've had lots of cold weather here in the Windy City. Does this surprise anyone? Afterall, it is January. Due to the cold, and the fact the Bears AREN'T in the playoffs (again) -- my posting has been infrequent. So, let's change that and cover a bit of what has been going on in the playoffs this past weekend. Let's cover the teams that fight it out next week for their conference championships:

The Steelers -- Man, this team is good. After this weekend's victory in overtime, you can also say they are lucky. Sounds like the right mix for the Superbowl. People will continuously focus on the fact they have a rookie QB that has taken them into the playoffs with home field. What they should focus on are the little things. This team can hit. They can tackle very well. They cover kicks really well. They run the football, and they protect the quarterback just as about as good as anyone else left in the playoffs. Add some of that new found luck (send a ticket to the Brien family if you make the 'Bowl Cowher!) and you have what the sports media calls "a recipe for success". I'd be surprised if they beat the Pats though...

The Pats -- Jesus, it bothers me to no end that this team is my brother's new adopted team. This guy moved to Boston and they have won 2 Superbowls. That's my definition of luck. So, since he isn't moving back to the Chi anytime soon, I've got to favor these guys again for another title. That, and the fact that Brady is battle tested, they have a REAL running back in Corey Dillon and a defense that people like to call "banged up" -- that's code for crap. You could have fooled me. They owned Payton Manning and the Colts last weekend. This could be a fluke right? They've never beaten him before, right? It's not like they could make the vaunted Colts offense look like the Bears could they? Nah. My money is on this team for the Bowl unless Atlanta makes it....

The Falcons -- Mike Vick, you should be happy you aren't wearing a RamsJersey. Your defense battered the crap out of the Rams offensive line. I think I know why. Can you imagine being the Atlanta defense during a practice? How the hell do you practice a defense against Vick? You clearly aren't going to get close to him, even if its a contact drill. There is no way this defense isn't working on pent up frustration when game day comes along. Mike Vick frustrates opposing sides, he has to frustrate his own defense in practice is my theory. How many times have you guys fallen for that pump n' tuck play? Often enough that you turned Bulger into a rag doll. What kind of chance do the Falcons have? Well, they are the true wildcard in this playoff race. Figuratively at least. I hope for the Eagles sake, they take these guys seriously....

The Eagles -- Ah, this is familar isn't it? The Eagles give it another shot this year. Will they make it? Can they do it without Sharpie-carrying TO? I think they have cleared their heads. It helps to exercise the demons against one of the worst coached teams in the league. And this is the problem. How much confidence can the Eagles really have? They beat a Vikings team that really didn't seem to have the guts or the energy to win. The entire team was running at a Moss-like pace of 70%. The Vikings hung around for awhile against the Eagles, in their own backyard no less. They got a great effort from their defense, and it's going to take that much more of an effort for them to stop Vick. The best thing that could happen to the Eagles is that Vick decides to go partying with his little brother the night before. Otherwise, I don't see them beating the Falcons. That is of course, unless Donovan steps up and carries this team, once and for all, across to the promise land himself. We already slapped a "loser" label on one QB this weekend for not winning big games -- letsee if Donovan makes two.

So that's that. I know that we are running into some down time in sports (football is going bye-bye) but I hope you guys stick around for some good basketball coverage. I have no idea if I'm going to do it -- but someone will, that I promise you. Plus, it's almost baseball time. So while I didn't cover the Sox convention very well (no real news to report -- did you see anything that indicates a division title?) I will do a better job. I promise. Now, go off and get some Halo 2 in before you start to increase your reading aptitude.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but our comment spam has started to increase. I don't know if I should be happy to see that this site has enough traffic to warrant comment spam, or if I should start making moves to curtail it. I am working on that long-awaited redesign of this site. For the most part, I know the majority of you are reading this using an RSS reader -- so the design of this site isn't an issue. That is a good thing. Especially since I am not a designer.

There are some items in this blog that haven't been enabled fully yet. Email for one. You can't email me, and this is the reason why comments are turned on for all posts currently. I'll get that working shortly. Another piece of the blog engine that I don't have working is the Gallery section. I have toyed around with writing my own gallery functions, but then I ran into a bazillion of them that are WAY better than anything I could have written. So I'll probably start working on integrating one. Which is good, because this past Saturday I went to the Bulls game! Surprised? So was I. The awesome, row 5 seat 1 tickets behind the Bulls bench fell into my lap. I brought my camera and I got some decent shots. I'll post them sometime this week. So for all you armchair sports fans who think I never go to any events in person, you're wrong. Well, you're right most of the time. These damn tickets cost $85 bucks!!! Who has that kind of scratch for a sub-500 basketball team? Either way, I'll get a brief Bulls update going with the shots from that game. We won. (it was against the Celtics for the curious)

Back in 5.

I know I promised all of you my picks, but as usual I spent the week working, and playing Halo 2. Priorities. I did steal away some time from Halo 2 this evening to write about tomorrow's big story. No, not that Ron Turner signed a 3 year deal with the Bears. No, not that Illinois beat Purdue and are about to match the Flying Illini record of 17 straight wins to start a season. I'm talking about the Randy Moss story. The new Randy Moss story.

The Vikings surprised pretty much everyone who knows anything about football tonight. They punched the Packers in the mouth on their own field and stole a victory in convincing fashion. The Vikes match up against the TO-less Eagles next week. That would have been a great battle. Punk versus punk. Instead only one punk gets to show up, and it's Moss. The fact Minnesota won a game outdoors, or the 2 touchdown catches Moss had to complete this victory were overshadowed today by his post-touchdown antics. He turned his ass to the crowd and pretended to take his pants down. He mooned them.What a jackass. Everyone seems shocked by his behavior. I'm more shocked that anyone is surprised after his recent comments on last week's incident. What are we to do with Randy? I have an idea that goes further than just fining him. Randy doesn't care about what you think. Randy doesn't care about what the team thinks, the league, or anyone else for that matter. It's his right. He's got his millions. He knows he is the best. That's good enough. He isn't interested in being classy. Classy doesn't pay the bills. Catching touchdowns does. Does it matter to him that shenanigans like these might cost him endorsement deals? What endorsement deals? He doesn't have any. Let me take a stab at what to do:

Trade him. Trade him now. Who would take him? I know of just the place. Trade Randy Moss to the Cowboys. That's right Cowboy fans! Trade for Randy Moss. It's a perfect place for him. The Vikings can finally right the wrong of their past, the Herschel Walker deal. The worst trade in NFL history. The trade that brought the Cowboys a dynasty. Coach Parcells can get to him, can't he? He handled Keyshawn didn't he? It's the only way. The Vikings clearly can't get a handle on this guy, and they surely don't have the gumption to just send him home. What a talent. At the same time, what a cancer. If the universe is really about balance, then this is the only answer. The Bears would benefit in the short term by watching a Moss-less Viking team struggle. The Cowboys get a guy that no one wants, but is clearly the best at his position. The Vikings get to start fresh by moving away from this reputation that has been following them ever since Moss has shown up. Do it for your new ownership, your fans, and for the league. Trade him before it is too late.

I find myself always thinking about what I should be able to do with technology. It has been a constant theme lately. After all, I am a technology guy. It's not always about the gadgets, but sometimes the services I expect. There are things in this world that I just can't figure out why they don't exist. I understand the laws of supply and demand. I also understand most of the technical limitations we currently face. This isn't good enough. I'm greedy and I want it now. So in an effort to get this stuff of my mind, and into the blogosphere I figured I would take a break from covering our typical sports themes and go geek on you. Some of these things are dead obvious, so don't sit there thinking I have come up with anything new or creative. In case I have spouted off something intelligent, I want 25% of all revenue it generates. And a cool job at the company that makes it happen. When I say cool job, I mean a 90's retro job like CPO (chief people officer). Remember that? Anyway here goes:

I've discussed the items I want to see in my new iPod. They didn't include color or photo capabilities. Basically, I want a digital radio receiver in it. I don't care much about recording digital radio (although I'll take it if the lawyers figure out how to do this legally) but what I do care about is getting rid of the one item that has helped build the brand at Apple's iPod division. The headphones. Well, the headphone wires. It gets cold here in the Chi. These stupid white wires freeze up and feel like they could snap. Besides, wrapping them around my iPod doesn't seem to be the best idea in the world when it comes to storage. This is a hassle. So I'd like bluetooth headphones please. This way I can listen to my tunes unencumbered by wires. One more thing while you are at it. I know Apple is rumored to be releasing an iPhone soon. If you're going to allow bluetooth on my iPod, then have it receive bluetooth messages from my phone when it rings. I don't need these devices converging. Chances are the phone-half of this device will suck, and make the music player half less elegant. Just let my phone beem a message to the iPod while I'm rocking out. That would be good enough.

Next, I'd like to know when my train is going to be late. I can't tell you how many times I have rushed to the station to catch a train that is 10 minutes late. I don't want wireless alerts on this, although I'd take it. No, what I want is to pull up a little GPS map that shows me where my train is and its ETA to the station. It would come in handy when I have to pick someone up at the airport too. So add it to airline notification. Yes, I know that sites like Orbitz offer voice message based alerts, and even SMS messages. That's a good start but it's not good enough. I just want my little Nokia to have a menu item that pulls up a map showing me where on the rail my train is. That can't be that hard to do can it? All the pieces are in place aren't they? (throw buses in for those of you who take the bus)

There has been a lot of chit-chat over DVR services lately. The lovely folks at Comcast have infested the Chi with HD based DVR boxes. Some of these boxes offer things that my Tivo doesn't have. Firewire ports that allow people clever enough to find drivers to rip TV shows onto their laptops. The new Tivo 2 Go service is what I want, except that it's not being offered to DirecTV customers. What's up with that? Give me a DVR that can export my content to any device which can handle it. This way I can watch shows on the train to work.

I'd like to see the integration of a few state run systems with the private sector. Illinois has just forced everyone into using an iPass for toll roads. This is great for those of us who aren't paranoid about showing up on a grid at a command station somewhere. They should take it a step further. When I get pulled over for not paying the toll, the officer asks me for my license and registration. Honestly, I have no idea where that little insurance card is. The glove box is stuffed with crap and I'm already nervous that I got caught. Someone should grab all the auto insurance customer databases and integrate it with the police network. When he pulls up my license plate he can see that my insurance is up to date. No fumbling around for cards, and no more need to mail it out to me every 6 months. They have access to everything else that violates my right to privacy, why not just give them the insurance data too?

Finally, and because I know most of you are tired of this rant I'd like to see CDs and DVDs go the way of the dinosaur. We are almost there on this one. The lawyers have been vigilant about killing P2P networks. This isn't good for those of us who want to live clutter free lives. I don't want physical media laying around. CD cases and racks take up a lot of space. My music is downloaded digitally, and for the most part I can play it anywhere I want. Yes, even the stuff off of iTunes. I was suckered into an AirTunes device so my stereo is now able to play my AAC files.

So that's it. I was hoping someone can get right on it!

I'm sitting here watching USC destroy Oklahoma and wondering who could be the puppet master for Pete Carroll. There is no way the former Jet's head coach could be responsible for this amazing offense. Thank God I'm right, he isn't the genius behind the prolific offense. It's Norm Chow. I'm starting the campaign to hire him as our offensive coordinator here in Chicago. Lovie, get him to Lake Forest before anyone else catches on.

The telecast looks great for all you HD-deprived readers. And for you Bears fans out there, here is a trivia question that relates to the Orange Bowl. What Bear was voted MVP of the Orange Bowl. I'm not giving you the year it happened because you're going to cheat and use Google anyway.

Breaking news out of Halas Hall: Terry Shea was fired this afternoon. I am shocked. Lovie Smith obviously got the message yesterday from Jerry Angelo. Can it be possible that the front office has learned from the mistakes of the past? Is it possible that Jerry Angelo got the message from Ted Philips himself to make this work? We have lots of questions here at chisplogs and unfortunately only one answer. Lovie doesn't want to leave this town a loser. Good for him. He was man enough to admit he got it wrong the first time. The story in the papers tomorrow will speak to the fact that Lovie made this decision all on his own. He didn't confer with Ted Philips nor did he speak with Angelo. Does it matter I don't believe any of it? Not really. What matters is that we have a draft to prepare for and a search for a new offensive coordinator. The good news is that Lovie will not have to go out and find another St. Louis Rams or Chiefs-like coordinator. He wants to run the ball more. More importantly he wants to win more. Strong work Lovie! You're allowed to make mistakes in this world, just don't repeat them.

This is your early warning: Spoilers ahead! For those of you who don't want to know how the Bears finished this pathetic season, well, go here instead. The season finale brought our arch rival Packers to town. The Packers should thank the schedule makers. I can't think of a better way to tune up for the playoffs than playing one of the worst teams in the league. Let's not prolong this. I have work to do and this season is best relegated to the back of our brain's memory.

Defense -- The defense wasn't very good. We got torched in the secondary by Favre. We missed many tackles. Specifically, the ESPN low-light was the Mike Green missed tackle on Favre's second touchdown pass. This was an embarrassing game for our guys. No pressure on the quarterback, confusion in the secondary, blown coverages, and our inability to take advantage of the second string QB who took over the game. Let's name check him, since we probably will have to watch another 12 years of crushing defeats at the hands of another great Packer QB. Craig Nall, take a bow.

Offense -- I want a show of hands. How many of you found yourselves scaring everyone in the house by screaming “LET GO OF THE BALL”. Hutch has earned a right to come back next year, but I don't think I can stand another entire season of watching a guy get sacked 9 times a game. This isn't good. KGB got four sacks alone. Mark Colombo has a lot of practicing to do. The receivers are getting a lot of heat this morning in the papers. Terrell shows once again that he “might” have the break away ability we saw at Michigan when we drafted him 4 years ago by catching a 65 yard pass early in the first drive. Yes, he caught it with his hands. The running game was adequate. How could I complain? The super-duper-Faulk-like Thomas Jones ran for 2 touchdowns and 108 yards. Nice job. But we only scored 14 points. The entire game was a farce on offense. If you like punting, we're the team to watch.

Special Teams -- What a nice lead in, huh? We didn't do anything on special teams. We didn't score any points on special teams, and we didn't let them score either. This clearly faults the special teams guys as the best group on this team. I still think Brad Maynard is our MVP. Congrats Brad.

Coaching -- Ugh. The Lovie Smith tour is going to be short. I hate to say it, but it's got to be true. This team is WORSE than Jauron's team last year. What can these guys do to cover for the fact that we have the worst offense in the league? I am glad you asked. Here are the excuses, already written and spell checked for the staff:

• Injuries. It was a tough year for the hamstring.
• We lost our QB to injury. It wasn't a hammy. It was his knee.
• We thought Terrell would pan out as a poor-man's TO
• The team is young. Who wins with young guys? (go ask Bill Cowher)
• It was Urlacher's fault.
• We play in a tough division(Vikings made it to the show at 8-8)
• That darn playbook is really complicated.
• Anthony Thomas.
• Steve Stone and Chip Caray made horrible comments on air, and it threw us off.

There you have it boys and girls.....Post game analysis is OVER. We now move on to coverage of the playoffs. Look for my picks in the coming days. Happy New Year!