Hello and welcome to my new sports blog, Second City Sports. I found the juxtaposition of sports with the topics I usually cover in my other blog somewhat distracting from both topics, so I decided to split them up into two separate blogs. I plan on covering all things sports, with a focus on Chicago sports. Now, with a venerable plethora of quasi-sports being accepted as true sports today, what exactly do I consider worth covering? Whatever interests me. Whatever doesn't interest me, obviously, is not a sport. OK, that's not exactly true. Truth is, I hold myself to a bit of journalistic integrity, although not that much seeing as how this is just an editorial production, but I still look to be at least semi-informed and doing that takes time, time I don't have. I would love to cover everything from Baseball to Table Tennis, but I just don't have the time. As such, my main focus will be whatever sport I'm most interested at the present, and right now that's pro football. I assure you, my NFL coverage will be among the best coverage you ever see on this blog, seeing as how it is my favorite sport. I will also cover baseball and Basketball as best I can during their seasons, but don't expect game-by-game breakdowns. I'll also do my best to cover hockey, but the lack of coverage on broadcast TV will make it difficult, which brings me to my final point: I don't have cable. I can only effectively cover what is shown on broadcast, which will include baseball, basketball, football, extreme sports, Olympics if I so choose, auto racing and golf as I see fit, and whatever hockey the networks decide to throw my way.
So it took me a short while longer than I expected to get this blog up and running, but it is now officially underway and I hope to keep it updated regularly. There is a whole lot of news going on in Chicago sports. The Chicago Blackhawks, last night, clinched a playoff berth with a win over the Nashville Predators, the Bulls are fighting to stay alive in the playoff race despite injuries, and the white Sox kick off their season on Monday against the KC Royals. Also, the Cubs are doing something that's probably very unimportant. In all seriousness, though, the Cubs have looked markedly better than the Sox this off-season. We're getting a whole lot younger on the offensive side of the ball, and our pitching looks solid at first glance. Somehow, though, it was less than stellar in off-season play. Hopefully that is something that won't be a problem after opening day.
The Cubs, on the other hand, have looked great so far. Let's be totally honest, though, when do they ever not look great? I have to be honest, their batting lineup does not impress me. Lee and Aramis are still the anchors, and I still don't think going after Soriano was a smart move. In terms of philosophy, I think the Sox' farm mentality is a whole lot more solid than the Cubs' free agent mentality. I'll say it now, the Cubs will start going deeper into the post-season when they start shifting the focus away from big name free agents and towards young, promising, prospects. As for their pitching, I'm predicting a year pretty similar to last.
Overall, I don't know if the Sox have shown what it takes to win the division this year. I do think they have a shot at the wild card and I don't think they'll be denied the playoffs this year, so that's where I'm predicting them to finish. The Cubs have less competition in their division, and I feel comfortable predicting them as the winners, as much as it pains me.
Finally, I come to the big news of the week, month, year, and possibly even beyond? I could not believe my eyes when I first saw the story about the Bears' blockbuster trade on the news, but here we are days later and it is all finally sinking in, the Bears have a QB. It seems, though, that this QB is going to get a typical Chicago greeting. I opened the Tribune yesterday and what did I see? A story by Rick Morrissey about Jay Cutler being a crybaby. Welcome to Chicago, Jay.
Stories like this are only to be expected, and Cutler's going to have to get used to seeing them. I will say that I think Morrissey is totally off in writing the story, especially when he did. I won't defend everything Cutler said or did, but when you have a proven Pro Bowl quarterback you would think you would at least tell him when there were trade talks going on. I don't even know why you would be talking to other teams about trades like that with any Pro Bowler, much less a 25 year old Pro Bowler. Matt Cassel did well last season, but I'm not convinced he's the next Tom Brady, or Matt Ryan, or Eli Manning. Maybe he could be the next Brett Farve? Either way, I'd take Cutler over Cassel any day of the week.
I'm also not too impressed with new Broncos coach Josh McDaniels. Everyone knows that the foundation of the Patriots is Bill Belichick, and that their success has not rested as much on the backs of his coordinators as it has on him. Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel, so far his coordinators have less than stellar head coaching credentials. I have a lot of respect for Mike Tomlin and I understand the logic behind wanting to find the same kinds of results with a young coordinator turned coach, but I don't know that just hiring young for the sake of hiring young is the best idea. You had a coach who was respected around the league in Mike Shanahan whom you fired to bring in an extremely young, untested new coach, and the first thing he does is say he wants to bring in a relatively untested QB from his old team for a Pro Bowl-caliber QB. He's not off to a sterling start, if you ask me. A side note on the coaching changes that have taken place, when Tom Cable and Eric Mangini have head coaching positions and Mike Shanahan is out of work, you know something is screwy.
I'm not the only one who sees it that way, either. Apparently, the Denver press is in agreement with me. A Denver sportswriter wrote an article lambasting the trade and criticizing Kyle Orton, the GM, and the Broncos for letting it get this far. Let me first say that I'm a lot higher on Kyle Orton than most Chicago fans. I would have been more than comfortable with him as the quarterback heading into the season, and I hope and think he does extremely well in Denver. That being said, I am absolutely giddy to finally have a quarterback in Chicago that is a proven commodity. Some people are saying we gave up too much, but really how much did we give up? Look at what Chicago has done in the first round since Angelo became GM: We got Chris Williams, who is still unproven; Greg Olsen, one of our better first round selections; Cedric Benson, a bust; Tommie Harris, who is coming up on a defining season for his career; Michael Haynes, who is no longer with the team; Rex Grossman, another bust; Marc Colombo, also no longer with the team; and David Terell, another in the long line of standard Chicago receivers. Look at the quarterbacks picked in the 1-10 picks in the same span of time: Michael Vick, David Carr, Joey Harrington, Byron Leftwich, Carson Palmer, Phillip Rivers, Eli Manning, Alex Smith, Matt Leinart, Vince Young, JaMarcus Russell, and Matt Ryan. We could've picked a quarterback in the first round for the next three years and never found one as good as Jay Cutler, but we give away Kyle Orton, a third rounder, and out next two first rounders and we have a quarterback for probably the next ten years, how is that not a good deal? We don't have to spend money on someone who could be the next Phillip Rivers or the next Joey Harrington, we already have a franchise quarterback we can count on.
With the signing of some older but proven veterans, it seems Jerry Angelo is abandoning the philosophy of winning down the road and trying to win right now. I think that is a great idea. If you're always looking down the road, then when are you going to focus on winning now? Something a lot of people also haven't considered is how old our team is getting. We just let go of probably the best safety to play in Chicago since Gary Fencik in Mike Brown, Brian Urlacher isn't getting any younger, and pretty soon Lance Briggs is going to start being a part of the, "they're not getting any younger," discussion. Although our offense is very young, how long until our defense stops looking as promising? Look around the league and you'll see that players like Urlacher aren't in abundant supply. if we wait much longer to win, we might not have the D to win, and then we're back to rebuilding.
At least now there's a solid core to build around. We basically traded John St. Clair for Kevin Schaffer, which got us a younger tackle; The addition of Orlando Pace makes the line start to look pretty impressive along with veterans Roberto Garza and Olin Kreutz and new acquisition Frank Omiyale; Matt Forte is showing signs of becoming an elite running back; Devin Hester, despite all the knocks against him, can still burn any receiver in the league, and now that he has a QB that can hit the deep pass effectively he's even more of a threat. This is a solid core to build around, and even if it takes us five years to get to the Superbowl, we now have a quarterback, a running back, and a receiving corps that will be around in five years and can get us there.
Hopefully our defense can rebound this year. Although our biggest stars are getting old, Tommie Harris and Lance Briggs are still playing at or near Pro Bowl level. If Rod Marinelli can have as big an effect as Lovie thinks on the D-line, I think we could possibly have a comeback year. The thing that worries me most is the secondary. We need to see some progression out of our safeties, and backs like Tillman and Vasher definitely need to show prime form. I'd even rather they got a big name safety in free agency than a receiver. Both are needs, but at least receiver is deep in the draft.
I will say that our most pressing need is still wide receiver. I believe in Devin Hester as a speedy receiver, but not a number one. He's no Anquan Boldin, which is exactly what we need, a big receiver who can go up and catch tough passes in coverage. Who knows with Earl Bennett? For all we know, he could show great strides this season. I would feel more comfortable with a proven commodity, but who knows how much deeper into free agency the Bears are willing to go? There should be some very good receivers available in the second round, though, and I don't care if they don't develop for a few years, when they do the Bears will be ready to go.
I am optimistic about our season. We have the best quarterback in the division, one of the two best running backs in the division (and I'll take ball control over total yards any day), and a star-studded O-line. We also have arguably the second best defense in the division, although that's not saying a hell of a lot, and an easy schedule. Things are looking up for the Bears now, and well into the future, and I don't think anyone will be talking about the Bears being out of the playoff picture before the last few weeks anytime in the near future.
