CrackerDog

I don't think anyone would ever argue against spending significant picks and FA acquisitions on the line. That would be like arguing that football isn't about two basics things, blocking and tackling. But there are those of us, you and I specifically, who've been sounding the alarm for years on Angelo's apparent lack of interest in this part of the team. And you and I rarely agree on anything! Anyway, I was MIA for a while too and still don't get much time to spend here either. Life is funny. But no matter what, I always enjoy when I can breeze through the board and toss out a barb or two myself. And having you around makes the experience a whole lot more enjoyable.

Knox was in my starting line-up as WR3 each and every week last year in fantasy football. And I made it all the way to our superbowl where I lost, once again. But I'll be a fan of Knox until he proves to me I shouldn't be. All the guy has done is kick ass and take names. If our damn O Line could give Cutler time in his 7 step drops, we'd have guys open deep all over the f*cking field.

This post and the one above about the silver backed gorillas are pure gold. Thanks for the laugh and the common sense.

And all the talk out of camp about how awesome Cutler has looked... Please... He looked like Jay Cutler as I've seen him before. He's a good solid QB but I've seen nothing this year that suggests the camp talk was anything other than them building up his esteem after all the attacks last season.

Hey Connor, I don't know about you but I expect a season to forget this year. I'm not usually a downer but I'm just not loving this team right now. I guess if the line gels in time to not get Cutler killed, Jay shows a lot of leadership, the D youth movement saves us from dreaded injuries... I suppose we could do OK. We sure didn't look like much last night.

I don't see it having anything to do with Jay. It was about AR and a little awkward. I don't know if I'd trade those two guys straight up. Keep Jay on his feet and give him real WR's and he might surprise you.

Good to see this board hasn't changed a bit since last year. Looks guys, I've been bitching about the O Line for pretty much the last 6 seasons and we've won the division half that time. The line still looks like a weakness but hopefully the new kid will bring some much needed piss and vinegar. Tice has proven himself to me. As to JA, no comment. I've been a pretty big defender of his over the years and after all this time (and reasonably good success) he still rightfully takes criticism. Now let's hope we don't lose to the f'in Packers in the playoffs again this season. Sheesh! I'm still not over THAT.

I'm usually on the side of labor in any dispute but not here. I disagree with Grizzly and his comment that labor unions are whatever he said they are. I've never been in one myself but they serve a purpose. Without collective bargaining, many large groups of people would be exploited in this country. Guaranteed. With that said, I'm sick to death of the damn players protecting the absolute WORST in human behavior. Intolerable shit that the union defends at all costs. I'm sick of owners too, holding towns hostage to gain stadiums, but much of the push to get new stadiums was related directly to the need for new sources of buckets of cash so team could pay huge signing bonuses, again, to players. In this case, I think the team owners deserve to be making a larger annual profit than Peyton Manning makes in salary. An owner put up hundreds of millions of dollars as an investment and deserves a return on that investment. There's a big difference between these a-holes and a couple thousand average joes getting together and demanding a reasonable wage from some douchebag fatcat Walmart exec. At least thats the way I see it.

I'm not sure that's what would happen given this judge's ruling. The actual penalty may be a fine for dealing in bad faith. I'm not certain the judge will throw out only that portion of the TV contract. We need a lawyer here...

Why does everything have to get so crazy here any time someone brings up Lovie or Jerry? Words like man-crush and talking about dating dogs start to fly around. Why? It's really simple, I think Lovie earned the additional years with taking this team to where he did given the talent level. With that said, I wouldn't have done it since we have another year on his contract and we've seen this pattern before. Besides, he lost to the PACKERS in the deciding game which I'll always now hold against him. With that said, I expect lining Lovie up with JA made sense to the Bears execs and so it is now so. End of story. No need to talk about anyone's mom, wife or girlfriend from my perspective.

A Vikes fan I know says he's referred to as Cindy Rice up there. Supposedly the guy is soft and hurt a lot. Proceed with caution.

If the Bears (or Steelers) had committed to the run, both were capable of beating the Packers. We're in for a long period now where the Packers are the dominant team in the division. Why? 1. The Bears organization will rest on it's laurels. We are still owned by the McCaskeys, right? 2. The Bears are OLD and the Packers are young. 3. Cutler is scarred by being called a pussy. 4. We may not even have a football season next year. If that's the case, we get to have the Packers kicking us to the curb in our craw for two full years. That's just GREAT! Kill me now, please. In short, I'm not optimistic. We were lucky as all hell this year, everything fell right for us while the Packers were seeing 13 guys hit IR. Then again, I've been wrong before and I hope I'm wrong now. I expected 6 wins this year and we almost got to the dance.

I'm a Steelers fan now, until the end of the game on SB Sunday.

Well, I haven't been bashing as I was waiting to hear the verdict on the knee. Still, without getting into bashing, here are my thoughts on what I saw: 1. Fox probably didn't know what play he got injured on as Jay stayed in afterwards for a number of series. 2. I don't have any issue with Jay on the field, he's tough. I don't like the mope look he goes with on the sidelines. This isn't even specific to yesterday, he does it all the time. In my eyes, that doesn't inspire confidence. Similar to the Wanny "hand through the hair" deal he used to do. Jay needs to learn a little better projection. Heck, in that regard, maybe Tom was right, perhaps learning a little acting skills via commercial appearances would help him learn that skill. 3. The line is slightly better than horrible, that's an indictment of Angelo, a positive about Tice and an excuse for Jay. It isn't easy to look confident when you're on your ass that frequently. 4. The Bears needed to get him off the field when they knew he couldn't come back in. Or at a minimum, they should've told the Fox sideline gal that he was done. Most of the fan anger came from the appearance of his being a pussy, not reality which was basically the opposite. 5. He had a terrible game before he was hurt. I can't explain it. Why does a guy like Hanie come in and have success against the same D? Probably because they were playing prevent some and probably because Martz called more rollout stuff which he should've used earlier with Jay too. If you want to bash Cutler, I think his play is a better reason than his lack of coming back into the game. No matter what, this game was there to be had. Bears fans everywhere are hurt by what occured and when you're the QB, the head coach or the GM, you damn well better expect to hear it. Whether it's fair or not, people are looking for leadership to step up and once again, the top dogs on this team failed, in various ways, to produce.

Perfect post.

And acting like a mope on the field/sidelines isn't going to help that perception either. Someone in another thread said you could question Cutler's attitude but you shouldn't question his toughness. I think those things are the same in this case. It's called mental toughness. And no, that doesn't have anything to do with his willingness to talk to the press or do commercials as Tom said the other day. It has to do with him showing leadership out there on the damn field. I don't know how injured he was so I'm not going to join the other thread and bash him. Not yet. But it did look to me like he quit and worse yet, it looked to me like he didn't care. And that was before he got injured. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and the timid approach this team, the whole team other than our linebackers, took to the game was totally unacceptable to me. That's a reflection on Cutler, Smith and Martz more than anyone else. And Jerry Angelo. Hey Jerry, thanks for bringing in the "great" Todd Collins so we could waste ten precious minutes of gametime on this worthless hasbeen. And thanks for putting together an offensive line of spare parts even though it's been a glaring problem for something like three years. Whether Cutler has the guts to be this team's QB has yet to be determined. But he shouldn't have to pick his ass off the field more often than any other QB in the league for us to find out. Jerry needs to find someone to help this guy improve and that means bringing in some O Line and WR help this year. But JA will probably draft 3 D Linemen again in the first 4 rounds like he does every season. And like most other years, they'll all wash out.

Excellent! Now let's hope the number of Cheesedicks in the crowd is kept to a minimum!

Not sure if anyone has posted this yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-BCPymjGI4

The anthem at a Hawks game is an amazing experience and not to be missed. The fans are absolutely cheering FOR the country and our servicemen. This has been a tradition for so long I can't believe a Chicago fan would question it. It doesn't typically happen at Bears games but they brought in the same singer they use at the Hawks games and it really brought the house down. My sister was at the game and said it was outstanding and then the fireworks and flyover made it all that much more. This is part of being a Chicago fan now. Back in the day, I felt the same way Jason does but I came around once I understood the whole thing.

Yep.

St. Pats eh? I went to Holy Cross and lived in the St. Pats hood. Graduated in 82.

Dang, I hate that I watched your first video. It sure looks like he wasn't across the line. I don't remember it that way from back in the day but he sure looks legal in this video.

My first take was also the this was a pile of doo doo story. But then I watched the video. He clearly snubs her and it isn't cool. He's a douche. And I won't even mention Sarah Palin.

Lot's of guesswork on your part, my friend. Hell, for the few examples given, it's tough to say there's an issue at all. What if he was having a problem with his girlfriend the day Lynch or Elway was available to him to talk and he was preoccupied? We've all been there... Or it could be the Elway thing is being blown outta proportion because Denver is still feeling used and abused by the trade. I've heard Reilly wrote his article before he got to Chicago! I'm not trying to make excuses for him either and as you say, there's two sides. If he turns into a commercial machine this spring, I hope it's because he's just been the winning QB in the Superbowl. That's ALL I give a shit about. I think seeing Manning in every other commercial on television is incredibly annoying. This latest with the "40, 40, 40!" line is enough for me to want to punch him in the face! It's also a reflection of the leadership of the team, in my opinion. We saw the Bears in 1985 doing the Superbowl Shuffle and hundreds of commercials because Ditka and Ryan were different than Smith. And you're missing one HUGE item that Reilly also missed, the Bears were expected to blow this year by almost everyone in the national media. Remember? This leads to two realities: 1. They'd have to admit they were wrong by giving Cutler and other Bears lots of air time and good press and 2. The folks that sign guys to endorse products don't usually choose players from teams that suck (or are expected to suck.) Further, what you and most of the critics seem to miss about Jay is that he's young and hasn't really experienced any level of success to date. He's just won his first damn playoff game! And after that win he seemed to lighten up some, didn't he? His confidence is still building. His comment on Reilly was perfect! Face it, you don't even start to get coached on being the guy in the spotlight until there's one on you. In Denver he had to live under the Elway shadow... Here, he's just getting to the level of success expected of him. Lastly, contrary to one of your statements, I can think of plenty of Superbowl winning QB's who weren't media darlings. Those two things are more connected these days than ever before, and only, as mentioned above, because those looking for people to endorse their products like to be associated with winners. Jay is now a winner regardless of what happens this coming weekend (unless there's a total meltdown which I don't anticipate.) He's a surly guy with the press but I respect that since 98% of the press is made up of complete morons looking to stir up trouble. He isn't endorsing 47 products because he hasn't done shit yet. I say give him time and a little training and he'll grow into that role. The first step: Win.

My understanding is that just about the time the NFL was looking to name the trophy, Lombardi was diagnosed with cancer. He'd won several championships and the league decided to honor him. The Packers have won 12 championships and though I hate them when we play them, you've got to admit that's pretty impressive for a little town in northern Wisconsin. I'm fine with the name being what it is. Now let's kick their Packer asses this weekend and get up to 10 championships to close the gap!