Chicago Bears 2024-2025

Status
Not open for further replies.
#451      
ChiefGritty
Snoopy said:
Now I'm 60 years old and still trying to figure out why God blessed the McCaskeys with a football franchise and fans they clearly don't deserve.
Click to expand...
I mean Virginia McCaskey as George Halas' daughter is the closest representative of the men who built the pro sports industry in the United States that's anywhere near sports franchise ownership in 2024. Now, this isn't Medieval England, her being someone's child doesn't mean she "deserves" the team per se, but it's something unique.

And while Virginia's late husband and son destroyed the budding '85 dynasty and as of the turn of the millennium was operating a parochial laughingstock of an operation, at least on the football side they kinda-sorta-halfway got with the times with the hiring of Jerry Angelo in 2001 and as of the hiring of Kevin Warren in 2022 they're truly no longer under McCaskey control on the football side. Ted Phillips, critically, no longer part of the organization.

The stadium situation is a different story of course, and I have every expectation the McCaskey crew will fail and disappoint us in that endeavor, but football people run the football show at long last.

If Caleb Williams is a star, the team is going to get good and stay good for a long time. If not, not.
 
#452      
jjv0004
At this point my hope is that Caleb Williams and Odunze continue to get better and the Bears lose out and end up with a top 10 pick and a difference making offensive tackle and then add to the o-line and d-line with their next 2 early 2nd round picks.
 
#453      
WeWillWhen
jjv0004 said:
. . . and end up with a top 10 pick and a difference making offensive tackle and then add to the o-line and d-line with their next 2 early 2nd round picks.
Click to expand...
I'd rather they add studs to the OL via trade or free agency -- proven NFLers. Can use a high draft pick as capital.
 
#455      
EyeoftheIllini
jjv0004 said:
At this point my hope is that Caleb Williams and Odunze continue to get better and the Bears lose out and end up with a top 10 pick and a difference making offensive tackle and then add to the o-line and d-line with their next 2 early 2nd round picks.
Click to expand...
I believe Bears currently would have #12. Carolina at #5. That would be 3 picks in top 42.
 
#456      
ChiefGritty
WeWillWhen said:
I'd rather they add studs to the OL via trade or free agency -- proven NFLers. Can use a high draft pick as capital.
Click to expand...
It's no easier to get difference makers that way, especially at tackle.

Though I must say having been a skeptic of his for his whole career, the return of Braxton Jones has made a HUGE difference. Not an elite player, and him and Darnell Wright aren't the pass pro bookends you would ideally want to build around Caleb, but there's enough there that maybe focusing on the interior would be the best use of resources.

A monster right guard would help a whole lot.
 
#458      
Roundball Sage
ChiefGritty said:
Now, this isn't Medieval England, her being someone's child doesn't mean she "deserves" the team per se, but it's something unique... stadium situation is a different story of course, and I have every expectation the McCaskey crew will fail and disappoint us in that endeavor...
Click to expand...

In a Capitalistic System we have such things as inheritance and ownership of private property. Certainly a better system than some Government owning everything...

BUT as we’ve all seen – especially with the sports franchises in Chicago – inheritance has been a TERRIBLE thing for the health of these teams.

Just because you have a right to inherit something does not mean you (should or) have any idea what you’re getting or how to run it properly. Again, a lesson that has penalized and tormented generations of Chicago sports teams.

You just can’t get away from the idea of Merit – having the smarts and savvy and intelligence and vision to run an organization properly. That’s the only path to winning and franchise health. In sports or any other venture in Life.

As for sports inheritance... if those who follow a competent owner’s passing are not capable of running a successful franchise they should have the good sense and civic decency to immediately sell the franchise to someone who can upon getting that inheritance.

Millions of fans of a sports team should not be penalized because someone who just happened to be related to someone else just happened to be in a position to have a valuable sports franchise fall in to their lap. These may technically be private property but for all other purposes they are civic treasures that belong to everyone.

Just imagine what the Chicago sports scene would have been like if teams like the Bears and White Sox and Bulls had intelligent, competent ownership for the past 50 years. All those wins. All those titles. All those good times not had. (Don't remind me about the Bulls -- that was all because of one guy from North Carolina and not the collection of the other pieces which could not win without him).

All because someone just happened to have a sports franchise handed to them for no other reason than a bloodline or a piece of paper at the courthouse.
 
#459      
Snoopy
It is the socialism of the NFL that enables the MacCaskeys to fail up. If the NFL had no salary caps, no shared TV revenue, a city of Chicago to subsidize their field, etc. I suspect they would have had to sell a long time ago.
 
#460      
ChiefGritty
Roundball Sage said:
In a Capitalistic System we have such things as inheritance and ownership of private property. Certainly a better system than some Government owning everything...

BUT as we’ve all seen – especially with the sports franchises in Chicago – inheritance has been a TERRIBLE thing for the health of these teams.

Just because you have a right to inherit something does not mean you (should or) have any idea what you’re getting or how to run it properly. Again, a lesson that has penalized and tormented generations of Chicago sports teams.

You just can’t get away from the idea of Merit – having the smarts and savvy and intelligence and vision to run an organization properly. That’s the only path to winning and franchise health. In sports or any other venture in Life.

As for sports inheritance... if those who follow a competent owner’s passing are not capable of running a successful franchise they should have the good sense and civic decency to immediately sell the franchise to someone who can upon getting that inheritance.

Millions of fans of a sports team should not be penalized because someone who just happened to be related to someone else just happened to be in a position to have a valuable sports franchise fall in to their lap. These may technically be private property but for all other purposes they are civic treasures that belong to everyone.

Just imagine what the Chicago sports scene would have been like if teams like the Bears and White Sox and Bulls had intelligent, competent ownership for the past 50 years. All those wins. All those titles. All those good times not had. (Don't remind me about the Bulls -- that was all because of one guy from North Carolina and not the collection of the other pieces which could not win without him).

All because someone just happened to have a sports franchise handed to them for no other reason than a bloodline or a piece of paper at the courthouse.
Click to expand...
Snoopy said:
It is the socialism of the NFL that enables the MacCaskeys to fail up. If the NFL had no salary caps, no shared TV revenue, a city of Chicago to subsidize their field, etc. I suspect they would have had to sell a long time ago.
Click to expand...
I mean if we really want to go there, the case for regulating pro sports franchises as public utilities is pretty compelling, as it is in any case where you're inclined to deviate from the logic of antitrust law.

We would not allow what the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL are in any other industry.
 
#461      
Roundball Sage
ChiefGritty said:
I mean if we really want to go there, the case for regulating pro sports franchises as public utilities is pretty compelling, as it is in any case where you're inclined to deviate from the logic of antitrust law.

We would not allow what the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL are in any other industry.
Click to expand...

Yes. A City's sports franchises should be viewed as Public Civic Treasures -- just like magnificent buildings (legally protected as 'Historic Places') or grand art galleries or defining natural public spaces like beaches or zoos and other things. Special and defining shared public areas. In some cases of course these are privately owned (like buildings) -- but no one is ever going to move a skyscraper or the Southwestern access to Lake Michigan.

Sports franchises in many ways totally define a City for much of the rest of World. What does the World at large know of Cincinnati other than the Bengals? Or of Green Bay other than Packers? Or of Montreal other than The Canadians?

And for the World... Chicago is Capone and The Untouchables... and DA BEARS.

And when you take away a sports franchise you can just about kill the spirit within a City and community. Like when the Dodgers left Brooklyn or when the original Browns left Cleveland or when the Colts left Baltimore... on an on.

Of course there is much more to any City than just a sports franchise. But nothing defines most cities more than their sports teams for the bulk of the human family. A CIty is People. And People love their home-town teams like family.

What is Chicago's South Side today beyond the White Sox? The White Sox -- bad as they currently are -- may still be near the best thing the South Side has to offer. Hundreds of thousands of jobs gone -- and the families that depended on them. Broken neighborhoods and broken families.

And if the Sox would be sold off and moved -- what would the South Side have left except for memories and lots of broken hearts?

Major sports franchises should not just be an Old Boys (and Girls) club for their own benefit.

A sports franchise is not just entertainment. It can hold a community -- and its people - together.
 
#464      
illinifan1987
Please don't get blown out! It'd be nice if we could win on Turkey day...but I don't see any more wins until Flus is out. Scratch that...I'll take a blow out if that leads to him being fired right after (y)
 
#465      
EyeoftheIllini
I won’t be watching it, so don’t feel bad about rooting for Cowboys. Also rooting for Bengals and Saints. Those 3 win and Bears lose, and we’re up to 9th pick.
 
#467      
Carter Waller
Snoopy said:
I remember Abe, though I was just 8 years old when his Bear's tenure started. Watching the Bears was mandatory Sunday afternoon in our house, as important as attending church in the morning.

A life time of bad football helps one appreciate the little things like an 8-3 Illinois.

Now I'm 60 years old and still trying to figure out why God blessed the McCaskeys with a football franchise and fans they clearly don't deserve.
Click to expand...
Their granfather is one of the founders of professional football.
 
#470      
Retro62
Just horrible. Detroit, the franchise of the abysmal, has flipped the script on Chicago. When will we ever be a serious franchise again?
 
#471      
Illiniaaron
Well the defense is hanging on by a thread. Would be nice if the Bears offense could do better than three and out every drive. So far this is a complete demolition.
 
#472      
Retro62
The defense is doing a decent job keeping them out the end zone when they have a jillion yards, a jillion first downs, and have kept the ball most of the first half.
 
#473      
Illiniaaron
Retro62 said:
The defense is doing a decent job keeping them out the end zone when they have a jillion yards, a jillion first downs, and have kept the ball most of the first half.
Click to expand...
It would be nice if they didn’t give up 70 yards a drive though…
 
#475      
Illiniaaron
Would like to have seen a higher percentage pass on the fourth and three but looks like Lions got away with PI.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back