My Friends,
‘Tis the season to be busy,
and that includes amateur scribes like me who attempt to entertain before and
after each game. So a couple of Santa’s helpers have stepped up to help this
time around.
Lost in all the hubbub this week about Terry Johnson was the story about the
seven players picked to represent the Bears in the Pro Bowl. While all were
certainly worthy, Lactose Intolerant chimed in with his take on
the snub of Rex Grossman:
So Romo is in the Pro Bowl - that's fine. In the nine games he's started, he has lost a third of them (Grossman at 16.7% losses for the games he has started). The only reason he is going to Hawaii over Grossman is the Monday Night Football announcers that anointed him as the second coming of Christ (apologies to the real deal whose birthday is in three days). Romo has been pedestrian against pedestrian teams. Of the nine games he’s started, only two have been against teams that are better than .500 and he lost one of those (to the Saints - badly). That's OK - I hope he wins a few more and we get to see how he does against a real defense under real conditions.
I can't complain, though. I’ve already had one of my Christmas wishes come true
- Brett Favre did not get knocked out of the Vikings game last night so he can
play New Year's Eve in Chicago. The same Chicago where he has taken some of the
most brutal hits he has seen in oh so many years. I hope we show the same
respect for his career as he showed to Butkus and Sayers one cold and rainy
Halloween night not so long ago. As much as I would love to see him blow up
another season at GB, I would also like to make his decision to retire
painfully clear (emphasis on the PAINFULLY)!
Take care of business in Detroit and then let's leave some cleat marks on #4's
back so I have something to smirk about when I go to visit Canton down the
road.
Win the division . . . beat GB . . . I’m starting to like this Lovie guy.
Hopefully he remembers his oath of office on 12-31.
Yeah, Grossman isn’t going to the Pro Bowl, and neither are three of his
equally deserving teammates. Brad Maynard lost the punting job to the Cowboys’
Mat McBriar, who as hard as it is to believe is having a better year; Desmond
Clark missed out at tight end to a walking easel and a guy whose name sounds
like something they use to clean up an oil
spill, and much deserving Charles
Tillman will be roasting peanuts while Ronde Barber, DeAngelo Hall and Lito
Sheppard, all from pass defenses ranked below the Bears’, will be representing
the NFC at cornerback. I guess the lack of respect the Bears have felt coming
from the national media extends to their peers on the other rosters and within
the coaching ranks. Even though it’s a down year for the NFC, it seems nobody
believes the Bears (or their parts) are as good as their record.
Maybe they’re right, but the only poll that matters will play out in front of
our very eyes on the lakefront, followed hopefully by a final judgment at
Dolphin Stadium.
Finally, Mojo reports in on Bear Week:
My Friends,
As this rainy, foggy morning dawned, it became an extended Bear Week north of
the Cheddar Curtain. And foggy we are as we Faithful cannot remember the last
time we played the packers in the most unusual season of stripper wacky
scheduling.
So if it is Bear Week up there, we must accept the challenge and make it packer
Week down here, starting today.
I am fully confident the Bears can handle Lion Week and packer Week at the same
time in light of their emBearassing combined records of 9-20 and that those two
teams combined have put up 520 points which is just 126 more than the League’s
No. 2 scoring Bears with 394, while those teams (who are No. 28 and 30 in
points allowed, respectively) have given up a combined 700 points which is 492
more than the No. 3 defending Bears with 208, which by my new math from the
‘60s is a 366 point net Bears advantage if you created an All-Star team out of
the Lions and packers, but in reality you can’t since between both teams, only
Donald Driver was named to the Pro Bowl, and that as a reserve, giving the
Bears a 7 to ½ advantage in that category, my Friends.
There have been questions of whether Lovie is going to play or “rust” his
starters to prevent injury. I believe he will choose play, since the boys have
been inconsistent lately and more practice will keep them improving as they
move towards the playoffs. Rest in the Bye Week. That’s what it’s for. That’s
why you played hard during the regular season and won all the games to earn it.
And further, these last two are Division games. If the Bears are to build the
dynasty we were denied in the ‘80s, then we must take every opportunity to
“first control the Division, then…”
This means keeping your cleats pressed against the neck of your Division in
every match-up so that no glimmer of hope can penetrate the sod covering their
face masks. It also means that Ginny must open her purse and show Lance Briggs
what’s inside that old plastic eggshell of L’eggs Sheer Energy pantyhose from
the ‘70s she still rattles her spare change in.
I want 14-2. I want it to come at the expense of the downtrodden. It’s packer
Week.
So there you have it – a
double Lion/packer dose of anticipation as we await the gifts under the tree.
For some of us, that means an envelope in the mail with an Eagle Way return
address. For the rest of you, the warm, fuzzy feeling of possibly watching our
guys lift the NFL champions trophy. (Except for my dear friend out there in the
Land of Lieberman, to whom I express hope that his Big Blue comes through in all
games except against the Bears.)
Merry Christmas to all!
LBF
12/22/2006