Brian Urlacher - Rate him what you want!

I know I’m not the only one that thought Brian Urlacher looked like he was playing ball alone this afternoon at Soldier Field in Chicago. Come on, the man tipped a ball to himself, a play so impressive I thought it was two different people in real time. All that and he had one official tackle(upgraded to 5 after studying the tape.

Wow.

What buttons do you have to hit to pull that off on Madden Football?

You get the idea that the people that placed him just below T.O. as the second most over-rated player in the NFL, his fellow players, are either off his schedule or play defense and want to watch the repercussions. Instead, he surely belongs on the other end of that spectrum, as he was so honored last season as Defensive MVP.

In Chicago, every once in a while we have someone special to watch; Back to Gale Sayers, Dick Butkus, Walter Payton, Michael Jordan, Denis Savard, Ernie Banks, Frank Thomas before he became the Big Disappointment, the ’85 Bears, and the Bulls of the 90’s. Brian Urlacher, since he came to the league, has been that guy to watch. He sells tickets all by himself, but he also makes his teammates better and pushes his team over the edge. It is no mistake that his counterpart on the line is a superstar as well, because the guy he replaced, Warrick Holdman? or was it Roosevelt Colvin, looked pretty good too. I respect Lance Briggs nearly as much as Urlacher, but don’t think he will be pulling the numbers he is now if he decides to take bigger money and go to another team next season.

Since Brian Urlacher first donned the uniform he has been someone to watch on the field. You could go to a Bears game and see something special in action just by following #54 around the field. There were times that he was the only thing to watch on our field, and clowns like Henry Burris, Jonathan Quinn, and Chad Hutchinson made sure he was out on the field constantly. Every one of the previous Bears legends, Butkus, Sayers, Payton, had times when they held the same position.

Urlacher has carried the team attendance-wise through hard times, and now can put them on his back and take over games if he needs to. 25 tackles against Arizona! Reports out of the locker room were that he single-handedly took that game back, and everyone on the team followed his lead. These days he has the fellow horses to pull a stunt like that comeback off, along with the worst team of this decade, mentally, to allow it.

Better Luck Next Time Huskies

Better Luck Next Time Huskies

It’s official, there is no season opener Easter Bunny that would have delivered a historic win to Northern Illinois University’s football team over Ohio State, not even the one that got 285 yards against the potent Buckeyes.

All the Huskies can do is sift through the ashes and appreciate that they have walked away from a bout with what will be a killer team this year. Go Buckeyes, please, and pick on someone else. Shut up those Texas Longhorn fans for starters.

I admire the class of the program, if not the announcer we had on television for the game, the guy had to have come from the Ohio State press machine. Every statement he said was prefaced by "This extremely talented player from OSU," or "NIU needs to be perfect because…", the man made Harry Caray and Hawk Harrelson seem objective.

Another thing I think it is important to mention, coming from my mother, who went to the game, the Ohio State fans, to a person, were friendly and very complimentary before and after the game of NIU and our feature player, Garrett Wolfe. Of course, this seems much like the Major league baseball player visiting the farm team, telling the also-rans that they should buck up and keep trying…

Nonetheless, these are the Huskies, the Northern Huskies, whom I have watched be bad, very bad, ignorably awful, mediocre, and surprisingly good, against the "insert your adulation here, network praise-clone" Ohio State Buckeyes, and the Huskies didn’t get ignored, or completely manhandled.

Just Maybe, the best football player on the field was wearing a Huskie’s uniform(#1), unfortunately, the next 10 or 15 best players were all Ohio State. OKAY, maybe that Ginn guy is just as good, and those were only about the third and fourth times anyone has caught Garrett from behind there guys, good job.

This week, we’re just gonna spank your little brother school, Ohio(No State) University and send them back to Ohio while paying them and their fans the same respect you paid us, thanks!

2006 Chicago Cubs – An Obituary

2006 Chicago Cubs – An Obituary

First of all, I want to thank all of those gathered here for attending what may seem trivial, much like the death of a hamster or goldfish, but may be crucial to our being able to move on. That you are here at all means you cared and most of all, are not one of those annoying bandwagon jumpers, they are all Sox fans, at least for a couple more weeks.

We are here to mourn the loss of a season that never was, a team that never came to life, and, hopefully, a managerial career that has taken a sharp spike and course to another town. I see among you a scant few Dusty supporters, bless you for sticking with him, because he did not stick "trusty" you or any of us. Those of you hating him, let it go, he just didn’t get the job done. He needs to move on and make us wonder how we ever let him go.

Be happy in the knowledge that along with this season we have put behind us nagging problems like Neifi Perez and faced the knowledge that Yes, Corey Patterson will do good once we let him go. Look on this season as a period of finally letting go of the dream of the Cy Young Pitching staff including Kerry Wood and Mark Prior.

Hopefully, next year we won’t be treated to diagrams of Kerry Wood’s elbow/shoulder/…etc.

Adding to this thought, which started on Saturday, and on Monday is outlined even more after a couple more games, the Cub’s have pronounced themselves officially dead.

They are dropping like flies because now it doesn’t matter. Michael Barrett went down, and today, Carlos Zambrano gets shelled and then hurt, leaving the game. I can’t blame Carlos for giving up, and applaud his restraint as he watched an organization quit around him.

Derek Lee should be spared this last month, but maybe, and this is the eternal optimist in me, maybe they can build from this. As Dusty gets run out of town and the supposed saviors of the franchise nurse injuries, maybe he can form a bond with a core group, Juan Pierre, Aramis Ramirez…WOW, I almost did it again.

As I began three days ago, thank you all for coming and remember, if the Cub’s can’t win, root root root against the Sox!(If you have to ask which one, never mind).