Fire Ryan Poles | Fire Ben Johnson

As we approach the first preseason game, a lot has happened. The Bears have kicked off camp and two weeks in, reports are that the team is struggling. During the family day at Soldier Field, they were apparently not in sync with the offense. There were even reports of a fight earlier this week in practice. Shit happens.

Here we are with coaches still not wanting to play starters in these preseason games. There are three of these. Play the starters a quarter in each of these games to give them a chance to learn this playbook that’s supposedly difficult. We saw what happened with the Lovie and Trestman teams with how they never played the starters. It turned to complete dog shit when the season started.

However, this is the way I see it. For the last 20 years or thereabouts, every coach has said in these interviews that “we had a good week of practice” or “he had a great week of practice.” Every fucking time. And what were the results? Shitty play on the field during the games.

So the way I see it, maybe having a shitty week of practice will lead to them actually winning games. What has worked for the previous 20 years doesn’t seem to translate onto the field. So by all means, go right ahead and continue to suck in practice.

Caleb Williams seems determined to take it to the next level. There were at least four games where in spite of shitty coaching, he gave the team a chance to win that they ended losing. So without a doubt, he finds a way to win games. That’s what a great quarterback does.

We know there are no more excuses for Ryan Poles. I have my doubts because of his poor decisions. Whether it’s his fetish for signing shitty backup quarterbacks or deciding to keep Tyrique Stevenson after that game last year, he deserves any and all criticism. Oh, I didn’t forget about all the draft busts (actually, every single one but Williams has been one).

What happened today with Kevin Warren holding a press conference, it was very annoying. This guy is also out of excuses. He gives Ryan Poles a contract extension. And he still seems adamant about a stadium going up in Arlington Heights despite no one else wanting one. Nothing is wrong with Soldier Field as I’ve said before. Building a stadium in an area where traffic is absolutely brutal even on a Tuesday afternoon without a stadium is going to be dumber than keeping John Fox after one season. Enough.

Has it really been that long? Fuck. I know I write this kind of message every year.

We’ve seen it all here. Mostly the negatives. Our teams always finding ways to lose. It’s what brought us here in the first place all those years ago.

As the demise of these types of websites continue, I am holding onto this place as long as I can. As always, traffic generally picks up during football season. All I can say to everyone is I send a sincere amount of gratitude for reading and/or posting.

If you are someone who doesn’t post much or at all, feel free to contribute at any time. You are all welcome here. Some of us have been here since Day One back then and even before that at the old “Fire Dusty Baker” site. These sites gave us some solace in a very bad time in our sports lives. Whether you agree or disagree with what is said on here, I will tell it like I see it. If I feel a player sucks, I am going to say it. And knowing who our teams are, it is a certain that someone sucks on a team.

Again, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all of you reading. Whether you think I suck at all of this or am decent, it’s appreciated.

I guess I am at that point in my life. Where my childhood begins to go away in rapid fashion. These last couple weeks have been horrible and unexpected.

Sandberg was awesome growing up. Him and Mark Grace were actually my first memories of watching the Chicago Northside Baseball Club. Then came Sosa, of course.

This one stings. Big time. The same thing happened when Ron Santo passed almost 15 years ago. It will bother me for a long time.

Sandberg was one of the best to do it. I still have my Hall of Fame plaque I got at a game in 2005 after he was inducted. I will cherish it forever.

Well, I have been trying to write something at this site the last few days about training camp for the Bears. Unfortunately, not only did the news of Hulk’s passing come about. But also dealing with a friend who lost someone close to him recently. So yeah. I haven’t had a chance to pay much attention to how the Bears are going to fuck things up this year. I’ve already heard there were injuries to players before camp even started.

But that’s not why I called.

Yesterday, a huge part of my childhood as well as many other’s left this world. Politics aside, Hulk Hogan was an absolute legend. He’s one of the first memories I had as a kid that made me a wrestling fan. To this day, I still am a Hulkamaniac. It’s been a shitty week for celebrities.

He was bigger than wrestling. He had the mainstream appeal. I was a bit too young in the 80’s to even know I existed. But when the early 90’s came out, I started loving wrestling. From watching on Saturdays to playing the video games, it was there.

My first ever wrestling show I attended, he was back with the nWo in 2002. I am certain I mentioned it here before. But I was shown on television that night and it was one of the best nights of my wrestling fandom life. I put it up there with seeing the Bulls and Blackhawks winning those championships. I got to meet him in 2017 and while the dumb whore who took the picture couldn’t hold the damn thing still so it ended up blurry, I am glad I still have it. I really believed Hulk would be around forever.

“Say your prayers and eat your vitamins.”

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Well, I wrote in the previous post that I wouldn’t write anything for a while unless something stupid happens. And because it this is Chicago sports, guess what?

For the love of God, when will these poor choices stop with this team?

Ryan Poles has had four offseasons to fix this team. And yet, the team continued to get worse. How much worse? The team set a franchise record for consecutive losses with ten. Twice. And both of those streaks were under Eberf-LOSE.

Even Trestman or Wannstedt weren’t ever that shitty. So the general manager who was at the helm for those two ten-game losing streaks gets a five-year extension?

This is proof that you can suck at your everyday job by losing sales, showing up late or taking people’s food in the office fridge and yet, still keep that job and get a raise.

“We’re going to take the North and never give it back.” Okay, going 3-15 in those three seasons in the division is definitely putting this team on the right track. I’ve had enough.

Fuck George McCaskey.

This will be the last post for a little while (unless something stupid happens in Chicago sports). And the way things are going with the teams I follow, something stupid is bound to happen.

Good ol’ David Huh?. That’s what he has been called for many years. I just can’t figure out how this guy continues to have every job everywhere at the same time. There are at least 75 other journalists and personalities in Chicago who have more knowledge than this guy.

I already knew this guy was an idiot. About a decade ago, he vouched for the Bears to keep John Fox as head coach. I know it’s an opinion. But damn. Anyone who says something as stupid as that should have been fired immediately. Anything this guy would say or write, it literally would make someone go “Huh?”

This dumb fuck is everywhere. Mornings on The Score. Afternoons on CHSN. Not just that, TWO different shows back-to-back with The Big Pro Football Show and The Chicago Lead on that channel. And even at times, he’s on some of the Sunday night sports shows after the news. Then even this past weekend, he was heard in the mornings on The Score. Do The Score believe he is great at this?

I just don’t fucking get it. This guy is dumb as shit. This idiot is the reason Brian Hanley was replaced on the morning show. Brian Hanley was a Score original. Him and Mully were pretty damn good together. It was years ago, but I am still pissed about it that Hanley was done dirty by the dipshit running that station at the time. Hanley ended up going to ESPN 1000 for the weekends I believe and now, it seems he’s doing other things. But this is all on David Huh?.

If I am not mistaken, he started off primarily writing about the Bears 20-25 years ago. Then, he pretended to be a hockey expert talking about the Blackhawks. He doesn’t know shit about hockey and sports in general. Again, vouching for John Fox to keep his job is enough evidence for David Huh? to lose his job. Instead, all of these damn TV and radio stations keep giving him work.

I listen to ESPN 1000 in the mornings. That’s right. David Kaplan is amazing compared to this dweeb. To be fair, Kaplan has actually grown on me in the last decade. When he was at WGN Radio, he was unbearable. J-Hood is a legend and will always be a fan of his.

I am sure the higher-ups at both The Score and CHSN aren’t reading this. But if anyone is, getting David Huh? off the radio and TV will increase ratings. Keeping him on there will continue to make the viewers lose brain cells.

I find the Chicago sports landscape to be lackluster. Many do as well.

In October of last year, perhaps we were being treated with something amazing. The Chicago Sports Network took over for NBC Sports Chicago. And they announced that it would be available with an antenna. As long as you had half of a brain, you could get the channel. I already had an antenna as backup. For an entire season, I was able to watch the Blackhawks and Bulls for free. I finally cancelled my cable after all of these years. I never thought that would happen. Between my home and business, I saved about $300 per month not having it. I got an antenna for both places and started watching those games as well as the Bears.

What was really great about it is that I realized that Comcast had a major delay of live broadcasts of almost one minute. It never was that way until about 2020-2021 when I realized it. I realized it watching the Super Bowl a few years ago and noticed about a 45-second difference. That is absurd. Again, never was that way. It was maybe five or ten seconds a the most compared to an antenna.

But then, all of the dumb fucks started complaining. First, it was “I shouldn’t have to setup an antenna!” Then, it came “I only hear audio!” “WHY WON’T YOUTUBE TV HAVE IT???” All of this was fucking stupid and asinine. CHSN was in chaos for the idiots. While myself and others were having no problem.

First, it’s very easy to setup an antenna. Then, the ones who had only sound on the channel had a TV as old as they were. And last, YouTube TV has zero interest in carrying any local sports channel. Then everything started going downhill.

On the main channel in Chicago, it was broadcasted in beautiful 1080p HD. The picture was crisp and even better than NBC Sports Chicago. Because so many dipshits complained that they couldn’t get the picture because their TV was made in 2008, CHSN downgraded their picture to 720p to make it available. And trust me, it wasn’t even that clear. It looked very much like standard definition. But hey, it’s free, right? I still wasn’t really that pissed.

Then came the drama from, you guessed it, Comcast. This dipshit named Jason Coyle, who was the top guy at CHSN, released a statement that the goal of this network was to make it available to everyone. And to his credit, it truly was. People who have Comcast could have easily bought an antenna. OR, make the switch to something like DirecTV. It wasn’t that difficult. I made the switch within a day or two.

So here is Comcast causing this ruffle. Then came the news this past week. CHSN became available on Comcast. BUT, it would be on one of their more expensive tiers. In exchange, CHSN agreed to get rid of the free option on an antenna. So just like that, 500,000 or so viewers who got it on an antenna in Chicagoland are shut out for the cable subscribers who are flocking away in mass amounts.

Why even tell us that we will be able to watch the games on an antenna for the long run only to take it away after eight months? I know we aren’t entitled to shit. But this is fucking bullshit. And no, I am not going to go back to Comcast to have a 45-second delay. I have plenty of websites where I can watch the channel for free that do that. I want my games actually live on an antenna to avoid those delays.

CHSN tried to get on Comcast last November/December. They offered it very cheap and Comcast said no. Right after that is when CHSN should have told them to go fuck themselves. Instead, six months later, they cave in. And they fuck over the fans. Again.

All of these antenna users won’t go back to cable. They also won’t pay $30 for this fucking channel direct. Neither will I. There are several websites to watch the channel for free, albeit on a 45-second delay. That will suck. I also have plenty of sites to watch the NBA and NHL packages that may have about a 15-25 second delay. This is what we will do because as mentioned earlier, Comcast has that same 45-second delay. And I am sure the feed they sell direct from their site has the same one.

So I might as well watch it for free.

Jason Coyle, Jerry Reinsdorf and Danny Wirtz could have all prevented this from happening. They could have told Comcast to go fuck themselves. Instead, they chose revenue that is quickly diminishing over the fans. Shame on these three.

Fuck CHSN.

Well, it finally happened. The Chicago Bears dis-organization actually did something that wasn’t disorganized for a change. They let Caleb Williams address the media regarding the report about him not wanting to be in Chicago.

As mentioned prior, I couldn’t blame him for feeling that way. We as fans all these years would understand why a prospect wouldn’t want to play for this team. This franchise has been mirrored in futility these last 35 years or so. The 716 quarterbacks who have played for this team since the early 90’s is acceptable by this team while other teams find it unacceptable.

So here it is. Williams addressed the media and admitted this was the story. He was very well-spoken and didn’t come off insulting. He told the truth and handled the situation as well as anyone could.

I am not one to be optimistic. As said before, I am a realist. With that, what I saw last year from Caleb made me really believe this guy is the real deal. He had some amazing throws in some shitty situations. He lead multiple would-be game-winning drives in his rookie year. At least four games could have been won because of him and instead, wasn’t due to coaches and/or other players shitting themselves. The rest of this team failed him miserably.

It’s time to get down to business. This story is behind him and it’s time to move on. While I am still not optimistic on the offensive line or the team in general contending this year, I don’t believe Caleb will be the issue. The rest of this team needs to grow some balls and help him out. Ryan Poles needs to make sure his moves actually pay off rather than, as history has shown, not pay off. He has a history of drafting and signing busts with Caleb being the exception.

This offensive line remodel needs to pay off. The signings on the defensive line need to pay off. History has shown us that Super Bowl winning teams are made off of drafting cornerstone players and having them contribute immediately. There shouldn’t be any “projects.” Players that are drafted should be starting and contributing immediately. I feel as if I’ve written this shit before and I probably have. But this is the reason why I still don’t believe they will contend. Buying a bunch of veterans through free agency and trading for others isn’t the answer.

Until this team proves me wrong on all of this, this will keep being written.

I know some may want to wait until a few games in to see how things go. For me, it’s “business as usual” with this franchise until they prove otherwise. The faces may change in terms of management and players. But the results, as it’s been since I can remember, have remained the same. I’m over this losing. I am not here for a “I think they’ll go 8-9” like many on the radio have said. If you’re a real fan, you want them to win more. You want them to get into the playoffs and have a legitimate chance to contend. Again, we’ve yet to see this on a consistent basis.

As it usually goes, another “fuck you” goes out to Roger Goodell for adding more games and continuing to produce “overkill” by having Christmas games as well additional international ones. Fuck him and anyone else who contributed to that.

Now, onto the schedule. Where do they win? What about the losses? Last year, I had them at 7-10. Way too generous as they went 5-12.

I know some may find me insane for this. But really, four wins is all I see. Cowboys, Saints, Giants and on the last game of the season, Lions. And I say that because I feel the Lions will rest some players as they would be preparing for the playoffs. And of course, I see them finding a way to lose about four other games just like last year.

But hey, if this team wants to make me look stupid by getting into the playoffs and winning the Super Bowl, they can feel free to.