Audibles used to be reserved for just links involving the Chicago Bears, but today we’ll branch out beyond the Bears, to the entire league.
- After two games, fans wanted Shane Waldron fires and D’Andre Swift stoned to death. The great Adam Jahns gave the Bears OC proper credit for his excellent work through six games. Kevin Fishbain adds his praise for the running back. I’ve been arguing for years that the first month of the NFL season is no longer relevant when it comes to team form. There is no preseason, and camp is a joke. September is simply about figuring out what your club is and stacking wins.
- Brad Biggs does a nice job contextualizing the Chicago Bears as they come out of their bye week. There are three major tests approaching: continuing Caleb’s growth, beating the weaker teams, and holding their own against the best division in football by a wide margin.
- Mary Kay Cabot on a potential Myles Garrett trade: “Of course, a team can never say never when it comes to trades, and they’d probably at least answer the phone. But unless someone makes them a blockbuster offer that they can’t refuse, it’s not in the cards to part with one of the premier players in the history of the club.”
- Fun interview on Da Site, with Rome Odunze revealing to Lauren Screeden how he got his name.
- Kevin Warren continues to argue for a new stadium on the lakefront, and taxpayer funding will be on the ballot this November. Any citizen endorsing taxpayer money for a sports facility has lost the plot entirely. Every NFL franchise is worth (at minimum) $4 billion, and yet every time a new building is “required” these billionaires walk into the public square, palms facing the sky.
- I have been convinced Shad Khan was eyeing London as the next home for the Jacksonville Jaguars. (Hell, even the name works in London.) But the owners have approved a massive renovation project in Jax that seems to portend the organization staying in northeast Florida long term.
- There’s a surefire roadmap to being a failed athlete in New York. Part one: stink. Aaron Rodgers has accomplished that. Part two: blame the media. Aaron Rodgers did that on Sunday evening. Part three: go after the fans. I would think we are still a month away from Rodgers taking that final step.
- Because Tom Brady is now part owner of the Raiders, there are serious restrictions on his access to teams as a broadcaster. With these restrictions, how could Brady ever call a Super Bowl? How is he going to call playoff football in January? Brady the Broadcaster seems an experiment that will be ending sooner than later.
- So now there is a rumor circulating that the NFL is considering narrowing the goal posts to make field goals more difficult. It is amazing how much time this league spends on things that nobody cares about. Officiating? A weekly disaster. Fix that? Nope. Goalposts? GET ON IT!
- As online sports gambling proliferates, incidents of addiction are wildly on the rise. Anecdotally, I have several friends who see their lives upended by the addiction. One hopes the leagues that are profiting so wildly from these platforms will make it a point to educate the public, as we’re now seeing an entire generation reach adulthood with gambling as a regular part of their lives. For all of the reporting being done, like most addictions, the stories live in the shadows.