Angelo, Lovie not to blame for current state of Bears

When the dust finally settled from Sunday's embarassing, awful, terrible, no good, very bad (you get the idea) loss to the Seahawks, the Bears were left at 7-7 on the outside of the playoff picture looking in with little to no hope things could be saved.

After winning five straight games and sitting at 7-3, things looked great, but starting Caleb Hanie at quarterback with Jay Cutler on the sideline and Matt Forte joining Cutler on the sideline a couple weeks later and all playoff hope has left Chicago. Now, Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune, starts firing people. Well, I can't say I'm surprised, but I wouldn't go as far as he does.

Rosenbloom is pretty good with what he does at the Trib, but he's off on this one. He wants to get rid of Hanie and Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo. The Hanie move has obvious reasoning, but the Angelo one struck me. His reasoning? He is the guy that brought in Hanie and stuck with him over the last four years as the backup quarterback.

Well, Hanie should probably go. But that isn't necessarily on Angelo or even Lovie Smith and Mike Martz. Most fans don't realize the backup quarterback gets the least practice and reps of anyone on the team. That's why teams across the league don't spend big money on their backup QBs and most go with rookies or guys that have started somewhere else, even if they have struggled. You know what you are getting and those guys know what to expect when they are stepping in. The first-string QB takes every rep in practice while the backup may take reps, but running the opposition's plays for the scout team. Not the same, at all and he's not being evaluated on things properly that way. Look around the league and you will notice this.

As for Angelo, I would have been fine with him "retiring" or being fired years ago, but if you are going to fire him and/or Lovie after this season, Bears ownership would be off base. The season was going smoothly at 7-3 with the team winning five straight and looking to be on the brink of something special. As I told a fellow bar patron yesterday, you don't fire management over injuries, and that's what you'd be doing if you let Angelo or Lovie go after this.

The arguement is that they should have brought in a veteran QB to take over after Jay. Well, I'm with them for not bringing in someone. Despite losing out on Kyle Orton (props for beating the Pack bro!), Hanie was probably their best bet, even in front of Donavon McNabb. You only need to look to Carson Palmer in Oakland to see how that went when he got to town and there just wasn't enough time left in the season after Jay went down to work out the kinks with a completely new quarterback.

Jerry's drafts haven't exactly yielded talent that has stuck with the Bears. To be honest, free agency has bailed him out over the years. When the team needed a playmaker and Tommie Harris was past his prime, the Bears went out and got the biggest fish on the market in Julius Peppers. When the team needed a quarterback, he did make the big trade for Jay Cutler, too. That move didn't have immediate impact, but for nothing of Jay's doing, the offensive line was in shambles and he couldn't stay on his feet long enough to make a worthwhile decision. And when he did he threw interceptions because he was trying to carry the team and do too much.

Lovie has shown time and time again that this is his team and every single player on the roster respects him. The old phrase goes "A team is the sum of all of its parts" and he has done more with so little in years past than anyone in the NFL. Again, I think Martz and Cutler were finally starting to go places and think you shouldn't mess with much at the top.

This team needs more offensive line help. Gabe Carimi will be a force when he gets healthy next season and Roberto Garza is the backbone of the line. They just need some quality guards. I'm still thinking a true No. 1 receiver is what the team is lacking. On the other side of the ball, there's no getting around the age of the defense. So Angelo will have to draft well for once and get depth at safety and on the defensive line.

So no, Steve Rosenbloom, don't line up the firing squad and start sending everyone packing. Just trim the fat and shore up some places. The team you want to evaluate is the one after 10 games not the one these last four weeks.

What a difference a year makes for Lovie Smith

A year ago this week Chicago Bears President Ted Phillips, General Manager Jerry Angelo and coach Lovie Smith pleaded with fans to accept their explanation for what had gone wrong as the Bears missed the playoffs for the third straight year. Lovie stayed on as coach, but had to give up his defensive coordinator post, handing it over to Rod Marinelli, and Mike Martz was brought on to run the offense. In fact, I was even one of those questioning whether it was right to let Lovie go. And I had been one of the biggest Lovie backers, so that is saying something.
The results this season could not have shown any better the Bears brain trust made the right decision in keeping Lovie on board as coach as the Bears went 11-5 when the "experts" did not see them doing much of anything. Lovie has always had one thing with this Bears team and that is loyalty. There have been zero players speak out against him or show any signs of the players not buying into what he has to dole out. The biggest sell to that end might be from the biggest name on the team, Brian Urlacher. It has become quite known that Urlacher absolutely hates this defense, but he is loyal and it has been shown to be successful so Urlacher buys in and performs at a high level.
Now with Urlacher back in the fold and a division title in hand, Angelo has gone as far as to call this team, the "best football team that we've had" referring to the teams he and Smith have built together, including the one that went to the Super Bowl after the 2006 season.
And amidst Jim Harbaugh getting offered Oprah money to coach in the NFL without ever coaching a game at this level, Lovie, who has one year left on his current contract, stands to cash in. The idea David Haugh at the Chicago Tribune gets by reading between the lines from Angelo is that Smith will cashing in depends on the Bears winning at least one game in these playoffs.
I'm down with that. He's shown the ability to work with what he has and coach them up to get a performance greater than the sum of the parts. And again, even when times got tough over the three seasons, everyone stood behind Lovie and that has to speak for what the locker room thought of him. I'd say he deserves everything he gets.


Speaking of playoffs, the Bears have been given a three-day weekend with the first-round bye meaning Wild Card Weekend has arrived. I told you the other day I would be back to break down the games and make some picks. So here we go.
Let's go in order. We'll start with Saturday's games.
Saints (11-5) @ Seahawks (7-9): A home team is an 11-point dog at home in the playoffs? That's what happens when you're the first team in NFL history to make the playoffs with a losing record. Count the 'Hawks out? Not so fast. Now, they'll get Matt Hasselback back under center which should help, but they'll need EVERY break to go their way on defense in forcing a couple of turnovers to be in this one.
That's why I'm taking Saints.
Jets (11-5) at Colts (10-6): Will someone please shut Rex Ryan up? Yes, you, wearing the No. 18 blue jersey. Peyton Manning! Please, end this loser's face time and send the Jets packing. Maybe I'm not being totally fair here, but I hate how Ryan gets in front of a mic and takes all the attention off the players and onto him. I know that's his ploy, but all those ESPN losers don't even talk about the game. Know this, Manning is 6-1 in games he starts against a Ryan team. The one he lost, last year when he was pulled in the final game of the season.
So give me the Colts and ALL the points. It is personal. Shut this clown up Peyton!
Ravens (12-4) at Chiefs (10-6): We're on to Sunday's games and prior to Matt Cassel getting his face pounded in by the Raiders in Week 17, I'd have picked the Chiefs without hesitation, has they had yet to lose a game at Arrowhead this season. Had they not tried, that would be one thing, but Cassel kept getting sent out there and he threw a pair of INTs. Well, bring the Ravens ball-hawking defense to town and things get a little dicier. The Chiefs are good, don't get me wrong, and they are going to need a lot of Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones (TJ!) to take the pressure off Cassel and I don't think they'll do it.
This will be a close one, but I'm taking the Ravens to go into KC and get the win.
Packers (10-6) at Eagles (10-6): The Packers are 3-5 on the road and the Eagles are 4-4 at home. I don't put much weight in the Week 1 game between the teams as Michael Vick didn't start and it was so long ago that many of the faces on both sides of the ball have changed. So you have to look at what the teams have done lately and how they're trending. Aaron Rodgers played OK in the Bears game, not great, but Vick is a game changer. The difference in the game is not letting him get time to throw. The talk has been not letting him run, well, he hasn't been running that much of late, relying more on his arm and the accuracy he's gained this season. The Packers must get pressure on him in the pocket. I'm talking quick pressure to not let him get the ball to DeShaun Jackson if they want to have a shot in this one.
I'm saying they do and the Eagles defense won't be able to stop the one-sided Packers attack.

As a side note, the NFL's new Playoff Overtime Rule goes into effect this week. Here's a great piece on ESPN.com on the matter that should break it down for you.

Alrighty, on to the Nussie Hunter portion of today's broadcast. The Playmate of the Year competition is heating up quickly and we here at Wilber's Way have a candidate we fully support. Her name is Francesca Frigo. A latin bombshell you can follow on  Twitter, or see more of on Model Mayhem (she linked it) with a sample below!

Lovie Smith: "Trust me." Umm, my patience is running thin!

Bears CEO Ted Phillips


Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo


Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith

First off, Welcome to 2010. As this is the first post of the New Year, I promise to bring it and start the year off with a bang. Lots of goodness and a big announcement coming, too!

I couldn't pick just one of what the Chicago media is calling the "Three Stooges" who stood before that media and Bears fans at Halas Hall in Lake Forest yesterday and contradicted one another and themselves for an hour, so I picked all three.
They promised change, so they fired Ron Turner and six offensive assistants along with opening up the defensive coordinator position.
But sitting through it and reading some take on the press conference, two things were made clear. First, the defensive coordinator will be a "Butt puppet" and second, all the talk on the status quo not being acceptable means nothing if you keep the head coach.
I know the offensive coordinator will likely be allowed to do what he wants to do next season - He'll also be Jay Cutler's fourth offensive coordinator in as many years - the reason Lovie was not fired as coach was not cited during the wreck of a press conference.
The real reason is the looming possibility of a lockout in 2011 that would mean Lovie and likely Jerry Angelo and Ted Phillips, if let go, would collect a check for doing nothing and their successors would do the same. And the McKaskey's can't afford that.
On the football front, this team needs a bit of help on defense, mainly at defensive back, and the offensive line needs to be retooled, AGAIN. And that's after the Bears address the need of a No. 1 wide receiver. And all of this without a No. 1 or No. 2 draft pick this year unless they get creative and start making trades to get picks.
Yeah, they had better get to work because I'm a little apprehensive about the whole thing.


Click here for Part 2.

I know I missed this yesterday, but I cannot pass up a chance to talk about one of my favorite things as a kid. Yes I was a big WWF follower and like the first words out of Bret Hart's mouth "Hell must have frozen over."
"The Hitman" was one of my favorites as a kid and even watching this I felt like it was 1997 again. The Shawn Michaels bit was pretty good, but I HATED with Vince McMahon finish to this segment. What does kicking Bret in the balls say about anything? It says Vince needed to have the last laugh and didn't want Bret to have the moment for himself which was pretty fucking (sorry!) lame.
I'm at least glad Bret finally got back to WWE TV and could pave the way for him to make some sort of Wrestlemania appearance and at least help present his father, Stu Hart.
On top of it all, it made pro wrestling relevant again for the first time time Stone Cold and The Rock quit wrestling about five or six years ago.



Back in July Chad Ochocinco hinted that he'd start his own line of condoms. Well, over the weekend he released the prototype box. I'm not sure what the NFL thinks of this idea, but it's pretty funny if you ask me!

I have a couple videos for you now before I get into what is a pretty big announcement.



I'm all about the military, but these guys aren't that bright!



Scoops Jackson is taking the Interweb by storm. This is one of his best. Look for him at a press conference near you! If you like this, be sure to check this one with Tom Brady... CLASSIC!

Alright, now for this big announcement I've been pushing you to read more and more for. You probably remember Vaughan, who wrote for me a couple months back. Well, he and I, among others, are joining forces to push his sports consulting firm, On The Line Sports, to the next level this year. He's partnering with me here at Wilber's Way to reach out to basketball coaches and players. Be sure to check out the link and head over to his blog. It should be going full strength shortly and we'll have some great content for those looking to get into coaching and play the game of basketball at the highest level.



We can't have the first blog post of the new year without the Nussie Hunter chiming in. He's been following the Howard Stern Show for a bit and over the weekend when it was revealed that Artie Lange was rushed to the hospital. Everyone thought we were going to get updates Monday morning when the show came back from vacation, but that was not the case as Howard was pretty quiet.
Speaking of the Stern Show one Lisa Michelle was name Miss Howard TV for the month of February. I'd say she's well deserving of the title. Take a look for yourself below. Here's more of those...