Chicago Sports

Veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks and young reliever Codi Heuer — both of whom are rehabbing arm injuries — arrived at the Cubs’ spring-training facility in Mesa, Arizona, around the same time in the fall.

”I got to know [Hendricks] pretty well throughout this process,” Heuer said on the phone this week. ”And he’s been a guy I can lean on a little bit, an older guy that I can bounce some stuff off of if I’m feeling down or whatever it may be.”

Battling monotony can be one of the biggest challenges in coming back from an injury such as Heuer’s. He had Tommy John surgery in March. Hendricks hasn’t been sidelined quite as long, but he missed the last three months of last season with a capsular tear in his right shoulder.

Hendricks’ and Heuer’s health might sway the pitching staff’s projections heading into the 2023 season on opposite ends of the equation.

Predicting Heuer’s rehab schedule is more straightforward. He remains on track for a return in late June or early July, 15 to 16 months after his surgery. He’s poised to provide a midseason boost to the back end of the bullpen.

Hendricks’ timeline — and his performance when he eventually steps on the mound again — will affect the order and depth of the rotation.

Hendricks, who finished the season rehabbing at the Cubs’ spring-training complex, didn’t hit his goal of throwing by the end of the season, instead focusing on mechanics and building strength. But pitching coach Tommy Hottovy told the Sun-Times this week that he’s encouraged by Hendricks’ progress. Hendricks is on a regimented throwing program and now is playing catch on flat ground.

”I’m so overly focused on getting Kyle back to being the best version of himself and not rushing it, not pushing it,” Hottovy said in a phone interview. ”Because we all know what Kyle can do when he feels great, when he’s healthy, when he’s locked in.”

In a ”best-case scenario,” Hottovy said, Hendricks will feel great in spring training and be ready to be in the Opening Day rotation. But the Cubs aren’t going to speed up that process for the sake of starting the season with him. They see the depth they’ve built through their farm system and free agency as a means to cover innings if Hendricks needs more time (or in case of an injury to any other starter throughout the season).

If Hendricks isn’t ready by Opening Day, that leaves right-handers Marcus Stroman and Jameson Taillon to serve as the veterans at the top of the rotation. Left-hander Justin Steele, who will be entering his second season as a major-league starter, is set to carry his developmental strides from 2022 into 2023 and play a pivotal role.

The greatest strength of the staff is an element the Cubs lacked early last season: a large group of pitchers who can start, throw multiple innings in relief or, in some cases, serve as depth in Triple-A.

”Where we are right now compared to where we were even a year ago, I feel like we’re starting to have a lot more of a foundation of consistency of guys that we know can go out there and compete, win ballgames,” Hottovy said. ”[We’re] starting to build that championship mentality in that championship group.”

Veteran left-hander Drew Smyly, whom the Cubs re-signed to a two-year deal in recent weeks, has a good chance of beginning the season in the rotation. But he also has experience in the bullpen. Last season, right-hander Keegan Thompson showed value in a multi-inning relief role and growth as a starter.

Right-hander Adbert Alzolay told the Sun-Times at the end of last season that he has enjoyed serving as a high-leverage long reliever. Hottovy said he still ”100%” believes in Alzolay’s ability to start, but the multi-inning reliever role makes sense for managing his innings and health.

As the rotation faced injuries last season, right-handers Adrian Sampson, Hayden Wesneski, Javier Assad and Caleb Kilian filled in, all but Sampson making their major-league debuts. As new Cubs catcher Tucker Barnhart said this week: ”There’s no experience like pitching at the major-league level.”

The Cubs also claimed left-hander Anthony Kay off waivers from the Blue Jays and protected pitching prospects Ryan Jensen and Ben Brown from the Rule 5 Draft by putting them on the 40-man roster.

The offseason isn’t over yet. The Cubs might add more pitching via free agency, and the trade market has yet to pick up. But the most glaring holes on their roster are at the back end of the bullpen.

The team began the process of filling out the bullpen by signing veteran Brad Boxberger to a one-year deal last month. Rookies Brandon Hughes and Jeremiah Estrada showed promise last season. Still, even with Heuer progressing toward a return, expect bullpen additions.

In the meantime, the Cubs’ spring-training complex is buzzing already, and pitchers are well-represented. Heuer arrived in September to throw for the first time in six months — or, as he put it, ”actually feel like a baseball player again.”

Along with him and Hendricks, at least 10 other pitchers on the 40-man roster are based in Arizona or are regulars at the facility.

It’s a mix of a few veterans and a lot of up-and coming pitchers, much like the pitching staff as a whole. And as helpful as it is for the young pitchers to learn from those with more experience, Hottovy sees the dynamic going both ways.

”A lot of the younger guys are probably a little bit more willing to push the envelope to try some new things,” he said. ”And I think that’s good. It’s a really good mix to have.”

NOTE: The Cubs announced a series of roster moves Friday. Catcher P.J. Higgins and first baseman Alfonso Rivas, who were designated for assignment in recent weeks, cleared waivers. The Cubs outrighted Higgins to Triple-A Iowa and granted Rivas his unconditional release.

The team re-signed reliever Brad Wieck to a two-year minor-league contract. Wieck was sidelined all of last season with an elbow injury, undergoing Tommy John surgery in July. He has battled a slew of injuries and has had two heart procedures in his career.

The Cubs also signed catcher Dom Nunez to a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training.

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It was like ”trying to pull nails out of an old log,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said, but wing Patrick Kane finally admitted he needed to sit out Friday.

Still hobbled by a lower-body injury suffered when he was hit by the Sharks’ Evgeny Svechnikov last weekend, Kane’s absence was his first because of injury since 2015.

But even without the services of their leading scorer, the Hawks put together one of their best efforts of the season in a 2-0 victory against the Coyotes.

”It was a complete game,” Richardson said. ”Right from start to finish, I was pretty happy with the performance.”

Defenseman Jake McCabe scored the only non-empty-net goal of the game, the Hawks generated a season-best plus-10 scoring-chance differential and goalie Alex Stalock — who started for the fourth time in the last five games and has leaped past Petr Mrazek for the No. 1 role — stopped all 22 shots he faced.

It was the Hawks’ first shutout in almost a full calendar year. The defensive corps cleanly executed a new tweak Richardson added to the system, but Stalock was — as often has been the case — the Hawks’ best player.

”We boxed out, I got to see the first shot — which is always a bonus — and [we] cleared out any rebounds that were there the rest of the way,” Stalock said. ”It’s the team, man. You can’t do that stuff on your own. [If] you ask any goalie, it’s impossible to do on your own. The group was really good tonight.”

The Hawks deployed top prospect Lukas Reichel alongside Max Domi and Philipp Kurashev on their first line, and Reichel looked noticeably more confident and assertive than in his previous 12 NHL appearances.

But fortunately for Kane — as well as the Hawks’ interests in potentially trading him at some point — his injury doesn’t sound major. He participated in the morning skate Friday.

”I don’t think it’s anything extremely long-term or anything like that,” Kane said. ”So [I’ll] just take it day by day here.

”To be honest with you, I probably could play. But it’s just [in] certain situations, it’s kind of lingering pain. It is what it is right now. But I think I should be through it here quick enough.”

The Hawks’ next game is at home Sunday against the Flames; Kane’s status for that game is iffy. If he sits it out, he’ll have a three-day break to rest and heal before the Avalanche come to town.

World juniors recap

Four Hawks prospects — forward Colton Dach and defensemen Kevin Korchinski, Nolan Allan and Ethan Del Mastro — got gold medals after Canada defeated Czechia to conclude the 2023 world junior championships Thursday.

Dach suffered a scary-looking shoulder injury earlier in the tournament but was on the ice in high spirits for the postgame celebration. He finished with two points in four games. Korchinski had four points, Del Mastro three and Allan two in seven games each, although Korchinski wasn’t as dominant as hoped.

The Hawks’ other tournament participant was Swedish forward Victor Stjernborg, a fourth-round pick in 2021, who recorded two points in seven games, including a massive late goal to lift Sweden past Finland in the quarterfinals.

Among the three top 2023 draft-eligible prospects — Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli and Leo Carlsson — whom the Hawks surely were watching closely, Bedard cemented his status as the slam-dunk No. 1 overall pick. He tore up the tournament and stuffed highlight reels worldwide with a historic 23 points in seven games for Canada.

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PHILADELPHIA – Arturas Karnisovas better be enjoying that view from 50,000 feet.

What exactly the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations is seeing from up there? Anyone’s guess.

Is Karnisovas seeing a team that is a combined 9-2 against Eastern Conference powerhouses Miami, Boston, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, and now Philadelphia after Friday’s 126-112 win at the Wells Fargo Center? Or is he seeing a team that can get up and square off against the big boys, but shows no urgency against lesser competition?

Is he seeing a team that can reach the second round of the playoffs – the bar that Karnisovas set for this team in the fall? Or is he becoming overly enamored by fool’s gold?

With the trade deadline just over a month away and organizations needing to start making decisions, coach Billy Donovan expected to find out what his boss was thinking sooner than later.

“I really like this group a lot,” Donovan said. “I like the way they come to work each day, the way they’re trying to improve. I still believe in the group. I’m in there everyday emotionally with them. [Karnisovas] probably has a 50,000-foot view overlooking everything and we’ll have those conversations, but I feel like in the time being regardless of what happens when that day comes, I feel like my responsibility with our staff and our team is how do we try and become the best version of ourselves more consistently.”

But Donovan also knows that this team has had disappointing moments, specifically losses to the likes of Orlando, San Antonio, and Houston.

That’s why he’s said on several occasions they are consistent at being inconsistent.

“This is who we are,” Donovan said.

Is that worth the gamble of hoping when the playoffs start and the competition is at its best, these Bulls players will again step into the octagon?

Only Karnisovas knows the answer to that with the Feb. 9 trade deadline bearing down.

“We’re both on the same page and think the same way, that there’s these moments we show really good hope and promise, and then there’s times we walk away kind of scratching our heads sometimes,” Donovan said. “For me as a coach, you’re trying to find those buttons to get us to play more consistently, and obviously they’ve got to take that responsibility, we all do. When we get closer to the date, as [Karnisovas is] evaluating the team and watching the team, I’m sure those conversations will get a little deeper of how he feels.”

He had to feel good in the win over the 76ers, as the Bulls improved to 18-21 on the season, led by a 41-point outburst from Zach LaVine, including a 19-point third quarter, and a ridiculous 11-of-13 from three-point range.

“You just fall into it,” LaVine said of his night. “I’m confident with all the shots I take, and eventually you make a couple in a row, you’re like, ‘OK.’ After that it’s just target practice.”

The one asterisk with the win that ended a Philadelphia 11-game home win streak, however, was Joel Embiid was sidelined with a sore foot. The same Joel Embiid that has never lost to the Bulls in his career, posting a 12-0 record against them, as well as averaging 29.1 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game in those wins.

So add this win to a list of reasons to keep this roster intact and maybe even be buyers in a few weeks? LaVine had his opinion.

“At our best, we showed what we can be last year [at this time],” LaVine said. “We were the number one team in the East. At our best, we’re one of the best teams in the league.

“That’s for them to decide. Each and every night I go out there, and we’ve won with less before so I’m not worried about our roster.”

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Nate Kasher is the only starter that didn’t score in the double digits for Glenbrook South on Friday in Glenview.

But the junior flew headfirst into a drumset to save a ball from going out of bounds. Kasher’s dive and backward hurl of the ball led to a basket and symbolized the hustle and belief that is growing in the Titans.

“I was just trying to make a play,” Kasher said. “Glenbrook North never goes away no matter how far ahead we are.”

This was supposed to be Glenbrook North’s year. Fans of both teams packed the Titan Dome and were likely surprised to see that not much has changed. Glenbrook South still controls the rivalry, winning 63-48 against the No. 25 Spartans.

“Some things have clicked,” Titans senior Gaven Marr said. “We’ve really found how we can play together.”

Marr scored 21 points and grabbed five rebounds. Fellow senior RJ Davis added 15 points and nine rebounds and Josh Wolf added 11 points. Nick Taylor, a 6-7 junior, finished with 10 points and six rebounds for Glenbrook South.

“I’m going to have to go back into my stats but I’m not sure I have had a team that has had six different high scorers in a season,” Titans coach Phil Ralston said. “If you think you’re going to come after us by taking away Gaven or RJ we’ve got Nick Taylor and several other guys that are capable of stepping up and scoring. Josh Wolf has been en fuego the past several weeks.”

Glenbrook South (14-4, 2-2 CSL South) led by nine at halftime. Ryan Cohen opened the third quarter with a three-pointer that pulled Glenbrook South within six.

That’s when Kasher dove into the band to save the ball. The Titans just extended their lead from then on.

“Glenbrook North is still a really good team,” Davis said. “But it’s definitely a statement win for us. People doubted us this year.”

Cohen led the Spartans (14-2, 3-1) with 23 points and seven rebounds. Point guard Josh Fridman scored 16 points. The junior is one of the area’s most talented floor generals but Glenbrook South was able to keep him from running the show as effectively as usual.

“Our switching is something that helps us keep him in front,” Ralston said. “And we make sure we are playing good gap defense on drives. For the most part our kids did a brilliant job of making everything tough for Josh.”

Glenbrook North has been ranked all season and headed into the championship game of the Wheeling Holiday Tournament last week on a 14-game winning streak. The Spartans were upset by Libertyville in that title game and have now dropped two consecutive games.

Glenbrook South, which had its best season in school history last season, was expected to be rebuilding a bit after Nick Martinelli and Cooper Noard graduated.

Instead, the Titans will be a threat to win the sectional again. Two of their four losses were to Rolling Meadows. The second loss, by ten points at the York Holiday Tournament, was the Mustangs’ toughest game in the tournament.

“We take things one day at a time,” Ralston said. “But if we compete like this we can definitely compete with every team in our sectional.”

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PHILADELPHIA – Billy Donovan saw it every March in his days at the University of Florida.

Styles make the fight in basketball, and March Madness was the greatest example of that.

“Just being in college a long time, it happened a lot in the NCAA Tournament,” Donovan said on Friday. “Sometimes you get these matchups where, ‘This is just a hard matchup for us,’ or ‘We’re going to be a hard matchup for them.’ I think that happens in the playoffs in the NBA, and sometimes it happens in the course of the regular season.”

That’s also what he’s seen his current Bulls roster go through this season, with the recent home-and-home series with Cleveland the best example of that.

The Bulls lost two close games to the Cavaliers, and did so with a very familiar formula. Two athletic bigs that hurt them on the glass.

“I definitely think with the way your personnel is there are matchups that can be very, very difficult,” Donovan said. “There’s no question about that. Both Cleveland games you’re playing against a team that’s really, really big, and then against Brooklyn we didn’t get hurt as much on the boards. Certainly for any team there’s styles, there’s personnel that create different challenges and difficulties for you.”

No wonder the Bulls were thrilled to see 76ers big man Joel Embiid sidelined another game with a sore left foot. That left Philadelphia going very small, starting PJ Tucker in the middle.

Green day

Javonte Green missed his 11th game with soreness in his right knee, and wasn’t expected back anytime soon, according to Donovan.

Green had been in and out of the lineup since the beginning of December with the injury, so the decision was made to shut him down for about a week, rehab him, and then evaluate where exactly he’s at.

“Just the knee soreness he’s dealing with, they’re trying to do some intervention and some treatment for him that they’re hoping inside a week or so they can make some progress and feel better,” Donovan said. “He’s certainly not at that place today. When a week or so passes by, they’ll look and evaluate to see, ‘OK, has this really helped him or not?’ ”

Green said the other day he was frustrated with the continued setbacks.

The Bulls were also without Alex Caruso, after he tried to warm up in the pregame and test the right ankle sprain, but couldn’t go.

Drumm tolls

Veteran Andre Drummond never wanted to leave Philadelphia last February, and admitted on Friday that he felt blindsided when he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets in the blockbuster James Harden-Ben Simmons swap.

“I was definitely blindsided, but things happen and here we are,” Drummond said.

That didn’t take away how much he enjoyed his short time in the City of Brotherly Love.

“I think about how much a family this organization is,” Drummond said. “They welcomed me and made me feel very comfortable when I got here. We had one common goal, which was to win as many games as possible. Sad that we had to break things up in February. Definitely miss playing here. Had a lot of fun playing for [coach] Doc [Rivers], and someone I knew since I was a boy. I have so much respect for him. The city of Philadelphia, man, the fan base, is one of a kind. I loved it here.”

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The Bears have bottomed out, not just in the wake of their 2018 run to the NFC North title but to one of the worst seasons in franchise history. If they lose to the Vikings on Sunday, their 3-14 record will outdo only their 1-13 mark in 1969.

It sounds horrible to sit through, but it hasn’t been. And that’s because of Justin Fields.

Amid the slog, including the current franchise-worst nine-game losing streak, Fields has been a bright spot. He wasn’t good enough overall to lift them out of the bottom tier of NFL offenses and he finished last in the league in yards passing, but he was electric. Fields is the most fun quarterback the Bears have had since the gutsy, boisterous Jim McMahon.

Fields’ big-play potential, mostly as a runner, made the season watchable. Games were worth your attention because of the ever-present possibility that he’d do something amazing.

He became just the third quarterback in NFL history to rush for 1,000 yards and set the single-game regular-season record for a quarterback by burning the Dolphins for 178 in November.

He had seven runs of 30-plus yards and seven completions that went for 40 or more.

It seemed impossible that the Bears would finish with this bad of a record unless Fields was a disaster, but that’s where they’ve arrived by having so little around him.

Fields still has a ways to go, but there’s no denying he has progressed.

Establishing himself as the NFL’s most overwhelming runner at the position is just one part of the equation, but it’s a big one. Matt Nagy never wanted him to run. Matt Eberflus and Luke Getsy were resistant at first, then realized they were taking away a strength.

Fields said he doesn’t plan on rushing for 1,000 yards every season and he probably shouldn’t, but there also shouldn’t be a negative connotation to proclaiming him an elite runner. That’s a great weapon.

The next step for him, though, is to make that a secondary weapon. To do that, he needs to become far more prolific as a passer.

Of the seven quarterbacks who have run for more than 400 yards this season, Fields is the only one who has gotten more than 26% of his total yardage output on the ground. Of his 3,385 combined yards rushing and passing, 33.8% came as a runner.

By contrast, MVP candidates Jalen Hurts of the Eagles and Josh Allen of the Bills have gotten 82.3% and 84.2%, respectively, of their totals by passing. Even in Lamar Jackson’s 2019 MVP season, he averaged 208.5 yards passing per game, and rushing accounted for 27.8% of his total yardage.

Fields leads all quarterbacks, and the Bears’ entire team, at 76.2 yards rushing per game, but sits last among NFL starters at 149.5 yards passing per game. His incredible agility and speed are integral, but he must tilt his game toward being a far more productive passer.

His passing output was low, but more efficient than what he showed as a rookie.

After a brutal first four games, Fields put up a 96.9 passer rating over the next 10. In that stretch, he completed 65.7% of his passes, averaged 169.6 yards passing per game and threw 14 touchdowns versus six interceptions.

That suggests growth. It also sparks a debate over how much of his paltry stats could be attributed to the Bears’ inadequate offensive line and skill players. Increases in talent at those spots would theoretically lead to increases in Fields’ production.

This is the last time growth will be good enough, though. Starting next season, when the Bears won’t be stripping their roster and prioritizing the future, he has to be simply good. If he’s still a thrilling playmaker, but can’t do it consistently enough to be one of the most productive quarterbacks in the NFL, that won’t get the Bears where they want to go.

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The Bears went to their backup quarterback twice this season, and both times it immediately rendered the game pointless.

First there was the fiasco against the Jets in which they acted as though starting Justin Fields was a legitimate possibility all the way until the morning of the game, then Trevor Siemian strained an oblique muscle in warmups and took himself out of consideration. That paved the way for practice-squad callup Nathan Peterman to make his first start since 2018.

Peterman’s thrill lasted maybe an hour before Siemian essentially decided he needed to tough it out and play anyway.

The result was a 31-10 Jets blowout.

Peterman finally will get that opportunity Sunday when the Bears face the Vikings to close the season. They ruled out Fields with a hip injury, though he played through it last week against the Lions, and Tim Boyle will be the backup.

It’s such a bad scenario for the Bears that it raised the question of whether they were intent on losing. Given that they could jump to the No. 1 pick with a loss and a Texans win over the Colts, perhaps it’s best for them to roll with Peterman and Boyle.

But one day, hopefully next season, these games will matter. And the Bears’ backup plan for Fields can’t ever look like this again.

That’s important for any team, but particularly one that relies so heavily on Fields as a runner. He missed four starts with two different injuries as a rookie, then two more this season with a separated shoulder and this hip strain.

But what happens when he misses a couple games next season with a potential playoff berth on the line? Imagine depending on Siemian or Peterman in that situation.

The other frustrating aspect of this is that there’s no upside with Siemian (31) or Peterman (28). The Bears are Siemian’s sixth team and Peterman’s third. It’s clear what the ceiling is for both of them, and it’s quite low.

If the Bears had a developmental quarterback on the roster, perhaps a late-round draft pick, their game against the Vikings would be moderately intriguing because of curiosity to see what they have.

The Ravens offer a smart alternative to what the Bears are doing. Behind Lamar Jackson, the only quarterback on par with Fields as a runner, they’re trying to develop Tyler Huntley and Anthony Brown.

Neither has proven amazing, but they check two key boxes in big-picture strategy: they’re young and they play a similar style as Jackson. That means the Ravens don’t have to alter their offense when Huntley or Brown steps in, and if either of them turned into a starting-caliber quarterback, the team would have a valuable trade asset.

Huntley kept the Ravens afloat by going 2-2 while Jackson was out with a knee injury and will start their finale against the Bengals on Sunday. He and Brown were undrafted finds out of Utah and Oregon, respectively.

It’s an important enough position that the Bears would be wise to spend as high as a fourth-round pick on it. It’s a win-win if they have a quality backup with a similar skillset and develop him into a player they can flip for a higher draft pick. The Patriots did it multiple times when they had Tom Brady.

In a season with nothing at stake in the standings, it didn’t matter that the Bears had no one viable behind Fields. And for this game, Peterman is perfectly suited to steer them to the outcome they really need. But it won’t always be like this, and the Bears need a sturdier plan starting next season.

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My sons have just started to love football.

We play in our living room. The couch is the endzone. I loft the ball so it doesn’t hit the ceiling, all three of us watching as it floats down to their small, outstretched hands.

Touchdown.

Touchdown.

Touchdown.

I put the Bears on and they scrunch next to me. They say “Are we doing good?” I say, “No” (usually). They’re still learning. I say: “That’s the quarterback. That’s the running back.” They say: “That’s the tackling back.”

They say: “Do we look like them when we jump?”

Last Monday night, Buffalo played Cincinnati and Damar Hamlin’s heart stopped after he made a tackle. He stood up. He stepped toward his teammates. Then he fell, his body toppling over like a toddler who has fallen asleep standing.

The first person to notice was an opponent, who pointed to the body on the ground. Medics reached him there, on his back at the 48-yard line. For nine minutes, they performed CPR on his unconscious body. They breathed air into his lungs. They shocked his chest to restart his heart.

Hamlin’s mother was there, in the stadium. Hamlin hugged her before the game. She would have seen his body crumple. She would have seen her son laying on the ground.

Players from both sides formed a circle, many crying or kneeling in prayer, to protect him: from harm and from the view of everyone who’d paid to watch his body move. From us.

What happened to Hamlin is not normal. But football players getting hurt is.

A month ago, on the same field, Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa took a hit to the head so hard his unconscious fingers splayed in the fencing position, a reflex of newborns.

There have been seven professional football games in Cincinnati this year. During two, ambulances have carried men from the field to the University of Cincinnati Hospital. It’s the same hospital where, five years ago, Ryan Shazier was taken from a game, paralyzed after a hit. It is possible someone who works there could have seen all three of those stretchers come in. What would that person think about football?

My sons did not see it. But they will. If they watch football, they will see bodies breaking. They will see people getting hurt.

Many are angry at league bosses, who may have tried to restart play after the injury. The feel-good story is coaches and players coming together to say: Not tonight.

The other feel-good story is Hamlin’s GoFundMe: A toy drive he organized two years ago with a goal of $2,500, a number so precious it reminds you he is — like almost every NFL player — very young, not famous and not rich. Now it has raised over $7 million.

Those stories do feel good. But then what? How will that next play be different from the last one? How will the game affect the bodies of the next players differently than the last ones?

I am mad at NFL bosses — for this, for their racist collusion against Colin Kaepernick, for their callous reaction, over and over, to violence against women by men.

But football is us, the fans. It’s our money, every dollar, that makes the owners rich. It is us that puts these men on the field, that asks them to make their bodies bigger, to hit each other harder. What we give to Hamlin’s charity does not pay down our debt.

If there is going to be a change, we have to make it. If the game does not change, we have to stop watching. I love football, but we cannot take this game with us unless it becomes different.

Damar Hamlin is 24 years old and he is alive. For three days he was unconscious, in a hospital bed, with a tube in his throat bringing oxygen into his body. Now he’s awake. I hope he’s okay.

The last thing he knows is 2nd down at Cincinnati’s 39-yard line. Hamlin’s position is safety. His job is to bring down the man coming toward him. He’s the tackling back. And he did it. The last thing he did is make the play.

My sons don’t know all this, but they see me on my phone.

“Are you watching football?” they ask, coming over to watch with me.

“Are we doing good?”

Seth Lavin is the principal at Brentano Elementary Math & Science Academy in Logan Square.

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What does Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones think about the NHL rule requiring one player from every team to participate in the All-Star Game?

“That’s probably why I got nominated this year,” he responded.

Indeed, Jones has no disillusions about why he’s headed to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on Feb. 3-4 for his fifth career All-Star appearance. It’s simply because someone from the last-place Hawks had to go.

But for the record, he does understand the logic behind the rule, even if it does lead to many deserving players not receiving invites.

“Before this rule happened, the whole starting lineup was Hawks, including [Corey] Crawford in net, for the West [in 2015],” Jones said. “So you could have situations still like that. Say Colorado, you could easily have [Mikko] Rantanen, [Nathan] MacKinnon and [Cale] Makar. It depends. Some guys are going to get the short end of the stick every year.”

Jones will join Makar, Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey, Stars forward Jason Robertson, Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov, Coyotes forward Clayton Keller, Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko and Predators goalie Juuse Saros on this year’s Central Division All-Star team, announced Thursday.

Three additional players in each division will be determined by fan vote in the coming weeks — but inevitably, there will be some snubs.

Predators defenseman Roman Josi is objectively more deserving than Jones, for example, but Saros’ selection excluded him. Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl has almost twice as many points as Ducks All-Star forward Troy Terry (60 vs. 32), but Connor McDavid was obviously chosen over him.

On the other hand, the NHL’s diverse selection process ensures all fans headed to the All-Star weekend festivities — hosted by the Panthers this winter — have someone to root for. There are pros and cons.

“It’s always a fun time,” Jones said. “You play three-on-three hockey in front of a good crowd and showcase your skill.”

Jones hinted he would’ve had more fun if his vacation during the preceding week — the Hawks’ bye week — hadn’t been “cut short” by his sudden commitments in Florida, but he will be a good sport about it.

He won’t use this hollow selection to hype himself up, though. He remained as self-critical as usual when evaluating on Friday his season so far.

“It has been up and down,” he said. “Offensively, I don’t like the numbers I have. And then it has been a struggle defensively, as a team in general, keeping the puck out of our net. … We haven’t gotten a lot of ‘O’-zone time this year as a team, so [I’m focusing on] just taking advantage of when I do have that time.”

Hawks coach Luke Richardson has noticed Jones’ attitude.

“He’s probably disappointed more than anybody,” Richardson said. “I talked to him [Thursday] and just said, ‘Hey, it’s looking up. You scored last game.'”

Jones entered Friday ranked 13th among NHL defensemen in ice time, averaging 24:41 per game, but his results have been poor. Not only does he rank 85th in points per minute but his 41.1% scoring-chance ratio (at five-on-five) ranks 172nd out of 185 defensemen total.

That’s much more of a Hawks problem than a Jones problem — just like his All-Star selection was much more because of his teammates’ mediocrity than his excellence. But both are realities nonetheless.

“He’s such a good skater that he can join a rush later on [rather] than early on,” Richardson said. “[But] then we turn the puck over, and he’s scrambling back and now he’s tired. If he does that for 27 minutes…that’s a lot. That affects his game. We just want to bring him back.

“He can’t be the savior for everybody on this team. He’s just got to play his position, play it well, and we’ve got to do our job around him.”

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Is this David Montgomery’s final game with the Chicago Bears?

The Chicago Bears will have a decision to make on running back David Montgomery in terms of bringing him back on a new deal or letting him go in free agency.

Montgomery is in the final year of his rookie deal and could hit free agency this offseason. The former Iowa State running back has spent the past four seasons in Chicago but it appears as if that’s going to change.

On Friday ahead of the Week 18 finale against Minnesota, Montgomery had an interesting caption on his Instagram post potentially hinting that this is indeed his last game with the team:

Now, this very well could be it’s the last ride for the 2022 season. But with the Bears also having Khalil Herbert, drafting Trestan Ebner and signing Darrynton Evans, their plan could be clear.

Montgomery has racked up 3,588 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns while averaging 4.0 yards per attempt in his career. He has been hit with some injuries but overall has been a reliable back for the Bears.

Will Bears opt to re-sign David Montgomery?

The problem Ryan Poles faces is if he should pay a running back a second contract or not. Montgomery’s projected value is at $7.2M per year on a three-year deal per Spotrac. The Bears have a lot of cap to work with next year but Montgomery also isn’t a player this regime brought in.

I guess time will tell if this is the last ride for the running back in Chicago.

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