Chicago Sports

For Equanimeous St. Brown, the decision was an easy one: he wanted to stay with the Bears next year, and the team wanted him back.

That’s all that went into the receiver’s decision to sign a one-year, $1.25 million contract extension Wednesday that will keep him with the Bears through next season.

“This is our first time together as a team — a lot of new players, a lot of new coaches,” he said Thursday. “I think we have something to build off. Our run game has been good, our pass game has struggled a little bit, but I think as the season has gone on it’s gotten better. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I think we’ll be ready for next year.”

He’s had modest success in his lone season with the Bears. He needs one catch and eight yards Sunday to tie career highs in both categories: 21 receptions for 328 yards, set his rookie year in 2018.

St. Brown knows the Bears’ playbook better than anyone, though, having played for offensive coordinator Luke Getsy with the Packers. The Bears value receivers who run-block perhaps more than any other team in the NFL, and St. Brown ranks seventh in the NFL in Pro Football Focus’ run-blocking grades at the position. Receivers coach Tyke Tolbert called him “dependable” Thursday, the highest honor a coach can bestow.

“We’re building on something here, and I feel like the coaching staff and the organization likes me,” St. Brown said. “I like it here, I’m happy here, so I want to stay here.”

This and that

o Bears quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko wouldn’t rule out quarterback Tim Boyle coming off the bench to play some snaps Sunday, but said the decision was up to head coach Matt Eberflus. Nathan Peterman will start.

o Safety Jaquan Brisker, who missed Wednesday’s walkthrough for personal reasons, returned to practice. Cornerback Kyler Gordon was limited with a groin issue.

o Defensive tackle Angelo Blackson missed practice with an illness. Cornerback Jaylon Jones (concussion) and linebacker Sterling Weatherford (illness) remain out.

o Long snapper Patrick Scales missed practice with a neck injury. The Bears signed snapper Kameron Canaday to the practice squad Tuesday.

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The week of holiday tournaments provided a fun and traditional week of high school basketball across the state. But this first full weekend of action in the new year promises to be a whopper.

Here is the Weekend Forecast and picks.

Downers Grove North (12-1) at Lyons (11-1)

A pair of talented one-loss teams in a huge conference showdown to kickstart the new year.

Downers Grove North has been far from the limelight, cruising in the easy-to-forget East Aurora Holiday Tournament and a schedule lacking a big stage up to this point.

As an early unbeaten team, Lyons was in the same predicament — until it made a run over the holidays at the Jack Tosh Holiday Tournament at York. The Lions won four games and walloped ranked St. Ignatius along the way before falling to Rolling Meadows in the championship game.

This is one of those regular-season games with a big stage. The question is how ready is Downers Grove North as it moves up a weight class? The Trojans will learn a lot about themselves this weekend with key West Suburban Silver matchups with Lyons and Hinsdale Central.

DGN is led by guard Jack Stanton. He’s among the better juniors in the state and is averaging 16.2 points. Max Haack, 6-5 Jacob Bozeman and 6-8 junior Jake Riemer all chip in between seven to eight points a game.

The difference in this one is Lyons’ strength in its older players. Led by Niklas Polonowski, the Penn recruit, the Lions lean heavily on five seniors. The unselfishness leads to balance as the 6-5 Polonowski, guard Jackson Niego, Graham Smith, Connor Carroll and Matthew DeSimone share the load.

The pick: Lyons 56, Downers Grove North 52

Glenbrook North (14-1) at Glenbrook South (13-4)

There are always important, key matchups each week in the Central Suburban League South. But the GBN-GBS battle takes on a little more significance than what’s at first glance.

First, it’s a rivalry.

Second, GBS already has two league losses and can’t afford another one at this juncture if it hopes to stay in the league race.

And third, GBN has another huge tussle less than 24 hours later against highly-ranked St. Ignatius. A loss to GBS, followed by a loss to Ignatius on Saturday, and suddenly a red-hot Spartans team that began 14-0 would be riding a three-game losing streak.

GBN, led by veteran scoring guard Ryan Cohen and junior point guard Josh Fridman, is coming off its first loss of the season. The Spartans were upset by Libertyville in the Wheeling Hardwood Classic final. But this is still a ranked team that owns a conference win over Evanston and has its eyes set on a CSL South title.

Glenbrook South has four losses but two of them came to Rolling Meadows. Nick Taylor has been playing some really good basketball in leading the Titans. An all-tournament selection at York, the 6-6 Taylor is strong, active and versatile. But it’s a balanced team among Taylor, Rodell Davis, Jr., Josh Wolf and Gaven Marr, and one that should only get better as this season progresses.

The pick: Glenbrook North 64, Glenbrook South 57

Benet (16-1) at St. Patrick (10-4)

Times have changed in this East Suburban Catholic Conference. No longer is it one-and-done with each opponent in the ESCC. Every team plays each another twice within the league instead of the most recent eight-game schedule.

But what we know through December in the ESCC is this: Benet remains an overwhelming favorite.

With Marian Catholic already sitting with three league losses, it’s St. Patrick and Marist holding on to hope it can knock Benet off its perch atop the league. That will be a tall task. Benet gets both St. Pat’s and Marist this weekend. A sweep and Benet will have a two-game lead over everyone.

Benet thoroughly impressed everyone at Pontiac — and that was without a typically sound shooting team shooting the ball that well. The Redwings shot just an OK 32 percent from three in the four games on Pontiac, yet made it to the final and gave Simeon everything it could handle.

While Benet’s Niko Abusara, Brayden Fagbemi and Brady Kunka have led this team at different points this season, the role players did their job in Pontiac. That has included some additional scoring from the likes of Sam Driscoll and Patrick Walsh.

St. Patrick, who are led by senior guard Andrew Ayeni and sophomore EJ Breland, gets a shot at the league’s top team on its home floor. If it wants to pull off the upset, juniors Antoine Thomas and Harper Krolak will be keys.

The pick: Benet 55, St. Patrick 45

Decatur MacArthur (15-0) at Sacred Heart-Griffin (11-0)

We go outside the Chicago area for one Weekend Forecast. There is a big one in central Illinois Friday night in a battle of unbeaten teams. Both are ranked among the top Class 3A teams in the state.

SHG, the defending Class 3A state champs, are better than ever. They bring it defensively and still have the potent combination of 6-5 Zack Hawkinson and guard Jake Hamilton.

MacArthur is on a roll. The Generals, who knocked off Bolingbrook back in November, took care of Belleville East and Quincy to win the Collinsville Holiday Tournament. Athletic big man Makhi Wright is the headliner while 6-1 senior Chase Cunningham and 6-2 senior Azarion Richardson, who came up big in the Collinsville title game with a game-high 19 points, are two perimeter weapons.

The pick: SHG 67, MacArthur 59

Saturday

Brother Rice (14-2) vs. Bolingbrook (10-4) at DePaul Prep

A terrific non-conference battle as both Brother Rice and Bolingbrook are ranked among the top 20 teams — Rice at No. 10 and the ‘Brook at No. 18. Both, however, came up short in key holiday tournament tests last week.

Brother Rice was stunned in the second round by Mesa (AZ) at the State Farm Classic in Bloomington. Bolingbrook fell to Rolling Meadows, 76-61, in the semifinals at York.

The allure of this one from an individual standpoint is the battle in the backcourt between two Division I guards. Bolingbrook’s Mekhi Cooper, a Miami-Ohio recruit, and Brother Rice’s Ahmad Henderson, who is headed to Niagara, are dynamic scoring point guards.

The pick: Brother Rice 60, Bolingbrook 57

Joliet West (12-4) vs. Rolling Meadows (16-1) at DePaul Prep

The game of the weekend. It’s a battle of two highly-ranked teams with monster aspirations this season. But it’s also a fun one for fans in that it features the two best senior prospects in the state: Cameron Christie of Rolling Meadows and Jeremy Fears, Jr., of Joliet West.

Rolling Meadows is fresh off an impressive five-win run at York, where it handled each team in convincing fashion and all by double digits. Joliet West, meanwhile, left Pontiac with a bad taste in its mouth after losses to Benet and Curie.

Christie was sensational at York, winning tournament MVP honors while shooting it at a high clip and averaging 26 points a game. But Rolling Meadows is more than just the future Minnesota Golden Gopher. There is size and scoring punch with 6-7 Tsvet Sotoriv and 6-8 Mark Nikolich-Wilson. Plus, it has a defensive stopper in the physical Foster Ogbonna. It will be interesting to see which Fears brother Ogbonna is matched up against.

Jeremy Fears Jr., the Michigan State recruit, and super sophomore Jeremiah Fears are a terrific and potent 1-2 combo in the backcourt. The Tigers, however, will need a big effort from 6-8 big man Matthew Moore inside. And their defensive pressure must create some havoc and present problems for Rolling Meadows and get the Mustangs out of their comfort zone.

Expect nothing less than a down-to-the-wire finish. But Joliet West just seems to be due — and in need — of a big-time performance and win. Tigers in a thriller.

The pick: Joliet West 65, Rolling Meadows 64

Simeon (12-0) vs. Imhotep Charter (9-1) at Highland Shootout

The top-ranked team in the state will get its biggest test to date in the Highland Shootout. In fact, this is the most challenging weekend of the year for the unbeaten Wolverines. Might this be the weekend we see a glimpse of mortality in unbeaten Simeon?

Coach Robert Smith’s team faces Indianapolis Cathedral Friday night. Then Simeon will travel Saturday to the Highland Shootout in Southern Illinois to square off with a national power.

Imhotep won its eighth state championship — and second straight Philadelphia Public League championship — last season under coach Andre Noble. And all the key pieces returned.

The Philadelphia powerhouse is ranked No. 7 in the country by MaxPreps and No. 10 by ESPN. They won the prestigious City of Palms Classic in Florida last month. The Panthers are coming off their first loss of the season, however, losing to Long Island Lutheran last week in the Jordan Holiday Classic.

Justin Edwards, a 6-7 Kentucky recruit, is the No. 2 ranked player in the country. The backcourt is stellar with Florida Gulf Coast recruit Rahmir Barno and 6-2 Ahmad Nowell, one of the top 35 junior prospects in the country.

Yes, Simeon can play with anyone in the country. But Simeon really needs all hands on deck to beat the best, which it won’t have with Kaiden Space’s injury. The Wolverines will have their hands full with a team that boasts size, Division I talent and is more than prepared with the schedule and big-time events Imhotep has played.

The pick: Imhotep 68, Simeon 62

Bloom (9-3) vs. Kenwood (12-2) at Hyde Park

The featured game at the nine-game event at Hyde Park.

Even with a fifth-place tournament finish, Bloom gained some confidence with how it played in going 3-1 at Pontiac. The Blazing Trojans compete and play hard. More importantly, each Dante Maddox’s team, led by the backcourt of Jordan Brown and Raeshom Harris, played with more consistency.

While there is some Bloom length and athleticism to combat Kenwood’s endless amount of it, this is going to be a massive challenge. Dai Dai Ames is a high-scoring guard headed to Kansas State. But he’s just the beginning. Kenwood is loaded with talent and depth, peeved from its Proviso West Holiday Tournament title game loss to Young, and will be playing in its backyard at Hyde Park.

The pick: Kenwood 70, Bloom 59

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Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a five-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will see some snow showers and a high near 34 degrees. Similar weather is expected tonight with a low near 32. Expect scattered flurries tomorrow — also with a high near 34.

Top story

Schools masking absenteeism by misreporting truant CPS students as transfers, dropouts, IG says

There appear to be widespread problems with the tracking of truant students at Chicago Public Schools, according to an inspector general report released this morning that said chronic absenteeism is likely being masked by some administrators aiming to make their schools look better.

The misreporting of truant students as missing, dropouts or outgoing transfers in many cases means schools didn’t properly check on children’s whereabouts and attempt to re-engage them with their classes as required, the report said. The investigation looked at issues prior to the pandemic but the practice likely worsened when schools closed and, by some estimates, CPS needed to reconnect with up to 100,000 children who weren’t regularly engaged with school.

There’s a reason administrators might want to hide truancies: The district’s school rating system, currently suspended and under reform, has penalized schools for high absenteeism and dropout rates. Critics have often called the rating system punitive and inequitable.

“The schools are entrusted to provide this information to the district. And at the same time, they are rated on absenteeism, and they have an incentive to have a low absenteeism rate,” Inspector General Will Fletcher said in an interview. “It calls for better centralized monitoring and oversight of the data that’s coming out of those schools. And thus far, we haven’t seen that happen.”

CPS spokeswoman Mary Fergus said in a statement that the district is creating a team to improve data reporting around transfers and dropouts and support students and schools on transfers.

The investigation, included in the CPS Office of Inspector General’s annual report that details its biggest cases of the past year, reviewed records from the 2018-19 school year, the last full one before the pandemic. State law and CPS policy require accurate recordkeeping of any student who leaves a school’s enrollment.

Investigators started with an unnamed elementary school that reported a particularly high rate of transfers, saying administrators there “deliberately miscoded students who were truant as transfers or lost children so that these students’ absences would not count against the school’s attendance rate.” A school culture coordinator and two clerks were found to have been regularly removing truant students from enrollment by recording them as transfers, the report said. In one school year, 20 kids were recorded as transfers but the school had no supporting documentation. Emails showed that in many cases, staff knew the student was actually truant.

Truant students who are mislabeled as transfers are unlikely to receive the support and re-engagement efforts from the district as they otherwise would.

The investigation further found evidence that these problems spread district-wide and “call into question the reliability of transfer and dropout data that CPS uses in calculating key metrics such as attendance and graduation rates.” A review of 100 schools’ records found 36 that had falsely reported to CPS that they had verified a student transfer. In those cases, the schools didn’t have the required records showing the student had actually transferred to a new school.

That misreporting was originally flagged by CPS officials when the district began auditing schools’ self-reported transfer data in 2018.

Our Nader Issa and WBEZ’s Sarah Karp have more here.

More news you need

A witness told investigators a 9-year-old boy pointed a gun at his head and accidentally shot himself inside a crowded Washington Heights home on New Year’s Day, according to a police report. The account of the shooting came from another child who told investigators that Jarvis Watts was playing with the gun when it went off Sunday evening inside a bedroom at a home, the report states.The mother of 8-year-old Cooper Roberts has shared new details about his recovery after he was wounded six months ago in the July 4 parade massacre in Highland Park. Cooper was shot in his spine and paralyzed below his waist in the shooting. Our David Struett has more on Cooper’s recovery here.One of the country’s most influential civil rights organizations has sent a scathing letter to city officials insisting a Chicago police officer be fired for associating with members of the far-right Proud Boys then lying to investigators. The Southern Poverty Law Center said CPD must do a better job rooting out extremism in its ranks.A businessman convicted in an extortion trial nearly five years ago that revolved around the “vicious” beating of a west suburban restaurant owner over a $50,000 debt has been sentenced to six years in prison. The 39-year-old has already served much of that time, having been held in custody since his May 2018 conviction, our Jon Seidel reports.Following an FDA rule change expanding the availability of abortion pills earlier this week, both Walgreens and CVS say they will seek certification to distribute one of the medications. Once certified, both drugstore chains will be able to fill prescriptions for mifepristone, which can be used to terminate a pregnancy up to 10 weeks along.Today’s CPS inspector general report also touched on the district’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program, noting freshman enrollment in the controversial military-run training program has plummeted. The drop comes after CPS leaders cracked down on schools that were effectively forcing first-year students to participate, the report said.Additionally, CPS’ watchdog reported today that district officials are trying to recoup more than $56,000 from a family who’s accused of lying about their residency to send their daughter to a highly competitive city high school. The student attended Northside College Prep from 2019 until last month, but actually lived with her mother in suburban Lincolnwood, the report said.Some two dozen tenants who say they were left shivering inside their chilly Logan Square apartments for two weeks in December are withholding half a month’s rent in protest. The renters say they shouldn’t have to pay rent for the two weeks their apartments weren’t habitable, our Stefano Esposito reports.An Oak Park building where clergy once lived has been transformed into an emergency overnight shelter. The shelter at 38 N. Austin Blvd. will serve a hot dinner and a continental-style breakfast to up to 10 guests, who will also receive a bagged lunch when they leave.With a very literal backdrop of the 95th Street Bridge on the Southeast Side, Vice President Kamala Harris was in Chicago yesterday to tout the impact of the Biden administration’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure law. The funding includes a $144 million grant to rehab four bridges along the Calumet River.A Louisiana man has filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines, accusing the carrier of committing breach of contract when it offered him and other passengers credit instead of refunds for flights canceled during last month’s winter storm. The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed in New Orleans federal court on Dec. 30 by Eric Capdeville, is seeking damages for passengers on flights canceled since Christmas Eve.

A bright one

Search is on for Chicago’s first poet laureate

Chicago is looking for its first official poet laureate.

The mayor’s office, in partnership with the Chicago Public Library, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and the Poetry Foundation, announced the creation of the city’s inaugural Chicago Poet Laureate program yesterday.

The chosen poet will serve a two-year term and be awarded a grant of $50,000 for the commissioning of new poems and to create a public program series, including programs for youth and students, the mayor’s office said.

The poet will also serve as an ambassador for the city’s literary and creative communities.

Nominations can be submitted online through Jan. 18. The nominee can be a poet in either written or spoken traditions but must have “at least four published works and/or performances in established publications,” according to the city’s website, which lists other eligibility requirements. Self-nominations will be accepted.

The nominees will be reviewed according to the eligibility criteria, and those who are eligible will be invited to apply.

The winner will be formally appointed in the spring. In April, which is National Poetry Month, the laureate will present work as part of the Chicago Public Library’s annual Poetry Fest

Emmanuel Camarillo has more on the search here.

From the press box

Your daily question?

Are you participating in Dry January? Tell us why.

Send us an email at [email protected] and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday we asked you: How are you feeling about the upcoming mayoral election?

Here’s what some of you said…

“Looking forward to casting my ballot again for Lori. I believe she is trying her best. Chicago isn’t easy. No one can stop the crime wave. People have to stop themselves. It won’t happen no matter who is mayor.” — Kimberly Gray

“There are actually three candidates that I could be happy with. Usually, it’s a choice between bad and worse.” — Mark Mardell

“Not optimistic. We’ve done a poor job in electing mayors going back decades. This cycle’s choices don’t excite me. Looks like more of the same.” — Howard Moore

“I feel underwhelmed because we are not producing viable political talent in this city. It’s not about Mayor Lightfoot; it’s about the lack of options that we have for leadership. Chicago used to be a political powerhouse back in the day. Now, it’s an oligarchy.” — Zeke Razby

“I see a lot of candidates but really no action plans. Lots of talk, not a lot of substance. I guess that is just politics right?” — Bob Black

“A little overwhelmed because we just finished with the midterm elections and now we’re being thrown into another one.” — Jackie Waldhier

Thanks for reading the Chicago Sun-Times Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas fired basketball coach Chris Beard on Thursday while he faces a felony domestic family violence charge stemming from a Dec. 12 incident involving his fianc?e.

The Associated Press obtained the termination letter that was sent to Beard’s attorney.

Beard had five years left on a seven-year guaranteed contract that includes a provision he could be fired for cause if he was charged with a felony. The charge of assault by strangulation/suffocation family violence carries a possible prison sentence of two to 10 years if convicted; the woman told police he strangled and bit her, but later denied Beard choked her.

Beard had been suspended without pay since he was arrested, and school officials have said there is an ongoing internal investigation.

Police responded to an emergency call at Beard’s house after midnight on Dec. 12 and arrested him after Beard’s fianc?e, Randi Trew, told officers he choked her from behind, bit her and hit her when the two got in an argument. Beard’s attorney has said the coach is innocent.

The Associated Press does not typically identify alleged victims of extreme violence, but Trew issued a public statement on Dec. 23 in which she denied telling police Beard choked her. She also said she never intended for him to be arrested or prosecuted.

“Chris did not strangle me, and I told that to law enforcement that evening,” Trew said in her statement. “Chris has stated that he was acting in self-defense, and I do not refute that. I do not believe Chris was trying to intentionally harm me in any way.”

Trew’s statement did not address why she made the emergency call or other details in the police report, such as bite marks and abrasions on her face and telling officers that she couldn’t breathe for about five seconds.

According to the arrest affidavit, Trew initially told police that she and Beard they had been in an argument where she broke his glasses before he “just snapped on me and became super violent.” Police reported Trew said Beard slapped her glasses off her face and “choked me, bit me, bruises all over my leg, throwing me around and going nuts.”

The Travis County district attorney’s office has not responded to previous requests for comment on Beard’s case or whether Trew’s Dec. 23 statement would change how prosecutors proceed with the felony charge.

A Jan. 18 court hearing is scheduled, according to online records.

Beard led Texas Tech to the 2019 NCAA Tournament championship game and was hired at Texas in 2021 with the expectation that he would lift his alma mater to the same elite level. He had the Longhorns program humming this season, starting 6-0 and ranked as high as No. 2.

Associate head coach Rodney Terry took Beard’s place during the suspension. The Longhorns (12-2, 1-1 Big 12) won their first five games under Terry before losing 116-103 to Kansas State on Tuesday.

Beard spent 10 seasons at Texas Tech as an assistant under Bob Knight from 2001-2011, then returned there as head coach in 2016.

He was 112-55 in five seasons with the Red Raiders and was named The The Associated Press coach of the year in 2019 as he guided Texas Tech to a 31-7 finish and lost in an overtime thriller to Virginia in the national championship game.

His departure for Texas — a deal reached after a meeting with Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte that included a McDonald’s breakfast an hour’s drive north of Lubbock — left Texas Tech officials frustrated.

As soon as he landed in Austin, Beard set out to rebuild a program from the ground up as he rebuilt the Texas roster and tried to whip up new enthusiasm for the program as he engaged with students and held often comedic “fireside chats” on campus. In his first season, he led Texas to a first-round victory over Virginia Tech that was the Longhorns’ first NCAA Tournament win since 2014.

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Americans consider themselves innocents. Pure, noble, removed from the degraded world outside our borders, both physical and mental.

True, that pose takes considerable effort to maintain: our own brutal history must be whitewashed, ignored or suppressed. Teachers squelched, books banned, libraries purged. Faith-fueled prudes, at least when it comes to the conduct of others, we simply banish entire realms of human behavior, and if those outside of our beloved norms are not guilty of crimes, then crimes are imagined for them.

This leads to lives of constant surprises, as the white-hot fervor of our imagined purity hits the cold waters of reality. We are continually indignant, aghast, vibrating with shock when forced to confront the obvious.

Take Monday night. As you no doubt know by now, during a game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-year-old Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed after an ordinary tackle, nearly dead on the field, as medical technicians struggled to get his heart started.

Fans wept, prayed. Pundits cogitated, then delivered the awful news.

“Football is a violent sport,” revealed a headline in the Times of Northwest Indiana. “And we love it.”

True enough. And sincere, like the prayers after mass shootings, the pious noise that masks our inability to change in any substantial way.

Even concern about violence on the field misses the point. Football players don’t die on the field; they die off it. The average life expectancy of an American man is 79, if he’s white; 68, if he’s Black. If he played in the NFL, however, that falls to 59.6 years, according to a Harvard study of thousands of players over decades. Most of those ex-football players die from heart disease, at a rate 2.4 times that of Major League Baseball players, who as a group live seven years longer.

The researchers behind the study point out that football is “a safer sport now” than it was in era when the athletes it studied were active, and you do have to give the NFL points for trying, albeit grudgingly.

“The rules only soften the most glaring viciousness,” my colleague Rick Telander wrote, in a thoughtful reflection. comparing football to war — both are meat grinders young men eagerly throw their bodies into. “And the rules only have been tightened because of all the demented, damaged old players lurching about and the younger ones committing suicide (also from the chronic traumatic encephalopathy that affected their elders). This became embarrassing to the powers that be.”

Not too embarrassing, though. Yes, the NFL canceled Monday night’s game. But play will continue, after the requisite obscuring fog of thoughts and prayers.

I didn’t watch Monday night’s game because I never watch football — OK, one game a year, maybe, usually the Super Bowl — and should confess that. Nothing is easier than to dismiss the unshared passions of others. But an outsider’s perspective can be useful.

Consider the damage football does. Not last Monday night, but in general. Consider how it deforms college life, the tail that wags the dog in school after school. Consider the high school players who are hurt, or squander valuable years chasing an impossible dream. Imagine if the time spent playing football were spent learning carpentry.

Consider football as a time sink. Forty-eight of the most popular TV programs in 2021 were football games. Do the math. The average football game takes about 3 hours, and is watched, according to the NFL, by 17 million viewers. That’s 51 million hours spent watching any given football game. A year is 8,760 hours, so the average lifetime (about 80 years) is 700,800 hours.

Which means every football game broadcast on television flushes away the equivalent of 72 human lifetimes. That’s a lot.

True, they’re doing something they love, something offering them drama and apparently meaning. Football isn’t just entertainment; it’s religion. Fans could turn around and say that a man whose read “War and Peace,” twice, shouldn’t lecture anybody about wasting time. To each his own, but to me, sports are the same thing happening over and over.

Enough. Damar Hamlin seems a fine young man, popular among friends and fans. I hope he has a full recovery. But given what a marvelous individual he is, do we not owe it to him to pause and ask what his health and possibly his life, not to forget the health and lives of so many others to come, were sacrificed for?

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It didn’t take much for Justin Fields’ footing as the Bears’ franchise quarterback to slip a little, and that’s not surprising here.

The Bears’ exasperating history at the position makes it the most volatile job in Chicago sports: The public is overly eager to declare you a hero, and unless you can immediately live up to that, the clock starts ticking on your exit. Mitch Trubisky was overzealously celebrated as the answer in 2018, then got booed off the field halfway through the next season.

Fields, who will sit out the final game Sunday against the Vikings, has put together the second-greatest rushing season by a quarterback in franchise history and improved most of his key passing stats despite the Bears putting minimal talent around him.

Yet the idea of general manager Ryan Poles trading him and rebooting the position with the No. 1 or 2 pick in the draft keeps coming up. There have been entire segments about it on both sports radio stations this week.

It’d be an epic mistake.

Fields differs from past Bears’ hopefuls in that he has a sustainable skill as a runner and has progressed as a passer without any help. He’s the best running quarterback in the NFL, and it’s been a while since any Bears quarterback was the best at anything.

When Giants owner John Mara assessed quarterback Daniel Jones a year ago, coming out of his third season, he said, “We’ve done everything possible to screw this kid up.” The Bears could say the same of Fields after his first two seasons.

First, they put him through the counterproductive ordeal of playing in Matt Nagy’s offense and under his and Ryan Pace’s ill-conceived plan to take an elite college quarterback and glue him to the bench for his rookie season as though he was a project.

Then they cleaned up all of those issues and saddled him with new ones. While coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy have done far better matching their scheme to Fields’ strengths, every fear about the personnel Poles put around Fields has come true.

Some of it has even been scarier than expected.

It is routine to see Fields face pressure the moment he finishes his drop back, and since defenses can get to him with just a four-man rush, that leaves a spy to help contain his running. All of that might be navigable if he had options downfield, but often nobody’s open. It’s impossible.

Fields can’t ask for perfect circumstances. That’s unrealistic. And virtually any quarterback can thrive when everything around him is in place. That’s not special. But Fields has managed to make discernible strides when everything around him has been wrong.

He bumped his passer rating by 13 points from his rookie season to 85.2 and made modest improvements in completion percentage (58.9 to 60.4), touchdown percentage (2.6 to 5.3) and interception percentage (down from 3.7 to 3.5) — all while being sacked a league-high 55 times.

There’s still tons of room to improve — he averaged a league-low 149.5 yards per game and threw for just 75 last week — but his improved efficiency suggests that he’ll be capable of more production once he gets better protection and better targets.

If the Bears ever wanted to trade him, this would be the time to do it. His stock is high, and if they get the No. 1 pick in the draft, they’d have their choice of Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud. But they’d be unraveling one of the few boxes they’ve actually checked this season.

Fields hasn’t made a case that he’s headed toward being a top-five quarterback, but there have been sufficient signs that he’ll be good, at minimum. The Bears are best served leaving that problem solved and continuing to work through what looks like an endless to-do list with the rest of the roster.

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Chicago Bears Deandre Hopkins NFL trade rumors

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Devin Hester revolutionized the NFL the same way that John Elway and Peyton Manning did, Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said Thursday.

For the second time in as many years, the former Bears return star was named one of 15 finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Wednesday. His 20 return touchdowns are an NFL record, and he’s the only player to start a Super Bowl with a kickoff return for a touchdown.

“If you want to talk what the Hall of Fame is supposed to represent, it’s supposed to represent being the best players at their positions — the best players to ever play the game,” Hightower said. “I don’t think that there’s a question that Devin Hester is the best player at the return position, in the combo return position, with all the records that he holds, everything he did his rookie year, everything he has done not only at the Bears, even when he went somewhere else. He revolutionized the game of football and how coaches cover kicks.”

Hester returned three punts and two kickoffs for touchdowns in 2006, his first of eight seasons with the Bears.

“Who changed the game in the kick return game in the way he did?” Hightower asked. “Other than a quarterback like a John Elway or a Peyton Manning at their position, who did it in the kick return position? There’s not enough attention or credit to go to Devin. It’s phenomenal what he was able to do, and it’s still mind-boggling to see how good he was when you sit down and you study it. So, I just think that’s a no-brainer and I hope it happens.”

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The boys prep basketball polls with rank, team, first-place votes, record and total points.

Class 4ASchool W-L Pts Prv

1. Young (14) 12-4 140 4

2. Kenwood (1) 12-2 134 1

3. Benet 16-1 110 8

4. Rolling Meadows 16-1 103 6

5. Moline 12-2 90 2

6. Joliet West 11-4 46 3

7. Curie 11-4 40 NR

8. Lyons 11-1 35 NR

9. Brother Rice 14-2 24 5

10. Quincy 12-2 23 9

Others receiving votes: Lincoln-Way East 15. St. Rita 14. Belleville East 14. Glenbrook North 13. Proviso East 5. Barrington 4. New Trier 4. Hinsdale Central 3. Bloom 3. Geneva 2. Libertyville 2. Proviso West 1.

Class 3ASchool W-L Pts Prv

1. Simeon (11) 12-0 155 1

2. Sacred Heart-Griffin (5) 11-0 146 2

3. Hillcrest 15-1 107 T3

4. Mount Carmel 15-1 96 NR

5. Decatur MacArthur 14-0 85 7

6. Metamora 11-2 79 5

7. East St. Louis 8-1 66 T3

8. St. Ignatius 13-3 43 6

9. Hyde Park 14-2 36 NR

10. Lemont 12-2 27 8

Others receiving votes: Grayslake Central 20. Kankakee 7. Mt. Zion 2. St. Patrick 2. Crystal Lake South 2. Burlington Central 2. Centralia 1. Marian Catholic 1. Marmion 1. Richwoods 1. Rock Island 1.

Class 2ASchool W-L Pts Prv

1. Fairbury Prairie Central (8) 15-0 142 2

2. Princeton (2) 14-0 135 3

3. Columbia (1) 13-2 99 4

4. St. Joseph-Ogden 11-1 92 5

5. Perspectives-Leadership (3) 12-5 84 6

6. Rockford Christian (2) 15-0 72 NR

7. Breese Central 14-2 65 8

8. DePaul Prep (1) 7-6 62 1

9. Teutopolis 12-2 37 NR

10. Rockridge 10-3 32 7

Others receiving votes: Bloomington Central Catholic 18. Normal U-High 17. Pinckneyville 16. Williamsville 10. Beecher 10. Benton 7. Seneca 6. Eureka 4. Rockford Lutheran 4. Massac County 4. Momence 2. Pleasant Plains 2. Freeburg 2. Clark 1.

Class 1ASchool W-L Pts Prv

1. Routt (9) 11-1 130 3

2. Pecatonica (3) 12-1 109 NR

3. Decatur Lutheran (LSA) 14-0 82 6

4. Scales Mound (2) 13-1 62 5

5. Augusta Southeastern (1) 12-2 59 1

6. New Berlin 11-3 46 2

(tie) Camp Point Central 10-3 46 NR

8. Waterloo Gibault 11-3 45 10

9. Tuscola 14-1 40 NR

10. Altamont 11-3 33 NR

Others receiving votes: Illini Bluffs 23. Catlin (Salt Fork) 21. Casey-Westfield 21. South Beloit 18. North Clay 16. Winchester-West Central 13. Centralia Christ Our Rock 13. Marshall 10. Aurora Christian 7. Serena 6. Yorkville Christian 6. Farina South Central 4. Effingham St. Anthony 4. Midland 3. Windsor/Stewardson-Strasburg 1.

Girls basketball

The girls prep basketball polls with rank, team, first-place votes, record and total points.

Class 4ASchool W-L Pts Prv

1. Fremd (1) 15-1 91 3

2. Geneva (5) 12-2 89 10

3. Hersey 15-3 78 1

4. Bolingbrook (2) 13-1 77 4

5. Normal (2) 16-0 54 8

6. Alton (1) 15-0 46 NR

7. Maine South 13-3 39 NR

8. Benet 11-4 25 2

8. Kenwood 12-2 25 T6

10. Naperville North 11-6 23 NR

Others receiving votes: O’Fallon 18. Loyola 13. Lake Zurich 13. Barrington 4. Young 4. Lyons 3. Libertyville 3.

Class 3ASchool W-L Pts Prv

1. Nazareth (9) 14-1 117 1

2. Peoria Central 14-2 86 8

3. Peoria Notre Dame 14-1 85 3

4. Lincoln (3) 18-0 81 T6

5. Montini 11-3 77 5

6. Carmel 13-3 71 2

7. Washington 13-2 53 4

8. Marian Catholic 13-3 21 NR

9. Geneseo 13-3 12 10

(tie) Galesburg 16-4 12 9

Others receiving votes: Deerfield 11. Rockford Boylan 10. Hyde Park 9. Mahomet-Seymour 6. Dixon 3. St. Ignatius 3. Taylorville 1. Burlington Central 1. Dunlap 1.

Class 2ASchool W-L Pts Prv

1. Quincy Notre Dame (12) 17-1 128 1

2. Fieldcrest 16-0 99 2

3. Butler 18-3 77 4

4. Teutopolis 14-2 60 6

5. Byron 13-2 58 5

6. Paris 17-1 56 8

7. Peotone (1) 14-0 54 NR

8. Camp Point Central 12-2 41 NR

9. Princeton 14-2 35 7

10. Petersburg PORTA 14-0 20 NR

Others receiving votes: Sherrard 16. Althoff Catholic 14. Stillman Valley 12. Hamilton County 9. Breese Mater Dei 9. Deer Creek-Mackinaw 6. Monmouth-Roseville 6. Pleasant Plains 5. Winnebago 3. Tolono Unity 2. DePaul Prep 2. Pana 2. Canton 1.

Class 1ASchool W-L Pts Prv

1. Galena (10) 15-0 119 1

2. Mendon Unity (1) 17-1 98 4

3. Okawville 14-2 96 2

4. Tuscola (1) 18-0 90 6

5. Neoga 17-1 75 3

6. Havana (1) 15-2 53 5

7. Brown County 14-2 46 NR

8. Effingham St. Anthony 14-4 34 7

9. Christopher 14-1 24 8

10. Calhoun 3-1 14 NR

Others receiving votes: Orangeville 12. Nokomis 10. Father McGivney Catholic 9. Hardin County 7. Lena-Winslow 7. Brimfield 5. Morgan Park Academy 4. Elmwood 4. Tri-County 3. River Ridge 2. Carrollton 2. Amboy 1.

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The Sun-Times’ experts offer their picks for the Bears’ season finale Sunday against the Vikings:

RICK MORRISSEY

Vikings, 31-13

Justin Fields is out because of a hip strain, raising the philosophical question, “Is there really a Bears game Sunday?” The Vikings are certain there is. They still have a chance at a No. 2 seed in the playoffs. They’re overrated, but they’re going to look Super Bowl-bound against weak competition at Soldier Field. Season: 11-5.

RICK TELANDER

Vikings, 38-12

Has anybody thought recently about the fact 17 regular season games are too many for the human body? The league and players agreed on it. For more money. Result? Everybody injured. Next man up. And games like this. Season: 10-6.

LAURENCE HOLMES

Vikings, 35-3

We have reached the end of the exercise. Last week it seemed as if the Bears let go of the rope. Those of us here at the Sun-Times watch the games so you don’t have to and with the announcement that Fields isn’t playing, the Bears told you-you don’t have to. Hopefully there will be less of these games going forward. Season: 10-6.

PATRICK FINLEY

Vikings, 31-4

The Bears’ decision to sit Fields rings hollow after listening to head coach Matt Eberflus claim the importance of culture and building “championship habits” all season. The H.I.T.S. principle apparently stands for Hi, I’m Tanking Sunday. Season: 9-7.

JASON LIESER

Vikings, 38-9

The Vikings are angry after getting drubbed by the Packers and need the win to secure home field for the first two rounds. The Bears are dispirited and need the loss for a shot at landing the No. 1 pick. Everyone gets what they want — except the audience. Season: 8-8.

MARK POTASH

Vikings, 23-17

The Bears seem pretty intent on losing this game for a shot at the No. 1 overall pick. Stranger things have happened, especially against the Vikings. But losing is one thing the Bears have done well this season. Season: 10-6.

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