Chicago Sports

Playing without a numbing agent but with an extra pad on his separated left shoulder, Bears quarterback Justin Fields felt fine Sunday — except for one play.

On David Montgomery’s seven-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, Fields jumped in the air and collided with 6-3, 314-pound defensive lineman Kenny Clark in the end zone.

“Shoulder held up pretty good,” Fields said.

It showed. Breaking down Fields’ day, from the thrill of another touchdown run to the pain of a game-changing interception against the rival Packers:

The run

With about three minutes left in the first quarter, Fields took a shotgun snap and faked a handoff, correctly reading that linebacker Kingsley Enagbare was crashing down toward Montgomery. The Packers hadn’t played the read-option so aggressively earlier — but Fields was ready for it.

Fields kept the ball and ran right, where blitzing nickel cornerback Keisean Nixon was waiting for him. Fields planted his right foot near the right hash at the 39-yard line and cut upfield, leaving Nixon to slip to the ground.

No one touched Fields as he sprinted up the right hash. By the time he got to the Packers’ 32, he’d run past every player in their defensive backfield. When he got to the end zone for a 55-yard touchdown, Fields became the first quarterback since at least 1924 to run for three or more 50-plus-yard touchdowns in one season.

“His legs are crazy,” left tackle Braxton Jones said. “It’s awesome. I wasn’t surprised at all. It’s nice to run down there, kick the extra point and go back to the bench.”

Amazingly, Fields said he “felt like I was moving slower than my top speed” during the run. NFL Next Gen Stats, though, said he hit 20.15 mph, marking the eighth time he’d surpassed 20 mph this season. No player since 2018 has as many such games.

“I like to hit 21, 21.5, or something like that,” Fields said playfully. “So I got to do some extra sprints or something.”

The throw

Head coach Matt Eberflus’ favorite throw of the day wasn’t the 56-yarder to Equanimeous St. Brown on the 49-yarder to N’Keal Harry.

Rather, it was a third-and-10 pass to tight end Cole Kmet with 7:14 to play in the third quarter.

Standing in the shotgun at his own 43 with two receivers split right and another left, Fields motioned Kmet from right to left. At the snap, the tight end chipped Enagbare before Jones blocked him, and ran into the left flat.

Montgomery blocked a blitzer. Fields stepped up in the pocket and stopped at the 39, where Enagbare had doubled back and threatened to sack him. Fields looked left and with, Enagbare jumping with two hands in the air, threw to Kmet along the sideline for 24 yards.

“Saw him late on the sideline, just chilling over there by himself,” Fields said. “So I got that ball out and we were able to convert.”

That’s an important step in Fields’ development. His running prowess is undeniable. He throws an accurate deep ball. But to shift in the pocket, go through his progressions and find the open man — all with a hand in his face — is progress.

“Went out for his first, second read, kept his eyes down field and threw it down there,” Eberflus said. “That was really good.”

The pick

One of the overriding questions of the Bears’ offseason was whether one of the league’s least impressive receiving groups would hurt Fields’ development. It did Sunday, when a “trust throw” turned into a disaster.

The Bears had first-and-10 at the Packers’ 43 with 2:57 to play. Down one, they were in the driver’s seat, needing only a field goal to take a lead.

Fields dropped back and threw a dig route to St. Brown up the left seam. It’s an anticipation throw — Fields needs to fire the ball and trust that St. Brown would hit the brakes and turn right in time for the ball to arrive.

St. Brown was slow in getting out of his break. Cornerback Jaire Alexander, who’d been beaten deep earlier in the game, jumped the route for an interception.

St. Brown left the locker room before media was allowed in. Both Eberflus and Fields said the receiver needed to do a better job coming back for the ball — if for no other reason, to knock It down for an incompletion.

“It was unfortunate,” Eberflus said.

The play calling

About 30 seconds into the fourth quarter, Fields looked left for receiver N’Keal Harry, who’d run a hitch.

“[Alexander] was sitting on it, trying to jump it,” Fields said.

He moved onto his next read. Feeling pressure, he pirouetted and rolled left. Harry took off deep and Fields lofted a pass. Harry leaped and caught it for 49 yards.

“I already knew it was a catch because he’s probably the one of the best jump ball guys that we have on our team … ” Fields said. “Of course, he made a hell of a catch.”

Fields wouldn’t have another chance to throw deep on that drive. On first down from the Packers’ 28, Fields checked down to Montgomery for a two-yard loss. On second down, Montgomery ran for seven.

On third-and-5, the Bears, surprisingly, handed off — and Montgomery gained only one. He ran behind right guard Teven Jenkins, who was pulling left. Packers defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt shed the block quickly, though, and made the tackle.

The Bears then had a 40-yard field goal blocked.

The play-calling to end the drive was suspect. Fields was asked whether he was frustrated he didn’t get another opportunity for a big play after finding Harry; his answer instead cast blame on Montgomery for the third-down run.

“We just got to execute it,” he said. “I don’t think the running back did the completely right track. Of course, he hit right hole, but I think he just has to hit that harder.”

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Hoity-toity, pedantic or snooty.

Right or wrong, these stereotypes are sometimes associated with classical-music programming on the radio. And it’s just such perceptions — or misperceptions — that the hosts of “Sounds Classical,” a new Friday evening program on WFMT-FM (98.7) beginning Dec. 9, want to dispel.

The show, featuring Kristina Lynn, 31, and LaRob K. Rafael, 29, is meant to offer a fresh, down-to-earth and, yes, fun, approach to classical music at the same time as it expands the very idea of what the genre can be.

“I think we can all agree,” Lynn said, “that sometimes, if you’re not in the classical-music world, it can seem hard to reach or unapproachable in certain ways. You associate it with these grand music halls, these intellectual things and these bigger-than-life composers who are sometimes not very relatable.”

Rather than focusing on Beethoven’s life span or the number of Mozart piano concertos, Rafael wants to explore the emotional aspects of classical music: “How do we feel when we hear this piece? Why do we like playing this piece on the radio? What does it evoke?”

In conceiving a new show for WFMT, said General Manager George Preston, the station wanted to present classical music from a younger perspective and provide more exposure for some of the station’s newer in-house talent.

“Over the past few years,” Preston said, “we’ve been broadening our play list at WFMT to be very inclusive, and we thought this would be a great opportunity to sort of help classical presentation on the radio evolve into the 21st century.”

Station leaders picked the 8 p.m. time slot on Fridays for the new hourlong program in part because of the station’s solid ratings at that time. In addition, listeners tend to engage more closely with its content in the evenings than the during the day, when WFMT’s programming sometimes serves as background to other activities.

Lynn and Rafael emerged as ideal choices as the hosts, Preston said, because they are “super-creative” and classically trained musicians — Lynn a trumpeter and Rafael a singer — and because of their “wonderful chemistry” and curious minds.

Both joined WFMT’s announcing team in 2020. Lynn is also the station’s operations manager, and Rafael serves as founder and artistic director of Hearing in Color, a Chicago organization devoted to sharing music and composers who have been historically excluded.

Though the two attended DePaul University at the same time, they met at WMFT. They didn’t have a chance to really get to know each other until they began working on the show, and from their first minutes in the studio together, their personalities clicked.

“We get along very well,” Lynn said. “We have fun talking about music. We’re laughing. He’s a singer, so he’s singing the music. We’re getting emotional, and I think that dynamic between us is really exciting. It’s different than what you normally hear on WFMT. We don’t have a lot of co-hosted things at all, so it’s really nice to hear our dynamic together.”

When they begin an installment of the show, the two hosts have a theme and a general direction they want the discussion to go. “But all of the reactions to the music or the spur-of-the-moment conversation just happen organically, and that’s what I really like,” Rafael said.

In addition to music and their own conversations, the two plan to incorporate interviews with local artists and national figures. They have finished the first two installments of the show and are working on programs for the rest of the year, including one that looks at the best of 2022.

A focus of “Sounds Classical” is asking what “classical music” means in the 21st century and examining how the genre’s boundaries continue to bend and expand. The two dive right into that topic in the Dec. 9 episode with music by such past and present composers as Michael Abels, Ludwig van Beethoven, Carlos Gesualdo and Max Richter.

“It’s actually really hard to nail down an answer to that in today’s world, at least,” Lynn said. “That’s what we discovered. Is it a very Euro-centric perspective? It is just Western music? Is it just notated music or orchestral music? We want to include other voices than just what we have always learned about.”

A theme Rafael hopes to examine, for example, is the influence of hip-hop on classical music and vice versa. “There are shockingly so many references to classical music in hip-hop,” he said, “so I’m excited to talk to experts about how people decide to sample music. Why do they choose strings? Why do they choose orchestral arrangements and what that adds?”

While WFMT is constantly updating its musical repertory and presenting varied short-run series and specials, an inaugural show like “Sounds Classical” is a rarity.

“It doesn’t happen all that often, to be honest,” Preston said. “To have a new, weekly hourlong program, it’s a pretty big deal.”

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Pity poor Northwestern University.

No, we’re not talking “poor” in the sense of lacking funds. The place last reported a $14.9 billion endowment. It’s “poor” in the sense of being unlucky, maybe a bit clumsy, and there are no references intended here to the football team and its recently completed 1-11 season. Northwestern is known for making its student-athletes study, so those lads are under pressure that’s worse than a bowl game.

It’s just that Northwestern is doing something distinctly Chicago Bears-like, aside from losing. Without a lot of goodwill at its back, the school has been showing plans for improving Ryan Field, a stadium that, unlike most of those at the collegiate level, sits squarely in an area of large single-family homes.

The houses contain a lot of professional people who pay a king’s ransom in property taxes and care about what’s happening in the neighborhood. They’re starting to organize themselves in opposition to the proposal, calling it a “field of schemes.”

David DeCarlo, an attorney, is co-founder of the incipient Most Livable City Association. He said Northwestern has boasted about “community engagement” involving the plans, but they’ve really been one-sided meetings trying to make them seem a done deal.

“We’re not opposed to redeveloping Ryan Field. What we’re opposed to is just completely upending the zoning code that has protected our community for years,” he said.

DeCarlo said the university is proposing “a tax-exempt booze-and-entertainment center” that will upset the quality of life in north Evanston and south Wilmette. This part of the North Shore welcomes the football scene because the interruptions are infrequent and mostly fun. Local lore has it that the main exception is when Buckeye Nation descends and threatens the social order.

Paradoxically for this age, the university has proposed rebuilding the football seating at smaller capacity, taking it down to 35,000 from the current 47,000. Other Big Ten venues pack in huge crowds, but Northwestern said it’s going for a more intimate fan experience –premium seating for everybody.

It would lower the stadium’s overall profile but add equipment that would make it suitable for perhaps 12 full-capacity concerts per year. That’s the part, along with a proposed loosening of the rules on alcohol sales, that gets people upset. Currently, alcohol consumption is limited to particular parts of the stadium.

“We don’t want to become Wrigleyville — I’ve lived there, done that,” said Fiona McCarthy, another nearby resident, in a statement provided by Most Livable City.

“Ryan Field differs from most other college stadiums in that it sits in the heart of a residential neighborhood. We knew when we moved here there would be a handful of home games. We did not know Northwestern, a nonprofit university, would try to rezone the stadium to profit from massive, alcohol-fueled concerts and nighttime entertainment.”

DeCarlo said his group was drawing support from many residents, plus nearby businesses on Central Street worried that more stadium crowds would keep everyday patrons away.

Northwestern said in a statement that community input has influenced the design and that the school would continue to hold meetings and “listening sessions” with the neighbors. It has published a lot of information on a website, highlighting data from a consultants’ report it commissioned. The plan, with a reported budget of about $800 million, promises $11 million in direct fees to Evanston and an economic impact of $660 million during the construction phase. The numbers try to parry the argument that Northwestern, which doesn’t owe property taxes, gets a sweet deal in Evanston.

The school said the project requires no public subsidies. It has said the lower-profile design would minimize noise and light pollution. The school has proposed working through the local approvals over the next few months, starting construction after the 2023 season wraps up and dedicating the new surroundings in the fall of 2026.

Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss didn’t return a call Friday. This issue is certain to be a hot one, pitting sophisticated citizenry against the town’s premier institution, and one that most Evanstonians appreciate. Judging from the criticism, Northwestern’s opening drive on this gridiron was a poorly executed end around.

Some might come to the same conclusion as an alumnus who, writing in The Daily Northwestern, suggested the school forget about Ryan Field and move the Wildcats to Soldier Field, particularly if the Bears don’t have use for it anymore. It makes some sense but won’t produce the event revenue Northwestern is targeting. And it just seems too much of a change for that campus. NU hasn’t said where the Wildcats will play during stadium construction.

The Bears, however, should be watching closely. The fight over Ryan Field, on a smaller scale, will provide object lessons for what it might take to extract a stadium from Arlington Heights. It’s a game of persuasion and power politics.

Bear down, Bears, and pay attention like it’s a class at NU.

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The Chicago Cubs are expected to pursue Xander Bogaerts heavily in free agency

The Chicago Cubs have emerged the most linked to longtime Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts.

According to Marino Pepén, who covers the Red Sox, the Cubs are not only strongly interested in Bogaerts, but they are preparing to offer him a contract some time this week.

Bogaerts, coming off a 5.8 bWAR season with the Sox, is a five-time Silver Slugger recipient, four-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion. Having just turned 30, but would be a major upgrade for a Cubs team looking to turn the corner on its latest rebuilding effort.

He opted out of the remaining three years of his deal with the Red Sox after hitting .307/.377/.456 with 15 home runs and 73 RBIs in 2022. He earned his fifth Silver Slugger award while also being named a Gold Glove finalist at shortstop.

The Red Sox initially signed Bogaerts in 2010 as an international free agent out of Aruba. He was teammates with Cubs manager David Ross from 2013-14 with the Red Sox.

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SAN DIEGO — The Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee unanimously elected first baseman Fred McGriff into the Hall of Fame on Sunday.

McGriff, who played for six different teams in his career, spent a season and a half with the Cubs toward the end of his playing days. He posted a .278/.361/.518 slash line with Chicago in 2001 and 2002.

McGriff was a five-time All-Star and helped lead the Braves to a 1995 World Series title.

McGriff was the only player on an eight-person ballot elected into Cooperstown by the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee on Sunday.

The Hall of Fames’ “character clause” loomed large. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who have been linked to performance-enhancing drugs, were also on the ballot. Each received fewer than four votes. Curt Schilling, whose Hall of Fame case was tinged by a history of bigoted social media posts, received seven votes.

The other four players on the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee ballot this winter were Don Mattingly (eight votes), Dale Murphy (six), Albert Belle and Rafael Palmeiro.

A panel of 16, chock full of Chicago ties, decided their fate. Players needed to be included on 75 percent of the ballots cast by the committee members to be elected into Cooperstown.

Of the seven Hall of Fame players on the committee, three had played for the Cubs – Greg Maddux, Ryne Sandberg and Lee Smith – and one was White Sox legend Frank Thomas. Former Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and current White Sox executive vice president Ken Willians also served on the committee.

BBWAA Hall of Fame balloting will determine the rest of the 2023 HOF class. The results of that election will be announced Jan. 24.

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ELMONT, N.Y. — The relief the Blackhawks briefly enjoyed after snapping their losing streak Saturday was quickly forgotten Sunday.

The Islanders cruised to a 3-0 win, dealing the Hawks their fourth shutout of the season and ninth loss in their last 10 games.

“We started to fall into the trap of forcing things, turning pucks over, and then spent too much time in the ‘D’-zone the rest of the way and that’s exhausting,” coach Luke Richardson said. “[We had] not enough juice to create enough offense. We ran out of gas, both mentally and physically.”

The Islanders’ opening goal — scored midway through the second period — was unusual and seemed to permanently shift the momentum of the game, Richardson said.

The puck slipped underneath goalie Arvid Soderblom’s pad after a shot by Matt Martin and crossed the line, but no one noticed live. It wasn’t until a commercial break — more than two minutes of game time later — that the potential goal was discovered and confirmed after a lengthy review.

Two goals scored 43 seconds apart later in the period deepened the Hawks’ hole, and they mustered very little pushback from then on. Shots on goal favored the Islanders 30-13 over the game’s final 40 minutes.

“[We] didn’t get pucks deep, didn’t get pucks on net,” forward Colin Blackwell said. “A lot of ‘didn’t’s tonight, in my eyes. It’s frustrating. [We were] just not supporting each other across the ice. You can say what you want about that weird goal that was called and turned the page, but we didn’t really respond.”

Hard head

When Richardson saw defenseman Jack Johnson shooting the puck up the ice Saturday from the right of the Hawks’ bench in Madison Square Garden, he didn’t think he was in any danger.

But he thought wrong. Johnson’s clear deflected off Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey’s stick, into the bench area and directly off the side of Richardson’s head, careening straight up in the air.

Fortunately, Richardson turned out fine after receiving a few stitches — which proved necessary after holding up a towel to his head to stop the bleeding proved less effective. Assistant coach Derek King conveniently handled the line-changing duties during his brief absence.

“It must be a hard head, so I’m lucky I got hit there and not anywhere else,” Richardson joked Sunday. “I guess it’s another lesson learned: keep your eye on the puck at all times.”

Goalie shuffle

The Hawks called up goaltender Jaxson Stauber from the AHL on Sunday to replace Petr Mrazek, who will miss at least a week with the groin injury he suffered Saturday.

When the Hawks had their previous goaltender health crisis in November, Stauber was injured, thus why they signed Dylan Wells. But the 23-year-old rookie out of Providence has since returned and gone 3-2-0 with an .892 save percentage in his first five appearances for Rockford.

Soderblom made 37 saves Sunday while Stauber backed him up. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Soderblom start again Tuesday against the Devils.

Meanwhile, Alex Stalock’s timeline for returning from his concussion remains unclear. It didn’t go well when he briefly resumed practicing a couple weeks back; the Hawks’ new plan is to have him soon start working out in the gym but not yet on the ice, Richardson said.

Reese Johnson fought Islanders forward Casey Cizikas, who concussed Stalock back on Nov. 1, early in Sunday’s game in a lengthy and clearly preplanned bout.

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SACRAMENTO – The fine coming from the technical foul on Sunday is loose couch change for Zach LaVine.

The Bulls guard was well aware of that, fresh off an offseason in which he was given a max contract of $215 million over the next five years.

“I’ll pay the tech fine … it ain’t hurting me,” LaVine said.

The third-straight loss and dropping to 9-14 on the season after losing to the Kings 110-101? LaVine’s money can’t change that. And for the two-time All-Star that’s where the real hurt was.

“We gotta figure it out one way or the other, or we’re going to keep being down,” LaVine said. “We’ve got urgency. We talk to each other every day, we’ve got pride. It’s just going out there and executing it. We’ve got to find a rhythm out there.”

Even in a game in which LaVine finished with 41 points and helped hold the Kings under their usual scoring average, it’s that overall rhythm that remained the issue.

And once again, it was a very familiar blueprint. A blueprint that coach Billy Donovan can’t fully explain, but would love nothing more than to see get crumpled up, and set ablaze in a nearby trash can.

Out-shot from three-point range? Check.

The Kings put up 15 threes in that opening stanza to the Bulls’ nine, and by halftime, Sacramento (13-9) widened that gap, going 10-of-30 from three compared to the Bulls at 5-for-11.

Careless with the basketball? Check.

Eleven turnovers in the second quarter alone, as the Kings scored 16 points off of them. The one saving grace was the Bulls also had some busy hands on the defensive end that first half, leading to 13 Sacramento turnovers and 10 points.

And the most damning one, digging a big hole early on? Check.

That disparity in long-range shooting, as well as the carelessness with the ball, saw the home team build a second-quarter lead to as high as 18 points.

“We’re coming [back] from like 19 and 20 points,” Donovan said of the on-going issues in falling behind teams. “It’s hard to come back like that.

“We’ve got to do a better job of making decisions against closeouts. I think that would impact the three-point line. There’s times where guys are catching the ball, and we can shoot it. It would help us get more threes up.

“The attention to detail, the consistency part, I think those things become critically important.”

It finally did against the Kings, but not until the second half. Like they also have done so many times this season, and throughout most of the 2-4 six-game road trip, the Bulls staged a really nice comeback.

First there was a LaVine three-pointer, then came a DeMar DeRozan mid-range. By the time the third quarter ended, the deficit was just four points, as the Bulls outscored Sacramento 31-20 in the stanza.

They even got to within a basket in the fourth, but those details again went out the nearest exit. LaVine wasn’t the only reason why by any means, but his stood out.

There was a careless foul to put the Kings in the penalty, and then of course the technical foul with 2:32 left and a 10-point deficit at the time.

No wonder LaVine stormed off the court as the final horn was just sounding, going by his teammates without a high-five, and right into the locker room.

“I’ve been frustrated before,” LaVine said. “I’m trying to get myself going. Sometimes that carries over when you care a lot. Sometimes your emotions come out.

“It’s us vs. everybody, no one is going to help us dig out of this besides us. That’s how we’ve got to go about it.”

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SAN DIEGO — The Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee unanimously elected first baseman Fred McGriff into the Hall of Fame on Sunday.

McGriff, who played for six different teams in his career, spent a season and a half with the Cubs toward the end of his playing days. He posted a .278/.361/.518 slash line with Chicago in 2001 and 2002.

McGriff was a five-time All-Star and helped lead the Braves to a 1995 World Series title.

McGriff was the only player on an eight-person ballot elected into Cooperstown by the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee on Sunday.

The Hall of Fames’ “character clause” loomed large. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who have been linked to performance-enhancing drugs, were also on the ballot. Each received fewer than four votes. Curt Schilling, whose Hall of Fame case was tinged by a history of bigoted social media posts, received seven votes.

The other four players on the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee ballot this winter were Don Mattingly (eight votes), Dale Murphy (six), Albert Belle and Rafael Palmeiro.

A panel of 16, chock full of Chicago ties, decided their fate. Players needed to be included on 75 percent of the ballots cast by the committee members to be elected into Cooperstown.

Of the seven Hall of Fame players on the committee, three had played for the Cubs – Greg Maddux, Ryne Sandberg and Lee Smith – and one was White Sox legend Frank Thomas. Former Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and current White Sox executive vice president Ken Willians also served on the committee.

BBWAA Hall of Fame balloting will determine the rest of the 2023 HOF class. The results of that election will be announced Jan. 24.

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