Chicago Sports

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration did an abrupt about-face on Friday, under fire for scrapping a Chicago Fire Department promotion list and running up overtime to get even with a controversial City Council member who was second in line to be promoted.

Human Resources Commissioner Chris Owen signed an order reinstating the 2009 lieutenant’s list “pending finalization of the corrected 2022” lieutenant’s list and called 30 people from that older list to be promoted to lieutenant.

It was not immediately known if those promoted included Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th), a Lightfoot critic.

Last week, Lightfoot was accused of taking down the old list — after making 41 promotions from it in April — to avoid promoting Gardiner, who is on a leave of absence from the Chicago Fire Department and has waited 13 years to become a lieutenant.

Number 42 on the old list was an employee on medical leave. Number 43 was Gardiner.

The city stopped at No. 41 and, until Friday, had made no promotions to lieutenant since April — despite 40 vacancies.

On Aug. 30., two white firefighters awaiting promotion to lieutenant filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court accusing the city of violating their rights by scrapping the list and suspending promotions.

Contacted earlier Friday after the order, but before the 30 promotions, Gardiner would only say the mayor’s reversal was “interesting.”

Last week, Gardiner did not mince his words.

He accused Lightfoot, with whom he has clashed repeatedly, of tossing a promotion list before all of the names had been exhausted just to get even with him.

“That’s an ‘F-you’ to me. … It highlights a pattern of being vindictive in trying to get back at people who have been known to disagree with her or not be on her side,” Gardiner said then.

“They never tear down a list like that with only 60 people or 100 people [left]. They always got to the end. But she basically screwed over 15 or 16 African American males to send a message to me. For somebody who continues to promote the fact that she’s all about helping the Black community, she sure found a way to screw over the Black community by tearing down a list to get back at a white male.”

Attorney Ruth Major filed the lawsuit on behalf of firefighters David Barron and Michael Lynch.

Major said Friday she has no idea whether the lawsuit, Gardiner’s tirade about the adverse impact on minorities, mounting overtime or last week’s Sun-Times story about the controversy convinced City Hall to restore the old list.

“It could just be that they maybe didn’t realize they hadn’t done this the right way and they want to do the right thing. It also could be that they’ve got people who are retiring from the lieutenant’s position. People who are being promoted to captain from the lieutenant’s position. And it could also just be self-serving in the sense that they need to fill these spots and the 2022 list is just not ready to start promotions off of,” Major said.

“I believe that this was the right act by the city to reinstate that list because the 2022 list continues to have problems. We never thought it should have been retired and it wasn’t retired in accordance with the city’s own hiring plan. We would hope that they have done this so they can go to the next step, which is to promote the remaining 68 people on that list.”

Last year, Lightfoot slammed Gardiner over profane, threatening and misogynistic text messages Gardiner sent to people, including Lightfoot’s political consultant Joanna Klonsky and Anne Emerson, chief of staff to Finance Chairman Scott Waguespack (32nd).

One week later, Gardiner rose on the council floor to issue a rare public apology for the embarrassment his messages caused. He received a rare rebuke from the Cook County Democratic Party and remains under federal investigation for allegedly retaliating against some Northwest Side constituents for political purposes.

Gardiner turned the tables on Lightfoot — with the Aug. 30 lawsuit to back up his claim.

He himself faces two federal lawsuits. One accuses him of harassing, intimidating and falsely arresting a constituent who picked up a cellphone Gardiner’s ward superintendent left at a convenience store. The other accuses him of violating the First Amendment rights of 45th Ward residents by deleting their criticisms of him from his official Facebook page. The city has refused to represent Gardiner in either suit.

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Great Grabowski!

Sneed hears legendary coach Mike Ditka’s ultimate “man cave” is going on the auction block!

Going … going … go Bears!

Watch for more than 500 items of sports memorabilia collected by da coach and culled from the walls of Ditka’s namesake Gold Coast Ditka’s restaurant, shuttered in 2020, to hit Hindman Auctions online soon.

The grub hub eatery was “home away from home” for Ditka, 82, and his wife, Diana.

“It was our living room and our dining room and our meeting room with family and charities and business for decades,” said Diana Ditka, who said the couple could walk daily to their restaurant located in the Tremont Hotel complex at 100 E. Chestnut St. from their nearby home.

“We miss it terribly,” she said.

When the eatery hit the quit button in 2020 via a Facebook post, Ditka told Sneed back then: “Things wear out after a time. It’s over and it was good.’

It was then the cache of Ditka memorabilia, a history of his amazing football career adorning walls and serpentining through stairwells, was packed up and stored until this year — when the Ditka family decided to auction most of it off to fans.

“The family felt it was time to let go,” said Stacy Ditka, a daughter-in-law who runs Ditkakids.com, a children’s clothing line inspired by the coach. “Our Ditka ‘onesies’ for babies are very popular,” she chuckled.

“We all loved Ditka’s, but when it closed, the truckload of Ditka memories on the restaurant walls was removed,” she added.

“The family kept what was near and dear to their hearts, then decided to let others have a chance to add to their own collections via an auction.”

Now released by the Ditka family: more than 500 sports-related restaurant items curated by the auction house into 185 lots — with the “85” used as an ode to the 1985 Bears’ Super Bowl win in New Orleans.

o The priciest item in the collection is valued at $30,000 to $50,000 for Lot 41, billed as “an exceptional piece of Chicago history”: Ditka’s Bears jersey and blue sweater encased in a huge frame following the retirement of his famous No. 89 in a ceremony after the Bears vs. Cowboys game on Dec. 9, 2013, at Soldier Field.

(A history note: Ditka, the first tight end inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was the last Bear to have hisnumber retired.)

oThe flip side: On the far side of the estimate list is a group of baseball bats given to Ditka by his hero, St. Louis Cardinal’s legend Stan “the Man” Musial — who autographed one — now estimated at $200 to $300.

And lest we forget, Ditka’s Super Bowl XX game ball is also on the block.

So how does the coach feel about saying so long to his collectibles? “Everything is fine,” chirped Ditka.”Can’t keep everything. Hey, we are all only here for a while. I kept what I wanted.”

What is Ditka’s most treasured keepsake still in his possession?

“It’s probably a photo of me with Walter Payton,” said Ditka. “He was the best football player I’ve ever seen. He was relentless.”

Coach: ‘Chicago is the home of the Bears’

Ditka is still opposed to the Bears’ attempt to move the franchise from Soldier Field to Arlington Heights.

He tells Sneed:”I still don’t think it’s a good thing to move the Bears to Arlington Park. Chicago is the home of the Bears. Their home.

“I believe in loyalty and don’t think they are thinking of loyalty to the city,” Ditka grumbled. “But I’m not going to let it bother me. Or worry about it.”

Would he go to a Bears game in Arlington Heights?

“Well, if they were playing in L.A. I’d probably go,” Ditka chuckled.

Couple’s Florida home escapes storm

Ditka and his wife are currently in their Gold Coast perch hoping to return soon to their other home in hurricane-battered Naples, Florida.Ditka, the victim of a massive heart attack in 2018 while golfing, loves living on the links in the Sunshine State although he no longer is able to take part in the sport.

“Oh, we’ve been told our home is okay,” said Diana. “When we built our house 20years ago, we made sure it was built pretty solid,” she added.

Then Coach added: “Hey, we are all only here for a while. I’m here until I’m gone. Everything is fine. “

But hold on! Coach Ditka still opines about one thing he certainly will miss that’s NOTin the auction:

“Our signature Ditka’s dish,” he chuckled. “It was one helluva great pork chop!”

As they say in the auction business: “SOLD!

Congrats to mayoral challenger Paul Valls on the birth of his one and only grandson, Konstantinos Vallas. …. Saturday birthdays: actress Brie Larson, 33;actress Julie Andrews, 87, and and former President Jimmy Carter, 98. … Sunday birthdays: talk show host Kelly Ripa, 52; singer Sting, 71, and singer Don McLean. 77.

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Justin Fields needs to have a good passing performance Sunday after being both the least-used and least-effective starting quarterback in the NFL the first three weeks of the season.

Bears head coach Matt Eberflus needs it, too. Even if he won’t say it out loud.

Eberflus can talk about Fields experiencing growth over the first three games, as he did Friday, but that growth needs to show up in the box score for all the world to see. That would take the pressure off of coach and quarterback alike.

“It’s good for anybody,” Eberflus said Friday.

Eberflus compared Fields’ struggles to that of Roquan Smith over the first two weeks. The Bears insisted the linebacker was getting better — but recording 16 tackles and a game-saving interception Sunday declared it.

“That certainly puts you in the right direction and says, ‘Hey, do you know what? I can see it visibly on the stat sheet, I can see it in my play,'” Eberflus said.

As long as Fields struggles, there will be questions about Eberflus’ fit as an NFL rarity — a defense-minded, first-time head coach paired with a young quarterback.

Any head coach with serious playoff aspirations knows he needs a quarterback to get there. That hasn’t been Fields, whose passer rating of 50 is No. 32 in the NFL — and light years away from No. 31, Mac Jones, at 76.2.

That raises major questions about Fields and first-time NFL play-caller Luke Getsy, whose passing attack is getting upstaged by his run game. But it ultimately falls on the head coach.

Bears fans won’t have to look far Sunday for what might have been. In January, the team interviewed Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll, both Bills employees, for their GM and head coaching jobs. Both landed with the Giants. Daboll, a former offensive coordinator, is the play-caller for an offense that is third-worst in the NFL with 162.3 passing yards per game. That’s still more than double the Bears’ average.

In an alternate universe, Fields would be the Giants quarterback. In 2021, they traded the No. 11 pick to the Bears and drafted mercurial receiver Kadarius Toney and struggling tackle Evan Neal with the Bears’ 2021 and 2022 first-round selections. Not that Fields has put any stock into his first-ever meeting with the Giants.

“No– not at all,” Fields said.

The Giants are still in quarterback purgatory, with Daniel Jones playing the final year of his rookie deal with little chance of an extension. They figure to draft a quarterback next year and go the conventional rebuilding route, pairing a young offensive-minded head coach with a young passer.

No Big Blue fan leaving MetLife Stadium will regret their team passing on Fields on Sunday if the most notable thing he does is audible the Bears into effective run plays, the way coaches said he did last week when he had a 27.7 passer rating.

In the short-term, the Bears are right to lean on Khalil Herbert, who ranks second among running backs with 7.3 yards per carry and is coming off a career-high 157 yards on 20 carries against the Texans. A strong showing from the second-year player will, as the Bears have implied, give them the best chance to win Sunday.

There are victories, though, and there is progress.

The Bears are 2-1 in one category this season, and 0-3 in the other.

If Fields can be half as dynamic through the air as Herbert has been on the ground, they’ll make gains in both regards Sunday.

“[Fields] has been positive, upbeat,” Eberflus said. “He’s been taking charge of the offense and working on his footwork, working on his timing, working with his receivers with the timing.

“We’re excited to see progress this week.”

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Green girl meets mean girl in the latest iteration of “Wicked,” now playing at the Nederlander Theater. This “flip the script” reimagining of the witches of Oz arrives just in time for spooky season.

First staged in 2003 and based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, the musical, written by Winnie Holzman, is a mixed bag: in some ways it feels quite timely, in other areas it feels dated.

Lissa DeGuzman plays the nerdy and outspoken Elphaba, the eventual Wicked Witch of the West in all her green glory. DeGuzman is a complete tour-de-force, with her powerful voice and commanding stage presence making her an absolute joy to watch.

We meet Elphaba as a young woman, struggling to navigate a world where she’s been cruelly ostracized for the color of her skin. In a classic Odd Couple scenario, she’s matched as a roommate with Galinda (the Regina George of Oz), who eventually becomes Glinda the Good Witch. Jennafer Newberry is a delightful Galinda, and her impeccable soprano voice is a sumptuous treat for vocal connoisseurs.

The camaraderie between DeGuzman and Newberry is palpable, and they’re a fun pair to watch, sparring and sniping across the stage as Elphaba is brutally bullied by, well, everyone. Eventually Galinda’s minuscule conscience catches up with her and she befriends Elphaba, going against her superficial instincts. Although there were several children in attendance in the audience, I caution parents that this play is not a morality tale for kids, as the duo’s friendship is ultimately more “frenemy” than friend.

The engine of the story is a promising, aggressively political (and somewhat problematic) metaphor about talking animals being forced out of human society and losing their ability to speak. The threat of fascism sweeping Oz spurs Elphaba to action and she begins to earn her “wicked” moniker, not through evil deeds, but through activism. A short scene with a puppet in a cage strikes more fear in the soul than one would expect.

Unfortunately, Holzman is quickly out of her depth and loses her grip on the satirical bent, resulting in a story that’s less “Animal Farm”and more FarmVille — a mildly entertaining mess of randomly meandering liberal thoughts with little depth. This, my friends, is no “Wiz.” Oz enthusiasts like myself will take note of small inconsistencies between the source material — in particular the Tin Man’s heartbreaking lack of irony.

“Wicked” is a musical that I want to love much more than I do, but don’t, in part because of cringeworthy plot points which have not aged well. The most notable of which is the extremely ableist subplot involving Nessarose, Elphaba’s sister and the eventual Wicked Witch of the East. Nessarose (a good performance by Kimberly Immanuel) is in a wheelchair and her entire storyline is completely written around tragedy and her disability. (The production of an upcoming feature film adaptation recently announced that it was seeking to cast an actor with a disability in the part, which is not the case here.)

On the one hand, it’s refreshing to see a character with a disability as an integral part of a musical. SPOILER ALERT! On the other hand, when Nessarose is magically granted the ability to walk, the audience was stunned in silence, perhaps recognizing how completely outdated and offensive such a storyline is. Recently, Stephen Sondheim helped to tweak a gender-swapped revival of his hit “Company.” If one of the titans of the genre can revisit his seminal works, why can’t others?

Outside of the cringe factor, “Wicked” is a fun romp, with beautiful sets, dazzling lighting and some great music in between the more perfunctory songs. “Defying Gravity” is a legitimate showstopper, and watching Elphaba’s rise in a crucible of lights, her cape ominously hovering behind her is truly breathtaking, thanks to the talents of lighting designer Kenneth Posner. And Natalie Venetia Belcon serves up horrible fun as Madame Morrible, the conniving headmistress, angling for greater power.

A frothy look at the power of propaganda through song and dance, “Wicked” might not deliver much in the way of deeper meaning. It will leave us humming a tune and tapping our toes, yet with a nagging feeling in the back of our heads that perhaps there was something really important that should have been addressed, but nevermind, let’s sing that great song again! Perhaps that’s the ultimate takeaway from this musical — that lack of concern is the most wicked feeling of them all.

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The Bears need to sack the quarterback.

“I don’t know if there’s such a thing as too many sacks, or too many pressures,” defensive coordinator Alan Williams said this week. “There’s no such thing. That’s like a car too fast or too much money. You can’t have too much or too many.”

Maybe so. By any measure, what the Bears are doing now is not enough.

Despite ranking fourth in the NFL in pressure rate — a third of their opposing dropbacks end in quarterback hurries, knockdowns or sacks — the Bears have posted only six sacks this season. Only seven NFL teams have fewer.

Sunday gives them a chance to get right. The Giants allow a sack on 12.4 percent of their pass plays, the second-highest rate in the league –behind, of course, the Bears. Amazingly, both teams have a quarterback best-known for his athleticism. The Giants’ Daniel Jones, in theory, should be able to escape pressure. He hasn’t this season, though, having been sacked 13 times, the third-most in the league.

Jones provides a vastly different challenge than Texans quarterback Davis Mills, who is as close to a statue as the Bears will play all year.

“It’s not about the other team –It’s about us,” defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad said. “They come in bunches.”

They haven’t yet. The Bears had two sacks in the first 39 minutes of their opener against the 49ers — and four in the 151 minutes since.

“We need more [sacks],” head coach Matt Eberflus said .”It can come from all levels. We need to come from pressure players, safeties, linebackers, nickels, and front. So it’s gotta come from everybody. Certainly we want our four-man rush to get going there and we will get that going, but certainly we need to have some from other spots as well.”

That’s probably bluster. Eberflus’ entire defensive structure is built around rushing the passer with four down linemen — and not a single rusher more. The Bears have blitzed on 7.3 percent of opposing pass plays this season; only the Bills have brought an extra rusher less often.

The Bears maintain that they’re capable of blitzing –but perhaps that’s merely to give the Giants something extra to worry about.

“I would like to think that we have some things in our back pocket that we haven’t shown that may come out at the proper time,” Williams said.

That could look like a blitz by linebacker Roquan Smith or slot cornerback Kyler Gordon. Don’t count on it, though.

“We should be able to stop the run and rush the quarterback with four men,” defensive line coach Travis Smith said. “That’s what, in the system, if you look at the history throughout the teams that have played a four-man front, that’s what the great ones do.”

All but 1/2 of the Bears’ six sacks have come from defensive linemen. Trevis Gipson leads the Bears with two sacks, followed by rookie Dominique Robinson, who has 1 1/2 . Robert Quinn, who set the franchise sacks record last year with 18 1/2 , and defensive tackle Justin Jones have one apiece. Linebacker Roquan Smith shares one with Robinson.

Smith said rushing the passer starts with putting teams in a third-and-long situation by stopping the run. The Bears did that last week, holding the Texans to 3.8 yards per carry after allowing 5.1 over their first two games.

“To have a better control of the game on defense, we have to stop the run to try to make them one-dimensional,” said Quinn, who is questionable for Sunday’s game because of an illness. “Keep them from [making] us be on our heels. And that is, in a sense, a manhood type of thing.”

Now they have to get to Jones.

“We gotta keep pursuing, keep being relentless –and I think the results will turn up,” Gipson said. “We can’t get discouraged because of the amount of sacks we have.”

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The Zach LaVine stamp of approval came early on in this Bulls camp for Ayo Dosunmu.

Asked about Dosunmu going into Year 2, LaVine not only went to the ceiling in his expectations, but raised it.

“It looks like he’s been in the weight room, getting his body right,” LaVine said. “Ayo’s as hard a worker as anybody. He’s the most inquisitive guy that I’ve met as a rookie, just trying to get ready, asking questions of me, DeMar [DeRozan], anybody. Questions of anything he can do to get better. So knowing him he’s added things to his game. I think he’s in for a huge sophomore season.”

First things first for Chicago’s very own, as the former Morgan Park standout has to show that he can be a reliable option at the point guard spot while Lonzo Ball (left knee surgery) is sidelined.

That audition could begin as soon as Tuesday, when the Bulls host New Orleans at the United Center in their preseason debut.

Dosunmu, Coby White, Alex Caruso and veteran Goran Dragic are each candidates, according to coach Billy Donovan, and while that will have to play out, with the way Dosunmu showed up to camp he’s made it very clear that he’s all business.

He’s added seven pounds of muscle over the summer, while working on his footwork and speed.

“Yeah, I feel a lot stronger,” Dosunmu said of his new look. “Even just those bumps out there, trying to keep my defender in front or finishing at the rim, every aspect of the game I would say I feel a lot stronger than last year.”

And Dosunmu wasn’t even close to done.

There was still a long list of things he’s wanting to immediately work on as this season ramps up.

“The stamina part, just being able to have my stamina there the whole season,” Dosunmu said. “And just being able to be a reliable playmaker at all times. There’s going to be a lot of times when teams are going to key in on Zach, DeMar, [Nikola Vucevic] and just being able to use my experience and grow as a player and a reliable playmaker out there.”

Restless nights

Dragic was on a Heat team that lost to the Lakers in the Championship Bubble back in 2020, but was unable to play in those Finals because of a foot injury.

Several years later, the veteran hasn’t forgotten that.

“Every basketball player wants to win a championship and the same thing with me,” Dragic said. “I’ve already been close with Miami, but unfortunately I got hurt in the Finals. And it still to this day, I cannot sleep well because I want to be back. I still have that hunger.”

Good news for a Bulls roster that welcomes veteran leadership.

“I feel healthy; I’m 36 years old,” Dragic added. “I’m not the youngest anymore but I still have that passion and that is the most important.”

Closing thoughts

While Caruso won’t stress about being a starter or coming off the bench once the games start to count, he does know where he wants to be in the final minutes of games. And that’s on the court.

“I’ve always been team-first trying to win games,” Caruso said. “If that’s me starting basketball games then that’s what we’ll do. If that’s me coming off the bench, that’s fine too. I’ve always been I’d rather finish games than start games. For me, it’s just making sure I’m impacting the game the right way and have a chance to win it when it matters.”

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Chicago Bears will be without two key starters in week 4 game against the New York Giants.

The Chicago Bears will be without two key starters for their road game against the New York Giants.  Cornerback Jaylon Johnson (quad) and running back David Montgomery (ankle/knee) have both been ruled out for Sunday’s game.

Fortunately for the Bears the Giants are likely to be without three key receivers on offense.

Wide receiver Sterling Shepard of the Giants is also out for the year with a knee injury.  

The Chicago Bears may have a  bit of an injury problem early on but their situation is nowhere near as dire as the Giants.  With Johnson out and the Giants down three receivers, it will be a case of who has the better backups.  Also, it means that the Bears will be less likely to trade for one of the Giants’ receivers before the trade deadline.

Montgomery’s absence gives Khalil Herbert even more of an opportunity to establish himself as the Bears back of the future.  Herbert went for 157 yards and two touchdowns a week ago, and given DL Leornard Williams’ absence Herbert may have an even easier time getting yards this week.

With these injuries in the secondary and with the Giants receivers, we’ll see just how well Ryan Poles has built up his early depth as GM of the Chicago Bears.

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Velus Jones Jr. lit it up in the preseason against the Chiefs and the Seahawks but has been down with a hamstring injury ever since.

Velus Jones Jr. has missed three games thus far with a hamstring injury and could now be ready to finally make his full debut for the Bears in week 4.  Velus Jones Jr was a third-round pick with speed to burn and showed an ability to take the top off the defense early on. He also showed up big in the return game.

The main concern very early in his career has been his ability to stay healthy.  Velus Jones Jr. has battled injuries through the beginning of training camp initially with a quad injury and now with a hamstring injury.

Velus Jones. Jr’s return will be a welcome sight as the Bears have struggled to get vertical in the passing game and to get receivers open.  He showed that ability early on in when he was on the field, generating speed into separation.  

The Bears’ offense definitely needs a play-making boost and the added versatility that Jones Jr would bring.  There’s little doubt that a big-time return on special teams or a key deep pass could be the difference in a game between two teams battling to relevance near the bottom of the NFL.   A win put the Bears in a good spot at 3-1 and if the Giants get a home win they are at a stable 2-2 to start the season.

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Jaquan Brisker walked onto the field against the Kansas City Chiefs in game one of the preseason and showed that he has the potential to be one of the best safeties in the NFL.

Jaquan Brisker has been graded the ninth best safety in the NFL through three games of his rookie year according to NextGenStats on the NFL network.  Given what we have seen from Brisker thus far it’s not surprising that he’s earning this type of praise:

Jaquan Brisker will only get better as the season goes on and could be a finalist for defensive rookie of the year honors as the season continues.  Brisker has shown ability in the run game and in pass coverage lining up in man-to-man situations on more than one occasion.

Matt Eberflus has a lot of faith in his rookie to step up and make plays for the Bears’ defense and thus far Brisker has delivered.

If this keeps up Brisker might achieve the lofty status of being the best safety on the roster since Mike Brown. 

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