Chicago Sports

The Bears are 2-1 and in a solid position to start their 2022 season. Though, with how the hopeful future of the franchise Justin Fields has played, the surprise start might feel more ominous than optimistic.

To seemingly try and boost the morale of their fans, the Bears had a special guest — NFL legend and Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus — take over their Twitter account on Tuesday night. But it didn’t go as smoothly as they had planned. When Butkus initially introduced himself with a cryptic “hello” that built anticipation for an announcement.

His very next post appeared to be the legend accidentally filming at Halas Hall out of his hand? Out of his pocket? Who knows for sure:

Butkus would then reveal himself with a proper video while standing inside Halas Hall:

Butkus would engage with fans, asking what his first order of business should be inside the main building:

It appears he went with “picture by my number” first, though the number wasn’t visible in a perfect selfie encompassing the entire Twitter chaos:

Not long after, Butkus tweeted a note that he had made a mistake and wasn’t sure how to delete it. Of course, given the spate of tweets and fumbling beforehand, it wasn’t clear which specific tweet he was referring to:

And if it’s any consolation, he did get a great photo next to his customary No. 51:

In fairness to Butkus, this was the sort of havoc he used to wreak on offensive players all the time. But this is probably the first time it happened to the Bears as one of their greatest-ever players tried to figure out their social media.

Read more at usatoday.com

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The original idea for this column was to ask where the 2022 White Sox fit in a discussion about the biggest disappointments in Chicago sports history. How do they compare with the 1969 Cubs, who held a nine-game division lead in mid-August and managed to miss the playoffs? Or the 1986 Bears, a supremely talented bunch that blew a chance to bring back-to-back Super Bowls titles to the city?

And then I thought, no, that sort of exercise doesn’t do justice to what these Sox have done to their fans this season. Doesn’t account for the slow, steady drip of cruelty.

The Sox are in their own shameful category. I’m sure there’s been a Chicago team as hyped as the 2022 team was that also failed to live up to expectations. I’m sure there’s been a team as athletically blessed as this one was that also squandered its gifts.

But no team hit its fan base over the head with a mallet the way this one has on a regular basis. No team with the aforementioned hype and talent failed to offer solid reason for hope or belief the way this one did day after dull day.

I’d argue that it’s better for your mental health to faithfully follow a terrible team than it is to watch a purportedly good team slow dance with mediocrity all season. You know what you have with a bad team. You’re not surprised by its warts. With an underperforming team, it’s subtler. You’re left with psychological scars. After this season, there’s a decent chance Sox fans will be lugging around trust issues for the rest of their lives. This team was supposed to be a World Series contender.

A steady diet of win two games/lose two games has been maddening. The Sox, 76-78 going into Wednesday’s game against the Twins, have been lashed to the mast of the Good Ship .500 all season. There were times when the idea of the ship going down was preferable to the mind-numbing sameness of this season. At least a long losing streak in July would have proved the existence of life. When a team is the numerical definition of average, one can’t be quite sure if there’s a heartbeat.

Even when the Sox won 13 of 18 games after Miguel Cairo replaced ailing manager Tony La Russa in late August, the Sox eventually reverted to the mean, losing seven straight heading into Wednesday’s game. You can’t hide what you are. This was a different form of the same torture.

If there was a slogan for 2022, it would have been, “Don’t just stand there, do something!”

And that was just it: Nobody did anything.

La Russa wasn’t the biggest problem. I know Sox fans, looking for a bull’s-eye for their arrows, don’t want to hear that. But he was a symptom, a massive one, of a bigger organizational problem. He shouldn’t have been the manager in the first place, but, you know … Jerry. Once Jerry Reinsdorf, the team’s chairman, figures out who and what he likes, it’s impossible to loosen his grip. We’ve seen it with the Sox and the Bulls, the other team he owns. He’ll have an out now with La Russa’s heart issue. But, too late. Way too late.

The ups and downs under Cairo proved that La Russa wasn’t to blame for everything. Lance Lynn is 7-7 with a 4.16 earned-run average this season after going 11-6 with a 2.69 ERA last season. He’s the living, breathing example of what the Sox have been in 2022. And there are many other examples.

There’s something wrong when a team of talented players makes fundamental mistakes over and over. There’s something wrong when those talented players don’t have the mental makeup to pull themselves out of a rut. And maybe, just maybe, those talented players aren’t as talented as the Sox thought they were.

One of the hallmarks of getting older is an aversion to change. I know this. I don’t like learning a new computer system. But change is as much a part of professional sports as weightlifting is. If the people you thought were going to help you win games don’t, you move on. That’s how it works in sports. Just not on the South Side.

If Reinsdorf doesn’t fix things in the offseason, it will reinforce the obvious: that he’s his own worst enemy — and possibly yours. General manager Rick Hahn’s job should be in serious jeopardy. But “should be” and “is” are two very different things in Jerry World.

If you’re a Sox fan and feeling trapped by all of this, there indeed is no way out. Nothing can change how this season went, and nothing is going to make Reinsdorf sell the team.

I’d love to be able to give you some good news. But it’s hard to offer a ray of sunlight when a team hangs black curtains over all the windows.

The 2022 White Sox didn’t crush their fans with a heart-wrenching defeat, nothing like a ball getting past Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez in Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series. This is a slow death. A painfully tedious one. And I can’t tell you when it will end.

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One former Bears player beat out Khalil Herbert

Khalil Herbert had a breakout performance in Week 3 for the Chicago Bears. His 20 rushes for 157 yards led the way for the Bears’ 23-20 win over the Houston Texans. Herbert, the Bears’ number two running back on the depth chart, was given significant opportunities in the game after David Montgomery left with an injury. Herbert made the most of his opportunity. However, it wasn’t enough to earn him player of the week.

Two former Bears made the list. Atlanta Falcons Running back Cordarrelle Patterson won NFC offensive player of the week for his 141 yards rushing, 12 yards receiving, and one rushing touchdown. Patterson played for the Bears during the 2019-20 NFL seasons. Former Bears punter Pat O’Donnell won the NFC special teams player of the week as he punted seven times. Five of those punts were placed within the opponent’s 15-yard line. After eight years with the Bears, O’Donnell signed with the Packers this offseason.

Chicago Bears fans feel Herbert was snubbed

Looking at the rushing, receiving, and scoring totals from Week 3, one would have thought Herbert would win the award over Patterson. Herbert had more total yards and one more touchdown than Patterson.

Chicago Bears fans took to Twitter to ask why Herbert was denied the award. Some fans complained that Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham got the defensive player of the week award over Roquan Smith.

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It’s usually a red flag when a veteran bench player joins a new team and declares that he still feels like he’s a starter.

Make that a few red flags.

Andre Drummond, however, wasn’t about to start apologizing for his thought process, even now being on his sixth NBA team entering Year 11.

“I’m still in my mindset a player that’s a starter,” Drummond said in his first meeting with the Bulls media since signing a one-year deal with a player option. “But I’m a player who is able to adjust and adapt to any situation. If my services are needed to be a starter I can do that. If my services are needed to come in and be a spark off the bench that is what I’m here to do. My ego is not something that is driven in this game. I play the game because I love it and not to do anything else but be an asset this team.”

Well played.

But how exactly will he be an asset to this Bulls roster?

It starts with rebounding.

The Bulls ranked 28th in that category last season. Not necessarily an awful place to be considering Eastern Conference powerhouses like Miami (22nd) and Philadelphia (29th) were also in that zip code, but definitely an area that needed an upgrade.

Rebounding is not only a number, it’s a statement. It’s a message of physicality to the opposing team. A claim of the paint.

That might be more important for the Bulls than the actual rebound numbers.

While Billy Donovan’s crew led the Eastern Conference for weeks heading into the All-Star Break last season, there was a growing reputation of softness around the Bulls. Against talented teams that also played with some physical intensity, far too often that reputation played out.

That’s not Donovan’s personality, nor is it what he wants from his roster.

While Drummond isn’t in the business of stirring the pot, he also won’t walk away from a confrontation. See Miles Bridges and Dorian Finney-Smith.

The other department that Drummond will help out is rim protection. The Bulls were 25th in shot blocking.

The big man isn’t a specialist in swatting basketballs at the rim, but he is more than serviceable, averaging 1.5 blocks for his career.

What still needs to be answered, though, is how Donovan will use Drummond? He will back up Nikola Vucevic, but what needs to be seen is can Vucevic and Drummond co-exist and play together at the same time?

Donovan looked to do that last season with Vucevic and Tristan Thompson, and it was mostly an experiment gone wrong.

Drummond and Vucevic will get an opportunity to play alongside each other throughout training camp, and more importantly, in the four preseason games, to see how the group functions.

Vucevic is all in on trying to make that work.

“I’m open to trying anything to see how it works,” Vucevic said. “With my ability to shoot both inside and outside, my versatility on the court, I think it helps us to try it. It all depends on who we’re playing, the matchups. We won’t really know until we try. I’ve done it in my career where I’ve played the stretch-5. I won’t call it the stretch-4.”

Music to Drummond’s ears. The big man signed with the Bulls to get some playing time and win games. Starter, role player, rebounder, bodyguard, whatever that means, he’s up for it.

“This is a team that is very young, hungry and in a great position to do something special,” Drummond said. “I wanted to be a part of that.”

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Basketball is pretty much a family business for the Kents.

Dad Jason played at Ohio and the University of Charleston, mom Anna played at West Virginia. Their son Jayson starred at Oak Forest and is at Indiana State after starting his own college career at Bradley.

So currentOak Forest senior Janae Kent was destined to follow in all those footsteps, right?

Not exactly.

“I used to hate basketball,” she said. “I told my family, ‘I’m going to be a cheerleader. Basketball is my brother’s sport.'”

But that phase came and went. Kent played volleyball and ran track in middle school. But by seventh grade, she was playing travel basketball.

Now she’s the No. 1 senior in Illinois, and ranked No. 46 in the nation, according to the espnW/HoopGurlz rankings. A 6-1 wing, she is committed to Louisiana State.

The early exposure to the game — even if she wasn’t a fan initially — can only have helped her development.

Besides the coaching tips her parents offered, Kent always had gym access through her dad’s training business.

That’s a perk she’s put to good use, according to Oak Forest coach Jeff Kelly.

“She is a professional athlete when it comes to working out and training,” he said.

Her skills showed right away at the high-school level.

“I figured she’dbe a Power Five kid,” Kelly said. “She had nearly every school offer her.

“First game as a freshman, she scored 30. Second game, she scored 30 at the varsity level.”

Despite being limited to 13 games as a sophomore in the pandemic-shortened season, Kent already holds program scoring records for a game, season and career, and she’s second on the Oak Forest career lists for rebounds, three-pointers and field goals made.

As good as she was when she got to high school, Kelly has noticed big improvements since then.

“Her outside shot has come a long way,” he said. “She’s always been a really good shooter, but it’s consistent now. And just her overall game — from the end of last season to the summer, she was a different kid. In a matter of months, she improved that much. … Her ball-handling has improved, her court awareness.”

While Kent was working on her game, she also was working on her future.

LSU offered at the end of the pandemic season. But then the Tigers changed coaches, with Hall of Famer and three-time NCAA champ Kim Mulkey coming over from Baylor.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I would love to play for coach Mulkey at LSU,'” Kent said.

Now, that’s the plan. “She’s amazing,” Kent said of Mulkey. “People can say what they want about her. If you’re in her circle, you know her as a person.”

All the work Kent has put in has been to make sure she’s ready for the caliber of play in the Southeastern Conference. In the meantime, Kelly appreciates what having a top-50 national player means for the Bengals. It’s earned Oak Forest invitations to eliteshootouts and tournaments.

And Kent has sharpened her teammates’ games as well.

“To have a kid like that on my team, it’s like having another coach on the court,” Kelly said.

And one who’s all about basketball now, unlike those early days.

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One day after putting Byron Pringle on injured reserve, the Bears are bringing in another receiver. They are signing receiver Reggie Roberson Jr., to their practice squad, his agent said Wednesday morning.

The Bears had an open spot after promoting linebacker Joe Thomas to the active roster Tuesday.

Roberson is a 5-11, 192-pound receiver whose speed could make him a deep threat. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Titans in May, cut in late August and then re-signed to the practice squad. One day after joining the practice squad, though, he was released and replaced by receiver Josh Gordon.

Roberson began his college career at West Virginia before moving back to Texas to play for SMU. He suffered season-ending injuries in 2019 and 2020 — he tore his ACL in 2020 — and logged 65 catches for 625 yards and six touchdowns last year.

The Bears have two other receivers on their practice squad: Nsimba Webster and Isaiah Coulter. Their active roster features one of the most thin receivers’ rooms in the league. Equanimeous St. Brown and Darnell Mooney have only four catches apiece this season and Dante Pettis has one. Pringle had two catches before hurting his calf Sunday.

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MINNEAPOLIS — The dark space below the .500 mark is no place to be.

Not for a team in its championship window. Not for an organization that six years ago admitted to being ”mired in mediocrity” and launched a rebuild that left its fans waiting through seasons of 67-95, 62-100 and 72-89 in 2017-19 before finally reaching an American League wild-card series in 2020.

With a punchless 4-0 loss Tuesday to the Twins, the free-falling White Sox’ losing streak hit seven games.

”We didn’t have a good approach,” acting manager Miguel Cairo said. ”It’s hard to win games when you don’t score runs.”

The loss, in which Twins right-hander Bailey Ober (2-3) allowed only two hits and had a career-high 10 strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings, followed series sweeps by the younger, livelier, hungrier AL Central champion Guardians and last-place Tigers.

The Sox are plunging toward a totally unexpected losing season after two on the right side of .500. The latest loss dropped them to 76-78 and let the third-place Twins (75-79) creep to within one game of them for second.

Cairo, who was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in defense of starter Lance Lynn (five innings, four runs, 10 hits), has a clear goal in mind.

”I want to finish over .500; I don’t think we’re a below-.500 team,” Cairo said before the game.

We shall see about that.

The Sox play three games against the Padres in San Diego after this series, then finish with three at home against the Twins, who with a major-league-high 32 stints on the injured list don’t want to hear about the Sox’2022 injury woes.

It could be the eighth losing season in the last 10 for a franchise that has made it to only three postseasons (2008, 2020 and 2021) since the 2005 World Series. They won once in each of those series to go with nine losses, falling well short of the parades general manager Rick Hahn talked about during the planning stages of the rebuild.

Fans were willing to let bygones be bygones when the Sox, after patchwork upgrades just good enough to maybe be in contention around the trade deadline, did what everyone thought was the right thing by tearing things down to the studs. They traded their most valuable assets — Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and Adam Eaton — for a stable of prospects who thrust their lagging minor-league system to the top of the organization charts.

The Sox lost on purpose, and the fans didn’t care, eating up every news item they could find on prospects Luis Robert, Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech, Dylan Cease and Eloy Jimenez.

After the prospects graduated to the major-league team, the Sox’ organizational rankings fell back to the bottom. But the expected payoff at the major-league level came to an abrupt halt this season, manager Tony La Russa’s second and likely his last.

The Sox ”busted their tail,” Lynn said, and made a push under Cairo after La Russa left for medical reasons, but then crashed.

”You look at how hard we were going there, trying to catch up as it was,” Lynn said. ”And then it just has kind of been a free-fall since. And that’s unfortunate.

”It kind of wears on you, especially after everything you tried to do to get back into it. We were right there and then just haven’t played well since we got pretty close.”

Giolito said that no matter how this season ends record-wise, the Sox need to reacquaint themselves with having fun. That might be difficult with losses mounting.

”Be free and loose and get that good feeling, end on a high note and take that to the offseason for whatever individual work we need to do,” Giolito said.

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Connor Murphy gave Kevin Korchinski simple advice Tuesday: Don’t worry about mistakes, rely on your instincts and enjoy the moment.

But Korchinski, smiling and relaxedbefore his first NHL preseason game, didn’t seem to need it much.

“Hockey just comes to me,” he said. “It’s what I love to do. So just going out there, I’m going to try and have fun and play my game.”

Even with veterans Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Seth Jones all in the lineup for the Hawks’ preseason opener –a 4-1 lossto the Blues –it was Korchinski, the defenseman drafted seventh overall, who attracted the biggest spotlight.

After all, it’s the top prospects like him who will determine how the rebuild pans out.

“He has been great in practice,” coach Luke Richardson said. “He moves very well. Obviously [he’s] a quick skater, very fluid. We’d like to see him shoot that puck a little more and not look to pass first. That’ll open up things for him later.”

Richardson, standing behind the Hawks’ bench for the first time, paired Korchinski with Murphy, Alex Vlasic with Seth Jones and Ethan Del Mastro with Caleb Jones, giving each prospect a veteran to help them along.

Having the confidence to establish his shot has been a point of emphasis for Korchinski, and he made smart decisions when to shoot and when to pass during his 19:02 of ice time Tuesday.

He will likely land back with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds this season, although a few Hawks regular-season appearances are possible. Nonetheless, every pro experience –like Tuesday –matters.

“[There’s] stuff you can’t get away with at this level that maybe you can in juniors,” he said. “[I’m learning] little tips like that [about] what to do.”

Notes

Mike Hardman has missed the last two days of training camp with a groin injury, but Colton Dach and Paul Ludwinski (concussion protocol) returned to the ice Monday.Kane skated on a line Tuesday with newcomers Max Domi and Andreas Athanasiou,while Toews skated on a line with Tyler Johnson and Taylor Raddysh.So far in camp, Richardson has creatively used video from the Lightning and Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final in his lessons. Of course, that will change after Tuesday.Read More

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MINNEAPOLIS – The dark space below the .500 mark is no place to be.

Not for a team in its championship window. Not for an organization that, six years ago gave in to being “mired in mediocrity” and worse and launched a rebuild that left its fans patiently waiting through seasons of 67-95, 62-100 and 72-89 from 2017-19 before finally making a wild card series in 2020.

The White Sox, after a lackluster 4-0 loss to the Twins Tuesday, extended their free-falling losing streak to seven. The loss, featuring two hits against right-hander Bailey Ober who recorded a career high 10 strikeouts, followed series sweeps by the younger, livelier, hungrier AL Central champion Cleveland Guardians and the last-place Tigers. The Sox are reeling toward a losing season after two on the right side of .500. Tuesday’s loss dropped the Sox to 76-78 and let the third-place Twins (75-79) creep to one game.

Acting manager Miguel Cairo, who was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in defense of starter Lance Lynn (five innings, four runs, 10 hits) knows where he wants to finish.

“I want to finishover .500; I don’t think we’re a below-.500 team,” Cairo said before the game.

We shall see. Playing for pride?

“You said the word right there,” Cairo said. “You’ve got to have pride when you’re playing the game. They’re professional baseball players, big leaguers. There’s a reason why they’re here, and they’ve got to show that they want to finish strong.”

“For me, definitely [want to avoid an embarrassing] losing record,” AJ Pollock said. “We want to finish in front of [the Twins] for sure. Just finish the last nine games strong. Take it to the finish line no matter what.”

The Sox play three in San Diego after this series, then finish at home with three against the Twins. It could be their eighth losing season in the last 10 for a franchise that enjoyed three postseasons, 2008, 2020 and 2021 since the 2005 World Series. They won once in each series to go with nine losses, falling well short of the parades general manager Rick Hahn talked about during planning stages of the rebuild.

Fans were willing to let bygones be bygones when the Sox, after patchwork upgrades and tinkered rosters just good enough to maybe be in contention around the trade deadline, did what everyone felt was the right thing by tearing things down to the studs. They traded their most valuable assets, Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and Adam Eaton, for a stable of prospects who thrust their otherwise lagging minor league system to the top of the organization charts.

They lost on purpose and the fans didn’t care, eating up every news item they could find on prospects Luis Robert, Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech, Dylan Cease and Eloy Jimenez. After they graduated to the major league team, the Sox’ organizational rankings fell back to the bottom but the expected payoff at the major league level came to an abrupt halt this season, manager Tony La Russa’s second and very likely his last.

The Sox were eliminated from contention over the weekend, and any push to finish over .500 reminds of 2018, when they desperately tried to fight off the 100-loss monster but got gobbled up losing their last five games, culminating with a sweep in Minnesota.

Lucas Giolito said no matter how it ends record-wise, they need to reacquaint themselves with having fun. That could be difficult with losses mounting.

“Honestly with these last games, just have fun playing and for all of us find what makes competing fun,” Lucas Giolito said. “Be free and loose and get that good feeling, end on a high note and take that to the offseason for whatever individual work we need to do.”

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