The Chicago Bears are not good. Even if they didn’t take five personal foul penalties out of nine total, they wouldn’t have won the game because the Minnesota Vikings are a much better football team in every way. The Bears can’t score and their defense is fine sometimes but it certainly isn’t very dominant.

However, the officiating in the National Football League is a complete joke. One of Chicago’s penalties is something that you really don’t see a lot which was a flag on head coach Matt Nagy. Now Matt Nagy isn’t very good at his job. They can’t score and it is mostly a result of his scheming.

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Maria Walker didn’t know Chicago firefighter Mashawn Plummer, but it was important for her to attend a solemn procession Tuesday night honoring his death.

“I have family members who are first responders and I don’t think we do enough for officers and firefighters,” said Walker, director of Early Childhood Education at Rush University Medical Center, about a mile from the morgue where the procession ended.

“I think this is our opportunity to come and show our respect for them and their families,” she said

MaShawn Plummer, who had been a firefighter for just a year, died at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood days after he was badly burned in an apartment fire in Belmont Central.

Plummer suffered burns to his throat while battling a blaze at a two-story building just after 2 a.m. Dec. 16 in the 3100 block of North Marmora Avenue, officials said.

MaShawn PlummerChicago Fire Department

Eladio Gomez, 37, died in the fire and another man was taken to a hospital in critical condition, officials said. A woman was also seriously injured.

Plummer was assigned to Engine 94 at 5758 W. Grace St. in Portage Park, Fire Department spokesperson Larry Langford said. He is survived by his parents and four sisters.

Firefighters, family, friends and community members gathered at the Cook County medical examiner’s office Tuesday night to show their respect for Plummer.

Firefighters lined up on Harrison and Leavitt streets, creating a path as an ambulance carrying the body of Plummer made its way to the morgue.

“I didn’t know him, but there’s no way to put into words what it’s like losing someone,” said a Chicago firefighter who didn’t want to be named. “It’s not easy. It’s just not.”

Among those in the crowd was Shirley Simmons, who told reporters she was a lifelong neighbor of Plummer’s family and remembered him as kind and generous.

Firefighters and police officers have a procession to honor fallen firefighter MaShawn Plummer.Brian Rich/Sun-Times

The last line-of-duty deaths in the department were two firefighters who died of COVID-19 last year.

Edward Singleton, a 33-year veteran of the department, died April 14 from complications of COVID-19. The 55-year-old worked at the firehouse at Midway Airport and leaves behind a wife and two adult children.

One week earlier, Mario Araujo became the first firefighter of the department to die from the coronavirus. Araujo, 47, joined the fire department in October 2003 and spent most of his career on Truck 25, which operates out of Engine 102 in Rogers Park on the North Side. He was single.

In May of 2018, diver Juan Bucio died while searching for a missing boater in the Chicago River. Bucio, 46, lost contact with his dive partner during the search. Bucio was briefly a Chicago police officer before joining CFD, moving to the dive team as soon as he could.

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When I was 8 or 9 years old, I threw my glasses at the TV because the Chicago Bears lost a game against the Dallas Cowboys. I think I even broke those specs, much to my parents’ chagrin.

I’ve thrown – and broken – TV remotes because of a Chicago Bears loss as an adult. Embarrassingly, that has come deep into my 30s.

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A Chicago firefighter critically injured in an apartment fire in Belmont Central last week has died.

MaShawn Plummer, who had been a firefighter for just a year, died at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Chicago Fire Department spokesperson Larry Merritt said Tuesday afternoon.

“We ask that everyone keep the family in their prayers,” Merritt said. “It’s tough to lose a loved one under any circumstances — especially hard during the holiday season, which should be a time of celebration.”

Plummer was assigned to Engine 94 at 5758 W. Grace St. in Portage Park, department spokesperson Larry Langford said.

Plummer had just celebrated his one-year anniversary with the department when he was injured while battling a blaze at a two-story building just after 2 a.m. Dec. 16 in the 3100 block of North Marmora Avenue, officials said.

MaShawn PlummerChicago Fire Department

Eladio Gomez, 37, died in the fire and another man was taken to a hospital in critical condition, officials said. A woman was also seriously injured.

A procession for Plummer to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office took place late Tuesday. Firefighters, family, friends and community members gathered to show their respect for Plummer.

“I didn’t know him, but there’s no way to put into words what it’s like losing someone,” said a Chicago firefighter who didn’t want to be named. “It’s not easy. It’s just not.”

Firefighters lined up on Harrison and Leavitt streets creating a path as an ambulance carrying the body of Plummer made its way to the medical examiner’s office.

Maria Walker, director of Early Childhood Education at Rush University Medical Center, said she attends a procession whenever she can.

“I have family members who are first responders and I don’t think we do enough for officers and firefighters,” Walker said. “I think this is our opportunity to come and show our respect for them and their families.”

Firefighters and police officers have a procession to honor fallen firefighter MaShawn Plummer.Brian Rich/Sun-Times

The last line-of-duty deaths in the department were two firefighters who died of COVID-19 last year.

Edward Singleton, a 33-year veteran of the department, died April 14 from complications of COVID-19. The 55-year-old worked at the firehouse at Midway Airport and leaves behind a wife and two adult children.

One week earlier, Mario Araujo became the first firefighter of the department to die from the coronavirus. Araujo, 47, joined the fire department in October 2003 and spent most of his career on Truck 25, which operates out of Engine 102 in Rogers Park on the North Side. He was single.

In May of 2018, diver Juan Bucio died while searching for a missing boater in the Chicago River. Bucio, 46, lost contact with his dive partner during the search. Bucio was briefly a Chicago police officer before joining CFD, moving to the dive team as soon as he could.

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Please send scores and corrections to [email protected].

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

INTERSTATE EIGHT

Kaneland at Plano, 7:00

LaSalle-Peru at Sandwich, 7:00

NIC – 10

Guilford at Belvidere North, 7:00

RIVER VALLEY

Grant Park at Gardner-So. Wilmington, 6:45

Illinois Lutheran at Clifton Central, 7:00

St. Anne at Beecher, 1-19 PPD

SOUTHLAND

Bloom at Thornwood, 6:00

NON CONFERENCE

Alcott at Noble Street, 4:00

Andrew at Reavis, 6:00

Antioch at Fenwick, 6:00

Butler at Proviso West, 7:00

Byron at Erie-Prophetstown, PPD

Catalyst-Maria at Agricultural Science

Christ the King at Loyola (MI), 4:30

Comer at Mount Carmel, 7:00

Dwight at Ridgeview, 7:00

East Aurora at DeKalb, 7:00

Evergreen Park at Elmwood Park, 1:00

Lakes at St. Patrick, 7:00

Latin at Walther Christian, 5:00

Leland at Amboy, 7:00

Lena-Winslow at Winnebago, 7:00

Lincoln-Way West at Plainfield North, 6:30

Loyola at Evanston, PPD

Manteno at Joliet Catholic, PPD

Marquette at Alleman, 7:00

Minooka at Lemont, 6:00

Niles North at Prospect, 6:00

North Boone at Belvidere, 7:00

Polo at Oregon, 7:00

Princeton at Dixon, 7:00

Prosser at Dunbar, 3:00

Rock Falls at Newman, 7:00

Round Lake at Mundelein, 4:30

Schurz at Collins, 1:00

Seneca at Newark, 7:00

St. Viator at Hersey, 6:00

Wilmington at Momence, 7:00

Woodland at Blue Ridge, PPD

York at Benet, PPD

FORT MYERS (FL) CITY OF PALMS

Young vs. North Little Rock (AR), 3:45

LAS VEGAS BISHOP GORMAN (NV)

De La Salle vs. Evangel Christian (KY), 8:30

MARENGO

Crystal Lake Central vs. Richmond-Burton, 9:00a

Woodstock vs. Fenton, 12:00

Stillman Valley vs. Grayslake North, 3:00

Harvest Christian vs. Harvard, 6:00

Genoa-Kingston vs. Sycamore, 10:30

Rockford Christian vs. Woodstock North, 1:30

Freeport vs. Marengo, 4:30

Rochelle vs. Wauconda, 7:30

WATSEKA

Hoopeston vs. Peotone, 5:00

Iroquois West vs. Watseka, 6:15

McNamara vs. Milford, 7:30

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NBA commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN’s Malika Andrews that the league has no plans to suspend its season as COVID-19 surges through the league.

“No plans right now to pause the season,” Silver said in an interview on NBA Today on Tuesday afternoon. “We have of course looked at all the options, but frankly we are having trouble coming up with what the logic would be behind pausing right now.

“As we look through these cases literally ripping through the country, let alone the rest of the world, I think we’re finding ourselves where we sort of knew we were going to get to over the past several months, and that is this virus will not be eradicated, and we’re going to have to learn to live with it. I think that’s what we’re experiencing in the league right now.”

The NBA has had to postpone seven games over the past week — including five over the past three days — as the omicron variant of COVID-19 has swept through the league, just as it has throughout societies around the world.

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Silver said that the omicron strain is “beyond dominant” within the league at the moment, something the NBA can track as it has the ability to sequence every positive test that it receives from its players, coaches and staff members around the league.

“We’re up around probably 90% of the positive cases we’re seeing right now are omicron,” Silver said.

Silver’s position on not stopping play is in keeping with the memo the league sent to teams Sunday evening announcing new rules regarding replacement players, as teams now have much more flexibility to add them immediately upon losing players to the league’s health and safety protocols — and, once they have at least two players in the protocols, are required to begin signing them.

But one thing he said the league is not yet prepared to do is to openly change its stance on how long players have to sit out in the wake of a positive test. Currently, the NBA’s health and safety protocols say that a positive test requires either sitting out for 10 days or getting two negative PCR tests taken more than 24 hours apart.

Silver, however, told Andrews that the league has seen through the data it has collected that players who have received booster shots have both shown either no symptoms or very mild ones and have passed the virus through their systems faster — which could, at some point in the future, pave the way for the league to shorten the amount of time players have to miss.

“We always are measuring viral loads with our PCR test,” Silver said. “So that’s something, again, that it’s not just our doctors but the medical community is looking at. I think they’re already realizing that you can move away from the 10-day protocol when you have players who are vaccinated and boosted.

“It seems the virus runs through their systems faster. They become not just asymptomatic but, more importantly, they’re not shedding the virus anymore. That’s the real concern in terms of others. And so we are actively looking at shortening the number of days players are out before they can return to the floor.”

And while Silver said the NBA isn’t ready to change its stance on testing when it comes to asymptomatic players — as, for example, the NFL did over the weekend — he did say that the league’s data makes it clear that boosters work, and that he is hopeful that the league’s current percentage of players who have been both vaccinated and boosted of 65% will only continue to increase.

“We have a lot of data we look at. In terms of players and coaches that have gone through the three-shot protocol, meaning the two mRNA shots and then the booster, and then past two weeks, only a very small number of those people have been breakthrough cases where they’ve turned positive,” Silver said. “And they essentially have been asymptomatic or very mild symptoms. We’re also dealing with a large group that either have one J&J shot or haven’t been boosted yet.

“I would just say to our community, really to everyone, at least based on the data the NBA has, that the boosters are highly effective, and we are strongly encouraging everyone to get them. In fact, in our league right now, we’re around 97% vaccinated, but we’re up to about 65% of our players have been boosted and we’re in active discussions with the players’ association to get that number even higher. So we’re not, in terms of your question, in essence whether we can treat this as endemic, and people begin to move on and we only test those that are symptomatic and deal with those, we’re not quite there yet, but we’re paying a lot of attention to what other leagues are doing.”

But while Silver was quick to point out the efficacy of both the vaccine and getting booster shots, one thing he said hasn’t been discussed was another push to have a leaguewide vaccine mandate.

While San Francisco and New York have required players who play for teams in those markets to be vaccinated — a decision that is keeping Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving from playing in any home games this season — no other cities have followed suit, and the NBA has not circled back on its mandate proposal to the National Basketball Players Association from before the season began.

“No,” Silver said, when asked whether he had brought it back up again. “It’s something that we proposed. It’s something that the players’ association wouldn’t agree to. Having said that, we’re at roughly 97% of our players having been vaccinated. So from my standpoint, I’d rather focus on the 97% than the 3%. And, incidentally, many of the 3% now have gotten COVID, so they have developed antibodies.

“To me, the focus is on boosters for the 97% of players who have been vaccinated. As I said before, among those players who are eligible to get boosters because, as you know, there’s a waiting period after your second shot, but among those who are eligible to be boosted we are about 65%, and ideally I’d like to see that number get to 97% as well. That’s what we’re focused on right now with the PA.”

In the meantime, however, teams are dealing with having to rush to sign replacement players, in many cases, just to fill out their rosters to be able to play in games. Silver admitted that isn’t an ideal situation to be in but said that ultimately there isn’t much of an alternative for a league that is going to continue playing games in the middle of the pandemic still raging throughout society.

“I think there’s a recognition that these are the cards that we’ve been dealt,” Silver said. “Of course there’s an amount of unfairness that comes with playing in certain cases with some teams where particular players are out because of COVID protocols, but the other advantage is we do have an 82-game season and we do have a long playoffs, and my sense is things will work out by the end of the season.”

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