What’s New

This is when an offensive mastermind would prove himself.

While the starting quarterback getting knocked out by injury would be a major setback to most teams, being forced to shift from Andy Dalton to Justin Fields isn’t a problem that’s been dropped into coach Matt Nagy’s lap. It’s an opportunity.

A thrilling one.

Nagy’s imagination started spinning when he studied Fields’ before the draft and he showed snapshots of those ideas in the first two games. But now, as the Bears prepare to visit the Browns on Sunday, it’s time to design an entire game plan around a quarterback who is inexperienced, but multidimensional and more polished than most rookies.

“A quarterback that can throw the ball like he can, run like he can, has the ability to process, the fire and the competitiveness — all that together, that’s why you go get him,” Nagy said. “When it is his time, there’s going to be a lot of good stuff that we can do with this offense, but that does take a little bit of time.”

Patience is sensible, but time is something Nagy doesn’t have. His job is on the line, and while no one expects the Bears to go to the Super Bowl, he needs to live up to the credentials that got him hired: an expert quarterback teacher and limitlessly creative play caller.

There was little evidence to support either claim over the last two seasons as his quarterbacks floundered and the Bears scored the seventh-fewest points in the NFL.

Now would be a good time to come up with a brilliant plan. Show us something.

Nobody doubts Fields’ talent. The concern is whether Nagy knows how to use it.

While Nagy praised Fields’ progress throughout the last five months and admitted he exceeded all internal benchmarks by the start of the season, his rigid commitment to Dalton prevented Fields from showing he could handle even more.

This week, with Fields off the scout team and taking the full share of first-team reps, has been eye-opening for Nagy.

“There’s little things that we’re learning,” Nagy said. “There’s things that we’re seeing that maybe we didn’t see in the first two weeks. That part is good.

“That’s the beauty of him having these great reps in practice, which is what he wasn’t getting. But now he has an opportunity to do it, so we’ve got to take advantage of it.”

Fields’ mobility, whether sprinting upfield or simply buying time, could offset all the shortfalls of the Bears’ offense. He isn’t as dependent on the offensive line or Nagy’s play call working. The play can implode, or the defense can simply cover every facet of it, and Fields can still make something happen–as he did when he took off for 10 yards on a late third-and-nine to clinch victory over the Bengals.

“Mobile quarterbacks make the game tougher on a defense,” Bears defensive tackle Akiem Hicks said. “There is a great deal of benefit to having a quarterback that can move around in the pocket, get you out of a bad situation — even keep his eyes downfield and make a good throw.”

Fields is a weapon.

And it’d be easy to make pre-excuses for Nagy and the offense because they’re facing a good team — as opposed to a much more favorable scenario next week at home against the Lions — but the Bears can’t keep pointing toward tough opponents and throwing their hands up like they did against the Rams.

Sure the Rams and Browns are good, but there are plenty more teams like them coming. Nagy went 3-11 against playoff teams over the last two regular seasons. Two of those wins were in 2019 against the Vikings, one in a meaningless finale, and the other was over the eventual champion Buccaneers last season.

That’s why the pressure really isn’t on Fields. It’s on Nagy.

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NEW YORK — R. Kelly’s fate is now in a jury’s hands after weeks of lurid testimony in his sexual misconduct trial.

The panel of seven men and five women began deliberating racketeering and sex trafficking charges against the R&B superstar Friday.

A couple hours into the deliberations, the jurors sent the judge a note asking to review a transcript of testimony and evidence regarding a woman who claimed Kelly sexually assaulted her in 2003 when she was a 21-year-old radio station intern. She testified she was kept locked up in a recording studio for days and drugged before the assault.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys finished their closing arguments this week. The 54-year-old singer is accused of running a Chicago-based criminal enterprise that recruited his accusers for unwanted sex and mental torment.

The witnesses said Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Kelly “believed the music, the fame and the celebrity meant he could do whatever he wanted,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihata said in federal court in Brooklyn in a fiery rebuttal to the defense’s closing argument that portrayed Kelly as a victim of false accusations.

But, she added, “He’s not a genius, he’s a criminal. A predator.” She added that his alleged victims “aren’t groupies or gold diggers. They’re human beings.”

The 54-year-old Kelly, perhaps best known for the 1996 smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly, ” has pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges accusing him of abusing women, girls and boys for more than two decades.

He is also charged with multiple violations of the Mann Act, which makes it illegal to transport anyone across state lines “for any immoral purpose.”

Prosecutors say their evidence proves how Kelly, with the help of some loyal members of his entourage, used tactics from “the predator playbook” to sexually exploit his victims.

The tactics included isolating them in hotel rooms or his recording studio, subjecting them to degrading rules like making them call him “Daddy” and shooting video recordings — some seen by the jury at trial — of them having sex with him and others as a means to control them, prosecutors said.

In his closing, defense attorney Deveraux Cannick told the jury that testimony by several accusers was full of lies, and that “the government let them lie.”

Cannick argued there was no evidence Kelly’s accusers were ever forced to do anything against their will. Instead, Cannick said, Kelly’s girlfriends stuck around because he spoiled them with free air travel, shopping sprees and fancy dinners — treatment that belied the predator label.

“He gave them a lavish lifestyle,” he said. “That’s not what a predator is supposed to do.”

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A 24-year-old man was killed in a shooting Thursday in Jeffery Manor on the South Side.

Deshawn Reed was in the 9800 block of South Chappel Avenue about 8 p.m. when someone opened fire, striking him multiple times, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 8:34 p.m., officials said.

An autopsy Friday ruled his death a homicide. Reed lived in the neighborhood where he was shot, the medical examiner’s office said.

No arrests have been reported. Area Two detectives are investigating.

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Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be mostly sunny and breezy with a high near 78 degrees and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Tonight we’re expected to see showers and thunderstorms with a low around 51. Tomorrow will be sunny with a high near 70 degrees.

Top story

Bodycam video of Chicago police officer grappling with lakefront dog walker released

New video footage was released this week by lawyers of a Black woman who said she was racially profiled and manhandled by a Chicago police officer while she walked her dog on the lakefront.

The 4-minute, 40-second video from the officer’s bodycam shows a different vantage point and has superior audio quality compared to the viral cellphone recordings that Nikkita Brown and a truck driver captured.

Attorneys with Saulter Law P.C., who posted the latest footage on the firm’s website, did not immediately return a call from the Sun-Times today.

The bodycam video shows the officer — identified by Brown’s lawyers as Bruce Dyker — jump out of his vehicle to confront Brown at North Avenue Beach shortly after midnight on Aug. 30.

Audio from the bodycam does not start until Dyker is seen stepping out of his vehicle. At that point, Brown is captured on video with her cellphone raised as Dyker approaches. The conversation quickly escalates to shouting after Brown asks the officer to “respect her space.”

“Respect your space? I’m about to put handcuffs on you,” Dyker can be heard saying.

“You don’t have a mask on,” Brown is heard replying as she backpedals away from the officer while her small white dog strains at its leash.

“I don’t need a mask on. I’m outside… know the ordinances,” Dyker said, walking toward Brown as she repeatedly says “back up” and keeps moving away from Dyker.

Andy Grimm has more on the bodycam footage and Brown’s allegations against Dyker.

More news you need

Camp Tivoli, run by Norbertine priests in Wisconsin for more than 50 years, attracted numerous children from the Chicago region. It also attracted clergy as counselors and administrators who were alleged child molesters, our Robert Herguth reports in a new Watchdogs story.

A south suburban teen has been charged with making online threats of gun violence to several Chicago public schools, including Simeon High School, which lost two students to shootings this week. At the time of arrest, he was on electronic monitoring for making similar threats to schools in a nearby city, police said.

Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will officially break ground on the Obama Presidential Center on Tuesday. Groundbreaking celebrations for the complex will start Monday with a gathering of Obama campaign and administration alumni.

Chicago Public Schools won’t allow fans at tomorrow’s Phillips vs. Simeon football game due to concerns over gun violence. Phillips coach Joe Winslow told our Michael O’Brien officials are “worried about security of the families and fans.”

Chicago’s property tax levy will rise by $76.5 million in 2022, but Mayor Lori Lightfoot has focused on the fact that the City Council will not be required to take a “new vote” to raise property taxes. But several aldermen aren’t buying Lightfoot’s argument.

The families of three men killed in an explosion near Starved Rock State Park have sued the construction companies and demolition team they believe left behind an undetonated explosive device. Little Village residents Immer Rivera Tejada, Rafael Rivera Tejada and Guillermo Rivera Tejada were killed in the May 6 explosion.

Fifty-five years after her baby was kidnapped, Dora Fronczak finally got to talk to her biological son on the phone in 2019. That was thanks to the detective work of Paul Fronczak, Dora’s adopted son — who, after learning via DNA he was not theirs, set out on a quest to find his identity and the kidnapped baby.

Northwestern University scientists say they have developed the “microflier” — the smallest-ever, man-made flying structure. The microfliers could be dropped from an airplane or a drone and used to collect data on things like air pollution, they said.

A bright one

Local artist fulfills dream of creating mural visible from the L

The construction work that’s temporarily shut down the CTA’s Lawrence Avenue L stop has meant more people are getting on and off at the nearby Wilson Avenue station instead — much to Joe Miller’s delight.

That gives them more time to notice Miller’s new mural, titled “Uptown Dot King,” which spans 140 feet of a building at 1124 W. Wilson St. in view of the busy L stop.

“Being from Chicago, I’ve always wanted a piece that was visible from the train,” says Miller, who lives in Lincoln Square. “And not just a little thing you can spot. Something that was almost intended for the train. That first train ride looking at it was pretty awesome.”

A southbound Red Line L train passes Joe Miller’s “Uptown Dot King” mural at 1124 W. Wilson St. in Uptown. The Lincoln Square artist always wanted to do a large-scale mural that could be seen from a train platform.Andrew Hickey/@drewinchicago

Working with his girlfriend Sunni DiLuzio, Miller, 38, painted the mural in August as the jewel of the second annual Uptown Art Week, a nine-day event featuring mural painting and art exhibits and the creation of close to 150 new artworks, according to the economic development group Uptown United.

The group has been working with the Uptown Chamber of Commerce to beautify the area around the century-old Wilson station, which underwent major reconstruction that ended in 2018.

With the current CTA work closing the Lawrence Avenue station, “People who used to use Lawrence every day now have a two-block detour,” says Justin Weidl, Uptown United’s neighborhood services director. He says the aim with Miller’s mural and other art “was to kind of make that two-block pedestrian detour as fun and exciting as possible.”

Zack Miller has more on the mural’s backstory here.

From the press box

Your daily question ?

What is one iconic, but long-gone Chicago business you would bring back if you could? Tell us why.

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: If you could be on one reality competition or game show, which would you choose? Tell us why. Here’s what some of you said…

“‘Double Dare.’ I want to run through slime and pick flags out of noses.” — Dan Seaway

“‘The Amazing Race’ — great adventure all around the world! My sister and I would crush it.” — Nancy Campbell

“‘Wipeout’ or ‘American Ninja Warrior.’ They both are a lot of fun and would love to know my limitations.” — Sasja Alskare

“‘Wheel of Fortune,’ because I have tried to get on the show when they had auditions years ago at the United Center. Every day at 6:30 p.m. I am watching my favorite game show and solving the puzzles before the contestants do!” — Sharon Bartley

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

Sign up here to get the Afternoon Edition in your inbox every day.

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An investigation into Bradley Aldrich’s time at Miami (Ohio) University concluded the former Blackhawks video coach sexually assaulted two men at Miami in fall 2012.

The final report about the investigation, conducted by the law firm Barnes & Thornburg and released Friday, did not mention Miami receiving any recommendation letter from the Hawks when hiring Aldrich.

Aldrich has been the subject of intense scrutiny after two negligence lawsuits relating to him were filed against the Blackhawks in May and June.

The first lawsuit alleged that Aldrich sexually assaulted a Hawks player in May 2010 and that Hawks management covered up the assault while quietly firing him that summer. The second alleged the Hawks provided recommendation letters for Aldrich to his future employers, including Miami University and later Houghton (Michigan) High School, where he assaulted a 16-year-old member of the boy’s hockey team. The Hawks have filed pending motions to dismiss both lawsuits.

The Miami investigation determined Aldrich assaulted a summer hockey camp intern and a Miami undergraduate student who worked at the ice rink. Both assaults occurred after Aldrich invited the men to sleep over on his couch.

But the investigation also concluded Miami “acted in an appropriate manner” after becoming aware of each incident and “met all of its legal duties.” Miami suspended Aldrich’s employment after the intern reported his assault, prompting Aldrich to resign. The undergraduate student, conversely, did not report the assault until 2018, per the report.

The process of Miami hiring Aldrich is of most relevance to the Hawks, however. An original version of the second lawsuit filed against the Hawks alleged the Hawks “provided positive references to future employers,” whereas an amended version alleged the Hawks merely provided a “positive review and/or employment verification of Aldrich to Houghton” specifically. The Hawks have called those allegations “demonstrably false” in their own filings.

Friday’s new report concluded Aldrich “did not provide any references [to Miami] in his resume,” and the report makes no mention of any letters or recommendations from the Hawks. The report states Miami’s hockey coach at the time, Rico Blasi, did talk to the Notre Dame University coaching staff — where Aldrich worked from 2010 to 2012, after leaving the Hawks — and “received favorable information.”

Miami conducted a background check on Aldrich before hiring him and, although it wasn’t completed until after his hiring, it turned up no red flags because Aldrich “did not have any criminal convictions or arrests” at the time, per the report.

A separate investigation being conducted by the law firm Jenner & Block into Aldrich’s tenure with the Hawks is still ongoing.

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Chicago Public Schools won’t allow fans at Saturday’s Phillips vs. Simeon football game.

The game, scheduled for 4 p.m. at Gately Stadium on the South Side, has been referred to as the Public League Super Bowl the past several years. It’s debatable if the Wolverines and Wildcats are still the top programs in the Public League (Morgan Park and Kenwood have made major strides) but the game would have been the top draw of the season so far in CPS.

“It’s because of the violence that’s been going on around the schools,” Phillips coach Joe Winslow said in a text. “They’re worried about security of the families and fans.”

CPS did not confirm the news but said it would provide a statement by the end of the day on Friday.

Earlier today a south suburban teen was charged with making online threats of gun violence to several Chicago public schools, including Simeon, which lost two students to shootings this week.

Simeon (2-2) has bounced back from decisive losses to Joliet Catholic and Bolingbrook with a pair of lopsided wins against CPS rivals.

The Wolverines’ Malik Elzy, a 6-3, 198-pound receiver, is one of the state’s top juniors and his 13 offers include Illinois, Notre Dame, Michigan and three SEC schools (Kentucky, Tennessee and Vanderbilt).

Phillips (2-2) has had a similar trajectory, losing to Batavia and Mount Carmel before handling a pair of city rivals.

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A 31-year-old man accused of running away during a traffic stop and firing a gun at a Chicago police officer in Rogers Park earlier this week was ordered held without bail Friday.

The bullet Timothy Thomas allegedly fired late Tuesday night missed the officer but struck a window of a home across the street, Cook County prosecutors said.

No officers fired their guns during the incident, prosecutors said.

After shooting his gun, Thomas tripped and threw his weapon before he continued running, prosecutors said. He was arrested minutes later at 11:45 p.m. after officers found him hiding on a nearby back porch in the 7600 block of North Ashland Avenue.

The confrontation began moments earlier when officers pulled Thomas over after seeing him drive through a stop sign, prosecutors said.

Thomas stopped his vehicle, put his hazards on, stepped out and started walking toward the parked police SUV, prosecutors said. He then allegedly rushed to the SUV’s passenger door and pushed it shut on the leg of the officer who was stepping out.

That officer chased Thomas down the street to the corner in the 1500 block of West Jonquil Terrace. There, Thomas pulled out a handgun from his waistband and fired one shot at the officer, prosecutors said.

Police recovered the gun, its shell casing and a bullet fragment from the window of the home, prosecutors said.

They also found the black hoodie Thomas had been wearing in a nearby trash bag, prosecutors said.

The incident was captured on surveillance video, prosecutors said.

Thomas was charged with attempted first-degree murder of an officer, aggravated battery of a peace officer and habitual criminal.

Thomas has previous a previous weapons conviction and convictions for aggravated DUI possession of a controlled substance and attempted robbery.

He has a temp job and is married with two young children, Thomas’ attorney said.

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It helps to know the song.

Leading the crowd in the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh-inning stretch, a tradition popularized by the legendary Harry Caray, has become a Wrigley Field institution.

Caray first sang on the South Side when he broadcast games for the White Sox. Then he brought the ritual with him to the Cubs and immortalized it at the Friendly Confines.

In the years since his death in 1998, the Cubs have continued the tradition of having “Guest Conductors” lead the stretch singing. It started as a tribute to Caray, but has morphed into an opportunity for any celebrity in town to promote an upcoming project or shill for some random product.

There have been many infamous renditions of the song by celebrities over the years where things have taken a turn for the worst. But we wanted to look back at the worst of the worst.

You don’t have to be a great singer — Harry definitely wasn’t — but some passing familiarity with the tune and/or lyrics is useful.

In general, to live in seventh-inning infamy, a celebrity must be memorable and screw up in some way. Mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor is the latest celebrity to serve up a less-than-stellar rendition.

Some tips for celebrities: Don’t be late (Ditka), don’t rush through the song (Mr. T), make sure you “root, root, root for the Cubbies” and not some other team, remember the correct name of the venue (Hi, Jeff Gordon!) and be somewhat coherent.

But when all else fails, enthusiasm masks ineptitude.

Here is our countdown of the worst all-time seventh-inning stretch guest conductors:

6. Sept. 21, 2021: Conor McGregor

The MMA fighter is originally from Ireland so he gets some slack because this was seemingly his first-ever baseball game. Not the best singer, he truly made the song his own — his own tune, lyrics and tempo — in this idiosyncratic rendition. However, the master showman had fun and his charm, charisma and enthusiasm won the day.

5. May 25, 2009: Mr. T

A less-than-tuneful version, Mr. T sped through the song and did give us the memorable line “One, two, three strikes YOU OUT!”

4. Aug. 7, 2001: Steve “Mongo” McMichael

The Bears great holds the notorious distinction of getting ejected by home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez after a call went against the Cubs. “I’ll have some speaks with that home-plate umpire after the game,” he said. His singing was fine, but his threatening the umpire will be long remembered.

3. May 24, 2005: Jeff Gordon

He started off with a cringe-worthy moment by calling it “Wrigley Stadium.” But the actual singing was worse. The NASCAR legend stopped singing in the middle of the song, but the music played on. He got hopelessly behind, lost the increasingly hostile crowd, never recovered and was booed out of the booth. Always remember “Wrigley Stadium.”

2. July 5, 1998: Mike Ditka

During the first year of guest conductors, the iconic former Bears coach was late, leaving Steve Stone and Chip Caray to momentarily filibuster, before Da Coach made his fashionably late arrival. When he did take the mic, he made up his missed time with a speedy 22-second version. Wrigley Field organist Gary Pressy called it his “most memorable accompaniment.”

1. Aug. 17, 2003: Ozzy Osbourne

The Black Sabbath singer turned reality star is the undisputed worst ever. His charmingly bad version had players in both dugouts rubbernecking to see the train wreck. You knew it was going to be memorable when he started “let’s go out to the ballgame.” He then mumbled and hummed his way through the majority of the song before somewhat finding his way at the end.

Still none can compare to the original — the great Harry Caray:

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A person was killed and a man wounded in a shooting Friday morning in Grand Crossing on the South Side.

About 10:44 a.m., they were in the 1200 block of East 71st Street when someone unleashed gunfire, Chicago police said.

A male, whose age was not immediately known, was struck multiple times and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

A 34-year-old man was shot in the head and taken to the same hospital in critical condition, police said.

No arrests have been made. Area One detectives are investigating.

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NEW YORK — R. Kelly’s fate is now in a jury’s hands after weeks of lurid testimony in his sexual misconduct trial.

A jury of seven men and five women began deliberating racketeering and sex trafficking charges against the R&B superstar Friday.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys finished their closing arguments this week. The 54-year-old singer is accused of running a Chicago-based criminal enterprise that recruited his accusers for unwanted sex and mental torment.

The witnesses said Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Kelly “believed the music, the fame and the celebrity meant he could do whatever he wanted,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihata said in federal court in Brooklyn in a fiery rebuttal to the defense’s closing argument that portrayed Kelly as a victim of false accusations.

But, she added, “He’s not a genius, he’s a criminal. A predator.” She added that his alleged victims “aren’t groupies or gold diggers. They’re human beings.”

After Shihata finished, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly started her final instructions for jurors, who later began deliberating.

The 54-year-old Kelly, perhaps best known for the 1996 smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly, ” has pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges accusing him of abusing women, girls and boys for more than two decades.

He is also charged with multiple violations of the Mann Act, which makes it illegal to transport anyone across state lines “for any immoral purpose.”

Prosecutors say their evidence proves how Kelly, with the help of some loyal members of his entourage, used tactics from “the predator playbook” to sexually exploit his victims.

The tactics included isolating them in hotel rooms or his recording studio, subjecting them to degrading rules like making them call him “Daddy” and shooting video recordings — some seen by the jury at trial — of them having sex with him and others as a means to control them, prosecutors said.

In his closing, defense attorney Deveraux Cannick told the jury that testimony by several accusers was full of lies, and that “the government let them lie.”

Cannick argued there was no evidence Kelly’s accusers were never forced to do anything against their will. Instead, Cannick said, Kelly’s girlfriends stuck around because he spoiled them with free air travel, shopping sprees and fancy dinners — treatment that belied the predator label.

“He gave them a lavish lifestyle,” he said. “That’s not what a predator is supposed to do.”

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