What’s New

Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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The Chicago Blackhawks are having a terrible season. They are the worst team in the National Hockey League and it is because of the fact that they want to rebuild their roster for the future. They have a plan and are trying to execute the plan by being bad right now.

Unfortunately, that makes things hard on players like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. They are each on expiring contracts that pay big money but losing is certainly not something that they are used to. It is possible that they are traded before the season is over.

On Sunday, however, they were able to have a day of celebration. Toews and Kane have been pretty linked for most of their career as the two forwards that led the Chicago Blackhawks to so much championship success.

Now, in this Sunday night game against the New York Rangers, they played in their 1000th game together. Each of them has missed some time (as does every hockey player) for different reasons over the years but they have now laced them up together in 1000 games.

Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are Chicago Blackhawks legends for life.

This is the second most games played between a duo in the history of the Chicago Blackhawks. Only Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook (1069 games) have played in more games together. Those four are the best core in the history of the team so it is only fitting.

In those 1000 games that Toews and Kane have played together, they went 530-346-123 which is a lot of winning. Toews has 116 goals assisted by Kane and Kane has 110 goals assisted by Toews. Together, they have factored in 298 goals.

These are some pretty impressive numbers for two guys who are almost never on the same line as one another. They have always managed to find a way to work so well together even when they aren’t on the same line. For being so different, they have been so perfect for each other.

Unfortunately, the game didn’t go the way of the Blackhawks while these two were celebrating this milestone. The Blackhawks were beaten badly by the New York Rangers. The final score was 7-1 in a game where basically nothing went right.

The next game that these two are going to play each other will come on Wednesday when the Hawks host the Nashville Predators. It is unclear what the future holds for these two but it has certainly been very fun to have them playing together for these 1000 games.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

Read More

Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

Read More

Michael Vick. Lamar Jackson. Justin Fields.

That’s the list.

The Chicago Bears quarterback hit a milestone Sunday when taking on the Philadelphia Eagles, hitting the 1,000-yard mark on the ground and becoming only the third quarterback of all-time to do so.

Fields’ day once again included what’s becoming his signature play — a wildly-entertaining, long run after escaping pressure.

It was a situation that seemed all too familiar for Bears fans; a 2nd and 27 and a graphic stretched across the screen detailing how much Fields had been under pressure already in the game. Fields was sacked three times in the first quarter and a half, and nearly a fourth time on the above run.

But like he has on many other occasions this season, Fields was able to escape and dazzle us with just another unbelievable run.

In just his second season, Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields has made his mark in NFL history.

Earlier this year, Fields broke a record once held by Michael Vick — the single-game rushing record by a quarterback. In an early November matchup between the Bears and Miami Dolphins, Fields ran for a whopping 178 yards, breaking Vick’s previous record of 173.

It was that day in NFL history which caused the infamous “I told him to stop it” quote from Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel — a quote that will forever go down as one of the most fun-loving, hilarious and genuine quotes we’ll ever see in a postgame presser.

It’s true, Fields has been a walking first down this year when using his legs. He’s averaged over 7.0 yards per carry on the season. It’s because of his dynamic skill set that the Bears have become the number one overall rushing team in the NFL.

There’s one more record for Fields to break this season: the single-season rushing record by a quarterback. That record is held by Lamar Jackson and sits at 1,206. Simple math tells us that Fields needs to average 69 rushing yards per game over the team’s final three games if he is going to break that mark.

The Bears are set to face the Buffalo Bills on Christmas Eve, followed by games against the Lions and Vikings. Detroit and Minnesota, specifically, have been two of the worst defenses in football over the past six weeks. If Fields stays hot, he could hold yet another record by season’s end. Talk about a sophomore breakout.

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The Chicago Bears are one of the worst teams in the National Football League. A top-five draft pick is imminent which is nice but it is hard to sit through. It will all be worth it if they make the right decision when the time is right.

With the 12-1 Philadelphia Eagels in town, it seemed like a matchup that could make the Bears look even worse than they usually do. It is hard to play against teams like the Bears if you are the Eagles and that was proven on Sunday.

The Eagles are good enough to beat the Bears by multiple scores on most occasions but the Bears stayed in it. They ended up losing the game by a final score of 25-20 which is great news for Chicago in every way.

They improved their draft stock by losing which is honestly the most important thing at this point but it was nice to see them stay in it with a team like that. Imagine what they might be able to do if they had some weapons and a better defense.

The Chicago Bears lost to the Philadelphia Eagles by a final score of 25-20.

Justin Fields played really well which is also really important. It is pretty obvious that Fields is the guy at this point but he is extremely limited due to the team around him. Seeing him do these things against one of the best teams in the NFL speaks volumes.

Matt Eberflus and his staff deserve credit for helping this Bears organization rebuild. They don’t have enough talent to compete for a lot of wins but they do play the game the right way which is good.

If they do add this talent in the upcoming draft and free agency period, they could be a really good team. When the talent meets that effort level, they will certainly win games.

Now, after this good game against one of the league’s best, they will have an even harder task next week against the Buffalo Bills.

The things that Josh Allen does to a defense are scary so the Bears might struggle here but a good effort like this one against the Eagles would be amazing. Getting this team to become a Super Bowl contender is more of a marathon than a sprint. Keep running, Bears.

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