Jim McMahon takes a swipe at the Bears

Chicago Bears Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim McMahon isn’t shy about his opinions. The Bears quarterback made headlines this summer when he said he owned the Packers when he played. That comment was one that the “Punky QB” could back up with statistics.

He’s also opened up about his crazy shenanigans on the golf course. If McMahon is doing an interview, something coming out of it will be worth the listen.

Recently, McMahon was on 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” to talk Bears football. McMahon made shocking comments about the organization when asked if he was surprised the Bears hadn’t won a Super Bowl since he left.

“Not really, because they’re pretty cheap,” McMahon said in the interview. “They’ve always been cheap. Mike Ditka left Chicago when he was a player. He had to deal with George Halas. He left because they wouldn’t pay him.”

McMahon described the irony that Ditka would complain as a head coach to McMahon that Bears players would leave because of money. He claimed to remind Ditka that he left for the same reason.

The Chicago Bears used to be cheap

There’s a famous saying that Halas threw nickels around like manhole covers. That may have been true in the pre-salary cap era. But the Bears have spent competitive money in the salary cap era with no Super Bowl. The Bears’ issues have been more with the management and players not being on the same page.

Jim McMahon started the interview complaining about other ways the Bears have been cheap. He criticized the training facility the organization had when he played there. McMahon said it was worse than BYU’s.

Jim McMahon isn’t the first former Bears player to criticize the brass this year. Brandon Marshall claimed the Bears are run like a mom-and-pop shop.

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In July, Fire owner Joe Mansueto said he’d like to bring back sporting director Georg Heitz.

Mansueto needs to reconsider and move on from Heitz.

Barring a miraculous turnaround, the Fire will miss the postseason for the third straight year under Heitz. After averaging exactly one point per game over Heitz’s first two seasons, the Fire actually are on pace to improve. However, as the standings show, not nearly enough.

This can’t continue.

Heitz’s latest misstep is indicative of why the Fire must make a change. Before the transfer deadline, when the Fire were still reasonably in playoff contention, Heitz didn’t reinforce the spine of the team by bringing in either a new center back or central midfielder. With midfielder Gaston Gimenez out for the season and centerback Wyatt Omsberg recovering from foot surgery, the Fire are paper-thin up the middle. But Heitz limited coach Ezra Hendrickson’s options by standing pat when he had the chance to bring in help.

With his contract up at the end of the season, the Fire can’t stand pat with Heitz, who has shown little understanding of how to build a winner under MLS’ salary-cap constraints. He also has struggled with his biggest signings.

While the Xherdan Shaqiri gamble was worth taking, it hasn’t paid off because of his injuries. When he has been healthy, Shaqiri has been good but not good enough to justify his salary. Unfortunately for the Fire, Shaqiri’s availability has been an issue and doesn’t figure to get better as he ages.

For Heitz, missing on designated players and expensive purchases has been common, and the Fire have paid for those mistakes. With the season on the line, the Fire are winless in their last five matches entering Saturday and haven’t scored in 400 minutes. Nobody has stepped up to make something happen. Their attack — which was supposed to have been bolstered by Shaqiri, fellow designated player Jairo Torres and high-priced striker Kacper Przybylko — has produced the fewest goals in the league with 28.

Staying with Heitz would invite more of the same. Giving him additional time and maybe another rebuild could threaten the next two or three seasons, potentially further saddling the franchise with more questionable long-term deals.

That also would hurt the business side of the club. Because the Fire have struggled to win, they’ve given nobody a reason to try their product. On Aug. 27, a perfect night for soccer, only 13,907 turned out at Soldier Field to see the Fire lose 2-0 to CF Montreal. The quality of play only will become more important to the franchise’s goals next year, when casual fans will have to seek out matches on Apple TV+ instead of flipping to the familiar and accessible WGN.

Keeping Heitz in charge of the product would be incredibly risky.

That said, getting rid of Heitz also would carry some risk. Mansueto would need to find somebody to oversee Swiss partner club FC Lugano. Perhaps Heitz could be transferred there and have no role with the Fire. A new sporting director would mean another remodeling, continuing the Fire’s cycle of new executives and visions.

Yet, as the Fire learned when Heitz kept the status quo before the 2021 season, continuity isn’t always a good thing. More of Heitz would be the bad kind of continuity.

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LAS VEGAS — Weekends, according to Benny, can be appalling, 4-to-midnight shifts Friday and Saturday. He preps for the despicable but tries to divorce himself from whatever awaits him around the corner.

It’s here basic human decency and decorum disappear.

“I try to put it out of my mind,” he said, “and do a good job.”

As a janitor, Benny services the gents’ room of a sportsbook inside a popular property. I’ll spare his and the casino’s real names. Consider him to be any male custodian in any book.

The worst gig in Vegas.

THE SPOTLIGHT

Mike Rowe, the former Baltimore Opera baritone, knows about dirty jobs. His popular show by that name ran for 300 episodes on Discovery Channel.

He hoped to shine the light, he told a magazine in 2020, on somebody who’s out of sight and out of mind, to remind the country that they’re there and connected to us.

He added, “We’re disconnected to who those people are. I don’t think we really have a genuine appreciation for the world we’d be in if not for them.”

If not for people like Denise, an Alabama mother and middle-school custodian who appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

“I look at the school as my house,” Denise said. “So I want to keep the school clean, like I clean my house.”

In Chicago, Roy Schmidt dumped cans into garbage trucks. The older the person on the street, the less respect he received.

“They’re just too stupid to realize the necessity of the job,” he told Studs Terkel. Schmidt toiled 9-to-5 in an office but relished being outside, doing something “meaningful to society.”

Terkel, the famous Chicago radio personality who died at 96 in 2008, produced a seminal tome, “Working,” in 1974 that documented scores of people, what they did and how they felt about their vocations.

Louis Hayward attended a washroom at the historic Palmer House and saw plenty of patrons skip the sink:

“I laugh at them inside. I don’t carry my feeling of menial work quite that deeply that it hurts me. I’m completely hardened now. I just take it in stride.”

Eric Hoellen served an apartment complex as its janitor:

“Talk about heart condition, the janitor’s got one of the worst. You just don’t let it get the best of you. Since I’ve been out here, three [hanged] themselves. They let it get the best of ’em.”

DISGUSTING

Many sportsbook visitors hardly treat the venue like home. They leave floor cubicles a mess of odds sheets and other papers, stubby pencils, half-full glasses and empty beer bottles, often with its small TV set on.

Do they leave home with the flat screen on?

In the gents, full rolls in the toilet are common, as is matter on those paper squares on the floor. Benny’s always fishing junk out of the urinals, mopping those floors frequently.

(I use my remedial Spanish. Benny once called me “Professor” — my spectacles. No, I laughed. Escritor deportivo. We chatted about his native Cuba, in his tongue.)

Ann, a server (not her name), winced at the worst of those scenes I’ve witnessed, unfit for a family paper. Nothing comes close, she says, in the women’s room, where occasionally a product isn’t disposed of properly.

Once, a grungy-looking dude at the far urinal leaned forward, forehead against the wall tiles, eyes closed, growling about returning to the clink for committing an imminent murder.

I exited quickly.

Eleven days ago, a short, pear-shaped man with a crew cut stood to the right of the room’s entryway, mumbling into a mobile phone. His light-blue dress shirt was completely unbuttoned, mammoth pale belly the canvas for a large swastika.

A minute later, he hadn’t budged. Another quick exit. It’s wise to patronize the much-larger lavatories, no matter the extra steps; consider it exercise.

The anomaly was the guy who recently yanked both long sleeves beyond his elbows to scrub both wings, repeatedly, as if he were about to perform meatball surgery next to Trapper and Hawkeye.

MAKE HIS DAY

The point?

Football is in full swing. Visitors are swarming into Vegas, Philly, Biloxi and Alton, Aurora, Des Plaines and Joliet.

First, ? la John Wooden, always leave a place better than you found it.

And when appropriate, fold a fin or tenner in half, halve it again. Slip it between the fingers. Offer Benny the money hand, leaving the bill with him.

He deserves such recognition. His day will be made.

To an efficient casino floor sweeper Sunday in Atlantic City, Bill Krackomberger slipped a 20. He often over-tips, knowing how many are gratuity-averse.

A Vegas-based pro sports bettor, Krack Man’s beneficence isn’t blind. Someone deserving, however, always catches his attention.

When a 19-year-old John Murges made book for The Outfit in Chicago, he and colleague Spiro left the loo. Spiro slipped the attendant a 20; John kept walking.

Spiro asked John about his tight fists, and Murges said he thought that 20 covered both of them.

“That was from me to him,” Spiro said. “That poor guy works in a bathroom for a living. You always tip those guys.”

For nearly 40 years, Murges, a Florida-based sports bettor, has rewarded Bennies with a little something.

Just remember to wash those hands before folding that bill and passing it along.

What is this, a zoo?

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Matt Eberflus hasn’t been here long, but he’s been here long enough.

Asked whether he uses the near-unanimous predictions of the Bears losing double-digit games this season as motivation, the first-time head coach paused Friday, as if to say that we should know him better than that. For seven months, Eberflus has preached that the Bears should be their own motivators — not the team across the field or anyone making predictions at home.

Depending on whom you ask, the Bears are entering their season opener against the 49ers as either one of the worst teams in the NFL –or the worst team.

NFL.com’s power rankings this week have them ranked dead last.

“I don’t think anybody alters our mentality,” quarterback Justin Fields said about predictions. “Our mentality is to go out there, be the hardest on the field, be the toughest, play the fastest, play the longest. That’s our mentality going into every game.”

To make it us-against-the-world would be giving the predictions credence, and Eberflus doesn’t want to do that.

“You can’t really pay attention to that,” Eberflus said. “Because every year they make these predictions about teams … and it’s always wrong.”

The Bears hope so, even as they’ve built their team to be more focused on long-term gains than 2022 victories. The $62.1 million the Bears are spending in dead cap space — money paid to players who aren’t on their roster anymore– is third-most in the league and more than double that of all but nine teams. They have an entirely new coaching staff, and more than half their roster is new. Justifiably, the Bears’ over/under this season is 6 1/2 wins.

Many experts have predicted fewer.

“It bothers me,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “I see it. I mean, honestly, anybody who says they see it and that it doesn’t bother them, I think they’re lying.”

Gone are the days when coaches could tell players to ignore social media. Players — including the Bears’ 15 rookies — grew up with their phones and won’t part with the information that comes from them.

“In today’s age, everybody looks at everything,” Eberflus said. “It’s part of our life now. You understand, you put that in a bucket–it’s an opinion of somebody’s, or it isn’t fact.”

Left tackle Braxton Jones, who’s set to make his NFL debut Sunday, is one of those rookies.

“There’s a lot of articles and stuff that will pop up on your phone,” Jones said. “You kind of leave it as is. It’s what they think. I’m not too big into reading those things or what they have to say. They’re not here.”

Tight end Cole Kmet spent most of his life as a Bears fan. He’d know going into every season what the consensus opinion was about the team’s chances. Once he became a Bear, though, he learned his life was simpler if he ignored the outside world.

“I get all my confidence from myself and my teammates,” he said. “You don’t wanna get it from other people.”

The same goes for motivation. Tight end Ryan Griffin, whose 10 years of NFL experience are third-most on the team, once had a coach who would post headlines — and even the pointspread — to fire up his underdog team. It didn’t work.

Eberflus won’t do the same. Still, one of the biggest challenges of his early tenure with the Bears will be convincing his team to believe in something that the outside world doesn’t see –the Bears emerging from the bottom of the standings.

“I tell the guys that all the time — we’re writing our own book … ” Eberflus said. “Every game, individual players write their own book.”

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The Bears have spent the last seven months doing everything they can to make Justin Fields a franchise quarterback.

They cleared out the dysfunction of former coach Matt Nagy’s offense and replaced him with new coordinator Luke Getsy and a system designed to help Fields flourish. They didn’t add any big names on the offensive line or at wide receiver, but general manager Ryan Poles insists this personnel is an upgrade. They also fine-tuned Fields’ fundamentals.

We’ve heard about it over and over. And finally, we’ll see if any of it matters when Fields and the Bears open their season Sunday against the 49ers.

“I’m very different,” Fields promised when asked how far he’s come since the end of a rookie season that was mostly frustrating and fruitless as he threw for seven touchdowns, had 10 interceptions and posted a 73.2 passer rating.

The Bears’ most important task of this season is to assess whether that’s true. They need to know if this version of Fields is worth building around. Otherwise, they need to find someone else.

For all the changes at Halas Hall, mainly the hiring of Poles and coach Matt Eberflus, Fields is still the most pivotal person in the building.

If he’s great, the rebuild will accelerate quickly and the Bears could blast through the consensus low expectations. If he’s bad, they’ll be picking high in the draft and looking for his replacement.

It’d be better for Poles and Eberflus if Fields is their answer. They know most new hires must prove they’ve put their team on course for Super Bowl contention within three seasons, and a reset at quarterback would make that timetable tough to meet.

Fields is equally determined to make himself a fixture of the Bears’ future. To cement that in his own mind, he bought a place in the Chicago area.

“I didn’t want to rent anything — I didn’t want that mindset,” he told the Sun-Times. “I want to be here for a long time. I want to be here for my whole career. I want to make this home.”

It’s easier for him to feel that way after an offseason in which Poles and Eberflus sought to maximize his skills at every turn.

They’re treating Fields like a franchise quarterback with the expectation that he’ll become one, and that’s drastically different from what he dealt with under Ryan Pace and Nagy as he prepared for his debut a year ago. He began the season as a gimmick while the Bears committed to Andy Dalton.

No one needed a fresh start more than Fields.

“Now I’m the guy, so of course we’re gonna build the offense around me [and] around the stuff that we do well as an offense,” he said. “It’s just a different mindset. Just not worrying about, ‘If I make a mistake, will I get taken out?’ It just feels way better, for sure.”

Step One for Fields was working on his actual steps. Getsy and new quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko immediately retooled his footwork to make sure his left foot is forward when he drops back, which helps get the ball out faster. That machinelike timing is essential in the short-range passing game.

The belief in Fields within the organization is at an all-time high now that he’s fully empowered as the starter and a team captain. His coaches and teammates are convinced by his improvement. The season opener is the grand reveal, where everyone will find out how real all the talk is.

“You’ve got to respect what he brings to our team,” wide receiver Darnell Mooney said. “He’s a threat every time.”

If Fields lives up to that, the Bears’ outlook is bright. If he can’t, they’ll be right back where they’ve been for the last few decades: searching.

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KEY MATCHUP

This is a huge test for an unsettled Bears offensive line — and nowhere more than at left tackle, where rookie Braxton Jones will be starting and likely to get a heavy dose of 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa, who had 15.5 sacks and an league-best 21 tackles for loss last season.

Jones, a fifth-round draft pick from Southern Utah who at this time last year was preparing for Tarleton State, has met every challenge so far since earning the initial look as a starter in OTAs. He knows what he’s up against — as best he can know — but isn’t selling himself short, either.

“He’s a great player,” Jones said. “Obvious a vet in this league. Everybody knows who Nick Bosa is. You’ve got to respect what he does. I think it’s a good chance to go out and attack a player and have a great game.”

TRENDING

The Bears were 3-0 in the preseason, but preseason is not much of a barometer. For what it’s worth, the Colts were 0-4 in season openers when Matt Eberflus was the defensive coordinator –allowing an average of 28 points in losses to he Seahawks (28-16) in 2021, Jaguars (27-20) in 2020, Chargers (30-24 in overtime) in 2019 and Bengals (34-23) in 2018.

The 49ers are 2-3 in season openers under Kyle Shanahan, including a 41-33 victory over the Lions at Ford Field last season.

PLAYER TO WATCH

A year ago at this time, Justin Fields was a backup to Andy Dalton in an ill-fated apprenticeship plan that seemed doomed from the start. Now he’s the unquestioned starter, a team captain and the player who sets the tone not only for the offense, but the defense as well.

“There’s a lot more confidence knowing it’s his show, he’s the guy we’re looking at,” veteran defensive end Robert Quinn said. “And everyone else is embracing it around him, making sure they do their jobs but helping him be successful as well. It’s a joint thing. Everyone’s gotta do their part.”

Though Fields has had moments of being spectacular — including a 22-yard touchdown run against the 49ers last season — much of his success at this stage is likely to depend on his supporting cast. If the Bears can run the ball and protect him, he’ll have a chance to reach another level.

X-FACTOR

Eberflus has looked the part of NFL head coach. But game-day management is a new challenge, one that vexes even the best head coaches. Eberflus knows that’s a work-in-progress like everything else.

“We’ve been working on that since the last preseason game,” Eberflus said. “We’re continuing to educate and go through scenarios. Somebody once said those situations are like snowflakes –they’re all different. Time, time outs, score, field position, all that. I think it’s important we keep educating ourselves so we do a good job on game day.”

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The Blackhawks’ prospect pipeline looks better and deeper now than it has in years.

That improvement largely has come at the expense of the NHL roster. And the pipeline still isn’t as talented and deep as the Hawks hope it will become in a few more years. But its continued improvement nonetheless should provide some optimism in an otherwise-bleak season to come.

As such, this list has been expanded from the top 10 prospects — as in previous editions — to the top 20. The rankings are determined partially by upside and partially by NHL readiness.

No. 1: Lukas Reichel, forward, age 20

Reichel dominated in the German league in 2020-21, then in the American Hockey League with Rockford in 2021-22. He projects as a versatile top-six forward because of his smooth puck-carrying ability, soft hands and excellent vision.

He has added much-needed strength and weight this offseason and might become a full-time NHL player this season.

No. 2: Kevin Korchinski, defenseman, age 18

The Hawks see Korchinski, whom they drafted seventh overall in July, as a future top-four offensive defenseman and power-play quarterback — a unicorn among the many defensemen in their system. He’ll continue developing with Seattle of the Western Hockey League this season.

No. 3: Frank Nazar, forward, age 18

Nazar, the 13th overall pick this summer, looked fantastic at development camp in July. He projects as a top-six center — like Reichel, only a few years further down the road — because of his skating and work ethic. He’ll be a freshman at Michigan this season.

No. 4: Arvid Soderblom, goaltender, age 23

S oderblom was Rockford’s MVP last season, his first in North America. His .919 save percentage in 38 games was somewhat miraculous, given the quantity and quality of shots he faced.

With his track record and size (6-3), he looks like an NHL goalie and might get some chances to prove that if Petr Mrazek or Alex Stalock suffers an injury this season.

No. 5: Drew Commesso, goaltender, age 20

Commesso’s ceiling is higher than Soderblom’s, given his potential to develop into an elite NHL goalie. On the other hand, he’s further away from the NHL and less of a sure thing.

Building on his 2022 Olympic experience, Commesso likely will be one of the top goalies in the NCAA this season at Boston University, where he posted a .914 save percentage last season.

No. 6: Ian Mitchell, defenseman, age 23

Mitchell has been a staple of Hawks prospect rankings for nearly a half-decade, and he still has the well-rounded repertoire that once made him a headliner.

Nonetheless, after spending all of 2021-22 over-ripening in Rockford, 2022-23 might be his make-or-break season to prove he can translate his game effectively to the NHL. If he fails, he might tumble out of the ”prospect” category altogether.

No. 7: Alex Vlasic, defenseman, age 21

Vlasic played his first 15 NHL games at the end of last season and improved noticeably even in that short period. His towering 6-6 frame long has been his selling point, and he skates and passes well for his size. He’s never going to be a star, but he has a high floor.

No. 8: Alec Regula, defenseman, age 22

Regula is similar to Vlasic in size (he’s 6-4, 208 pounds) and NHL experience (15 games last season), and he’ll compete with Vlasic — and Mitchell — for playing time this season. He has been productive in the Ontario Hockey League and AHL, and he said in April he believes ”there is a time where I’ll be able to make plays like that in the NHL.”

No. 9: Wyatt Kaiser, defenseman, age 20

Kaiser’s awareness and hockey IQ are elite, he defends well for his size (6-0, 183 pounds) — although gaining strength has been a point of focus — and he’s decent offensively, too. He’ll be a top player for Minnesota-Duluth again this season.

No. 10: Sam Rinzel, defenseman, age 18

Rinzel, the 25th overall pick this summer, is so far away from the NHL — he’s spending 2022-23 in the U.S. Hockey League, then enrolling at Minnesota — that he’s difficult to project.

He has arguably the second-highest ceiling (behind Korchinski) among all defensemen in the Hawks’ pipeline, but he might never pan out. Only time will tell.

No. 11: Colton Dach, forward, age 19

It’ll take awhile for Hawks fans to disassociate Dach from brother Kirby’s frustrating tenure, especially because he projects to be a similar type of NHL player.

If Colton develops into a Kirby-like second- or-third-line center, however, that’ll be a major victory, considering his draft position (62nd overall in 2021). He’ll turn pro after one more season with Kelowna of the WHL.

No. 12: Landon Slaggert, forward, age 20

Slaggert’s versatility and work ethic are intriguing. He projects as a jack-of-all-trades NHL forward who could fill holes throughout a lineup. He’ll be a junior at Notre Dame this season.

No. 13: Ethan Del Mastro, defenseman, age 19

Del Mastro will return for a third season with Mississauga of the OHL after taking a massive step forward last season and signing a slide-eligible NHL contract.

No. 14: Isaak Phillips, defenseman, age 20

Already having two AHL seasons under his belt at his age has given Phillips a developmental head start on other Hawks defensive prospects. His ceiling is low, but he might be a competent third-pairing NHL option rather soon.

No. 15: Jakub Galvas, defenseman, age 23

Galvas looked good in six appearances for the Hawks in January and February but has been somewhat forgotten since. His poise and puck-moving ability is encouraging; his size (5-11, 165 pounds) is a concern.

No. 16: Nolan Allan, defenseman, age 19

Just a year after being picked 32nd overall, Allan is in a tough spot. The general manager who reached for him (Stan Bowman) is gone, and nine of the 15 prospects ahead of him in these rankings are also defensemen.

His projection as a third-pairing shutdown guy hasn’t changed, but as he returns for another year with Prince Albert of the WHL, the road to get there has.

No. 17: Paul Ludwinski, forward, age 18

Ludwinski will return for a second season with Kingston of the OHL after being selected 39th overall in the draft in July. His skating and motor are high-end.

No. 18: Ryan Greene, forward, age 18

Greene, picked shortly after Ludwinski, is a well-rounded center headed to Boston University this season.

No. 19: Jalen Luypen, forward, age 20

The Hawks’ decision last summer to use a seventh-round pick on Luypen, an over-ager, panned out. His 64 points in 66 games in the WHL justified a pro contract, and he’ll try to translate that to the AHL this season.

No. 20: Jaxson Stauber, goaltender, age 23

Stauber posted a .921 save percentage in 37 games for Providence last season, earning a pro contract. He’ll start the season as Soderblom’s backup in Rockford.

Other prospects to watch

Antti Saarela, forward, 21Michal Teply, forward, 21Gavin Hayes, forward, 18Samuel Savoie, forward, 18Aidan Thompson, forward, 20Dominic James, forward, 20Nicolas Beaudin, defenseman, 22Louis Crevier, defenseman, 21Taige Harding, defenseman, 20Read More