Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she wants the Bears to stay in Chicago and she’s willing to work with the team she loves to expand and improve Soldier Field and maximize year-round revenues, but in a “fiscally-prudent way that doesn’t preclude other uses.”

Three months ago, Lightfoot cavalierly dismissed the Bears decision to put in a bid to buy the Arlington Heights International Racecourse property as the same old, boy-who- cried-wolf-negotiating ploy.

She’s not doing that now.

During a Zoom meeting with the Sun-Times editorial board that primarily focused on her 2022 budget, Lightfoot made it clear she is taking the Bears’ threat to leave Chicago seriously.

A die-hard Bears’ fan and season ticket holder, Lightfoot acknowledged the need to enhance the fan experience at Soldier Field and turn the stadium into a year-round revenue generator.

“I am a Bears fan. I want the Bears to stay in the city of Chicago. And we are willing to work with them to try to address their concerns. But, I’ve got to do it in a way that is fiscally prudent and doesn’t preclude other uses in that stadium,” she said.

“We are evaluating ways in which we can enhance the fan experience at Soldier Field. …I know that it can be better. I’ve been to other stadiums across the country where the fan experience is far superior to what we have at Soldier Field.”

Lightfoot was asked repeatedly whether turning Soldier Field into a year-round revenue generator includes the possibility of adding the retractable dome that many of Chicago’s movers and shakers thought the city should have built in the first place.

She never answered the question. Lightfoot would paraphrase a Rolling Stones’ lyric.

“You can’t always get what you want. But you can try sometimes and get what you need,” the mayor said — without singing.

Turning serious, Lightfoot said she is “very sympathetic to some of the things the Bears have identified” and there are “a lot of different options we have to think about to really enhance” the fan experience and bolster “revenue-generating opportunities — not only for Bears games.”

“There are other stadiums across the country that I’ve been to that have really taken advantage of the ability to make the stadium a year-round destination — not just something that’s only used during football season and then lays dormant for the rest of the year,” she said.

“That stadium sits on a museum campus. … Outside of Bears’ season, there’s no real dining experience except for the food within the museums themselves. Even afterward, if you want to enjoy a nice meal or convene in another place, you’ve got to go outside of the stadium footprint.”

On the day the Bears took out the option on the Arlington property, Lightfoot said the Bears were “locked into a lease” at Soldier Field. She dismissed their real estate maneuver as a “negotiation tactic” the team had used before.

“Like most Bears fans, we want the organization to focus on putting a winning team on the field, beating the Packers finally and being relevant past October,” she said. “Everything else is noise.”

Overall, the Bears want more control over a lakefront stadium that was renovated for them nearly 20 years ago at an expense to Chicago taxpayers that still won’t be paid in full for decades.

Soldier Field renovations under way in 2002.Associated Press

The Chicago Park District owns Soldier Field, so the team is limited in what it can do as far as expanding the capacity (currently about 62,000), modernizing aspects of a 97-year-old building, selling sponsorships for certain areas of the stadium and building a year-round museum and gift shop.

There would be nothing holding them back in Arlington Heights, where Mayor Thomas Hayes has openly campaigned to lure them. Hayes has called a potential Bears move a “best-case scenario” for his village.

On Monday, Lightfoot said she is putting together a small team” to try and accommodate the Bears’ needs.

“I’m willing to sit down with the Bears at any time. But it takes two to tango. They’ve got to articulate to me and my team a specific set of asks and we have not gotten that yet from them,” she said.

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Some Chicago restaurant owners are pushing back against calls to require proof of vaccination in public indoor settings, saying such a mandate would place an “undue burden” on an already crippled industry.

The plea against an indoor mandate is in response to an early September letter in which eight aldermen urged Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady to require that customers show proof of a jab for some indoor gathering spots, such as restaurants, bars, gyms and theaters.

“The responsibility for vaccination rates is squarely on the alderman and the mayor and not on small businesses,” Roger Romanelli, coordinator of the Chicago Restaurants Coalition, said at a Monday news conference. “We’re asking the eight misguided aldermen to withdraw their letter calling for restaurants to check their customers for vaccination papers and redouble their own efforts to end the COVID crisis.”

One owner said restaurants already have been hit too hard by the pandemic to take on a responsibility they say belongs to the city.

“If they really, really, really want to have this done, have the city hire and provide people who can work the doors and do this,” said Mary Kay Tuzi, owner of Twin Anchors Restaurant in Old Town. “The city needs to stop shirking its responsibility.”

Chicago restaurant owners say a mandate requiring staff to check customers’ vaccination status at the door would put an “undue burden” on already short-staffed restaurants.Jeff Chiu/AP

Tuzi said the pandemic has cut her profit margin in half, and a recent increase in the minimum wage has increased her payroll costs. She said doesn’t have enough employees to check the vaccination status of each patron who walks through the restaurant’s door.

“We’re a family restaurant. We’re not a nightclub; we’re not a bar,” she said. “It’s mind-boggling how the aldermen came up with this idea — let’s put the burden on the restaurants — when this is not something that we can handle.”

The Illinois Restaurant Association did not respond to requests for comment.

Romanelli said all partners of the Chicago Restaurant Coalition “fully support vaccinations for all Chicagoans,” but that pandemic shutdowns on indoor dining have crippled the industry. The coalition estimates 300 Chicago restaurants have shut their doors permanently since the pandemic began and is now calling on Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot to provide additional relief.

A possible vaccine mandate also has some restaurateurs worried that policing customers will lead to arguments and even physical altercations. Last week, a restaurant hostess was attacked in New York by two diners when she asked for proof of vaccination. New York and San Fransisco are among the cities that already require proof of vaccination for indoor diners.

“We all know this is a violent summer. It’s a violent city,” said Len DeFranco, owner of Hawkeye’s Bar and Grill on the Near West Side. “To ask, and it’s always a young person, to check IDs, and to ask for a vaccination card from everybody in a party, presents a little more danger than I want to give my people.”

But some Chicago restaurants and bars have chosen to require proof of vaccination to enter. Nikki Lopez, a bartender at Four Moon Tavern in Roscoe Village, said the pub’s vaccination requirement has made customers and staff feel more comfortable.

“I’d rather have to take the time to do that,” she said of checking customers’ vaccinations. “I like working in a place that does this, and I would have anxiety [if not]. I prefer it. I can vouch that most of the staff does here, too.”

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If the 2021 season has been a classroom , left-hander Justin Steele is trying to be the best student he can be. The Cubs’ young southpaw has been given an opportunity to show what he can do in the team’s rotation in the second half and prove he can be part of the team’s plans going forward.

It was on May 4 against the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers where felt he belonged. With runners on first and second and two outs, Steele struck out Austin Barnes on a wipeout breaking ball. As he walked off the mound, the Cubs’ lefty was fired up letting out a ‘Let’s Go’ as he smacked his glove.

The moment, which was also his first career win, laid the foundation for the rest of his season.

“That was sweet,” Steele told the Sun-Times. “And that was the last game of a sweep. But it was just a really cool moment. Tied ball game. You just kind of like the emotions take care of everything and to get out of that situation. We won it the next inning. Just all learning experiences, I won’t ever forget any of them.”

Since that game, the Cubs have given Steele several different learning experiences. He thrived as the “bridge guy” in the team’s lockdown bullpen earlier this season and had lots of success with a 2.03 ERA as a reliever.

Following a hamstring injury in June, the team sent him down to return to his more natural role and stretch him out to pitch in the big leagues.

Steele’s performances as a starter definitely resemble a young pitcher with upside. There have been moments of good with a combination of pitches that can consistently get major-league hitters out.

The Cubs’ lefty believes the focus he’s had in each of his different roles has been the thing that he’s most proud of from his first season in Chicago.

“It would be attention to detail on every single throw,” Steele said. “Working on all my pitches. Even when I’m playing catch or in my bullpen work. It’s just attention to detail. Just working on the two-seam, on the four-seam, slider and curveball. Just fine tuning every pitch every day with every throw that I have. I would say that’s been the biggest difference this year.”

But mixed with the good there have been moments to grow from. Steele has a 5.12 ERA in seven starts this season and while he has gone at least five innings in four of those games. Like Adbert Alzolay and Keegan Thompson, growing from the bad moments while holding on to the good is the balance the Cubs are going for with their young arms.

“Everybody’s not your first-round Walker Buehler-type that comes in and dominates, right?, manager David Ross said. “The ups and downs of a major league player, especially a young player, there’s going to be some success, there’s going to be bumps in the road. … Just the fact of like having that back and forth and hoping to continue to see the progression forward is what we’re looking for.

“The nice thing about the group you mentioned is there’s some success in a lot of different areas. So we realize there’s a lot of flexibility there. From a staff total standpoint, going into next year, there’s a lot of positives, and we can pull from different areas to see how it fits into what the roster looks like.”

One of the areas Steele has shown he still needs to improve is his efficiency, his pitches and commanding the strike zone. While getting through five innings is a good starting point, if he can command his fastball better, making it not only to the sixth inning, but through it is the next step.

“Definitely fastball command,” he said. “Commanding all my pitches is what I wanna come into spring training with. You know when Jon Lester is pitching, he’s gonna go out there and fill up the strike zone. I want to be one of those type of guys. Come in and fill it up. Give our team a chance to win ballgames.”

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In one of the largest, fastest, most abrupt mass expulsions of refugees in modern U.S. history, the United States has begun flying some 12,000 Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to Haiti. Invoking executive authority asserted by Donald Trump, the Biden administration is enforcing the Donald Trump immigration policy when it comes to Haitians.

The first 320 migrants flown to Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, arrived dazed and distressed. Most were returned to a country that they had left years ago, migrating to Brazil or to Chile to find work — and then risking the dangerous trip to the U.S. border in the hope of improving their lives. On arrival in Haiti, they were given $100, tested for Covid-19, and left on their own.

They arrive in a country ravaged by natural disaster and political chaos. The former president was assassinated. Only last month, the island was struck by a devastating earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people and destroyed more than 137,500 homes and some 900 schools. According to Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency, fewer than half of the 83,000 families affected have received the food rations they need.

Jean Negot Bonheur Delva, the head of Haiti’s national migration office, admitted that the Haitian state is unable to provide security or food for the deportees and pleaded for a “humanitarian moratorium.”

What is the measure of our humanity? The Biden administration inherited an immigration policy shredded by Donald Trump, who fanned fears of immigrants as part of his race-bait politics. He illegally banned immigrants from Muslim countries. He scorned what he called “s**thole countries,” saying he only wanted immigrants from affluent white countries like Norway. He slandered Haitian immigrants as all having AIDS. And, of course, he made building The Wall a metaphor for America closing in on itself.

All this traduced America’s values, laws and history. This is, after all, a nation of immigrants. It also is a policy designed to fail. Very few people want to leave their homes, their communities or their countries. They undertake dangerous and often fatal migration only in desperation. When one side of a wall is a desert of opportunity and the other side looks green, no wall or army of guards will stop people from taking risks to try to save their families.

Haiti is the poorest nation in the hemisphere; a country battered by political upheaval and natural disaster. Yet it is a proud nation and a proud people. In 1804, Haiti became the second republic in the Western Hemisphere (after the U.S.), when Haitian slaves fought and defeated their French slave owners, throwing off their colonial power. Haiti became the first modern state to abolish slavery and the first state in the world to be formed from a successful revolt of the poor.

A Haitian trader — Jean Baptiste Point DuSable — arrived in the U.S. in the 1780s and is regarded as the founder of Chicago. But U.S. relations with Haiti were always scarred by racism. Fearful of the example set by Haiti’s slave revolt, the U.S. provided aid to attempt to put down the rebellion. When the revolution succeeded, slave interests in the U.S. blocked recognition of the new state until 1862 when the Southern states seceded.

In 1914, the Wilson administration sent U.S. Marines into Haiti, beginning an occupation that lasted 20years. The U.S. took control of the assets of the Haitian National Bank, rewrote Haitian laws to allow foreigners to purchase land, and restructured the Haitian economy to serve U.S. interests. Haitian rebels who fought against the invasion were subjected to brutal repression. The horror led Smedley Butler, a general in the U.S. Marine Corps, to regret that “I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.”

In 1991, a Catholic priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, won the presidency in a democratic election with massive support from the poor. Seven months later, the Haitian military removed him in a coup that resulted in chaos. The U.S. military went back to occupy Haiti from 1994 to 1997 to “establish peace.” When Aristide returned and won re-election again, the Haitian military once more removed him with the support of the U.S. military.

To this day, Haitian refugees receive what can only be called discriminatory treatment from this country. For example, both Cuban and Haitian refugees flee from dictatorships and repression. Yet Cubans, who are mostly white, receive special treatment, including a direct path to permanent residence. Haitian immigrants, generally of African descent, have been denied, repeatedly, the relief they are entitled to and must overcome significant obstacles to gain legal permanent residence.

Now once more the plight of Haitian refugees tests the measure of this administration’s and this country’s humanity. Will the U.S. simply dump thousands of the displaced in a country that has no way to protect them? Does the administration continue to treat them differently than refugees coming from Central America?

I believe that we should measure all human beings by one yard stick. Across America, millions are excited by football games on Saturday and Sunday. Central to what makes them exciting is that while the outcome is unknown, we do know that the playing field is level, the rules are public, and the referees are fair. Under those conditions, all can compete and all can win. The values of our foreign policy should not be less humane than those of our domestic policy. For refugees — families in distress — the rules should be clear and the playing field even.

Send letters to [email protected].

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A teenage girl was shot Monday on the West Side.

The shooting happened about 4:20 p.m. near Roosevelt Road and Kedzie Avenue, according to Chicago fire officials.

The 15-year-old was taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition with a gunshot wound to her leg, Chicago police and fire officials said.

No arrests have been reported. Area Four 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 cloudy with a 50% chance of thunderstorms and a high near 78 degrees. Tonight will be cloudy with a chance for more storms and a low around 66. Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy with showers likely, the chance for thunderstorms and a high near 71.

Top story

Professor yelled racial slurs, spit on Black woman and her 7-year-old daughter outside Oak Park Jewel-Osco, prosecutors say

A health sciences professor has been charged with a felony hate crime after he allegedly yelled racial slurs and spit on a Black woman and her daughter outside a Jewel-Osco in Oak Park earlier this month.

Alberto Friedmann, 53, is also facing one count of felony aggravated assault with a motor vehicle for accelerating toward the woman and nearly hitting her with his car during the attack Sept. 7 in the parking lot of the store at 438 W. Madison St., according to Cook County prosecutors.

The woman was parked along the traffic lane between the parking aisles while waiting for her mother to finish shopping about 4:30 p.m., prosecutors said. As she sat in her car with her daughter, the woman said she heard someone honking and yelling.

The woman looked up and saw Friedmann in a Jaguar behind her, prosecutors said. He allegedly yelled a racial slur at her and told her to move her car. Then he got out of his car and approached the woman while continuing to shout racial slurs, according to a court document.

When the woman tried to open her door, Friedmann allegedly pushed the door closed and spit in her face. He told the woman he spit on her because he doesn’t like Black people, prosecutors said.

By this point, the woman’s mother had left the store and heard Friedmann yelling slurs and saw him spit on her daughter, prosecutors said.

Read the full story from Emmanuel Camarillo here.

More news you need

Mayor Lori Lightfoot delivered her 2022 city budget address today, describing it as a “once in a lifetime opportunity to transform” Chicago. Lightfoot received a standing ovation from aldermen at City Hall following her speech.

A divided City Council also voted today to address some issues in the legal pot industry by shrinking the city’s downtown “exclusion zone” and relaxing zoning requirements for marijuana businesses. Read more on what different aldermen said about the ordinance, which passed by a 33-to-13 vote.

After the Senate Parliamentarian ruled yesterday that a path to citizenship for Dreamers and other immigrants cannot be included in the proposed $3.5 trillion budget bill, Sen. Dick Durbin said today an alternative plan is already in the works. Lynn Sweet has more from the nation’s capital.

A Discover call center in the city’s Chatham neighborhood ranks as the Fortune 500 company’s best in customer satisfaction. Discover CEO and President Roger Hochschild told our Maudlyne Ihejirika that it proves moving into a disinvested community was a “great decision.”

Congo Square Theatre Company named Ericka Ratcliff as its new artistic director today. A longtime member of the African American theater company, Ratcliff is the first woman to hold the position.

A bright one

‘Open Boulevard’ series debuts in Logan Square

A popular road in Logan Square was flooded with people — not cars — Sunday for the first of several street festivals along the city’s historic boulevards.

People mingled with friends and neighbors and stopped at various vendors and tents along Logan Boulevard for the debut of “Open Boulevard,” a series of three-day-long street fests that will include pop-up performances, food and other activities hosted by local businesses within the community.

Ira Cox, of Logan Square, brought his two kids to Palmer Square Park where they took turns walking a tightrope that was set up by Aloft Circus Arts, a performance arts school in the neighborhood. But for Cox, who admittedly was having trouble getting his footing, it was good enough to just be outside on a beautiful day.

People walk up and down Logan Boulevard in Logan Square Sunday. Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

“Being in the city, it feels like you just have human contact all the time. But when everyone’s kind of avoiding each other, it’s really isolating,” he said, referring to the coronavirus pandemic’s toll. “This is spectacular at this point in history to have good outdoor community stuff coming back.”

Shayna Swanson, Aloft’s owner, noted that she’s been living in Berlin, Germany, where “this type of open streets concept is really common.”

“I’m really into the idea of creating a more pedestrian-friendly environment, especially in Logan Square,” Swanson said. “Because there’s so much great stuff in Logan Square, but I’ve noticed when I come here that no one’s out walking around. I’m like, does anyone live in the city?”

Read the full story from Tom Schuba and Madeline Kenney here.

From the press box

Your daily question ?

How do you feel about restaurants that have adopted no-tipping policies and fixed service charges?

Send us an email at [email protected] and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

On Friday, we asked you: What’s the longest you’ve ever waited in line? What were you waiting for? Here’s what some of you said…

“In January 1988 I waited six hours on Rush Street in the cold for Michael Jackson tickets for my mother. Be advised there was no internet and we got tickets in person or on the phone.” — Colleen Curry

“Only four hours in 16-degree weather in line for one picture with the Cubs’ 2016 trophy. Well worth it.” — Sergio Maguellal

“Waited eight hours in line while hungover for Game 4 World Series tickets. Cubs got smoked but being in Wrigley [Field] for a World Series game is something that no one can ever take away.” — Russ DeLude

“Overnight at River Oaks Mall for REM tickets in 1987.” — Jeff Madden

“At Hot Doug’s for 2 hours. The dogs were great but don’t think I would ever wait that long for food again.” — Ellen Zemaitis

“About 12 hours, through the night when it was raining, sleeting and snowing to get tickets to see Elvis.” — Judy Frohlich

“Concert tickets. AC/DC back in the 80s. Stayed in line overnight at Sears store.” — Kim Bakken Campbell

“I don’t know but I’m sure it was at a DMV.” — Steve Bruns

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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It could take a while for rookie quarterback Justin Fields to grow into what the Bears imagined when they traded up to draft him No. 11 overall.

That’s fine. It’s perfectly normal.

If Fields takes over for Andy Dalton, which seems likely heading into the game against the Browns on Sunday, it’s likely going to take several weeks before everything starts to click. In the meantime, the Bears are looking for signs of his potential and hoping he’ll avoid repeating mistakes.

Amid some struggles during the harrowing 20-17 win against the Bengals, Fields delivered flashes of the Bears’ future. Here’s a look at the best of them from Sunday:

The clincher

Fields’ most distinct and valuable trait is his mobility, which can buy him time to keep looking downfield or allow him to bail out a failed play by taking off. When the game got dicey late, his speed saved the Bears.

They were at risk of handing the ball back to the Bengals for a chance to tie or win in the final two minutes when Fields took the snap out of the shotgun on third-and-nine at his own 26.

As the offensive line started faltering, Fields bolted from the pocket to his left. Defensive tackle Trey Hendrickson lunged and got both hands on him for what would’ve been a two-yard loss, but Fields charged out of the would-be tackle and got 10 yards to basically end the game. From there, with the Bengals out of timeouts, David Montgomery ran for six and four yards, then Fields ran out the clock with kneel-downs.

When nothing goes right, as has frequently been the case for the Bears the last two seasons, Fields’ speed can fix it. That’s why the Bears coveted him in the draft and that’s why it’s worth waiting out the rookie mistakes he made Sunday and will surely make again until he truly acclimates.

The points

The Bengals cut the Bears’ lead to 7-3 with eight minutes left in the third quarter, and after Eddie Jackson’s “Peanut Punch” forced a fumble that Tashaun Gipson scooped up, the Bears desperately needed to cash in with points.

They took over at the Bengals’ 39-yard line — too far to try a field goal — and faced a third-and-13 from the 42 after Fields’ false start. Fields kept the drive going, though, by taking advantage of wide receiver Allen Robinson’s mismatch against cornerback Chidobe Awuzie.

He fired a quick pass to Robinson on the left sideline after Robinson’s cutback gave him three yards of separation, and Robinson expertly evaded Awuzie’s tackle to sprint for 13 yards and a first down.

The Bears were still on the outskirts of kicker Cairo Santos’ range, but Fields essentially secured points on the next play with a 21-yard pass to wide receiver Darnell Mooney.

On play-action, the offensive line — especially left tackle Jason Peters — gave Fields time, and he quickly saw Mooney beating the Bengals’ zone and getting a step ahead of safety Jessie Bates as he crossed from the right slot to the left sideline. Fields’ pass led Mooney just enough so that Bates didn’t have any shot at breaking it up.

While the Bears certainly would’ve preferred to get a touchdown out of that possession after reaching the 8-yard line on Mooney’s catch, getting points at all was a good start for Fields.

The near-misses

Fields’ ugly 27.7 passer rating — he completed 6 of 13 passes for 60 yards and had an interception — would’ve spiked to 84.8 had he hit on two long passes that Robinson and Mooney couldn’t catch.

Soldier Field roared as Fields sent one deep down the left sideline for Mooney on first-and-10 from his own 47-yard line, but Mooney could only get part of his right hand on the ball as it sailed past him. It was an A-plus throw to beat Bengals cornerback Eli Apple, but Mooney just couldn’t get to it.

“Is it a drop? I don’t know,” coach Matt Nagy said Monday. “It’s hard to say. It was a tough catch, but I’ve seen him make those catches.”

That play would’ve put the Bears in scoring range. Instead, they backpedaled and imploded on Fields’ lost fumble before punting on fourth-and-24.

The miss that hurt even more was another nice deep ball with 9:39 left.

On second-and-nine, Fields threw slightly behind Robinson as he raced ahead of Awuzie on the left sideline, but it was still deep enough to stay out of Awuzie’s reach. Robinson was just crossing the goal line as the ball slipped through both arms and bounced off his chest to the ground.

“It was a good throw,” Nagy said. “It’s never easy when you’ve got a corner on your back and he’s trying to swat at it. It’s one of those plays that I know A-Rob, 99 times out of 100, he’s going to make that play, so we’ll go right back to it and give him another shot.”

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Every now and then, a filmmaker will release something that’s such a radical departure from their established canon of work we’re tempted to double-check to make sure it’s the same person, e.g., “Porky’s” director Bob Clark delivering the perennial holiday classic “A Christmas Story,” or Peter Farrelly of “Dumb and Dumber” and “There’s Something About Mary” writing/directing/producing the multiple Oscar-winning “The Green Book.”

The latest example would be James DeMonaco, who is best known for the dystopian horror “The Purge” franchise but now shifts gears in a major way for “This Is the Night,” a period-piece, coming-of-age film set on Staten Island in 1982, on the premiere date of “Rocky III.” Alas, while there’s no doubting the sincerity and passion behind DeMonaco’s love letter to the movies in general, to the “Rocky” franchise, and to the “American Graffiti”-esque device of having a series of life-changing events transpiring over the course of a single day/night, this is an unconvincing, contrived and rarely relatable misfire.

In the world of “This is the Night,” May 28, 1982, is a bigger date than Christmas and the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving all rolled into one because this is the day “Rocky III” hits theaters, and EVERYONE is dying to see it and can talk of nothing else and look at those lines snaking around the block at the local movie house! There’s even a gang of toughs who have beat each other to a pulp in order to look like Rocky after one of his bouts against Apollo Creed. Okaaaaaay…

Lucius Hoyos is Tony, a sweet, soft-spoken teenager who is so obsessed with all things “Rocky” he gets upset if anyone even mentions the rumors a main character in “Rocky III” might die. He has plans to see the film with his older brother Christian (Jonah Hauer-King), his mother Marie (Naomi Watts) and his father Vincent (Frank Grillo), a chef whose business is struggling. If dad can’t get the obligatory Loan from the Unsympathetic Bank Officer, he’ll have to hand his business over to the local crime kingpin Frank Larocca (Bobby Cannavale), a flashy, violent meathead who has a beef with Vincent dating back to their high school days. As plot would have it, Tony is in love with Frank’s sweet daughter Sophia (Madelyn Cline), who is dating an insensitive bully — but today might be the day when Tony finally declares his feelings for Sophia. Oh, and there’s also the matter of big brother Christian harboring a major secret: He likes to cross dress, something his mother has just discovered.

Even with all that (and more) going on, Tony and his family make it to an afternoon showing of “Rocky III,” which leads to an extended sequence where we don’t actually see any clips from the film as the camera focuses on the audience reacting to the unfolding story in wildly over-the-top fashion. As everyone is filing out of the theater, Sophia’s jerky boyfriend falsely accuses Tony of calling Rocky Balboa a sissy (a harsher term is used), and now Tony and his pals are on the run like “The Warriors,” trying to avoid getting pummeled by various gangs and random tough guys. It’s more exhausting than entertaining, and the multiple conclusions to the interconnecting storylines are more on the level of the dud that was “Rocky V” than the thrills of “Rocky III.”

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A man died four days after a double shooting in Washington Park on the South Side.

David Hines, 36, was shot shortly after noon Sept. 11 in the 5700 block of South Loop Drive, near the Washington Lagoon, according to Chicago police.

He was in a car with a 32-year-old man when someone opened fire from another car, police said.

Hines, who lived in the neighborhood, was struck in his forehead and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition, police said. He died on Sept. 15, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

The other man was grazed in his face and stabilized at the same hospital, police said.

Hines was one of at least 64 people shot in Chicago over the weekend he was wounded.

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It might be hard to believe now, but when Nick Foles replaced Mitch Trubisky at quarterback in the second half against the Falcons last season, he was sensational.

Coming in cold in Week 3, Foles threw three touchdown passes in a 4:27 span of the fourth quarter to lead the Bears to an energizing 30-26 comeback victory on the road. And Foles had a fourth touchdown pass to Allen Robinson that was controversially overturned into an interception upon replay review.

But once Foles became the full-time starter the following week and took first-team reps in practice, with all the preparation and attention a starter gets, he hit the skids — he was never even close to what he was in Atlanta. Circumstances played a part, but it’s almost as if he was Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles when he was mentally winging it and flying by the seat of his pants in relief — and turned into the pedestrian Nick Foles with the Rams and Jaguars once fully in the clutches of Matt Nagy’s developing/struggling offense.

Be that as it may, the Bears are hoping for the opposite effect if rookie Justin Fields starts against the Browns on Sunday in Cleveland, as appears likely — that a full week of preparation as the starter and a complete immersion in Nagy’s offense will iron out the wrinkles of an uneven performance in relief of Andy Dalton against the Bengals.

Fields showed his athletic ability and his inexperience Sunday. His 21-yard completion to Darnell Mooney was a thing of beauty. His 10-yard scramble on third-and-nine with 2:55 clinched the game. His 35-yard throw to Robinson in the end zone was perfection that would have been a touchdown had Robinson not dropped it.

But he made mistakes. He was goaded into an interception by Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson that helped make that clinching third-down conversion necessary. He had two false starts. He fumbled on a sack — fortunate that Wilson whiffed on the scoop-and-score attempt, allowing Fields to recover it. He held onto the ball too long. He was better than his numbers — 6-for-13 for 60 yards, one interception and a 27.7 rating. But not that much better. Drops are part of the game — every quarterback ever has been victimized by them.

What Fields didn’t show was his intuition — that knack for making the right play, turning a bad play into a big one and putting the defense on its heels. You can see the potential for greatness, but Fields looked like he was running somebody else’s offense instead of his own.

That’s what this week will be all about if Fields starts in place of Dalton, getting Fields into a comfort zone that allows him to react instinctively instead of think — a mode he definitely was not in against the Bengals.

“We’ve just got to make sure that whatever we put in there, that he knows inside out he can play fast,” Nagy said. “So if there’s more plays that he knows or likes, we’ll get that in there and he’ll play quarterback the way it’s supposed to be played.”

“But we do have to be a little bit careful and I think probably the biggest thing for us is making sure that he really understands and knows the plays, if [he starts]. … The last thing we want is him playing slow and then having to react to the defense.”

If Fields starts against the Browns, this could be a bigger week for Nagy and his offensive staff than it is for Fields. The kid knows how to play quarterback. But can Nagy put him in an offense tailored to what he does best? We didn’t see that last Sunday. It will be interesting to see if Nagy adjusts as well as Fields learns. Only then will the Bears have something.

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