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Bears defensive tackle Akiem Hicks will practice Wednesday after leaving practice after a few minutes Tuesday.

“There’s no update,” coach Matt Nagy said. “He’s back today. That’s the only thing that matters.”

When pressed twice for an explanation of the bizarre scene when he exited the field, Nagy replied, “No update.”

It has been a choppy ride for Hicks, 31, since the end of last season. He is in the final season of a four-year, $48 million contract, and agent Drew Rosenhaus has said he wants an extension to keep him with the Bears to the end of his career. He carries the fourth-highest salary-cap hit this season at $12 million.

That came after Hicks reportedly was given permission to explore trade possibilities in the offseason while the Bears made cost-cutting moves.

When training camp began, Hicks refused to speak to the media and still hasn’t.

This is the second time he has had an unusual absence. Coach Matt Nagy omitted him from his pre-practice report on injuries when he was out July 29, then declined to give an update until the next morning when he said Hicks had a sore foot. Nagy said he didn’t issue notice on the injury because it, “wasn’t a big deal.”

Hicks has been essential to the Bears’ defense since signing in 2016 and has 27.5 sacks, five forced fumbles and fumble recoveries and 156 tackles.

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Bears rookie Teven Jenkins is having back surgery Tuesday, coach Matt Nagy said, with hopes that the tackle can return to the team this season.

It’s a major blow to a team that traded up to draft Jenkins No. 39 overall with plans of him playing left tackle.

“This is something — we were aware of [his] back issues in college, but these are symptoms that are new,” he said. “So this is something we’re dealing with. He’s at a point right now where we were trying different things to see if we could stay away from this. …

“When you get to the word ‘surgery,’ obviously everyone gets concerned, you don’t want to hear that. But the goal is to get him back this year.”

Concern is absolutely the proper response to back surgery, even though Nagy, as usual, tried to put a positive spin on an awful development.

“It’s hard to put and say everything’s 100%,” he said, “but it sounds like once this happens and you get the surgery, that things should be fixed and pretty good. That’s the good part in this whole thing.”

The Bears traded up to draft Jenkins — giving the Panthers second-, third- and sixth-round picks for Jenkins and a fifth-rounder — and decided to move him from right tackle, where many around the league thought he was a good fit, to the left side. They immediately cut reliable veteran Charles Leno to save much-needed salary cap space.

On the first day of training camp practice, Nagy said he had “back tightness.” Jenkins did not start training camp on the PUP list but nonetheless never played a snap. Instead, Jenkins rehabbed the injury while his teammates practiced. He was not spotted doing rehab work Monday, though.

It was clear the Bears were concerned about Jenkins’ availability before they agreed to sign 39-year-old tackle Jason Peters on Saturday. Jenkins signed his contract Monday but has yet to join the team while he goes through the coronavirus test intake process, which lasts five days for unvaccinated players. Nagy said he should arrive Thursday.

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Joliet Catholic has won 14 state football titles, the most in Illinois. There are eight schools with more overall victories, but six of those have played almost 20 more seasons.

So it would not be a stretch for the Hilltoppers to proclaim themselves the kings of Illinois high school football. But you would never think that while hanging around Joliet Catholic coach Jake Jaworski and his team on a typical afternoon.

The No. 7 Hilltoppers practice on a grass stretch in the middle of a rundown track far behind the school. It’s a strikingly different setting from Mount Carmel or Loyola.

But the expectations are not different. Joliet Catholic’s Class of 2022 has been highly-touted since it began high school and all the pieces are in place for the school to add another state championship trophy in November.

“We watched our teammates win state when we were freshmen,” Hilltoppers running back Jordan Anderson said. “We want to accomplish that as well. We are coming hard. We have one of the best teams in the state.”

Joliet Catholic has eight starters back on defense and five on offense. It’s a group of kids that grew up playing together.

Anderson, an Illinois recruit, is a physical force. The 6-3, 230-pound senior is just stronger and quicker than most high school football players.

“I can’t say enough about his work ethic,” Jaworski said. “He’s a leader by example. That work ethic is what separates him from everyone and puts him at another level.”

Senior quarterback Aidan Voss returns along with running backs Vinny Iannantone and Ryan Louthan and three starters on the offensive line.

“I’m super confident,” Voss said. “We’re going to go out there and do our thing and hopefully we can get that trophy.”

The Hilltoppers’ defense will have new starters in the secondary but Illinois recruit Malachi Hood will lead an established group at linebacker.

“We have a really hard-nosed group on defense,” Hood said. “The secondary will surprise people with how well they play together and how reliable they are.”

Joliet Catholic, which will likely be a Class 5A school in the playoffs, has a rugged schedule full of larger schools. The Hilltoppers open against Simeon and then travel to St. Louis to play Cardinal Ritter in Week 2. They will also face Providence, Crete-Monee, Brother Rice, and Montini.

Class 5A will be one of the best classes in the state, at least at the top. Joliet Catholic could be joined by St. Rita, Sacred Heart-Griffin, and Rochester as favorites for the state title.

Jaworski has won two state titles with the Hilltoppers, one as a player and one as a coach.

“[Winning the state title] doesn’t really get brought up much,” Jaworski said. “It’s not like we start our season and workouts saying state championship or bust. I was taught that it is the work ethic and preparation. If you do those things on a daily basis this is what could happen. So we don’t talk about it much.”

JOLIET CATHOLIC SCHEDULE

Aug. 27 vs. Simeon

Sep. 4 at St. Louis Cardinal Ritter

Sep. 10 vs. De La Salle

Sep. 17 vs. Providence

Sep. 24 vs. Crete-Monee

Oct. 1 vs. St. Laurence

Oct. 8 at Brother Rice

Oct. 15 at Benet

Oct. 22 at Montini

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A man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly driving into two Chicago police officers, dragging one of them, Friday in Englewood on the South Side.

Jermaine Little, 35, was pulled over by police for a traffic violation around 7:30 p.m. in the 6300 block of South Michigan Avenue, Chicago police

Little then put the car in reverse and dragged one officer 40 feet before pinning the officer between the car and a viaduct, according to police and the Chicago Fire Department.

The officer fired at, but didn’t hit, the driver, police said. The officer was hospitalized in good condition.

Police said another officer was hit and a third officer was nearly hit by the car.

Little allegedly drove off but was arrested Tuesday in the Gresham neighborhood. Police said they recovered a handgun.

Little, of South Shore, also faces a count of unauthorized use of a vehicle as a weapon and aggravated assault to an officer.

He was expected to appear in court later Wednesday.

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It’s a bad day for the Bears.

Amid their many ongoing injury issues and some new ones that have popped up, prized rookie quarterback Justin Fields is out of practice Wednesday with a groin muscle injury.

Nagy downplayed the issue — “There’s nothing to read into,” he said — and still plans to play Fields in the preseason game against the Bills on Saturday, but couldn’t say with certainty that he’ll be available.

“It’s too early to go there,” Nagy said. “We want to be able to get to that point where he’s able to play in that game. That’s very important. … We’re being super conservative. When you start messing with these soft tissue deals, you’ve gotta be smart.”

Nagy saying this isn’t a major concern is far from reassuring. Presumptive starting left tackle Teven Jenkins, for example, was repeatedly described as getting close to returning until Nagy revealed Wednesday that he’ll have back surgery that could keep him out all season.

There was no mention of an injury coming out of Fields’ dazzling performance in the preseason opener against the Dolphins, but he looked off throughout practice Tuesday.

“He was a little sore, and Justin is the last one that’s going to tell you that’s an excuse,” Nagy said. “He’s not going to use that excuse. He was [angry] at some of the throws and just the way [he played] in general yesterday. I didn’t think offensively we had a very good day.

“We were able to watch the film last night, go through it and correct it and see why and stuff so, and I just, for us, we just, we gotta be smart. We want to be smart and it doesn’t makes sense right now to push the limits with him and make [him] more sore.”

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A unique and profound photography exhibit by HRH Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark will make its world premiere at the National Hellenic Museum (NHM) in Chicago as it reopens in September. Resilience is an exhibition of 20 works of photographic art – among them 19 never-before shown and one exhibited in London earlier this year – that will be previewed at the NHM Saturday, Sept. 25.

Prince Nikolaos is an accomplished photographic artist whose works have been exhibited throughout the world since 2015, most recently at the London Design Biennale in June. His first solo exhibit in North America, Resilience will open to the public with a presentation by Prince Nikolaos Sunday, Sep. 26, and will reside at the NHM through late December. The exhibit is sponsored by NHM Trustee, Chicagoan John S. Koudounis.

A central piece of the Resilience exhibit called Sea Cred was created by Prince Nikolaos in collaboration with Parley for the Oceans, a non-profit that enables creators, thinkers and leaders to raise awareness of environmental threats to the planet’s oceans. The piece is a photographic mosaic, with images assembled on credit card-sized pieces of Parley Ocean Plastic®, a premium material created from intercepted plastic debris from remote beaches, mangroves and coastal communities, to represent the impact of consumerism on the oceanic ecosystem.

“Rather than simply taking a picture of a landscape, I’ll take a picture of what is evoking emotion – such as a zoomed, focused image of a ripple of water – that has caught my eye in the moment,” says Prince Nikolaos. “These details are the essence of the landscape to be celebrated and preserved.”

“As an artist Prince Nikolaos is always drawn to open spaces; nature has been an integral theme and presence in his work,” says Marilena Koutsoukou, the exhibit’s curator. “Like an archaeologist meticulously excavating, recording and drawing conclusions, the artist’s intent with this body of work is to deconstruct and explore from where this strength originates.”

In discussing Resilience – both the collection of works and the human capacity to overcome difficulties faced across the globe that inspired the exhibition – Prince Nikolaos quotes the renowned Greek poet Odysseas Elytis who said, “If you deconstruct Greece, you will in the end see an olive tree, a grapevine, and a boat remain. That is, with as much, you reconstruct her.”

“However, this exhibition goes far beyond Greece,” says Koutsoukou. “It’s Prince Nikolaos’ expression of our collective experience with a new normal, a shared belief that we must let go of our past ways and find ways to celebrate and protect nature and, eventually, ourselves.”

This technique of assembling precise, detailed photography to create a vast presentation also was employed by Prince Nikolaos in Together, which premiered in London, and is the only piece in the exhibit previously shown. It features two life-sized olive trees growing side-by-side, their branches entangled. The assembly of those images into a single artistic piece allows for clarity and detail. Each tiny leaf is clear and crisp even in its life-size presentation. Togetherwas inspired by the isolation and desire for togetherness experienced worldwide through the pandemic.

“I’ve always maintained that the most beautiful artist is nature; I’m just the messenger,” says Prince Nikolaos, who credits his wife, Princess Tatiana, for inspiring his technique of trying to convey the emotion which the landscape evokes in him. “I once was photographing the dessert, and my wife advised me to stop trying to capture its vastness but, instead, to focus on what moves my soul.”

Through the long months of the global pandemic, Prince Nikolaos also has looked to his origins for inspiration. He asserts that finding our ancestral foundations, and sense of belonging to a larger narrative, leads to finding our center of stability.

“Prince Nikolaos’ art is ideal to reopen the National Hellenic Museum,” says NHM Trustee Koudounis. “Beyond the shared Greek heritage, the shared values of reaching to one’s origins for fortitude and of the preservation of natural elements make this exhibit a fit for our community.”

Founded in 1983 as the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center, the NHM’s current location was builtin 2011. The building isconstructed with natural limestone and glass, materials that represent the artistic and technological traditions Greeks have impacted from the Classical Age to the modern day. It contains design elements associated with Aristotle such as earth, wind and fire; although water is not physically present, light and glassy surfaces are incorporated to represent the importance of water.The symbolic heart of the building is a dramatic, sky-lit east-to-west-staircase that represents the immigrant experience, cultural ties to Greece and the limitless potential – the resilience – of Greek Americans in the United States.

“As we reopen the National Hellenic Museum, once again coming together to celebrate not only our heritage and community, but also our role as global citizens, we are so very proud and honored to present this exhibit to Chicagoans and visitors to the city of all nationalities,” Koudounis added.

Tickets to the National Hellenic Museum, including HRH Prince Nikolaos’ exhibit are $10. Located at 333 S. Halsted, the National Hellenic Museum is an anchor of Chicago’s Greektown. For Museum hours beginning Sept. 24, and information about Museum memberships, its exhibits and programs visit www.nationalhellenicmuseum.org.

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