David Kaplan joins the show to discuss the moment Justin Fields became a Bear, Nagy taking playcalling duties, and his memories of Charles Leno Jr. in a Bers uniform!
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Glassman Chrein, who is believed to be the fourth woman in league history to serve as a team president, has plenty on her plate when she begins June 1.
The Fire have a new president, and she will have a lot on her plate when she begins.
On Thursday, the team announced Ishwara Glassman Chrein has been named club president to replace predecessor Nelson Rodriguez. Glassman Chrein, who is believed to be the fourth woman in league history to serve as a team president, will start with the Fire on June 1.
Like sporting director Georg Heitz, Glassman Chrein will report directly to owner Joe Mansueto. Heitz will continue to run the soccer side of the Fire, and Glassman Chrein will helm the business operations.
Consulting firm Sportsology, which the Fire used when they hired Heitz, led the search.
In a statement, Mansueto said the Fire believe Glassman Chrein can grow the team’s fan base and be an ambassador for the franchise around the area.
“In Ishwara, we have found a dynamic, experienced sports executive to head up our business operations,” Mansueto said. “She is a passionate and enthusiastic leader that has a proven track record of building businesses and increasing revenue.”
Before joining the Fire, Glassman Chrein was the head of sports partnerships and business development at Yahoo Sports/Verizon Media. Among her duties, she led relationships with the traditional Big 4 and other sports leagues, broadcast network NBC, and also oversaw gaming operations and links with broadcasters.
She won’t be lacking for things to do with the Fire, who are still working to recover after a decade of decay under former owner Andrew Hauptman.
One of the goals for the franchise is finding 20-25 acres of city land to build a state-of-the-art training facility, which has already proven difficult. She’ll also have to navigate a still-uncertain economic landscape due to the COVID-19 pandemic, effectively push the upcoming new logo, and convince more people to care about the Fire and come to Soldier Field even as the on-field product continues to languish.
“I am so thrilled to be joining the Fire at such an important inflection point in the club’s history,” Glassman Chrein said in a news release. “I’m fortunate to join a team where the owner loves Chicago, cares deeply about the players and staff, and is fully invested in building a successful team on and off the pitch. I’m looking forward to getting started and meeting everyone involved with the club, especially the fans.”
Rodriguez resigned in January after becoming club president in January 2018. He was shifted to a business-only role in December 2019 when Heitz was hired.
Following Rodriguez’s departure, chief operating officer John Urban served as interim president.
JERUSALEM — Israel is at war with Hamas, Jewish-Arab mob violence has erupted inside Israel, and the West Bank is experiencing its deadliest unrest in years. Yet this may all bolster Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Just over a week ago, the longtime Israeli leader’s political career seemed all but over. He had failed to form a coalition government following an indecisive parliamentary election, and his political rivals were on the cusp of pushing him out of office.
Now, as Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers wage their fourth war in just over a decade, Netanyahu’s fortunes have changed dramatically. His rivals’ prospects have crumbled, Netanyahu is back in his comfortable role as Mr. Security, and the country could soon be headed for yet another election campaign that would guarantee him at least several more months in office.
The stunning turn of events has raised questions about whether Netanyahu’s desperation to survive may have pushed the country into its current predicament. While opponents have stopped short of accusing him of hatching just such a conspiracy, they say the fact that these questions are being asked is disturbing enough.
“If we had a government, security considerations would not be mixed with political considerations,” opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on Facebook. “No one would ask themselves why the fire always breaks out just when it’s most convenient for the prime minister.”
Lapid appeared to be poised to make history early last week, saying he was wrapping up the final details of arranging a government that would end Netanyahu’s 12-year rule.
“In a few days, we should be able to swear in a new Israeli government that is functional and that is based on broad agreements and the common good,” he declared, hours before the war erupted.
The sudden outburst of fighting was the culmination of a series of events that have made it increasingly difficult, and maybe impossible, for Lapid to assemble his coalition.
His alliance was to include diverse groups that span the spectrum from right-wing to left-wing Jewish parties, as well as an Islamist party, unified by little more than their opposition to Netanyahu.
Such a coalition would make history. An Arab party has never officially been part of an Israeli governing coalition.
Netanyahu himself had courted the same Arab party when he was granted the first chance by Israel’s figurehead president to assemble a coalition government after the March 23 elections.
But as it became clear Netanyahu could not secure the required parliamentary majority, things began to heat up between Jews and Arabs in the contested city of Jerusalem, in large part due to the actions of the prime minister’s allies.
Israelis and Palestinians both claim east Jerusalem and its sensitive holy sites. These competing claims lie at the heart of their conflict and have repeatedly triggered violence.
The Cabinet minister in charge of police, a Netanyahu loyalist, authorized the closure of a popular gathering spot outside Jerusalem’s Old City used by Palestinians during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. When protests broke out, heavy-handed Israeli police tactics led to days of unrest that peaked with police raids on the Al Aqsa Mosque. The violent scenes caused outrage across the Muslim world.
At the same time, Jewish settlers pressed ahead with attempts to evict dozens of Palestinians from their homes in a nearby east Jerusalem neighborhood. Itamar Ben-Gvir, a leader of a racist anti-Arab party aligned with Netanyahu, temporarily set up what he called a “parliamentary office” in the neighborhood, further enraging residents.
Then, on May 10, in an event widely seen as a provocation, thousands of far-right flag-waving Israeli activists gathered for a planned march through the heart of the Muslim Quarter of the Old City to celebrate Israel’s capture of contested east Jerusalem in 1967.
At the last minute, the Israeli government ordered marchers to change their route, but by then it was too late. Hamas, saying it was protecting Jerusalem, launched a barrage of long-range rockets at the city, crossing an Israeli “red line” and sparking the war.
As the war intensified, violent clashes between Jews and Arab mobs erupted in cities across Israel. The violence also spilled over to the West Bank, where more than 20 Palestinians have been killed in stone-throwing demonstrations against Israeli security forces in recent days, according to Palestinian health officials.
In this fraught environment, it appears unlikely that Lapid will be able to cobble together a government by a June 2 deadline.
Naftali Bennett, a far-right politician and key partner, abandoned the talks last week after the fighting began. Mansour Abbas, the leader of the Arab party, suspended negotiations. He has said he will resume them if the fighting ends, but time is running out.
Lapid’s office says he will work until the last minute to try to form a government. If he fails, the country most likely will be plunged into an unprecedented fifth election in little over two years.
It is a script that fits Netanyahu’s needs well and reinforces his image as a survivor. The unrest has diverted attention away from his ongoing corruption trial, and Netanyahu is at his best when focused on security issues, projecting a calm and powerful demeanor in his frequent TV appearances.
Netanyahu has been desperate to remain in office throughout his trial, using the position to rally public support and lash out at police and prosecutors.
A new campaign would leave him in office until at least the new election this fall. It would also give him another chance at forming a friendlier coalition with his religious and nationalist allies that could grant him immunity from prosecution.
Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Israel’s Hebrew University, said she did not think Netanyahu had conspired to keep himself in office. But she called him a master of manipulating events in his favor.
“I think he controlled how much oil he puts into the fire,” she said.
“From Netanyahu’s perspective, he’s looking only at his trial and his power base,” she added. “This is where Israeli politics are at. It’s the political survival of this prime minister and not the public interest.”
Netanyahu’s prospects bolstered amid Israel-Hamas fightingon May 20, 2021 at 3:56 pm Read More »
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Are the Israeli airstrikes following us? If you’re in Gaza City these days, no matter who you are, that’s an easy thing to believe.
No one knows where the next explosion will be, or when. Getting an hour’s notice from the Israeli military may save some lives, but not all airstrikes are preceded by warnings. And the constant sound of bombing fuels the pervasive dread that at any moment, any place — including the one right where you’re standing — could become the next target and, shortly afterward, be wiped from the landscape.
In the past week, I have lost my family farm to an airstrike. The building I worked in for many years — longtime location of The Associated Press and Al-Jazeera in my native Gaza City — was leveled an hour after the Israeli military ordered occupants to evacuate. We managed to flee and escape unscathed, at least physically.
And on Wednesday morning, as another day of bombardment in Gaza began — as Israel and Hamas continued to exchange fire — I thought I was going to lose my home, too.
___
Shortly after 9 a.m., my cellphone rang and awakened me. I looked at the number. It was my mother, calling from the apartment next door, where she lives.
I wondered through my grogginess: Why is she calling me at this time? She knows I stay up until dawn filing news reports about the ongoing war.
As I prepared to answer, I realized: Not only was my mother calling me, but she was standing right in front of me in my bedroom, too. She’d come directly in, through the apartment door that I leave unlocked in case there’s an emergency and my family can’t reach me by phone.
Something was amiss. I saw immediately what she was carrying: the “emergency bag” found in every house in Gaza. Such bags are filled with passports, IDs, personal items and the things we don’t want to lose under the rubble if the house is bombed.
Al-Andalus Tower is being targeted, my mother said. If true, this was very bad news.
The imposing building sits just 30 yards from the apartment building where my mother, various uncles, cousins and I live — the only central location in my life still intact after the past week of disarray. Our building is six floors high; if the 15-story Al-Andalus was brought down, it could fall on our home and crush it.
That’s not just idle speculation. For us, there’s terrifying precedent behind it.
In the 2008-09 war, Israel bombed Al-Andalus repeatedly, destroying half of it (it was later rebuilt). We had evacuated our building back then because a ground invasion was underway and tanks were close.
When we returned after the January 2009 cease-fire took effect, our building had been damaged badly. Windows were blown out. Flying debris had torn the curtains. Light fixtures were smashed and furniture broken.
All of this ricocheted through my mind on Wednesday morning as my mother’s words sank in. I rose, gathered myself, dressed and moved fast. My extended family was in peril. They needed me.
____
Sometimes, you downplay the danger. Sometimes it’s simply what you have to do.
That’s what I did this time with my uncles and their children when I found them all in the stairwell, hurrying down, deeply uncertain. Go to the basement, I exhorted: Maybe this is just a rumor. It might be a false warning. I told them I’d stay upstairs, seek out the facts and make sure that everything was OK.
Everything should be fine, I told them. I wondered when I would actually feel as confident as I was trying to sound.
They headed downstairs, leaving behind apartments with the front doors left open to reduce the concussive effects of bombs and the air they might push through the doorways. I stayed in my mother’s apartment next door to mine. It had a view, and I am, after all, a person whose job it is to observe and chronicle what is happening.
Shortly afterward, I was speaking with an editor about coverage plans. Suddenly, my world shook. An explosion. I looked out the window and saw smoke rising from the roof of Al-Andalus. I hung up and realized it was time for me to go to the basement, too. More explosions were coming.
Understand: At this moment, I was not directly worried about my own building. The Israelis say they are looking for Hamas targets. There is no Hamas in my apartment house. Of this I am certain.
Everyone in our building is known. We don’t have strangers who could be potential targets. I know my cousins. I know my uncles. I know everyone. They are my family. They are not part of any factions. They are not members of Hamas. Some of them have permits to enter Israel.
Because of all this, I have held to a belief that my building is safe. But I cannot speak for the buildings nearby. I have no idea who lives in Al-Andalus or why the building — which has remained largely empty since it was rebuilt — might have been targeted. And as I have come to believe, there is no safe place in Gaza.
___
I ran down to the basement and was astonished to find it empty. I was confused. That’s where they had all been headed. Where had they gone? Were they safe? Or had they fled and been caught up in some of the chaos?
I rushed outside, looked around. I was worried, nervous, afraid — but not frantic. Being frantic does you no good in a place where frantic things can be visited upon you from the sky at unexpected moments.
I found my family outside, in the open street, about 200 yards (meters) away from the building. It was not far, but it was far enough to be out of reach of what was happening to Al-Andalus, which was being targeted for sure.
As we watched, another powerful explosion hit the structure. More black smoke rose, but the building still stood. There was none of the heavy damage that an F-16 bomb would do — as it had with our office building just four days earlier.
The building’s roof and some apartments on its top floor had been hit from the side furthest from our building. And our apartments? They were intact, untouched, left to stand at least another day.
Some of my younger relatives were terrified, including my little 5-year-old nephew. We sent him to my sister’s house, driven there by my brother. And the rest of us? Slowly, deliberately, tentatively, we carried our emergency bags back into our building. And we contemplated the words that are shaping our days: Evacuate. Flee. Bomb. Explosion.
We wanted to nudge things back toward normal. We realized that we had no power to do so.
And so we watch, emergency bags packed, wondering when the next word of an explosion will turn out to be only a rumor — or, worse, when the next rumor moving from one set of lips to another set of ears will become a real explosion that will change more lives here forever.
___
Fares Akram is a journalist in Gaza for The Associated Press.
URUMQI, China — China has highlighted an unlikely series of videos this year in which Uyghur men and women deny U.S. charges that Beijing is committing human rights violations against their ethnic group. In fact, a text obtained by the AP shows that the videos are part of a government campaign that raises questions about the willingness of those filmed.
Chinese state media have published dozens of the videos praising the Communist Party and showing Uyghurs angrily denouncing former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for declaring a genocide in the far west Xinjiang region. The videos, which officials have insisted are spontaneous outpourings of emotion, have also featured prominently in a series of government news conferences held for foreign media.
But the text obtained by AP is the first concrete confirmation that the videos are anything but grassroots. Sent in January to government offices in the northern city of Karamay, the text told each office to find one Uyghur fluent in Mandarin to film a one-minute video in response to Pompeo’s “anti-China remarks.”
“Express a clear position on Pompeo’s remarks, for example: I firmly oppose Pompeo’s anti-Chinese remarks, and I am very angry about them,” the text said. “Express your feelings of loving the party, the country and Xinjiang (I am Chinese, I love my motherland, I am happy at work and in life, and so on).”
While it’s not impossible officials were able to find Uyghurs willing to be in such a public relations campaign, China’s track record in Xinjiang and its documented abuses of Uyghurs have led many experts to conclude it’s more likely those in the videos were forced to take part.
“There’s something instinctive about these videos which feels ingenuine, but the significance is that there’s hard evidence here that the Chinese government is requesting these kinds of videos,” said Albert Zhang, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute who recently coauthored a report on Beijing’s disinformation campaign on Xinjiang.
Xinjiang spokesperson Xu Guixiang did not directly deny the authenticity of the text, but said it didn’t follow the usual format of state orders and that his understanding was that “the government has never issued this kind of notice or made this kind of request.” He suggested the videos were made voluntarily.
“This didn’t require government organization. Many among the masses made this totally spontaneously,” Xu said in a recent interview. “Pompeo’s anti-China remarks arose the intense resentment of various ethnic groups in Xinjiang.”
Beijing is increasingly under fire for its campaign of mass detention, cultural destruction and forced assimilation of Uyghurs and other largely Muslim minorities native to Xinjiang. Western governments have levied sanctions against top Chinese officials, while the U.S. government has banned imports of cotton and tomatoes from Xinjiang, citing concerns over forced labor.
Tahir Imin, a Uyghur activist who fled China in 2017, said the videos are almost certainly state-orchestrated and coerced, given that information in Xinjiang is heavily censored.
“People don’t know who Pompeo is or what he’s saying,” Imin said. “How would they know what Mike Pompeo is saying about the Uyghurs?”
The AP was unable to authenticate the text independently. However, friends of Firdavs Drinov, the man who sent a screenshot of the text to the AP, said he had obtained it from a friend with family working for the Karamay government. Three days after he sent it, police detained Drinov and the friend, holding a special meeting on how to punish him, two other friends said.
In a fax, the Xinjiang government confirmed that Drinov had been arrested, saying he was suspected of “fabricating and posting fake information” and “poisoning and bewitching ignorant groups and instigating splittism.” Referring to Drinov by his legal Mandarin name, Chen Haoyu, it said he is awaiting trial in a detention center and that his “rights will be protected according to the law.”
The fax did not answer a question about whether Drinov’s detention was linked to the screenshot.
His friend Vincent Gao called the charges nonsense, saying Drinov, who is biracial, opposed Xinjiang independence and believed in friendship between Uyghurs and Han Chinese, the country’s dominant ethnic group. Gao added that Drinov was very wary of fanatic extremism.
“He’s never said or done anything to split the country,” said Gao, a PhD student in Italian at Yale University in the U.S. “He was very proud of his Han heritage. There is no rational reason why he would support separatism.”
Drinov is a linguist who harbored dreams of obtaining a doctorate in the United States despite never having gone to college. Fluent in Mandarin, English, Uzbek, Uyghur, Russian, and French, he had at one point trained to represent China at the International Linguistics Olympiad in 2015.
Drinov maintained an open presence on Western social media platforms banned in China such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. He had run into trouble with authorities before.
In December 2019, he was put in a detention center for 15 days for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a vague charge often used against people the ruling Communist Party sees as threatening. Police grilled him after he posted internal documents about the government’ crackdown in Xinjiang from a New York Times story on one of his Chinese social media accounts, according to texts he sent to Wang Tonghe, a computational linguist who befriended Drinov online.
Experts say the videos of supportive Uyghurs ordered up by authorities are part of a broader state-coordinated disinformation campaign aimed at whitewashing their policies in Xinjiang.
Dozens of new Twitter and Tiktok accounts promoting those policies have cropped up. Some purport to be run by Uyghurs from Xinjiang, even though merely downloading those apps has landed others in detention. The accounts share videos promoting Xinjiang’s lush landscapes and snow-capped mountains, depicting an idyllic, carefree life at total odds with accounts from hundreds of Uyghurs and Kazakhs who have fled the region in recent years.
Zhang’s Australian Strategic Policy Institute report traced some of the social media videos to a company funded by the Xinjiang government. It found that many of the accounts were likely to be inauthentic and state-linked, though it could not prove so definitively.
“I think it’s interesting, the amount of resources the Chinese government is willing to use to produce this content and disseminate it,” Zhang said. “The scale and the persistence of it is new and sort of concerning.”
Many of the glowing Uyghur social media posts have been shared by a slew of new accounts opened by Chinese officials and state media outlets in recent years.
China has had a much different reaction to scholars and activists using social media to research or speak out against the situation in Xinjiang.
Nyrola Elima, a Uyghur living in Sweden, said that after she started tweeting about the detention of her cousin, police pounded on her mother’s door in Xinjiang clutching printouts of her tweets. “Make your daughter delete these,” they said, threatening to detain her if Elima didn’t comply.
In March, Beijing sanctioned British Uyghur specialist Joanne Smith Finley after she repeatedly characterized the Chinese government’s actions in Xinjiang as a genocide, first doing so in an AP story about forced birth control measures.
Finley responded to the sanctions on Twitter: “I have no regrets for speaking out, and I will not be silenced.”
Chinese authorities order video denials by Uyghurs of abuseson May 20, 2021 at 4:11 pm Read More »
DANVILLE, Calif. — Two fatal shootings by the same police officer in a wealthy San Francisco suburb have cast a spotlight on what criminal justice activists are calling a case of delayed justice and its deadly consequences.
Felony charges were announced last month against Officer Andrew Hall, of the Danville Police Department, for fatally shooting an unarmed mentally ill man in 2018.
The April 21 indictment came more than two years after the shooting of Laudemer Arboleda, and one day after a jury convicted Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin of killing George Floyd.
It also came six weeks too late for Tyrell Wilson, who was shot and killed by Hall in March.
“Why did it take so long for the DA to file charges?” asked Wilson’s mother, Diane. Just a few weeks sooner, Hall would have been off the streets and, she said: “Tyrell would still be here with us now.”
Danville is a town of multimillion-dollar homes that tops lists of the safest places to live in California. Many of the questions residents are now posing echo those America is asking of policing nationwide. Was the officer’s use of deadly force justified or excessive?
Was the officer held accountable? And did racism play a role when Hall, who is white, shot nine bullets into Arboleda, an unarmed Filipino man, in 2018, or when he fired a single shot to the head of Wilson, a Black homeless man?
Wilson’s March 11 shooting occurred after police received calls about someone throwing rocks off a freeway overpass.
When Hall arrived, he confronted Wilson, who was crossing a nearby intersection. It remains unclear if Wilson was the person throwing rocks, but Hall assumed he was.
“You’re jaywalking. You’re throwing rocks,” Hall said.
Wilson turned to face Hall in the middle of the intersection and is seen on video holding a knife.
“Touch me and see what’s up,” Wilson responded, verbally challenging Hall but never lunging at him.
Hall ordered him three times to drop the knife and then fired, a single shot to Wilson’s face. Just 32 seconds elapsed from the moment Hall first spoke to Wilson to the moment he fired.
The Associated Press reconstructed the encounters through police video footage, interviews and documents obtained through public record requests. The Danville police chief, the Contra Costa County sheriff, the county’s district attorney and Hall’s lawyer declined to be interviewed for this story.
Civil rights attorney John Burris is representing both families and lobbying the California attorney general and U.S. Department of Justice to examine the shootings to see if they show a pattern of misconduct and racism by Hall.
“All I know is a Black man and a Filipino man were both killed in a town that is predominantly white,” said Burris. The two are the only police shootings in Danville in at least a decade. “This man should be prosecuted, and like Chauvin, he should be in handcuffs for what he did.”
In both cases, police were responding to routine calls that escalated quickly when Hall arrived, said Burris. For Wilson, it was not established he had thrown rocks, and there were no reports of injuries or accidents from the rocks.
“How do you go from reasonable suspicion to murder?” asked Burris. “It’s an outrageous shooting, he did not have to kill this man.”
In Arboleda’s case, police responded on Nov. 3, 2018, to a call about a “suspicious” person knocking on doors. Arboleda was ringing doorbells and “lingering in the area,” the district attorney said in a statement.
Arboleda was driving away when officers tried to initiate a traffic stop. Like Wilson, he tried to avoid police.
Arboleda led officers on a nine-minute, slow-speed chase. Hall was not involved in the initial pursuit but stopped his vehicle at an intersection to block Arboleda’s car.
Police video footage shows Hall stepping in the path of Arboleda’s car and firing a volley of shots into the windshield and passenger side window. Nine bullets hit Arboleda.
The sheriff’s office cleared Hall after a nine-month investigation.
It was not the first time Hall was investigated and exonerated by the sheriff’s office. In 2014, Hall was accused of “brutally attacking” an inmate at a county jail in the city of Martinez. The inmate, identified as a 6-foot-3 Black man, said Hall rammed him face-first into a door while he was handcuffed and repeatedly punched him in the face and side. The inmate was treated for a fractured eye socket and needed stitches in his lip. A probe by the sheriff’s office found no evidence of unreasonable force.
District Attorney Diana Becton said in a statement accompanying the April 21 indictment that Hall used “unreasonable and unnecessary force” against Arboleda and his actions underscore the need to improve de-escalation training and response to people suffering mental illness. Hall was charged with voluntary manslaughter and assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
Nobody knows exactly why Arboleda or Wilson ended up in Danville. But in both cases, their families say, mental illness played a role.
Arboleda was living at his mother’s apartment in Newark, about an hour’s drive from Danville, and wanted more independence. His family believes that’s why he went to Danville, ringing doorbells and searching for the property manager of his mother’s condominium, who lived there.
A few months earlier, Arboleda was hospitalized for psychiatric reasons, and his mother, Jeannie Atienza, said he feared police would take him back to the hospital.
“He was afraid of police. I know that he was just trying to get away,” said his mother, who disputes police accounts that her son was trying to ram his car into Hall.
In the months before Wilson’s death, his family knew he was homeless and had been prescribed medication for depression or paranoia, they think, which he didn’t like taking. They believe he chose Danville because it reminded him of the quiet, middle-class suburb where he grew up in Riverside, Orange County.
“The environment where Tyrell was killed was the environment he grew up in,” his mother said. “He felt comfortable there.”
Justice delayed? In wealthy California town, officer kills 2on May 20, 2021 at 4:17 pm Read More »
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer are together again, this time in the NFL and with Tebow playing a new position.
The former Florida star and 2007 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback signed a one-year contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday and will attempt to revive his pro career as a tight end. The move also reunites two of college football’s most polarizing figures over the past 15 years.
The 33-year-old Tebow is returning to the NFL after five years (2016-20) in the New York Mets’ organization and he’ll be playing for Meyer for the first time since his senior year in 2009.
“I know it will be a challenge, but it is a challenge I embrace,” Tebow said in a statement. “I am dedicated to taking the direction of our coaching staff and learning from my teammates. I appreciate everyone’s support as I embark on this new journey.”
He will be on the field with his new team Thursday and wearing No. 85 for a voluntary, closed workout. Tebow is not expected to have any media availability until training camp, at the earliest, in hopes of minimizing the media circus that follows Tebow.
His comeback is unprecedented because of his age, his new position and the fact that he last played in a regular-season game in 2012, with the New York Jets.
Several teams suggested Tebow make the position change years ago, but he declined.
He finally switched after retiring from baseball in February. He worked out for the Jaguars the following week, the first of two exploratory sessions that came to light hours before the start of the NFL draft on April 29.
Meyer raved about Tebow’s workouts, saying assistants were surprised to see the 235-pounder in such great shape. Ultimately, Tebow’s ability to pick up a new position — a number of college QBs have made the transition look seamless — will determine whether he makes the team.
Just getting a chance after such a lengthy layoff has stirred debate about preferential treatment. Others insist it’s merely the result of a decadeslong relationship that now includes Meyer and Tebow being neighbors in Jacksonville.
“This Tebow deal just shows that personal relationships go further at this level than actual ability,” Carolina Panthers defensive tackle DaQuan Jones posted on Twitter last week.
Former Dallas receiver Dez Bryant, current Pittsburgh linebacker Devin Bush and Denver safety Kareem Jackson were among a number of others who criticized the move.
“So Tebow haven’t played an NFL game in damn near a decade and it’s that simple … no hate but you got to be kidding me,” Bryant tweeted.
Added Jackson: “… he got more lives than a cat.”
Tebow, who grew up in Jacksonville and remains a popular figure in his hometown, could fill a huge hole for Meyer. The Jaguars decided not to pick up a team option in veteran Tyler Eifert’s contract and traded oft-injured 2019 draft pick Josh Oliver to Baltimore in March. They signed run-blocking specialist Chris Manhertz in free agency, brought back James O’Shaughnessy and drafted Ohio State’s Luke Farrell in the fifth round.
Those were considered minor moves after Meyer vowed to completely revamp the position group. Tebow, at the very least, provides another splash for a franchise that had been mostly irrelevant the last two decades.
But how much can a guy on the wrong side of 30 who’s never played the position bring to the team? Tebow’s value could mean as much off the field as on it.
Meyer has said repeatedly that signing players who already know his methodology would be helpful in Year 1. Jacksonville now has six guys on its roster who previously played for Meyer: Tebow, Farrell, running back Carlos Hyde, guard Andrew Norwell, defensive end Lerentee McCray and defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton.
Tebow played for Meyer between 2006 and 2009, helping the Gators win two national championships while becoming one of the most recognizable athletes in college sports.
He was a first-round draft pick by Denver in 2010, but his lengthy windup and inaccuracy led to a short NFL career. He spent time with the Broncos, the New York Jets, New England and Philadelphia. His last meaningful game came with the Jets in 2012. The Eagles cut him following training camp in 2015, with then-coach Chip Kelly saying Tebow wasn’t good enough to be Philly’s No. 3 QB.
Tebow won a playoff game with Denver in 2012 but never developed into a dependable NFL starter. He asked Meyer for guidance on whether to switch to tight end while bouncing from team to team, but Meyer said he “was so busy I couldn’t give him the time.”
Tebow ended up leaving football altogether and signing with the Mets.
“I know playing a position in the NFL without (experience), that’s a long shot,” Meyer said during the draft.
When Tebow approached Meyer about making a comeback, the coach invited him to the facility for a workout. Meyer made it clear he didn’t feel like he owed Tebow anything, either.
“I have one job and that is to win games with the Jacksonville Jaguars,” Meyer said. “If Tim Tebow or (rookie running back) Travis Etienne can help us win, then that’s my job to get them ready to go play.”
Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer are officially reunited with Jaguarson May 20, 2021 at 4:46 pm Read More »
Schanowski worked at ABC 7 from 1990 to ’98 before moving to NBC 5 and NBC Sports Chicago, where he hosted Bulls pre- and postgame shows.
Longtime Chicago sportscaster Mark Schanowski will join ABC 7 as an anchor/reporter, helping to fill the void created when the station pulled Mark Giangreco off the air in January and fired him in March. His first day on the air will be May 29.
Schanowski worked at ABC 7 from 1990 to ’98, when he was replaced by current NBC 5 anchor Jeff Blanzy. Schanowski went on to join NBC 5 and NBC Sports Chicago, where he hosted Bulls pre- and postgame shows.
He joins Jim Rose and Dionne Miller at ABC 7, which clearly chose a personality diametrically different from Giangreco to fill out its sports department. Schanowski is straight-laced and solid on the air. He’s also widely respected and well-liked.
Schanowski has been co-hosting a podcast with Bulls TV analyst Stacey King called “Gimme the Hot Sauce.” He also has been a part-time contributor for Stadium as a Bulls insider.
The Aer Lingus College Football Classic will be played Aug. 27, 2022. The matchup was originally supposed to be played Oct. 8, 2022, in Evanston.
Northwestern will open the 2022 football season against Nebraska in Dublin, Ireland, the school announced Thursday morning.
The Aer Lingus College Football Classic will be played Aug. 27, 2022. The matchup was originally supposed to be played Oct. 8, 2022, in Evanston.
“This is an incredible opportunity for our entire University community, from student-athletes to coaches, alumni and fans,” Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald said in a statement. “We are thrilled that our program will get to experience the beautiful Irish culture, while we continue to help grow the game of college football on a global stage. It’s an honor to be included in this once-in-a-lifetime event, and we can’t wait to have the Northwestern faithful join us in one of the world’s most amazing settings.”
The Cornhuskers were scheduled to play Illinois in Dublin this year, but that game was moved to Champaign because of COVID-19 concerns.
“The past year has been a very difficult one for us all in Ireland and in the United States. With our vaccination rollout advancing at pace, we are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, and we can begin to look forward with optimism to welcoming visitors safely back to our shores,” Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said in a statement released by NU. “When we do, we will have a very special welcome ready for the teams and their supporters when they visit us for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.”
What:A sleek spot for coastal Adriatic fare from Top Chef winner Joe Flamm
Why:The menu promises “drinking food,” so sip Croatian beers alongside branzino with paprika sauce.
Where:932 W. Fulton St., West Loop Website
What:An all-day West Town café from chef Tyler Nickson and the owners of Half Evil and Round Two
Why:Think French toast with coffee anglaise for breakfast and smash burgers for dinner.
Where:1450 W. Chicago Ave. Website
What:The TikTok sushi bake trend, in real life, made by a local enthusiast and home chef
Why:Use nori to scoop up spicy-crab-topped rice for DIY hand rolls at home.
Where:Order at thehotboxsushi.com for pickup and delivery in Northbrook and rotating city and suburban locations.
What:The destination beer bar reopens in time for summer.
Why:Pretend you’re on a European vacation: Sip a Belgian draft on the leafy patio and split the mussels and frites for two.
Where:5148 N. Clark St., Andersonville Website
What:A Korean pizza pop-up from Parachute
Why:Did you miss where we said pizza from Parachute? Try one topped with kimchi, pepperoni, and gochujang-tomato sauce.
Where:3472 N. Elston Ave., Avondale
What:Former Arami chef Joseph Fontelera highlights the Filipino flavors of his childhood at Revival Food Hall.
Why:Have your sisig with garlic rice and a fried egg or get it turned into tacos.
Where:125 S. Clark St., Loop Website
What:The iconic breakfast joint returns after a two-year absence.
Why:Make up for lost time — order a Southern Benedict on a buttery biscuit, then take a dozen to go.
Where:5431 S. Wabash Ave., Washington Park
What:Two new outposts of the fried chicken hot spot
Why:With West Town and Andersonville now covered, you’re never too far from your next Negroni slushie.
Where:2109 W. Chicago Ave.; 5721 N. Clark St. Website
What:The cocktail fave expands both its space and its menu.
Why:Pair new bites like chile-lime tuna tartare with longtime hits like the hibiscus-tinged Cosmo.
Where: 660 W. Lake St., Fulton River District Website
What:The Swedish bakery darling adds a Wicker Park location, plus new monthly bread specials.
Why:Expect bread like cocoa and chipotle alongside your favorite cardamom buns.
Where:2140 W. Division St. Website
The 10 Hottest Restaurants in Chicago Right Nowon May 20, 2021 at 3:11 pm Read More »
