Chicago Bears 7-Round Mock Draft: Ryan Pace goes nuclear by Ryan Heckman

With the 2021 NFL Draft two weeks away, the Chicago Bears have several needs on their roster and that includes the need for a long-term solution at the quarterback position.

The Bears began to address the quarterback position this off-season when they signed veteran free agent Andy Dalton to a one-year, $10 million deal. One of the reasons why Dalton chose to sign with the Bears is because of the assurance he received that he would be the team’s starting quarterback in 2021.

That sentiment has caused backlash among Bears’ fans. The backlash continued when the Bears were mocked both locally and nationally for posting a tweet of Dalton in a Bears’ uniform with a caption that read “QB1”.

The backlash has been misguided. Since the signing of Dalton, it is important that Bears fans realize that neither general manager Ryan Pace nor head coach Matt Nagy insisted that Dalton would be the long-term answer for the Bears at the quarterback position. Dalton is not the Bears’ long-term answer at the quarterback position and the team is aware of that fact.

More from Chicago Bears

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• Chicago Bears 7-Round Mock Draft: No quarterback in Round 1
• Chicago Bears NFL Draft 2021: 5 scenarios trading out of the first

That would be why eyes should be on the 2021 NFL Draft for the Bears. A recent report from Brad Briggs of the Chicago Tribune suggests that the Bears are prioritizing the quarterback position in this year’s draft:

There has been sentiment around the NFL for a few weeks that the Bears are plotting a move for a quarterback, that Pace and Nagy view that as their best chance to spark a turnaround while also providing hope for the future. The Bears could continue with their plan to start Dalton while bringing along a rookie, hoping the veteran performs well enough that they don’t have to turn to a draft pick in an effort to try to save jobs.

There are currently five quarterbacks projected to be selected in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Those quarterbacks are Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, and Mac Jones. From previous reporting, we already know that the Bears have attended the Pro Days for both Lance on Jones.

On Wednesday, Bears’ head coach Matt Nagy was spotted at Fields’ Pro Day.

Where will @justnfields go? ?#GoBuckeyes #DevelopedHere pic.twitter.com/cdeWra23rZ

— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) April 14, 2021

When talking about the prospects of the Bears trading up and taking another risk on a rookie quarterback, there is one important distinction to make. That distinction is that Nagy was not with the Bears when the team gambled on Mitchell Trubisky in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Nagy, who appears to be on the hot seat as the Bears’ head coach along with Pace, may have hung the prospects of saving his job on the idea of selecting his own quarterback. If that is the case, along with the idea that Pace and Nagy are unchecked in their football decisions, it is not out of reason to think that the Bears could be eyeing a move up in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft to select one of the five top quarterback prospects.

There are still scars from the Bears’ mistake of selecting Trubisky and for that reason, there is skepticism over Pace being allowed to trade up and select another quarterback. Here is the thing about life in the NFL, a team can not let their past dictate their future.

Related Story: Chicago Bears find their QB in latest Mock Draft

A team must keep taking shots at fixing the quarterback position for however long it takes until they find a franchise quarterback. It may not be ideal that Pace is the general manager taking the shot for the Chicago Bears but if he has an opportunity to select a quarterback like Fields, he needs to act upon it.

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To this day, I still sing Prince’s “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker’’ as a lullaby. Yes, I know it is probably inappropriate for my daughter to know all the words, but the melody puts her to sleep. 

When I lived in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the early 2000s, working as a reporter, friends from elsewhere gave me pity and grief. They wondered how I could live in a place so famous for its freezing weather and fly fishing.

Well, pretty easily.

I loved the Twin Cities. And I reminded them of the state’s most famous resident, to whom regular folks like me actually had access: Prince.

That turned the Minnesota naysayers purple with envy.

Prince lived in a Minneapolis suburb and his DIY spirit permeated the local art and music scene. More than that, he often opened his Paisley Park complex on weekends for after-parties, sans alcohol. You found out via word of mouth. Ahem, social media and smartphones didn’t exist back then.

The first time I made the pilgrimage, my friends and I drove out, exhausted, at about 1 a.m. A huge white house illuminated with purple lights magically appeared. It was like manna from heaven.

That night, Prince regaled the crowd of 100 with his presence. A DJ was playing unreleased music.

No one bothered him. A big no-no. Groupies and super fans had no place at Paisley. Still, hanging out in an annex of Prince’s home felt totally normal.

One of my biggest regrets in life, which came later that summer, was watching him perform at Paisley Park with my friend Nikki and not joining him on stage. It was so late and we were so tired, and we remained as stationery as the couch we were parked on when he asked ladies to come up on stage with him.

Prince welcomed babies and old people with walkers to Paisley Park. You wouldn’t ever make a song request, though, especially not from the “Purple Rain” album.

I have plenty more Prince stories, such as watching his hair blow without a wind machine as he crooned “Joy in Repetition” and the time I posed in front of the car used in the “Sexy M.F.” video on one of his birthday weekends.

I am reminiscing about Prince because this month marks five years since his unexpected death. Since then, people have ruefully remarked that our country hasn’t been the same because of an ensuing torrent of beloved celebrity deaths and political upheaval. But this five-year anniversary also marks another milestone for me. My daughter’s due date was the day Prince died. She actually came along a few days sooner, but those early days and months of motherhood were, for me, intertwined with Prince, grieving and joyful.

I tried to get the hang of breastfeeding by pumping to “The Beautiful Ones” and “Computer Blue.” As I held my new baby, I didn’t weep for one of my favorite singers but exposed her to his music. I changed the name of the song “My Name is Prince” to her “My Name is Skye,” my daughter’s nickname, and sang to her, “and I am funky, the one and only.”

To this day, I still sing “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker’’ as a lullaby. Yes, I know it is probably inappropriate for her to know all the words, but the melody puts her to sleep.

The summer after Skye was born, and only months after Prince’s death, the movie “Purple Rain” played at Millennium Park to a crowd of thousands. I met up with a group of friends and Skye wore a Prince symbol onesie and purple poofy ruffled skirt that my friend Heather had bought her. I always considered Prince a feminist, but that 1984 movie is rife with sexism. The crowd booed every sexist scene.

But at the end of the movie, as the sun set, all of us — the whole crowd — sang “Purple Rain.” It was healing and beautiful.

Springtime is usually unmerciful in Chicago. We feel the sunshine, hear birds chirping and smell the freshly cut grass, but then winter comes back with a vengeance. So if a blanket of white returns this month, I’ll play Prince’s “Sometimes it Snows in April” and tell myself it’s an omnipotent message from the Purple One.

Sun-Times columnist Natalie Moore is also a reporter for WBEZ.org.

Send letters to [email protected].

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Isiah Thomas will present fellow Chicago high school star Kevin Garnett.

There will be a big Chicago presence at next month’s Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony.

Michael Jordan will present new Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant, and Isiah Thomas will present Kevin Garnett at the event in Springfield, Massachusetts. Jordan will also present Baylor women’s coach Kim Mulkey.

The late former Los Angeles Lakers star once called Jordan a “big brother” and said that “because we see things in a similar way in terms of our competitive spirit or fire or whatever the case may be, there’s an understanding that we have—a connection that we have.” Jordan called Bryant a “little brother” in a statement after Bryant’s death last year.

The hall waived its normal waiting period to induct Bryant with this year’s class.

Thomas and Garnett are both Chicago high school basketball legends. Thomas played at St. Joseph and Garnett starred at Farragut before becoming NBA legends.

Mulkey is a three-time national championship coach at Baylor.

The 2020 Hall of Fame Inductees and Presenters:

Patrick Baumann, presented by Russ Granik (’13), Vlade Divac (’19)

Kobe Bryant, presented by Michael Jordan (’09)

Tamika Catchings, presented by Alonzo Mourning (’14), Dawn Staley (’13)

Tim Duncan, presented by David Robinson (’09)

Kevin Garnett, presented by Isiah Thomas (’00)

Kim Mulkey, presented by Michael Jordan (’09)

Barbara Stevens, presented by Geno Auriemma (’06), Muffet McGraw (’17)

Eddie Sutton, presented by John Calipari (’15), Bill Self (’17), Sidney Moncrief (’19)

Rudy Tomjanovich, presented by Calvin Murphy (’93), Hakeem Olajuwon (’08)

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The species roamed North America for about 1.2 million to 3.6 million years, meaning the T. rex population density was small at any one moment.

One Tyrannosaurus rex seems scary enough. Now picture 2.5 billion of them. That’s how many of the fierce dinosaur king probably roamed Earth over the course of a couple million years, a new study finds.

Using calculations based on body size, sexual maturity and the creatures’ energy needs, a team at the University of California, Berkeley figured out just how many T. rex lived over 127,000 generations, according to a study in Thursday’s journal Science. It’s a first-of-its-kind number, but just an estimate with a margin of error that is the size of a T. rex.

“That’s a lot of jaws,” said study lead author Charles Marshall, director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology. “That’s a lot of teeth. That’s a lot of claws.”

The species roamed North America for about 1.2 million to 3.6 million years, meaning the T. rex population density was small at any one moment. There would be about two in a place the size of the Washington, D.C., or 3,800 in California, the study said.

“Probably like a lot of people, I literally did a double-take to make sure that my eyes hadn’t deceived me when I first read that 2.5 billion T. rexes have ever lived,” said Macalester College paleobiologist Kristi Curry Rogers, who wasn’t part of the study.

Marshall said the estimate helps scientists figure the preservation rate of T. rex fossils and underscores how lucky the world is to know about them at all. About 100 or so T. rex fossils have been found — 32 of them with enough material to figure they are adults. If there were 2.5 million T. rex instead of 2.5 billion, we would probably have never known they existed, he said.

Marshall’s team calculated the population by using a general biology rule of thumb that says the bigger the animal, the less dense its population. Then they added estimates of how much energy the carnivorous T. rex needed to stay alive — somewhere between a Komodo dragon and a lion. The more energy required, the less dense the population. They also factored in that the T. rex reached sexual maturity somewhere around 14 to 17 years old and lived at most 28 years.

Given uncertainties in the creatures’ generation length, range and how long they roamed, the Berkeley team said the total population could be as little as 140 million or as much as 42 billion with 2.4 billion as the middle value.

The science about the biggest land-living carnivores of all time is important, “but the truth, as I see it, is that this kind of thing is just very cool,” said Purdue University geology professor James Farlow.

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and will I need one?

“Vaccine passports,” or vaccine certificates, are documents that show you were vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus. They could help you get into places such as stadiums or even countries that are looking to reopen safely.

The certificates are still being developed, and how and whether they’ll be used could vary widely around the world. Experts say they should be free and available on paper, not just on apps, since not everyone has a smartphone.

In the U.S., federal officials say there are no plans to make them broadly mandatory. In some states, Republican governors have issued orders barring businesses or state agencies from asking people to show proof of vaccination.

Objections revolve mostly around privacy and security — how people’s personal information will be stored — and fairness. Critics say the passports will benefit people and countries with more access to vaccines.

Supporters say they could make reopenings faster and easier. Proof of vaccination or a negative test could be a way for businesses and schools to reassure customers, students and parents that steps are being taken to limit transmission of the virus.

International travel bans by countries could also be eased if people are able to show proof they’re vaccinated. Some countries have long had requirements to prove vaccination against yellow fever.

Still, a challenge is creating certification systems that work across vaccine providers and businesses. More than a dozen initiatives are underway to develop a credential that could be stored on a smartphone or printed on paper, using a QR code.

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The year is 2041 and MLB just completed the final season of a successful collective bargaining agreement with the Players Association. Commissioner Theo Epstein sits down to discuss the framework for a new CBA with MLBPA executive director … Ian Happ?

It might sound crazy now, but it’s plausible.

“That would be pretty crazy,” Happ said with a big smile.

Ian Happ has quickly become a renaissance man in a short time and after bursting onto the field with a breakout 2020 season, Happ has begun to break out in a different way off the field. The Cubs’ center fielder has a variety of business interests both inside and outside of baseball.

Happ, 26, is no stranger to business. During his three years at the University of Cincinnati, he majored in finance, becoming an academic All-American in the process with a 3.68 GPA. As a first-round pick in 2015, baseball was always going to be his journey, but his passion for business has never gone away.

“I think it’s always been interesting to me,” Happ told the Sun-Times. “I have an older brother, Chris, who also studied finance, and then got his MBA from Notre Dame. So we’ve done a lot together, obviously, cultivated interests together.”

“Ian’s so smart,” third baseman Kris Bryant said. “He’s so engaged in it. That’s gonna help him well beyond baseball, because he’s got so many connections outside of baseball. It’s crazy. … When he first got caught up, I felt like he didn’t talk much. Everybody was always like, ‘He doesn’t smile or any of that,’ but this kid is, he’s always out there now.”

Maybe Happ’s biggest success so far off the field has been his podcast “The Compound”, which he started during baseball’s shutdown during quarantine with co-hosts and Cubs minor leaguer Dakota Mekkes and former Cub, now Tigers prospect Zack Short.

The Cubs’ center fielder has also been the team’s MLBPA player rep for a year after taking over the duties from Bryant last spring. Since taking over as the player rep, Happ has become a go-to with both fans and the media when it comes to speaking about the game from a union standpoint.

As Happ’s podcast has grown, so has his voice on issues affecting the game. He’s used his platform in hopes of better informing people about things going on behind the scenes with the Players Association and the league. Whether it’s something as small as how minor-league meal money works or as big as service-time manipulation, everything is up for discussion.

“I think that just having an understanding of the way that the business of baseball works is important,” Happ said. “I’ve always been very vocal about wanting to leave the game better than I found it and I think that takes not only dedication on the field, but to understand all facets and to try to do your best when you do when you’re in that position to represent the union, to be a player rep to be involved, to help your fellow teammates with whatever it may be.”

“He’s done such a good job of that,” Bryant said. “There’s a lot of stuff where I see things that are said, and it’s like, ‘I just wish I could find a way to clear that up,’ but without being mean about it or without tooting my own horn or any of that. But he does a good job of that and explaining things. Obviously, now he’s a player, he’s really good in that role.”

Happ’s success in his first year as Cubs’ player rep hasn’t gone unnoticed around baseball and he has a desire to do more around the game as his career continues.

“I would love to continue to be involved with the Players Association post-playing career,” he said. “I think that they have a lot of great programs and they have a lot of former players who are really involved, because they care.”

While being a voice with the union post-playing career is on Happ’s radar, the big step of taking over for Tony Clark as MLBPA’s executive director one day isn’t exactly what he has in mind. So that Happ-Epstein labor negotiation in 2041 may have to wait a few more years.

“There’s a lot of days where Tony’s job doesn’t look very fun,” Happ said with a big laugh. “I don’t know if I really want the commitment of the executive director, but I’ll definitely be heavily involved in other ways.”

Happ’s success in his first year as Cubs’ player rep hasn’t gone unnoticed around baseball and he has a desire to do more around the game as his career continues.

“I would love to continue to be involved with the Players Association post-playing career,” he said. “I think that they have a lot of great programs and they have a lot of former players who are really involved, because they care.”

Being a voice for the union post-playing career is on Happ’s radar, but the big step of taking over for Tony Clark as MLBPA’s executive director one day, while he has the skills to do it, isn’t exactly what he has in mind. So that Happ-Epstein labor negotiation in 2041 may have to wait a few more years.

“There’s a lot of days where Tony’s job doesn’t look very fun,” Happ said with a big laugh. “I don’t know if I really want the commitment of the executive director, but I’ll definitely be heavily involved in other ways.”

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LOS ANGELES — The NCAA hit Southern California’s men’s basketball program with two years’ probation and a $5,000 fine on Thursday because a former assistant coach violated NCAA ethical conduct rules when he accepted a bribe to steer players to a business management company.

The Division I Committee on Infractions announced the penalties, which include a 1% loss of the school’s basketball budget. The probation runs until April 14, 2023.

Tony Bland, the former associate head coach under coach Andy Enfield, wasn’t mentioned by name in the NCAA report. He was fired by the school in January 2018 and later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery.

As part of his plea deal with federal prosecutors, Bland acknowledged accepting a $4,100 bribe during a July 2017 meeting with financial advisers and business managers in exchange for directing players to retain their services when they entered the pro ranks. He received two years’ probation.

Government recordings from the meetings revealed Bland had touted his ability to connect the company with current or prospective players, noting he had heavy influence over their decisions.

The meetings violated NCAA rules that prohibit athletics staff from receiving benefits for facilitating or arranging a meeting between a player and an agent or financial adviser. Athletics staff members are also prohibited from representing any players in marketing their athletic ability or reputation to an agency and from accepting compensation for the representation.

The committee said the coach demonstrated “a recurring lack of judgment” that resulted in unethical conduct.

“Although (the coach’s) behavior may have originated out of friendship with the agent associate, it waded into murky ethical waters and ultimately intersected with the agent associate’s corruption scheme within college basketball,” the committee said in its report.

However, the committee noted Bland met his obligation when he helped in the NCAA investigation and provided relevant information. It also said USC displayed “exemplary cooperation” and self-imposed meaningful penalties in line with NCAA guidelines.

Among USC’s self-imposed punishment:

— reducing by two the total number of scholarships it awarded in 2018-19

— reducing official visits to 20 during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 rolling two-year period

— reducing the number of recruiting days by 20 in 2018-19

Bland is also under a three-year show-cause order. During that time, any NCAA school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows why the restrictions should not apply.

Bland’s case was part of a broader investigation involving money and influence in college basketball.

Arizona coach Sean Miller was fired April 7 amid an NCAA infractions investigation. The school was part of the same 2017 FBI investigation into shady recruiting practices that led to the arrest of 10 people, including former Wildcats assistant Emanuel Richardson. Arizona was hit with nine allegations of misconduct in a Notice of Allegations issued by the NCAA last year, including five Level 1 violations. The case is currently going through the Independent Accountability Resolution Process.

Under Enfield, USC exceeded expectations this season, reaching the Elite Eight before losing to national runner-up Gonzaga. The Trojans finished 21-6 overall and second in the Pac-12.

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The latest

Chicago to use more than half of $1.9 billion in federal relief to reduce city debt

Scott Olson/Getty Images

More than half of the $1.9 billion avalanche of federal relief on the way to Chicago will be gobbled up by retiring $965 million in scoop-and-toss borrowing used to eliminate the pandemic-induced shortfall, aldermen were told Wednesday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has warned aldermen to keep their wish lists in their back pockets because the money will have strings attached and it’s “not a slush fund that we can use every way that we can.”

On Wednesday, top mayoral aides explained why.

Roughly half of the $1.9 billion in new federal funds earmarked for Chicago will be used to honor the promise the mayor made before the City Council approved her $12.8 billion budget by the narrowest margin Chicago has seen since Council Wars.

That promise: canceling the scoop-and-toss borrowing that was one of the most controversial elements of her 2021 budget.

Read Fran Spielman’s full story here.

News

12:38 p.m. What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and will you need one?

What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and will I need one?

“Vaccine passports,” or vaccine certificates, are documents that show you were vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus. They could help you get into places such as stadiums or even countries that are looking to reopen safely.

The certificates are still being developed, and how and whether they’ll be used could vary widely around the world. Experts say they should be free and available on paper, not just on apps, since not everyone has a smartphone.

In the U.S., federal officials say there are no plans to make them broadly mandatory. In some states, Republican governors have issued orders barring businesses or state agencies from asking people to show proof of vaccination.

Read the full story here.

11:31 a.m CPS, CTU ‘at the finish line’ in high school reopening negotiations, union leaders say

Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union are “at the finish line” of a high school reopening agreement with hopes to reach a deal Thursday, union leaders said.

Thousands of high school teachers are still working remotely, in defiance of district orders to return to classrooms this week. Thursday was the second day of the CTU’s collective action, which is meant to pressure CPS into putting the final touches on a settlement.

Mueze Bawany, an English and history teacher at Roberto Clemente Community Academy and member of the union’s high school bargaining committee, said the two sides are “close on all” issues.

“The fact is, we’re at the finish line,” Bawany told reporters at a Thursday morning news conference outside Benito Juarez Community Academy, where educators set up to teach their online students outside the building instead of reporting to work inside.

“There’s definitely progress being made. It’s a whole different world when both sides are listening to each other, [and] clearly the district is starting to understand some of the perspectives and points we’re bringing about.”

Read Nader Issa’s full story here.

8:23 a.m. Senate Majority Leader Lightford tests positive for COVID-19 — planning to work from home despite ‘aching an awful lot’

State Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford said Wednesday she tested positive for COVID-19, requiring her to leave the Capitol and return to her west suburban home.

In a brief phone conversation with the Chicago Sun-Times, Lightford said she left Springfield, where legislators are convening for session, and will join committee meetings from her home through Zoom.

The Maywood Democrat said after testing positive, she was “aching an awful lot.”

Lightford is the third person connected to state government known to have contracted the virus this week.

Read Rachel Hinton’s full story here.

7 a.m. Pritzker ‘does not have concerns’ 20 days after getting his shot of Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Federal health officials who recommended shelving the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday did so just under three weeks after the one-and-done shot went into Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s left arm.

That means the chief executive of the state’s pandemic response is still within the three-week window experts have spotlighted since six vaccinated women suffered severe complications from blood clots within that time frame.

But like the overwhelming majority of the other 6.8 million Americans who have gotten the J&J jab, J.B. hasn’t had any problems, according to his office.

“The Governor does not have concerns after receiving the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, nor has he experienced any health issues since receiving his shot,” Pritzker’s press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh said in an email.

Pritzker is among more than 290,000 Illinois residents who received the now-scrutinized vaccine before it was put on hold. None of the six severe reactions occurred in the state.

Read the full story from Mitchell Armentrout here.

New cases & vaccination numbers

• About one quarter of Illinois residents have been fully vaccinated so far, with 138,538 doses administered Tuesday. The state also reported 3,536 new cases and 31 more deaths.

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Pro Football Hall of Famer Brett Favre said he does not want politics involved in sports because it’s hurting the games.

Favre made his comments Sunday on “The Andrew Klavan Show” on The Daily Wire. He added that he believes most fans want sports to remain about sports, not politics.

“I know when I turn on a game, I want to watch a game. I want to watch players play and teams win, lose, come from behind,” Favre said. “I want to watch all the important parts of the game, not what’s going on outside of the game, and I think the general fan feels the same way,

“I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, ‘I don’t watch anymore; it’s not about the game anymore.’ And I tend to agree.”

Favre’s comments came days after Major League Baseball decided to move the league’s All-Star Game to Coors Field in Denver after pulling it from Truist Park near Atlanta. The decision to pull the game from the Atlanta Braves home ballpark came after Georgia passed voting laws likened to Jim Crow-era laws.

This week, athletes have spoken out about the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was shot by a white police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

The 20-year NFL veteran and Super Bowl XXXI winner was open about voting for former president Donald Trump in the 2020 election. When asked why it was controversial for him to support Trump but not for athletes to kneel for the national anthem, Favre said the controversy was very lopsided and kneeling for the anthem has “created more turmoil than good.”

“It’s really a shame that we’ve come to this,” he said. “Something has to unify us, and I felt like the flag, standing patriotically — because Blacks and whites and Hispanics have fought for this country and died for this country. It’s too bad.”

Read more at usatoday.com

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MILAN — The great-grandchildren of Guccio Gucci, who founded the luxury fashion house that bears his name a century ago in Florence, are appealing to filmmaker Ridley Scott to respect their family’s legacy in a new film that focuses on a sensational murder.

“The House of Gucci,” starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver, is based on a book about the 1995 murder-for-hire of one of Gucci’s grandchildren, Maurizio, and the subsequent trial and conviction of his ex-wife. Patrizia Reggiani, portrayed by Lady Gaga, served 16 years in prison for contracting the murder.

One of Maurizio’s second cousins, Patrizia Gucci, is worried that the film goes beyond the headline-grabbing true-crime story and pries into the private lives of the Guccio Gucci heirs.

“We are truly disappointed. I speak on behalf of the family,” Gucci told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “They are stealing the identity of a family to make a profit, to increase the income of the Hollywood system….Our family has an identity, privacy. We can talk about everything. but there is a borderline that cannot be crossed.”

Patrizia Gucci said she reached out to Ridley Scott’s wife, Giannina Facio, for clarification on the scope of the film, but has not received any reply. Facio met with members of the Gucci family in the early 2000s to discuss another project that was to have focused on the roles of Patrizia Gucci’s father, Paolo, and grandfather, Aldo, in expanding the brand into a global luxury player. The fact that the production company did not reach out for the new film only heightens the family’s concerns, she said.

Ridley Scott’s production company did not respond to requests for comment, made also through their Italian counterpart.

The Guccis are not the first Italian fashion family to wrestle with onscreen depictions about tragic events. The Versace family put out a statement in 2018 about the season of Ryan Murphy’s “American Crime Story” that dealt with the murder of fashion house founder Gianni Versace, saying the TV series was not authorized and should be considered “a work of fiction.”

Patrizia Gucci said her family will decide what further action they might take after seeing the film. Their concerns stem from the casting of top actors to play family members whose stories intersect little with Maurizio Gucci’s murder, the lack of current contact with Scott’s production company and inaccuracies they see in the book on which the film is based.

Al Pacino plays Aldo Gucci, whom his granddaughter remembers as an expert salesman who opened Gucci stores on Rome’s via Condotti and in New York, bringing in VIP clientele and expanding the brand’s global reach. And Jared Leto plays Paolo Gucci, whose creative contributions included the idea to create the Gucci brand’s famed double-G logo as well as its trademark plasticized bags and moccasins.

It is this story that she recounts in her own book, “Gucci, The True Story of a Successful Dynasty,” which was published in Italian in 2015.

Patrizia Gucci said paparazzi photos from the “House of Gucci” set have not been at all reassuring.

“My grandfather was a very handsome man, like all the Guccis, and very tall, blue eyes and very elegant. He is being played by Al Pacino, who is not very tall already, and this photo shows him as fat, short, with sideburns, really ugly. Shameful, because he doesn’t resemble him at all,” Patrizia Gucci said.

Leto’s Paolo Gucci, meanwhile, is shown with unkempt hair, and a lilac corduroy suit not at all in line with his daughter’s recollections. “Horrible, horrible. I still feel offended,” she said.

The Gucci family has not been involved with the Gucci fashion house since 1993, when Maurizio sold his remaining stake to the Bahrain-based company, Investcorp. It was later bought by the French group PPR, which is now Kering.

The fashion house is cooperating with the “The House of Gucci,” opening its archives to the film company for wardrobe and props. Salma Hayek, the wife of Kering CEO Francois-Henri Pinault, appears in the film. Leto is a close friend of creative director Alessandro Michele.

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