Every quarterback in the NFL that’s been in the rumor mill this offseason has been linked to the Chicago Bears. From Matthew Stafford to Deshaun Watson to Marcus Mariota to Sam Darnold. The worst-kept secret in the NFL is that Chicago has a quarterback problem. Everyone knows a move is coming, it’s just a matter of when it’s made.
If you’re active on social media, you know that Chicago Bears fans have been debating a different quarterback each week that the Bears should acquire this offseason. This week, it seems to be Sam Darnold, the former third-overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
The Chicago Bears should avoid Sam Darnold at all costs.
Coming out of USC three years ago, many thought Darnold would be a solid starting quarterback in the NFL. However, he hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations. Some have labeled the state of the New York Jets franchise as a reason for Darnold’s struggles while others cite Darnold’s own struggles as being a reason he hasn’t been able to live up to expectations.
This offseason, with the Jets slated to pick second overall, many wonder if a quarterback will be selected, which will then lead to New York trading Darnold this offseason. While the Jets haven’t even made a decision on Darnold, no matter what happens, Bears General Manager Ryan Pace shouldn’t be calling his former colleague Joe Douglas.
The argument that Darnold will be just 24 years old by the time the 2021 NFL regular season rolls around is totally valid. However, why would the Bears take a chance on a player who’s proven nothing so far while also giving up assets like draft picks in the process? A day three draft pick may be fair compensation for Darnold, however, Chicago could use that same draft capital to acquire a rookie quarterback and just fully hit the reset button at the position.
If a team, not just the Bears, trades for Darnold this offseason, the hope is that the light magically turns on for Darnold in year four. The Bears have been here before. They chose to stick with Mitchell Trubisky in 2020 while trading for Nick Foles. Instead, Pace’s plan at quarterback blew up because neither Trubisky nor Foles proved to be effective quarterbacks. Darnold is in the same boat. If he hasn’t shown anything in three seasons, are we sure the light would magically just turn on when paired with Matt Nagy?
Another factor is Darnold’s contract. While he’s still on his rookie deal, a team would need to make a decision on his fifth-year option this offseason. Pick up the fifth-year option and Darnold is under contract through the 2022. Decline and he’s a free agent during the 2022 offseason. Essentially, trading for him could turn out to be a one-year rental and the Bears need to find a long-term solution, not just a one-year rental at quarterback.
With a long offseason ahead, there are still a lot of important decisions to be made. For Pace, his most important decision this offseason will be quarterback, however, Darnold is an option that should be avoided unless desperation kicks in.
There are actually many components to a digital signage solution – hard- and software, connectivity, installation, content, and procurement. Digital signs use technologies such as LED to display eye-catching content such as images, streaming media and information, and then there are also the vendors too that you will need to research to find the best.
Content ready for screens
There are different tools that can help you create great content. Some are even free or low-cost applications that help with creating original content such as graphics, web pages, videos and social media.
The Mandoe Media team at mandoemedia.com has designed some simple digital signage software to create and also manage digital signage. Mandoe has helped thousands of businesses be successful with the design of amazing digital signage ready to be used on screens. With the software, content is created ready for screens so worrying about dimensions isn’t your problem.
The software takes content from other places such as Dropbox and so you don’t have to create content yet again. It can be excellent for any business to create digital signage for their business without having any design skills.
Content that comes alive
Digital signage has the means to enhance the customer experience and also inspire action. If you’re using digital signage for internal communications, you want to create content that shows the appreciation you have for those of your team who have excelled.
Then again, you want to showcase your staff, events and your property so that customers feel as if they are visiting ‘family.’ If you’re a veterinary practice, allow the faces shown on the digital signage to ‘come alive’ and to make themselves known with the customers who bring their pets to the practice.
Answer the most common questions that customers to the practice want answered in a bright, friendly kind of format that is easy to read. In a veterinary practice, this could address topics such as how pets are treated, what foods are recommended, what certain procedures are and payment terms.
Simple content speaks more
When a business is planning digital signage content, they shouldn’t believe that more content is better. You have just a moment to grab your audience’s attention and it’s only a simple design that can do that. Some of the best digital signage designs are simplistically effective.
Having the best digital signage is all about getting the results you’re hoping for. Simplicity always works best as opposed to eye-popping graphics and text.
Once you’ve selected the look you want, make sure that it can be easily read from near and far. For any digital signage content where you want participation, tell your customers what to do by way of a clear call to action.
The job’s half done already with templates
Every business wants actionable content that can be acted upon by readers and produce results. Before you start investing in digital signage, ask yourself why you want to create awesome content. It can be difficult to create content for customers that will stand out. It is why digital signage content templates are so useful, allowing you to create screen-sized content.
Business owners can get creative with effective solutions they can implement easily. Digital signage templates are already pre-formatted, allowing businesses to customize their content. The templates come with a good range of static and dynamic content options that automatically update – a business just chooses the options they want.
The best part is when digital signage software has a good number of templates already built-in. This removes the stress of creating digital images, menus, videos, web pages, and content from scratch.
Maybe too late for Valentine’s Day… in fact, it’s late for its own release; but we’ll be seeing a chocolatey imperial stout collaboration from Goose Island Beer Co. and Phase Three Brewing.
The beers were brewed alternately at Phase Three in Lake Zurich, and at Goose Island’s Fulton Street brewery. Phase Three’s version is named If You’re a Bird… and includes hints of cocoa nibs and coconut while Goose Island’s version is called …I’m a Bird, and is finished with cocoa nibs and strawberries. They carry an abv of 12.5%. Their names, of course, play off the imagery of the two brewers’ avian logos.
The release of the two beers had been planned for this past Friday, Feb. 19. But the weather, and other issues, forced them to delay packaging the beers. The collaboration is (tentatively) scheduled to go on sale Friday the 26th. This article will be updated and the event posted to my regular schedule of events once confirmed.
While Goose Island is the “big dog” in the Chicago beer scene, they still have friends among the smaller brewers, says Goose Island brand manager Mike Smith: “We have so many connections in the industry, just counting the maybe 50 brewers in Chicago and across the country that had started at Goose Island.”
Depending on whether there are openings in the brewing schedule, a collaboration can come about pretty quickly: “We had started talking about this in November, maybe even early December. We were joking around about how Phase Three was making fantastic stouts, and we’ve been known for our Bourbon County Stouts for 25 years. We started thinking, what if we made a stout with cocoa or strawberries, which would come out for Valentine’s season.”
The beer was brewed with Phase Three’s brewmaster Shaun Berns, and Goose Island’s brewmaster Keith Gabbett. An imperial stout recipe was agreed upon, with differences arising not only from the coconut and strawberry additions, but from variations in the equipment and process. “Just for fun, we let Phase Three use our house yeast, and then they brought theirs to our batch,” Smith said. The Goose Island batch was run on their two-barrel pilot system.
Shaun said he was up for the collaboration because, “I have a close friend that works in the lab at Goose, also Bourbon County was the first big stout I ever had that had adjuncts in it and got me very interested in the style.”
“It’s kind of an unwritten law that all the brewers in a collaboration come together to each others’ breweries,” Smith noted, “To work out the recipe, but also to have fun, and to enjoy each other’s beer. I showed a little late for the brew day, but I still managed to try a sip or two of each version.”
Phase Three has been in business just since 2019, but they’ve already received plaudits for their beers, including their barrel program. “We started filling casks about a month after we started selling our first beers, so back in May of 2019,” Shaun said. “We currently have about 150, which is a pretty good sized barrel-program for a brewery of our size. Most of the casks are filled with stout, which right now are Eunoia (adjuncted stout) that we’ll release multiple times a year, each with different adjuncts and then Minutiae which is a yearly release that has no adjuncts and has a stronger focus on the base stout and the casks being blended. The other casks are filled with Dark English Barleywine, called Arabesque which will see its first release this May or June as an 18 month blend. We also have casks filled with an imperial porter, called Pressed which will actually have it’s first release in just a couple of weeks: Barrel-Aged Pressed Reserve, a coffee infused Barrel Aged Imperial porter.”
For the collaboration brew, Goose Island has gotten hold of some Willett Bourbon barrels to lay some down in; and that should make an appearance in about a year.
I asked the collaborators how they have been managing to adjust their business in the COVID-19 pandemic over the past 12 months. Berns said it was especially difficult as a brewer and as a public-facing business: “We’ve had to pivot a lot over the last year. We didn’t have an official taproom until September of 2020 and its been shut down most of the time because of COVID. We were lucky that through the Fall (and most of Winter) we were able to seat people outside. We recently opened back up and have some additional seating adjacent to our taproom in what we call “The Branch,” that features a mural on the wall of some hunmingbirds (our logo) on a long branch that extends the length of the wall, it’s also surrounded by our growing barrel program and has a more relaxed feel than our main taproom.”
Smith noted, “From Day One, we worked with the local government, with the state, and with the CDC, to make sure we provide a work environment with safe practices down the line. We worked out how to work with a smaller crew and still make great beer.”
Though collaborations are more common for smaller brewers, it turns out Goose Island has been doing them with as well. “We have already done a hazy IPA with Old Irving Brewing. We’re already looking into when we can do a second batch with them. We also did a collaboration with Alarmist Brewing that went really well.”
If You’re a Bird… and …I’m a Bird will be available at the Goose island Taproom, 1800 W. Fulton, and at Phase Three’s taproom, 932 Donata Ct. Lake Zurich.
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Meet The Blogger
Mark McDermott
Writer, trivia maven, fan of many things. I thought to learn all there is to know about beer as a way to stay interested in learning. It is my pleasure to bring Chicago’s craft beer scene to you.
Max Christie is a burger boy! Congrats to Christie, it’s a huge honor that the entire Mid-Suburban League can take pride in.
That makes two consecutive years with a McDonald’s All-American from Illinois. The drought is officially over.
I did learn something during the long spell without a burger boy, though. It really doesn’t matter and is zero indication of the level of talent in the state. The McDonald’s committee is just a bunch of guys that won’t go to a single Public League game all season, so what do they know? Talen Horton-Tucker and Ayo Dosunmu seem to be doing just fine without the McDonald’s All-American tag. It’s still mind-boggling to me the THT didn’t win Mr. Basketball, but that is another discussion. He was too much of a late-bloomer for the McDonald’s committee to have a clue about him.
Full disclosure: I’m finding the notebooks a little tough to do this season. It totally has to do with the lack of playoffs. I don’t really know what we are working towards. It’s all over in a few weeks. I depend on the flow of the season to kind of make this thing go.
I wonder if the same thing is happening with any teams. They are probably mentally stronger than me. But I will soldier on.
I was in Glen Ellyn tonight to get a look at Glenbard West and Hinsdale Central. The Hilltoppers lived up to they hype and Braden Huff is a total monster of a high school player, even this early in his junior season. If they can figure out the point guard position the sky is the limit next season when we actually do have some playoffs.
Tuesday’s top games
No. 7 Hillcrest 70, Shepard 33: Julius Rollins is back from injury. He scored eight points and Jakobi Heady led the way with 22.
Rich 63, Thornwood 34: The first win for Rich. Huge congrats to the entire community and coach Cornelius Crossley. I lived through a sports consolidation way back in the mid-90’s and I know how challenging it is. Devonta Blevins scored 13 and Gary Clay added eight points.
Lincoln-Way East 74, Sandburg 43: The Griffins are 2-4. That isn’t going to impress anyone. But I liked what I saw from them. This group could figure it out and make a playoff run….well, guess not. Junior Jack Vegter scored a career-high 27 points and soph George Bellevue added eight points and 16 rebounds.
Oak Lawn 60, Eisenhower 59 OT: Late game heroics from Ryan Kennelly! His putback with six seconds left won it. Kennelly had 12 points and eight rebounds and senior Rodney Washington added 10 points and nine rebounds.
No. 14 Homewood-Flossmoor 71, No. 25 Bolingbrook 62: This is where I was originally heading tonight, until I heard the Raiders’ star Kai Evans was out with an injury. Clearly Bolingbrook held their own without Evans. Christian Meeks led H-F with 20 points and Tai Walters scored 16.
Lockport 52, Andrew 44 OT: Another OT win for a team that would likely have grown and improved into a real playoff threat. Angelo Vassilakis had 14 points and nine rebounds and Mats Deksnys continued his breakout season with 18 points and seven boards.
Glenbrook North 62, Vernon Hills 55 OT: Ryan Cohen had a big night with 27 points and Blake Lidskin filled up the stat sheet with 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Oak Forest 45, TF South 37: You know I’ll be keeping tabs on Robbie Avila all season. He had 20 points and 13 rebounds and Eli Lipsett added 13 points. The Bengals are 4-1.
Timothy Christian 62, Ridgewood 41: As I typed that I realized that based on all the Sun-Times style rules for high schools we should just be calling them Timothy. Weird. Might have to start doing that. Josh Harris had 19 points and four rebounds and Ben VanderWal added 12 points, four rebounds and four blocks.
Oak Park 56, York 53: Looks like there were a lot of close ones tonight. Justin Mullins led the Huskies with 22 points and eight rebounds. Demetrius Dortch and Sam Lewis each added eight points.
No. 19 Kankakee 51, Bloom 39: The Kays remain unbeaten. Kamar Whittaker scored 15 and Rashard Harris added 14 points and seven rebounds. Bloom is young again, starting four sophs and a junior. Sophomore KJ Cobb led the Blazing Trojans with 10 points and junior Emondrik Ford added eight points, seven rebounds and six blocks.
Rockford Lutheran 97, Indian Creek 78: A Timberwolves lose is quite the notebook rarity. I don’t know anything at all about Rockford Lutheran, but they are 9-0 and clearly awesome. Michael Lampson scored 20 for IC.
Yorkville Christian 94, Normal West 80: I didn’t break out the map, but this is a curious matchup. Jaden Schutt scored 28 for the Mustangs.
No. 9 Glenbrook South 71, Deerfield 49: Cooper Noard scored 20 in the first quarter! Nick Martinelli scored 22.
Collins 71, Schurz 40: So, so good to see Public League basketball is back. Freshman Antoine Glasper scored 23 and had five assists for Collins. Darrion Sifore added 14 points and Lionel Wilson had 10 points and four rebounds.
No. 20 Kenwood 86, Bowen 49: Mike Irvin wins his head coaching debut. JJ Taylor scored 33 and Darrin Ames added 21.
Minooka 50, Plainfield Central 48: I’ll bet you had no clue that the Indians are 5-1. Jake Faron scored 15 in this one and Ricky Hill finished with 10, including the game-winner.
No. 12 Rolling Meadows 61, Buffalo Grove 53: Burger boy Max Christie had 18 points and 13 rebounds for the undefeated Mustangs.
Hyde Park 66, Crane 42: Malik Jenkins had 14 points and five rebounds and Davontae Hall scored 14. The Thunderbirds are a team to keep an eye on. Soph Cam Williford added eight points and eight assists.
AT A TIME WHEN POLITICAL DISHONESTLY IS RAMPANT, WE SHOULD REMEMBER ORWELL’S “1984” AND IT’S MOST IMPORTANT LESSON—“THE STATE CAN OCCUPY YOUR MIND.
If I learned one thing about being a cop for 33 years it’s that if you make it easy for criminals you get more and more criminal behavior. A few days ago the Governor of Illinois signed a criminal reform bill that was rammed through at 3:30 am by a lame-duck Illinois legislature a few months ago. Very few, if any even bothered to read it. The overwhelming majority of State Prosecutors and law enforcement officers vehemently opposed the bill. Only 2 of 122 States Attorney’s in Illinois endorsed the Bill. One of the biggest outcries was over the no cash bond issue for criminal defendants, which included, rapists, robbery suspects, shooters, and people charged with murder and other major felonies.
Yep! step up and get a court date and see ya later, and off they go through that big swinging door. Indeed, to argue with people who have lost the ability to reason, in this case, the sponsors of that bill, and the Governor who signed it, billionaire J.B Pritzker, is like administering medicine to the dead. Pritzker who was born on 3rd base and actually thinks he hit a triple, told the staged audience when he signed the bill it was to finally bring justice to systemic racism in the criminal justice system.
To most people, it was like listening to Max Plank explain the theory of Quantum Mechanics in Latin. The biggest difference between fiction and reality is FICTION has to make sense. Justice for murderers, rapists, shooters, robbery suspects, and multiple criminal defendants somehow got tossed in with systemic racism. In those 700 plus pages of so-called Justice reform, there is not one mention of the thousands of innocent victims of this so-called reform. I’m going to cover just a few of the Bill’s so-called reforms today, with more to follow later. But try and imagine the common sense of the following contained in the bill.
CRITICAL SITUATIONS—–There is an active shooter at the local high school. Police arrive and the suspect flees the scene. SWAT and uniform officers catch up to the suspect who is still in possession of his weapons but not actively shooting and forcibly resisting arrest. The shooter is known to the officers and he could be identified and apprehended at a later date even though he just shot several people. Oh well, see ya later, maybe we’ll get ya next time we see you. It may even give the poor victim of systemic racism a chance to reload. The Cuckoo’s nest comes to mind.
CRIMINAL TRESPASS—- You arrive home and notice an unknown person sitting in your backyard. You call 911 and wait for the police to arrive. The police confront the suspect and he or she refuses to leave. The individual CANNOT BE ARRESTED and NO FORCE can be used to make him or her leave the premises only a Non Traffic summons can be issued. Nurse Ratchett will be busy in the future for sure.
OBSTRUCTING —Police are investigating a homicide, a body is on the ground and the area is surrounded by crime scene tape. A person decides to enter the area after being told not to by a uniformed officer assigned to protect the crime scene and continues to walk through the scene and jeopardizes the investigation. This individual would no longer be subjected to an arrest for obstructing a police investigation and force cannot be used to remove the individual from the scene.
DISORDERLY CONDUCT—You own a local store and an individual is causing trouble, The individual is being loud and yelling obscenities at the customers. The police are called and on arrival, they realize he is disturbing the peace of the store and frightening the customers. The suspect will be issued a ticket with a court date within 21 days of the incident and the officers will leave the scene. The person cannot be forcible removed and the store owners and customers are left with the same problem—-
TO ALL OF THE ABOVE EXAMPLES I WOULD JUST LIKE TO ADD —-YOU CANNOT MAKE SHIT LIKE THAT UP—-Criminal Justice reform to correct systemic racism——Most people are not born ignorant but it takes hard work and political ambition to remain stupid. Try and stay safe. There is so much more in this bill it’s almost a dizzying process to absorb it all and try and expose it— God willing I’ll give it a try.
Bob Angone is a Marine VETERAN and a retired Chicago Police Lieutenant. He worked his entire Career covering the streets of Chicago as a Tactical Officer, Tactical Sergeant, and Tactical Lieutenant. His last assignments were in special Functions, he was the C/O of the CPD Swat teams his last five years and was an HBT (Hostage Barricade Terrorist) Sergeant for 10 years.
Chicago police officers stand in front of a mural for George Floyd in Bronzeville on Aug. 15, 2020. | AP Photos
The best of two proposed ordinances would create true democratic control. Elected representatives would be able to review police activities without input from the mayor or City Council.
The police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd strengthened anti-racist organizing with national coverage and renewed public interest in a major issue plaguing American cities: unchecked police violence.
During the past year, tens of thousands of Chicagoans took to the streets in shows of interracial solidarity, demanding that politicians address the problem. This once-in-a-lifetime display of collective anger has yet to translate into concrete political change.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the City Council have largely ignored the mass demands of their constituents. Chicagoans received a promise from the mayor in early January — much like the one she campaigned on in 2019 — that she would tackle the problem this year. The mayor’s procrastination is all the more frustrating because grassroots organizations, such as the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, have been offering proposals since before the mayor began her term in office. Lightfoot maintains that these proposals are insufficient.
Right now, two major proposals are pending before the Public Safety Committee of Chicago City Council: the GAPA ordinance and the CPAC ordinance. While both proposals would institute new governmental bodies to oversee policing, only the CPAC ordinance would empower communities to directly control the operation of the Chicago Police Department. Any compromise ordinance must conserve this fundamental goal.
The proposal by GAPA, the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability Ordinance. creates a series of district councils with three councilors elected by voters in each police district. Each council then nominates one of its three members to serve on a nominating committee, which then creates a list of candidates to serve on a citywide Community Commission. After selection by the mayor and approval from City Council, seven of those candidates become commissioners.
If the GAPA plan sounds complicated, that’s because it is. The hierarchical decision-making system and lengthy selection process is designed to increase the power of politicians in determining who is able to hold office. Under the guise of “independence,” GAPA invests entrenched politicians with the ability to veto certain candidates and control the make-up of the Commission.
By contrast, the ordinance proposed by CPAC, the Civilian Police Accountability Council, would establish a democratically elected commission to write department policy, hire and fire the superintendent, and oversee the operation of the police department. Police districts would be paired up to create eleven CPAC districts with one representative elected per district.
Unlike the GAPA ordinance, the CPAC ordinance institutes true democratic control, authorizing elected representatives to review police department activities without the input of the mayor or the City Council.
Modern police departments threaten the liberty of the citizenry because their officers have the ability to use force and violence but remain unaccountable to us. Unable to recall individual officials and with a lenient judicial system, we have little recourse to the random and arbitrary whims of individual, street-level agents. We know that Black and Brown Chicagoans face a disproportionate threat as the specter of violence haunts public space, destroying the possibility of fostering a truly interracial democratic society.
The current police department consumes almost 40% of the city’s corporate fund, but its layers of administrators make it impervious to current electoral demands. Moreover, campaigns for local office rarely turn on individual issues, making it unlikely that the direct election of our mayor will lead to any substantive representation on the issues of police accountability. Because policing has become a major function of city government, we need more direct mechanisms of control to subdue the extensive bureaucracy.
We need the CPAC ordinance because we need real democratic control of the police in order to respond to the crisis of police violence in our city. We already know that “independent” review boards, staffed by the mayor’s friends, lead to lukewarm oversight. That is why the Civilian Office of Police Accountability has yet to fundamentally alter the system of policing in the city or reduce incidents of abuse by officers.
With the CPAC ordinance in place, we will have the power not only to end police impunity, but also to transform the system of policing and remold the institution so that it fits changing conceptions of collective justice. We can make this change happen. Chicagoans across all neighborhoods of the city must call or write their alderman and demand that they support direct community control of the Chicago Police Department. If we keep up the pressure, we might even win greater accountability from our elected representatives.
Larry Svabek is a member of 46th Ward Neighbors Against Police Violence.
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