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Take Out Chicago Conteston December 5, 2020 at 4:02 pm

A Bite of Chicago

Take Out Chicago Contest

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Trump Christmas in 2020on December 5, 2020 at 4:28 pm

The Quark In The Road

Trump Christmas in 2020

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Trump Christmas in 2020on December 5, 2020 at 4:28 pm Read More »

Thanks to Sarah Fuller and other history-making women, we’re one step closer to football being free of gender-based constraintson December 5, 2020 at 2:35 pm

The closest I ever came to playing organized football was in high school powder-puff games my junior and senior year.

It was a homecoming-week tradition in which the boys and girls traded places. The guys put on exaggerated cheerleading uniforms and stood on the sidelines; the ladies created personalized jerseys and played.

At the time, I didn’t think twice about participating. When I look back on the experience, after seeing Sarah Fuller make history with Vanderbilt as the first woman to play in a Power 5 football game, I’m kind of disappointed.

I’m disappointed that growing up, the only opportunity women I knew had to play football was in a corny powder-puff game when we were so clearly capable of more.

Fuller, a senior goalkeeper for the SEC champion Vanderbilt women’s soccer team, and the countless women whose footprints in football guided her into the history books are proof of that.

“This year, last week actually, I was on the bus watching the Vanderbilt football team,” Fuller told reporters this week. “I was like, ‘I feel like I can do that.’ My teammates were like, ‘No. That’s funny.’ And I said, ‘No, I really do. I think I can do that.’ Then it happened.”

Increasingly, there are more opportunities for women in football. In 2021, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics will have women’s varsity college flag football. Still, women lack opportunities to learn and develop in the game, specifically 11-player tackle football, because feeder programs for girls are virtually nonexistent.

In 2015, the Utah Girls Tackle Football League became the first known league of its kind in the United States.

In the last five years, the National Federation of State High School Associations has reported a gradual increase in girls’ participation in 11-player tackle football. Between 2015 and 2019, girls’ participation increased by nearly 1,000 players. California leads the country in participation with 593 girls playing in 2018-19.

There are 13 states in the country, including Illinois, that reported zero participation from girls in football during the 2018-19 football season.

So what’s the answer for women’s irrefutable desire to play a game unmistakably monopolized by men for men?

From the perspective of some of the brightest minds in football, the future for women in the game shouldn’t be based on their ability to succeed on coed teams.

Women deserve their own sustainable league, not because they can’t earn positions on men’s teams but because they shouldn’t have to.

“The sport is going to be inherently limited to girls who are the exception if the only opportunities for them are on men’s teams,” Jen Welter told the Chicago Sun-Times in a phone interview. “Why does it have to be that she’s different in order to be in this game?”

Welter speaks from experience.

Before she was the first woman to coach in the NFL, Welter was the first woman to play on a men’s professional team in a contact position when she came into a game for the Indoor Football League’s Texas Revolution in the third quarter at running back.

There are plenty of women who’ve broken football barriers and become “the first to.”

Patricia Palinkas became the first woman to play professional football in 1970.

Katie Hnida was the first woman to score in a Division I college football game for New Mexico in 2003.

Collette Smith became the first black woman to coach in the NFL and the first woman to coach for the Jets in 2017.

Toni Harris was the first woman to accept a scholarship to play football at a four-year college as a position player.

Women have proved they’re capable, but the point remains that they should be given the opportunity to succeed apart from being the exception among men.

Several women’s leagues have been established over the years, but none has been sustainable.

The Women’s Football League Association is a new venture trying to change that. Founded in 2018, the WFLA was set to begin its inaugural season in 2020 before COVID-19 hit.

Founder Lupe Rose is preparing the 32-team league, which includes franchise owners such as rapper and entrepreneur Ja Rule, executive producer and music manager Debra Antney and WNBA champion Tamecka Dixon, for what she hopes will be a 2021 start.

Smith, who left coaching after the Jets’ 2017 training camp, is working on defining her role with the WFLA but views the league as a new promise for women in football. She didn’t play organized football until she was 42 after discovering a women’s pro league on the internet.

She often wonders how different her life would’ve been if she’d had the opportunities that are available now for women when she was growing up playing on her block in Queens Village, New York.

“I played in the Women’s Football Alliance and the Independent Women’s Football League,” Smith said. “As much as they gave us women who loved to play football, they also didn’t dream big. It was only a place to play. The WFLA really, sincerely believes that women deserve to get paid to play.”

Many of us are left wondering about what could have been if our dreams stretched a little further, if society believed in our potential as much as that of our male counterparts.

We can’t do anything about that now, but we can make sure the next generation of women isn’t left with the same regret.

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Thanks to Sarah Fuller and other history-making women, we’re one step closer to football being free of gender-based constraintson December 5, 2020 at 2:35 pm Read More »

After fifty years, Yusef/Cat Stevens revisits ‘Tea for the Tillerman”on December 5, 2020 at 3:12 pm

I’ve Got The Hippy Shakes

After fifty years, Yusef/Cat Stevens revisits ‘Tea for the Tillerman”

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After fifty years, Yusef/Cat Stevens revisits ‘Tea for the Tillerman”on December 5, 2020 at 3:12 pm Read More »

Chicago Bears: Finding bright spots amidst a disastrous seasonon December 5, 2020 at 12:00 pm

Chicago Bears (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Chicago Bears (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
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Chicago Bears, Mitchell Trubisky

Chicago Bears (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

It’s easy to be upset over this Chicago Bears team, but there are some things to be optimistic about.

It’s been one heck of a week for Chicago Bears fans, mostly because of the conversations regarding the future of leadership. No one truly knows whether or not general manager Ryan Pace or head coach Matt Nagy are safe. It’s tough to know what to believe.

What’s for certain is that Nagy, first and foremost, should not feel completely comfortable where he’s at. If your team is losers of five in a row with a top tier defense, your job is anything but guaranteed. But, will ownership decide to make a change?

Most fans agree there should be a big change, and it starts with Nagy. The offense has been a national embarrassment, and coming from a guy who was renown for his offensive prowess, Nagy should be ashamed and the first to blame.

The Bears are 5-6. Things are in a downward spiral, and if they lose to the Detroit Lions this Sunday after they fired head coach Matt Patricia, that’s likely the nail in the coffin for any potential playoff hopes for these Bears.

Chicago is in a rough spot. This season has been disastrous, but there are a few winnable games remaining on the schedule. If you’re like most fans, you start thinking about the draft at this point. There’s no reason to believe this Bears team would do anything if they squeaked into the postseason, so what’s the point of winning?

Enough doom and gloom, though. That’s for another day. The Bears, while they’ve had a horrific season, have also seen plenty of reasons to be upbeat and positive. It seems odd to try and make light of such a collapse of a season, but Chicago truly does have several reasons to be hopeful — even if it means looking forward to next season.

Give the following reasons a chance at brightening your mood. There’s always hope for next year — no, really.

Next: The breakout

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Chicago Bears take on Detroit Lions after coaching changeon December 5, 2020 at 1:37 pm

Chicago Bears (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
Chicago Bears (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images)

The Chicago Bears have a unique opportunity against the Detroit Lions.

The Chicago Bears are coming off one of the most embarrassing losses in the recent history of the franchise. It was certainly the worst regular-season loss of the Matt Nagy/Ryan Pace era as they got destroyed by the Green Bay Packers on national television for their fifth straight loss. Well, despite all of that, their 5-1 start still has them in the hunt. Whether or not you want them to try and make it, they believe in trying. With that, looms a unique opportunity on Sunday against the Detroit Lions.

The Lions just fired their now former head coach, Matt Patricia. He came in after being a highly touted coach coming from being the New England Patriots defensive coordinator. He didn’t have much success with Detroit at all as they were consistently one of the worst teams in the NFL under him. In addition to Patricia, general manager Bob Quinn was also fired.

This Sunday is going to be their first game since firing them. They were beaten badly on Thanksgiving by the Houston Texans by a final score of 41-25. The week before that, the Carolina Panthers owned them by a score of 20-0. Both the Texans and Panthers are well under .500 but they looked like Super Bowl contenders against the Lions. Now, the Bears get their turn at them after the coaching/front office change.

Hopefully, the Bears don’t have to deal with a team that is fired up because their former coach is fired. This feels like a game that the Bears need to win just to even have a slight chance at the playoffs, but they also want to stop the losing streak against one of their rivals.

We know that the Bears’ offense is horrible. The offensive line is awful and the quarterback play would be bad whether the line was good or not. The defense has been good for most of the year but Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense picked them apart last week. If Matthew Stafford and his offense are able to do the same in this game, the Bears have big problems.

Related Story: Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace need to be fired together

Let’s pretend that the Bears win this game. They then have the Houston Texans, Minnesota Vikings, and Jacksonville Jaguars who are all subpar NFL teams as well. These four matchups precede a week 17 matchup with the Green Bay Packers. It is unlikely that the game against Green Bay will mean anything but you never know. It all starts with this crazy opportunity against a Detroit Lions team that is playing following a coaching change mid-season.

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IDOT vehicle struck by gunfire in I-290 shootingon December 5, 2020 at 12:38 pm

An Illinois Department of Transportation truck was struck by gunfire Saturday morning in a shooting on the Eisenhower Expressway near Independence Boulevard.

The shooting happened about 4:15 a.m. on the I-290 eastbound ramp to Independence Boulevard, according to Illinois State Police.

An IDOT truck was struck by at least three rounds of gunfire, state police said.

The driver was not shot but was run off the road and transported to Mount Sinai Hospital with minor injuries.

I-290 is closed from Cicero Avenue to Independence Boulevard as police investigate the shooting.

Less than 24 hours earlier, a man was fatally shot on the Eisenhower Expressway just east of the Jane Byrne Interchange.

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Historic Beer Revival: Seipp’s Extra Pale Pilseneron December 5, 2020 at 5:43 am

The Beeronaut

Historic Beer Revival: Seipp’s Extra Pale Pilsener

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14 displaced after apartment fire in West Rogers Parkon December 5, 2020 at 3:35 am

Fourteen people have been displaced from their homes following a fire at an apartment building in West Rogers Park on the North Side.

The fire started about 7:25 p.m. on the back porch of a building in the 6400 block of North Washtenaw Avenue, according to Chicago fire officials.

No one was injured, but the fire has forced 14 people from their homes, fire officials said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

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14 displaced after apartment fire in West Rogers Parkon December 5, 2020 at 3:35 am Read More »

House music producer dies of COVID a month before expected birth of son he always wantedon December 5, 2020 at 12:20 am

Chicago house music producer Matthew Agostini’s first son is due to be born Christmas Day.

Agostini, known as Turk to his friends and Dirty Turk in the music world, won’t be present for the birth.

Two days before Thanksgiving, the 50-year-old Logan Square resident died from pneumonia caused by COVID-19. His death came less than two hours after he was taken by ambulance from his home to the hospital.

Agostini’s death was a shock to his many friends, who flooded a Facebook remembrance page with stories of a talented and funny man whose passion was music but who supported his family by working as an electrical rigger on television and movie sets.

Jessica Tapper, 38, his partner of nine years and mother of their 3-year-old daughter Violet, said they already had picked the name Matteo for their son-to-be.

A recent ultrasound showed the boy has his father’s nose.

Matthew “Turk” Agostini posed beside an ultrasound photo of his son, who is due to be born on Christmas Day. He’ll have his father’s nose.
Provided

Tapper told me that, during one particularly difficult recent day, her young daughter had told her: “Don’t cry, Mommy. Put your feelings away.”

Tapper said Agostini was devoted to Violet but had begged her for a son since they began their relationship.

Agostini has two older daughters from previous relationships — Devin Whitman, 29, who lives in Arizona, and Lucia, 14, in California.

“He always wanted a baby boy,” said Whitman, who spoke glowingly of her dad. “Violet was his world. He loved being a father.”

In an online tribute, she described him as: “The King of Useless Information. The bearer of bad news. The most Sicilian of all Sicilians and the King of the Lower East Side. Type One Warrior… Poet. Musician. Artist. Sculptor.”

Whitman and her mother have established fundraising sites on Facebook and GoFundMe.com to help pay for Agostini’s funeral and to support his younger children.

Agostini, a well-traveled native New Yorker, moved to Chicago 12 years ago to focus on his music because of the city’s status as the home of house music. Whitman said he considered himself a “deep house” musician.

“He called it progressive jazz house,” she said.

Agostini was also a songwriter and session musician, playing keyboards, guitar and bass.

“He would be walking down the street and just start writing a song in his head,” Tapper said. “He’d call his own voicemail and hum the song so he wouldn’t forget the melody.”

Agostini learned electrical work as a teenager and later operated his own contracting business, his daughter said.

In Chicago, he worked on most of the major TV shows shot here as a member of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 476. His specialty was setting up generators for filming locations outside the studio.

As a teenager, Agostini aspired to be a professional breakdancer. He competed in contests along the East Coast and appeared briefly as a dancer in the 1984 movie “Breakin.’ “

His brand of humor was along the lines of “breakin’ balls,” as one of his old buddies put it.

“He liked to roast people,” Whitman said. “He made people laugh until they cried and peed their pants, literally.”

Matthew Agostini with his oldest daughter, Devin Whitman.
Matthew Agostini with his oldest daughter, Devin Whitman.
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Tapper said she and Agostini stuck close to their apartment since she learned she was pregnant shortly after the pandemic began in March.

Agostini, who had diabetes and high blood pressure, was careful to wear a mask when he needed to go out, she said.

He was sick for two weeks before he died, his symptoms becoming progressively worse, with a cough and fever. He suspected he caught the virus at a pharmacy where another customer was coughing and not wearing a mask.

Even as his breathing became labored, he never sought treatment and wasn’t diagnosed until he went to the hospital the night he died.

Tapper isn’t sure of this but suspects “he was afraid of dying on a ventilator.”

When the ambulance came, Agostini walked to it and went to Norwegian-American Hospital.

“He was there for an hour and a half, and then he was dead,” Tapper said.

Why do I keep writing about COVID victims?

Maybe so that we aren’t tempted to put our feelings away.

Jessica Tapper, Matthew Agostini and their daughter Violet last year riding the CTA's Christmas train. 
Jessica Tapper, Matthew Agostini and their daughter Violet last year riding the CTA’s Christmas train.
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House music producer dies of COVID a month before expected birth of son he always wantedon December 5, 2020 at 12:20 am Read More »