Former Bear Muhsin Muhammad, now with the Carolina Panthers, said in an interview with Sports Illustrated that Chicago is "where receivers go to die." While that's the quote that's getting the most play today, we like the next part, too. From Peter King's column: Speaking of Muhammad, he had this to say about the state of the Chicago quarterback situation: "In the time Brett Favre has started for the Packers -- what's it been, 16......

When most of the Bears hit the practice field for the first time on Wednesday, one player was very noticeably absent. Kick return extraordinaire Devin Hester was nowhere to be found in Bourbonnais. He's decided to hold out of training camp until he gets a new contract. He's entering the third season of a four-year deal he signed after being drafted in '06. "I can't go out and play this year making $445,000. Come on,......

It's hard to believe football is so close, but the first preseason games are just a few weeks away. And there's no time like the present to get pumped for the season as Bears individual game tickets go on sale tomorrow (Saturday, July 12) at high noon via Ticketmaster (including by phone). Tickets are a measly $68 to $350. (A personal note from me to the schedule makers for putting the Saints game in December......

The NFL released its 2008 schedule this afternoon. The Bears will start their season Sunday September 7 at Indianapolis.......

Baseball is always about statistics, numbers, charts and rankings, but this season of Cubs baseball is going to be all about one number. That number, of course, being "one hundred." Be prepared to hear about the hundred World-Series-Championship-free years at least a million times this season. So as the Lovable Losers get ready to tear the scab off of another season, we thought now would be an opportune time to look back at the park......

Bears quarterbacks Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton can be forgiven if they have a extra pint tonight -- or some fruity cocktail in Orton's case, since he's on his honeymoon in Hawaii -- because the Bears finally got them some help at wide receiver. Following three weeks of his lobbying, former Bears wideout Marty Booker overcame initial indifference from Jerry Angelo and re-signed with his former team on Wednesday. By signing a two-year deal with......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music Gypsy jazz guitarist Alfonso Ponticelli and his band, Swing Gitan, are one of the go-to acts to fill in at the Green Mill whenever Kurt Elling is out of town for his regular Wednesday engagement. Ponticelli's faithful recreations of old Hot Club of Paris numbers, complemented with original compositions, are fresh and accessible without......

Chicagoist hopes that IDOT has placed their orders for reinforced guard rails and extra sign posts because Lance Briggs will be remaining with the Bears after signing a 6-year, $36 million deal over the weekend. Briggs' contract ends a year-long saga for the All Pro linebacker that included a rejected $33 million offer, the Bears applying their "franchise" tag to Briggs, which limited his free agency prospects, and his threats to hold out for the......

Photo by Calexico Former Bears linebacker Jim Schwantz is running for mayor of Palatine. [Trib] In today's installment of "things that haunt me..." Louis Farrakhan endorsed Barack Obama yesterday at a convention for members of the Nation of Islam. [Trib] L.L. Bean is opening a store in the burbs. [press release] The Chicago Architecture Foundation will be looking for some new digs come 2011. That's sooner than you think! [Crain's] Trailer for the upcoming......

But they've got to take somebody to the big dance, the Bears told Rex Grossman on Saturday. The Bears and their erratic, starting QB agreed to a one-year, $3 million deal. Wow... that's like asking the ugly girl to the prom because all the prettier girls and the ones who put out have dates already. By granting Grossman one more year, are the Bears might be hoping that he can finally shed the ugly hair......

Guess that knee injury Rex Grossman suffered last December wasn't so serious -- he was offered a new one year contract with the Bears, which he agreed to this morning. The Sun-Times calls the contract "imminent", and that it "includes incentives based on play time and performance". Coach Lovie Smith is planning on pitting Grossman and Neckbeard against each other to battle it out for the starting spot: Grossman, who earned $2.035 million last season,......

You know that list of needs the Bears have to fill this off-season? Quarterback, running back, offensive line? Well, we can add wide receiver to the list. The Bears cut veteran wideout Muhsin Muhammad on Monday, along with offensive lineman Fred Miller and defensive tackle Darwin Walker as they try to free up money under the salary cap. By waiving Muhammad, the Bears avoid paying the aging receiver a $500,000 roster bonus in March. He......

Seems we're not the only ones who have trouble finding sports stories newsworthy enough to cover this time of year. With the Bears' season over, the Bulls and Hawks dwelling near the cellar, and the start of spring training still a couple weeks away, these are cold days for Chicago sports fans. Sometimes, however, the slower schedule allows for some more creative coverage of sports in our great city. The Sun-Times compiled a list of......

There are few words we come across - at least within the local sports pages - that concern us more than "Brian Urlacher" and "neck surgery" in the same sentence. Yet that's what greeted us in bold print in Friday's papers. Following a routine post-season physical, a problem in Urlacher's lower neck that affected the curve of his cervical spine required "minor" surgery to correct. Tribune columnist Rick Morrissey wondered, "[I]s there such a thing......

With the race for the Democratic nomination showdown just days away, and polls showing Obama closing in on Clinton in key Super Duper Tuesday states, the Obama campaign made a huge ad buy during the Super Bowl in the Super Tuesday states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Washington, (but,......

We are now just days away from that day which rivals Thanksgiving as few can in the annals of American gluttony: Super Bowl Sunday. Whether we're parked on a couch in front of our friend's new 60 inch plasma TV or watching the game at a sports bar that's stumbling distance from home, the food and drink often take precedence over the game itself - especially when our Bears aren't in it this year. Chicagoist......

There is a new international polar bear sensation! The yet-unnamed cub at the Tiergarten Nürnberg zoo in Germany is so fucking adorable we think we might die. (more photos) She had to be taken away from her mother because Mama Bear kept dropping her and acting strangely, and the other polar bear in the enclosure ate her two offspring. As long as we're doing Star Wars stuff today, we think she sounds exactly like......

Jim Dooley, the coach who took the reigns from Bears and NFL founder George Halas, passed away on Tuesday at 77. Dooley served as the Bears head coach from 1968-1971, through four pretty bad years for the Bears. His 20-36 record during his tenure included a 1-13 season in 1969, with the only win coming against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers also finished 1-13, beating the Bears in a coin flip for the top draft......

ABC-7 hasn’t missed a beat in their 10 p.m. broadcast, despite a minivan crashing through their glass-front studio. Their Web site says the news team was startled, and police arrived on the scene shortly after. By the sports segment at 20 minutes past the hour, the crew was joking that it was chilly in the studio like a Bears game. No further details or photos are available yet. Update 10:34 p.m.: Witnesses say someone......

With the Bears' season over before it started, what better way to celebrate the end of the regular football season than remembering the good years (roughly 1985 to 1988) over a glass of vino? Well, here's your chance. Ex-Bears Coach Mike Ditka has partnered with the Mendocino Wine Company in California to create a line of premium wines that bear his name (get it? "Bear" his name?). The sparkling new South Loop Binny's at 1132......

Too bad Brian Urlacher's monster game on Monday night came too late in the season for it to impact Pro Bowl voting by coaches and players. While he won the fans' vote, the Bears' middle linebacker was not selected to February's Pro Bowl for only the second time in his career — and the first in which he played the whole year. However, an injury-induced sub-par season didn't keep one teammate from receiving an invite......

One Adrian Peterson ran for 78 yards on 20 carries while scoring two touchdowns. The other Adrian Peterson ran for 26 on 9 carries. You can probably guess which AP belongs to the Bears. While the Vikings' budding superstar had nowhere near the game he had against the Bears in Week 5 (224 yards/3 TDs), his output was more than enough for the Vikes to win the game 20-13 — helping put Minnesota in the......

Tonight, as the Bears take the field against the Minnesota Vikings, we get to witness the beginning of the second reign of Kyle Orton as Bears starting quarterback. In 2005, Orton lead the Bears to a 10-5 record in his starts as a rookie. Much like a father handing over only the valet key when his teenage son wants to borrow the Porsche, the Bears turned over only a portion of the offensive playbook to......

Certain holiday cookies evoke memories of childhood. Chocolate Crinkles are one particular cookie that does that for Chicagoist. They're kind of like a cookie brownie, if you can imagine. [Ed note: Oh, can I.] Join us, won't you, as we whip up a batch. What You Need 1 cup cocoa 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 cups granulated sugar 4 eggs 2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt Combine ingredients,......

Chicagoist demanded it, and Lovie listened. When the Bears face the Minnesota Vikings next Monday night, Kyle Orton -- our favorite drunky QB -- will once again line up under center. With a 5-8 record and three games to play, it's time for the Bears to start planning for the future. Rex Grossman's contract is set to expire, and he's done little to make the Bears want to commit to him for the long term.......

Uck. Grey crappy icy Sunday afternoon. No Bears game - just the memories of Thursday's injury plagued horror. If only it were 1940 - it was during this weekend of that year that the most lopsided NFL games ever played took place - and the Bears whooped the Redskins' ass 73-0. The below video from that game is titled The Greatest Block in NFL History - it might not be the absolute greatest of all......

Mike Ditka's red-faced this weekend, and not because of overindulging on his vanity wines. A report in yesterday's USA Today showed that a charity "Da Coach" founded three years ago to help retired Hall of Fame football players whose bodies are ravaged by the violent demands of the NFL has only doled out $57,000 in assistance. Federal and state tax records indicate that $715,000 of the $1.3 million raised by the Mike Ditka Hall of......

There were some — certainly not here — who thought that the Bears' playoff hopes were still alive heading into Thursday night's game against the Washington Redskins. Returning to Chicago after losing 24-16 in D.C., they're not quite mathematically eliminated, but their hopes are undeniably dead. In addition to losing any hopes for making the playoffs, the Bears also lost quarterback Rex Grossman in the second quarter. While we await the official diagnosis, the replays......

Last week, that majority of football fans were unable to see what was perhaps the best NFC game of the year -- Chicagoist included. In the Thursday Night Football -- which airs on the NFL Network -- match-up of two one-loss teams, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Green Bay Packers 37-27. With the Bears playing in this week's Thursday Night prime time game however, the NFL Network's broadcasts will be carried locally. For those of......

We were downstairs at our neighbors' a couple weeks back, drinking bloody marys before the Bears-Broncos game while we were making chicken stock for soup. Normally, we make a killer bloody mary. But on this occasion we were missing something. Turned out that our neighbor had the cure-all: a good beer chaser. She had been to Sam's earlier in the week and picked up some selections from Ridgeway Brewing, and the first bottle she opened......