Results tagged “chicagobears”

     

It's hard to believe more than 20 years have gone by since Sweetness last played for the Bears, and that a decade has passed since Walter Payton's untimely death due to a rare liver disease at age 45. On the ten year anniversary of his passing, the Bears held a halftime tribute to Sweetness at Soldier Field on Sunday afternoon. With his widow Connie, children Jarrett and Brittney and his mother Alyne in attendance the team showed a video tribute to Payton of his highlights on the field and his legacy off the field, as one of the greatest players to wear a Bears uniform and one of the greatest men to play in the NFL. The team also honored Payton by emblazoning both 34 yard-lines with Payton's #34 jersey number.

       

Having fallen to .500 by losing two straight after a 3-1 start to the year, the Bears looked to right the ship against the 1-6 Cleveland Browns at Soldier Field on Sunday. While the Bears came away with a 30-6 victory, it was hardly the reassuring victory the team and fans were looking for. Sure the Bears managed to score 30 points on Sunday, but the team's offense repeatedly encountered trouble when it found itself inside the redzone against the league's worst defense. On three separate occasions the team had to settle for field goals and once even turned the ball over on downs. The Bears may have scored 30 points, but that they didn't capitalize on opportunities to score forty or more was a failure.

Is it okay to pray for the success of a sports team? Or is that just getting God mixed up with Santa Claus? The Daily Herald talked to several local religious leaders and the answers vary. But our favorite quote from the entire story has to be from minister Gregory Barrette: "The idea that God takes sides in a sports contest or any other contest (for) that matter is an absurd misuse of that power. Praying that one person wins and another one loses is not prayer, it's voodoo." [via]

       

Well, that was ugly.

Just five games into his tenure, Bears GM Jerry Angelo rewarded quarterback Jay Cutler with a two-year, $30 million contract extension. The deal includes about $20 million in guaranteed money. Already under contact through 2011, the team now holds Cutler's rights through 2013. The Bears stopped short, however, of ensuring Cutler will retire a Bear -- he'll still be just 30 years old when his new deal expires. While his deal is nowhere near the six-year deals pushing $100 million that other young franchise QBs have received, if Cutler continues to put up numbers like he has so far, we have a feeling Angelo and Cutler will be making more deals in the future.

       

While the scoreboard showed that the Atlanta Falcons beat the Bears 21-14 on Sunday night, the reality is that the Bears beat themselves. Turnovers in the red zone and inopportune penalties killed numerous chances to score and left the Bears to hang their heads in defeat. "We had a lot of opportunities to win the game," coach Lovie Smith said. "You can't make those kinds of mistakes on the road against a good football team."

If there's one thing we know about professional sports and the athletes that play them, is that it's as likely for someone to face criminal charges as it is for someone to donate to charity. Unfortunately, Chicago Bears rookie Lance Louis is associated with the former. Louis, offensive linemen and 7th round draft pick out of San Diego state, faces a misdemeanor assault charge for an altercation that happened while in college. The incident, occurring last fall, involved Louis and fellow teammate Nick Sandford. Authorities report that Louis assaulted Sandford in a team meeting room, causing Sandford to suffer a fractured cheekbone, broken eardrum and a concussion on top of it all.

Are the Bears interested in trading for loudmouth wide receiver Terrell Owens? That's the rumor ESPN was spreading yesterday when Adam Schefter speculated that the 1-4 Buffalo Bills may want to trade T.O. before next week's trading deadline, and their Rumors page (both ESPN Insider only) suggested he might end up with the Bears.

       

For a half, the Detroit Lions looked like a team intent on putting together an actual winning streak as an encore to their first victory in almost two years. They jumped out to an early lead and went into the half tied at 21. However, the Bears came alive in the second half and ended up blowing out the Lions 48-24 at Soldier Field. We probably weren't the only Bears fans concerned when the Lions scored on the game's opening drive, to take an early 7-0 lead. But the Bears answered, with Jay Cutler scoring on an helicopter spin of a leap into the end zone. The Lions stormed back down the field and took a 14-7 lead before the Bears tied the game on a touchdown moments into the second quarter. A Tommie Harris interception set up a Greg Olsen score that gave the Bears a 21-14 lead, but the resilient Lions drove 98 yards to knot things up before the intermission.

       

For the second time in as many weeks, the Bears came from behind in the fourth quarter to win, this time knocking off the Seattle Seahawks 25-19 on the road. In the first half, things didn't look so good for the Bears when they fell behind 13-0. Jay Cutler threw an interception, Robbie Gould missed a field goal attempt and penalties hurt the team. They couldn't take advantage of a team without a number of its top players, including starting QB Matt Hasselbeck. Momentum in the game shifted, however, just before the half when Matt Forte's fumble at the two yard line was challenged and overturned. The Bears scored a TD and cut the Seattle's lead to six at the break.

For their home opener -- and Jay Cutler's regular season debut at Soldier Field -- the Bears welcomed the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers to town. With a Week 1 loss in Green Bay, the Bears couldn't afford to fall to 0-2. But could they defeat the reigning champs? In fact they could, winning 17-14 on a Robbie Gould field goal with just seconds left in the game. The Bears had never led in the game until that final kick put them ahead at the end.

The family of Walter Payton wants to put up a statue honoring the Bears legend, but they've been met with resistance from the Chicago Park District. It seems the Park District is a-okay with a statue of Payton going up - it is, after all, being donated by the Payton family - but has adopted a hard line of not allowing the statue to go up in the one place it makes sense: Soldier Field.

       

As if the the debut of supposed franchise "savior" Jay Cutler wasn't enough, playing a nationally televised Sunday night game and playing against the arch rival Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field meant we Bears fans were revved up for Week 1. By the end of the night, however, our excitement and optimism had turned to dejection as the Packers outlasted the Bears 21-15 in an ugly opener. That the Bears even had any chance to win the game was a bit of a miracle, but they actually took a 15-13 lead with less than three minutes to play. Unfortunately, it was one of those nights where if anything could go wrong, it did.

Jay Cutler -- one addition forever changed the course of the Bears' franchise and one name changed the expectations of Bears fans for the upcoming season, which begins on Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. When the unique opportunity to transform the team by adding a young, Pro Bowl quarterback presented itself, GM Jerry Angelo boldly traded for cannon-armed Cutler. Denver's loss is Chicago's gain, as the Bears gave up Kyle Orton and a package of draft picks to add their best passer since Sid Luckman.

The Bears get their season underway Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers this (7:00 p.m., NBC) and now we know which men will be on the sidelines. The Bears kept only two QBs - Cutler and Caleb Hanie - sending Brett Basanez to the practice squad. Wide receiver Devin Aromashodu's flower gifts seem to have worked; he was one of six receivers that made the cut. Three players were placed on IR: Running back Kevin Jones (knee), safety Dahna Deleston (hamstring), and defensive end Henry Melton (ankle).

At Soldier Field on Thursday night, men in Chicago Bears uniforms beat men in Cleveland Browns uniforms 26-23 in the teams' fourth and final preseason game. Those who had any impact on this game were different from those who will likely do so once the games count as the coaching staff tried to sort out the final few roster spots and keep the starters healthy.

With a roster that needs to be trimmed down to its final 53 by Friday and fierce competition at certain positions, some players in Bears camp are making quite the extra effort to avoid getting cut... but by sending flowers? That's the tactic employed by wide receiver Devin Aromashodu [Ed's Note: Woo! War Eagle! - M.G.], who hoped the bouquets would help him remain a Bear.

     

Having begged his way out of town in April, Jay Cutler returned to Denver on Sunday night as a member of the Chicago Bears, to face off against the Bears' former QB Kyle Orton and his Broncos. Fans showered Cutler with boos when he took the field, but with a 27-17 victory, he had the last word before departing the Mile High City this time. At home on the turf of Invesco Field, the Bears' QB threw for 144 yards while completing 15 of 21 passes, with a touchdown pass and no interceptions--good for a 106.1 passer rating. He closed out his half of work by leading the Bears on a 98-yard drive that gave the team a 17-3 lead at the intermission. "I knew it was going to be a hostile environment, which was good," said Cutler. "It's good preparation for us going into Green Bay the first (regular-season) game."

No, this post is not a repeat from 2008. Or 2007. Or 2006. For the fourth time in as many years, Bears defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek has apparently suffered a season-ending injury. Dvoracek left Saturday night's preseason game against the New York Giants with a knee injury, and while he was seen with his right heavily wrapped in ice afterward, he declared it to be fine. However, rumors of a scheduled MRI alluded to the fact it might be more serious. After the tests, coach Lovie Smith called it a sprained MCL, but the Sun-Times reports Dvoracek has a torn ACL in his right knee, as well, and he's finished for the year. We'll see how long before the Bears place him on the injured reserve list to make it official.

In a Soldier Field full of fans anxious to see our prized new quarterback, Bears fans got quite a show on Saturday night. Jay Cutler led the team to scores on each of the three posessions he played, and the Bears defeated the New York Giants 17-3. On the field for 25 offensive plays, Cutler completed 8 of 13 passes for 121 yards and one touchdown -- a passer rating of 117.8. Now that's the Cutler we hoped to see! On the team's first drive of the evening, Cutler found Earl Bennett, Devin Hester and Greg Olsen for completions while driving the team into field goal range for Robbie Gould. Matt Forte capped an 80 yard drive with a 32 yard TD run. On his final drive, Cutler connected with Desmond Clark on a one yard pass, set up by a 38 yarder to Devin Aromashodu, to finish off a 10 play, 92 yard drive.

As Chicago prepares for another pre-season appearance from the CutlerChrist tomorrow night, the Flashback Desk is taking us back to 1989, when the Bears were in the midst of another QB changeover. Would it be Jim McMahon? Mike Tomczak? Jim Harbaugh? Mike Ditka announced the quarterback free-for-all before the season and it was anyone's guess who would end up helming the team.

It's been nearly 25 year since the Bears won Super Bowl XX -- doesn't that make us feel old! -- but the Bears team that brought home the Lombardi Trophy has never received their customary visit to the White House. Back in 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle tragedy resulted in their visit being postponed, and it was never rescheduled.

Gossip site TMZ has video of ex-NFL QB star Michael Vick hanging out right here in Chicago (well, at O'Hare Airport) and that, of course, got tongues wagging about what it meant for the Bears. Reports have said Vick is close to signing with an NFL team, but a Bears spokesman told TMZ it isn't with Chicago. In fact, TMZ has confirmed this.

As the Bears hit the field in Bourbonnais to get ready for the upcoming season, all eyes are on their new QB, Jay Cutler. And what ever happened to Rex Grossman, the previous supposed savior at the position for the Bears? He's currently the third string QB for the Houston Texans. Is that where the former Super Bowl passer remains, or can he work himself up and on to the field? Said Grossman, “If they have me at third string, I'm going to be the best third-string quarterback in the league. I'm going to set my goals high. I want to start in this league again.” While that may not happen in 2009, he's hoping this new beginning in Houston will open opportunities for him down the road.

Since the last football season ended, Twitter has become the next hot thing on the internet. NBA players made news during their season for tweeting during games, and Shaquille O'Neal is perhaps the most engaging athlete on Twitter. Now that the NFL teams have hit camps, who tweets in the NFL is now news. The Sun-Times' Mike Mulligan fills us in on which Bears are on Twitter, including Tommie Harris, Greg Olsen, Matt Forte and Devin Hester.

Even with both baseball teams still in the playoff hunt, we're still excited by the first Bears practice, because that means that football season returns soon. Kicking off Training Camp in Bourbonnais today, the players will take the field at Olivet Nazarene University for the first time at 3pm.

Is it only a matter of time before American pro athletes begin to look like NASCAR drivers, enveloped in countless sponsor logos? As the crap economy takes a bite out of team revenues, more and more are looking into alternate revenue streams. For the Chicago Bears, that means a new deal that will add sponsorship patches to the players' practice jerseys for Training Camp and the regular season.

We know the city's hard up for cash. With tax revenues falling and city budgets tapped out we understand that the city is looking long and hard for any additional revenue streams. But this?

Sometimes, we're puzzled by the extremes that the mainstream media will go to create news or controversy in an attempt to boost readership. We know that journalism's practice of these tactics go way back -- Hearst ignited a war to sell papers -- but to waste time with something as stupid as pondering whether Chicago needs another NFL team? Come on! And yet that's what we get from the Sun-Times today, as they have Mike North and Dan Jiggets face off on the issue.

The NFL held its annual draft this weekend, but for Bears fans it was a real snoozer. The Bears didn't even make a selection until the draft's second day, when most of the players selected are known only to the NFL scouts and fans of their particular schools. Having already traded away their first round pick to the Denver Broncos as part of the Jay Cutler trade, they shipped their second round selection to Seattle on Saturday in return for a third round pick and a sixth rounder after unsuccessfully trying to trade for Arizona wide receiver Anquan Boldin.