Results tagged “nfl”

It seems Brian Urlacher's injury was much more serious than originally thought and the Bears' defense has been dealt a blow. Urlacher text messaged the Trib earlier today that his "season is over.'' While the team has made no official announcement, Coach Lovie Smith will most likely address the issue later today at his afternoon press conference.

Residents of the NFC North, one of the People We Just Wish Would Go Away is back. Even the non-Bears fans among us have circled November 29 and December 28 on our calendars.

If you see a lot of No. 6 Bears jerseys around town these days, there's a good reason: the Bears QB has the top-selling NFL jersey right now. Crain's cites Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Daily as saying Cutler is the tops in players - with fellow Bears Brian Urlacher and Devin Hester at numbers 19 and 20, respectively - and the Bears are the second most popular team behind the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers. We'll see if those numbers still hold up come late October.

Even though football means the waning days of summer are upon us, we can't help but get excited to see our beloved Bears take the field once again. Especially when there is a major new addition to check out. On Saturday night, they suited up for the first time in '09 to knock pads with the Buffalo Bills and, more importantly, Jay Cutler made his Bears debut. The final score was 27-20, but, like all preseason games, it's pretty irrelevant as teams try to knock the rust off the veterans, players with the slightest of dings sit out, and new players try to make the regular season roster.

Preseason football is kind of like sex with a robot: sure, it looks like the real thing and maybe it feels like the real thing...but it just isn't the real thing. But August 30 can't get here soon enough. Even a non-Broncos and non-Bears fan like myself (Geaux Saints!) can't wait for the most highly anticipated preseason game in Denver in a long time as the Invesco Field fans will get a chance to boo to their hearts delight at departed Broncos QB Jay Cutler. When you've got such vitriol like the youngster in the video below, it's hard to not get excited about the boo birds being out in force for Mr. Cutler's Mile High Return. And Mr. Cutler seems to be stoking the fire with comments like, "It's a lot [different]. Denver's like a 6 and Chicago's like a 9. It's quite a bit different. Just the fans and how passionate they are, that's probably the biggest difference." SNAP!

Buffalo Grove's American Needle Inc. is heading to the Supreme Court thanks to a fight with the NFL. The company had been one of many that had previously sued the NFL for violating federal antitrust law when the league signed an exclusive merch licensing deal with Reebok in 2001. American Needle lost its suit and its appeal against the NFL and the league took the case to the Supreme Court hoping to get a more broad ruling against smaller lawsuits, though American Needle has pursued a high court ruling as well. According to the Associated Press, "Football team owners hope the high court will issue a broader decision that would insulate the NFL against what they contend are costly, frivolous antitrust lawsuits." [AP, WBEZ]

Watching Philly thump Dallas could have been a sweet sight for Bears fans late Sunday afternoon, but instead Chicago's 31-24 loss to Houston made it a bitter pill to swallow.

The Circus Trip gets longer for the Bulls, who blew a late lead as the Nuggets claimed a 114-101 win. Down by nine after the first period, the Bulls fought back to take a fourth quarter lead. With around five minutes left and up by three, the Bulls were stunned by a 13-0 Denver run that clinched the Nugget victory. Ben Gordon had 28 points for the Bulls and Drew Gooden added 21 more in the losing effort. After the game, Gordon lamented the Bulls play, saying, "We didn't make enough sharp plays to win the game. When it came to crunch time, we just didn't come with a big enough number of plays.'' The team travels to Utah tonight.

While the Bulls have floundered thus far on their Circus Trip, things are going much better for the Guys on Ice. The Blackhawks moved to 2-0 on the trip as they beat Dallas last night, 6-3. Nikolai Khabibulin had 31 saves on 34 shots in goal for the 'Hawks, including 13 in the first period as a fast Dallas start gave them a 10-1 edge in shots early on. Still, led by Patrick Kane's pair of goals, the 'Hawks fought back. The game had a back-and-forth nature with the teams exchanging goals for most of the first two periods. With the score tied 3-3, Kris Versteeg scored with 30 seconds left in the second period to give the 'Hawks a 4-3 lead and Chicago would add two more goals in the third to clinch the victory. Besides Kane and Versteeg, Ben Eager, Brian Campbell, and Martin Havlat all scored. Next up on the road trip is a Saturday night date north of the border with the Maple Leafs.

Former Chicago Bears defensive star Mike Singletary has been promoted to head coach of the San Francisco 49ers after the 49ers fired coach Mike Nolan on Monday afternoon. Singletary, a Hall-of-Famer, has been a linebacker coach for the 49ers since 2005 and was assistant head coach this year. No word on whether or not The Fridge will be brought in as the team's nutritionist.

Bears Outlast Vikings

Blackhawks Drop Opener To Rangers

When we hear "ribs," we want barbecue. Not bruise. Particularly when the bones in question belong to a key member of the Bears.

For a while Sunday, it looked like our Bears just might move to 2-0 on the young season. But a few costly mistakes resulted in the Bears relinquishing a 17-3 lead and losing to the Carolina Panthers 20-17.

When the NFL released its 2008 schedule a few months back, we cringed at the prospects of our Bears being embarrassed on national television at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts. Since facing each other in Super Bowl XLI, the Bears had fallen on hard times while the Colts continued to rank among the league's elite.

The NFL season is upon us and, thanks to one dedicated fan, it's getting easier for us to figure out which games we'll be getting on local television each week. Don't feel like dropping $30 for food and beer at a sports bar just to catch Brett Farves' debut as a Jet against the mighty Dolphins? Wondering if the Bears' prime-time slot means you finally get to enjoy a Saints' game (Who Dat!?!?) from the comfort of your home? Well, you're in luck. Website The506.com has been mapping the weekly television coverage for years and this year has enhanced it's television coverage maps with a Google Maps plug-in for those who want to know where that cut-off line is. Of course, the local affiliates have the right to switch things up on us and choose another game before kickoff, thus the list at the bottom of the map that expands as the week goes on. The site also includes a list of that week's nationally televised games.

If the Bears play but nobody watches does the game matter? In their final tune-up before next week's regular season opener, the Bears finally notched their first victory of the preseason by beating the Cleveland Browns 16-10.

While the Bears thankfully brought their quarterback competition to a close with yesterday's selection of Kyle Orton, the team has a history of lining up just about anyone behind center when the going gets tough. Whether due to ineffectiveness or injury, the Bears have employed more starting quarterbacks over the past decade and a half than any team in the NFL over that time.

Now halfway through their preseason schedule, the Bears still haven't answered their biggest question -- who'll start at quarterback? While Kyle Orton's performance rated slightly better than Rex Grossman's and some think he's shown enough to earn the job, neither QB looked particularly good playing behind the Bears' ragtag offensive line. We're certainly not sold on either of 'em.

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 years? -- I bet the Bears have had 16 different starting quarterbacks. You've got to find the right guy and stick with him.''

Continue reading "Bears "Where Receivers Go To Die""

The Bears opened their preseason with a 24-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Soldier Field on Thursday. And while Bears fans were looking for some answers about their team and its prospects, particularly on offense, instead more questions were raised than answered.

Coach Lovie Smith says not to read anything into it, but Kyle Orton will start at quarterback for the Bears when they host the Kansas City Chiefs at Soldier Field tomorrow evening.

After first choosing to hold out of training camp while demanding a new deal, and then reversing course and showing up without a raise, Bears kick return specialist Devin Hester was rewarded with a fat new contract on Sunday. The 4-year deal guarantees him $15 million and could be worth as much as $40 million with incentives.

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.

The Bears waived Cedric Benson Monday afternoon. The Benson era in Chicago is officially over.

The Bears don't get themselves into field goal range nearly enough, but when they do they'll have the richest kicker in the game to try and put some points on the board. The Bears signed kicker Robbie Gould to a long-term contract extension that makes him the highest paid kicker in NFL history. And the guy hasn't even hit a 50-yarder yet.

Cedric Benson has never lived up to his lofty draft status and giant paycheck, so you'd think that the Bears running back would try extra hard not to give the team another reason to look to replace him.

The Bears went into this weekend's draft with lots of holes to fill, particularly on offense. They drafted ten new players to fill those needs and improve the team. So were they successful?

Was it really only a year ago that the Bears were coming off a Super Bowl appearance and looking toward the draft simply to shore up some depth at a couple spots and add some minor components that'd help them go all the way?

Last off-season, the Bears sparred with linebacker Lance Briggs over contract issues. Despite plenty of nastiness and threats of holding out, Briggs showed up at training camp, had a good season and then ended up signing a multi-year contract to remain with the Bears for the foreseeable future. Now, after Briggs and a number of other Bears players received contract extensions, Brian Urlacher, the face of the franchise, would like a raise.