Bears chairman George H. McCaskey attends the NFL football owners spring meetings in May in Nashville, Tenn.
AP
ALL OF THE TOWN FOLK with the pitchforks and the social media lanterns were celebrating their first successful strike of the fall at Halas Hall ’24 Tuesday.
But while offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was a handy scapegoat du jour, here’s some things he didn’t do:
— Waldron wasn’t responsible for the non-defense against the Commanders’ season-spinning Hail Mary TD three Sundays ago.;
— He also wasn’t accountable for the dumb-”D”-dumb-dumb at Arizona two weekends past that enabled Emari Demercado’s game-breaking 53-yard touchdown run on the final play of the first half.;
— Waldron didn’t scheme up the Bears’ inactive list vs. New England last Sunday, a scroll of the sidelined that included four offensive lineman — starting tackles Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright, amorphous Nate Davis and Hinsdale-spawned rookie Kiran Amegadjie.
HE ALSO DIDN’T LEAD THE CHARGE into the 2024 NFL draft with pat, predictable, one-dimensionalness.
Anyone else think a truly shrewd GM might have walked away with both a top rookie QB and a long-term hulk-of-granite to bolster the offensive line such as Joe Alt or JC Latham?
Even if the fresh quarterback was merely a placeholder (in the manner of the immortal Bob Avellini) until A Chosen One could be properly protected all the way to an elusive Super Bowl victory?
Waldron didn’t even have anything to do with the gut-busting gaffe Monday morning on AM-1000. That left the phone-in audio of Matt Eberflus repeatedly sputtering. It also reminded all that more mouse-capade decision-making in Lake Forest has left the Bears with an unlisted local radio flagship.
REALITY #1 FOR BATTERED BEARS FANS is that everything tracks back to majority ownership by the McCaskey family. They consistently enable overwhelmed poseurs to come in and masquerade as executives and gum things up as sure as there aren’t shovels in the ground at Arlington Park.
Reality #1A is that the franchise has been operating under a bad star for decades.
Maybe George Halas had to make renewable, forever pacts with some leather-helmeted football deb’il to sign Red Grange and Sid Luckman and bring in Mike Ditka as the fire-breathing head coach (and push generational GM Jim Finks out in the clandestine process).
APPARENTLY, THE MCCASKEYS fear success. The Papa Bear normally feared going broke. When Pete Rozelle began harvesting all of that TV money via CBS in 1964, Halas the patriarch could begin to relax a bit.
Still, in his own way, he went out kicking and screaming close to 20 years later.
His current heirs don’t know how to do that.
AMONG THE RISING TIDE of serious NFL oligarchs, they are the last independent donut shop operators in the chamber of commerce.
And Tuesday, their featured deep fry was a sacrificial cruller named Waldron.
STREET-BEATIN’:
The ongoing impasse between CHSN and Comcast/Xfinity continued to fuel frustration Monday night when Donovan Mitchell and the unbeaten Cavaliers (12-0) rallied to beat the host Bulls 119-113. HC Kenny Atkinson and CLE can move to No. 5 on the all-time NBA best-start list with a win at Philadelphia tonight (6:30 p.m., Fubo). Best out of the gate by Michael Jordan and the Bulls was 12-0 in 1996-97. …
The brand of Deion Sanders isn’t being hurt by the emergence of two-way terror Travis Hunter as No. 1 choice to win the Heisman Trophy. “Coach Prime” and No. 18 Colorado welcome pixie-bitten Kyle Whittingham and Utah for “The Rumble in the Rockies” Saturday (11 a.m., Fox). …
One of the most intriguing college volleyball players in the land remains Anna Smrek of Wisconsin. The senior blocker is 6-foot-9. Father Mike Smrek — a memorably congenial 7-footer — banged around with the Bulls in 1985-86 before going on to win two championship rings with the Lakers. Her next up is Thursday when the No. 6 Badgers play at No. 23 USC (10 p.m., BTN). …
Georgia-bound WR Talyn Taylor will be front and deep when WCIU-Channel 26 presents the 6A quarterfinal between his Geneva Vikings (10-1) at Lake Forest (9-2) Saturday (1 p.m.). “The U” crew will include Andy Masur, Jack McInerney and Kenny McReynolds. …
Visiting Caitlin Clark will be prominent throughout when Golf Channel and NBCSports.com begin pre-tourney coverage of The Annika from Florida’s Pelican Golf Club today. The $3.25M event is hosted by LPGA influencer Annika Sorenstam. (Nelly Korda — who’s headed for the ’25 Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated — is the favorite.) …
And NFL hawk Dianna Russini — now of The Athletic after a strong run at ESPN — on the Rx for the Bears’ fogged-in rookie QB: “Caleb Williams needs to do what I do in the morning at my kids day care when there are so many cars around — just get in there and let it rip.”
Jim O’Donnell’s Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
