NFL 2021 offseason thread

[Jack Parkman]

22 minutes ago, Tony said:

So you haven't been to a Cubs game in over 5 years, and it's been much longer than that since you've been to a Bears game. 

I went to multiple Bears games in 2019, and probably been to Wrigley 10 times in the last 3 years, both for games and concerts. It's about 45 steps to the red line out of Wrigley, and there are multiple different ways out of the ballpark. 

Solider Field is an absolute shitshow, from driving in, public transportation and ways out of the stadium. You don't know what you're talking about and multiple people are telling you how wrong you are. This is why I stopped responding to any of the items you post. You die on hills you have no business being on. 

Idk maybe it's worse now, but I lived at IIT for a bit and did a lot of driving around the city when I was going there. My extended family lived in Ravenswood for years. There were signs that said No Wrigley Parking near their apartments. My dad works not far from Soldier Field(near McCormick Place)  and I've driven in that area A LOT and and it's nowhere near the shitshow that the North Side is. Not even close. 

I've been on Columbus/Michigan at 5pm and I'd rather be there than on Addison, Irving Park, or Montrose. (and there was A TON of construction around Columbus at that time)

The North Side/Wrigleyville is an absolute shitshow compared to anywhere around the SL. 

However, this may be a difference of me living in the far NW burbs and you guys living elsewhere. 

It's taken me an hour(or more at times) to get from like Irving Park/Ashland to the Kennedy. 

Listen, I'm not saying that SF isn't bad(it is) I just think that it's not any worse than Wrigley. 

And if you really think about it, getting to GRF or the UC is a royal PITA as well. 

If you're going to a sporting event, you have to be prepared for the traffic. Traveling to and from any sporting event in Chicago is a royal pain in the ass and I wouldn't say any of them are pleasant. 

Also, if you want to talk about lack of access to Public Transit, the UC takes the cake. 

My dad and I walked from the UC to the Western Av Metra station in a fucking blizzard when I was a kid. Felt like forever. 

 

Edited May 10, 2021 by Jack Parkman

[Chisoxfn]

4 minutes ago, Tony said:

So you haven't been to a Cubs game in over 5 years, and it's been much longer than that since you've been to a Bears game. 

I went to multiple Bears games in 2019, and probably been to Wrigley 10 times in the last 3 years, both for games and concerts. It's about 45 steps to the red line out of Wrigley, and there are multiple different ways out of the ballpark. 

Solider Field is an absolute shitshow, from driving in, public transportation and ways out of the stadium. You don't know what you're talking about and multiple people are telling you how wrong you are. This is why I stopped responding to any of the items you post. You die on hills you have no business being on. 

For a full season - it would seem they would have to solve the public transportation challenge.  That said - MLB would benefit from the fact that you would likely have a smaller stadium with less capacity (so that is a benefit in terms of traffic/parking load). But if you are doing baseball, 81 games - you have to make it convenient.  

[raBBit]

4 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

I get it - as Tebow the person - but don't you think as a player - you wonder what are we doing here. Kind of like - is Meyer just going to go to his guys type of deal.  Not that I suspect Tebow is going to get some special treatment in the actual lockeroom -  he probably is there for exactly what you say - I just feel like in the sense of just practice reps - you could find a whole lot of Undrafted TE's and others who probably have a better shot at making a dent on the roster vs. Tebow.

 That said - would those players make a dent in terms of character / work ethic - no idea.  But I don't really see how or why if I was a good NFL player that I would really pay any attention to Tebow other than a potential rolling of the eyes at it (not knocking him as a college player - but he's been out of the league a really long time).  Its a bummer - cause this would have been the right route for him early in his career.  

Yeah I mean I can't disagree with you here. If Meyer is able to build a good culture right away, I feel like players would take to Tebow. I could be wrong though. I've just heard 100 people talk about Tebow and they all praise him unless they're talking about his ability as QB or a thrower. To me, he's like another coach. Coach of moral or something like that. All that said, this all probably fizzles out as we near the start of the season. 

[Tony]

26 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

For a full season - it would seem they would have to solve the public transportation challenge.  That said - MLB would benefit from the fact that you would likely have a smaller stadium with less capacity (so that is a benefit in terms of traffic/parking load). But if you are doing baseball, 81 games - you have to make it convenient.  

Right, it would be a giant undertaking to "fix it." 

Jack is right in the sense from a geography perspective, it would be a cool location for the Sox to play, no doubt. But from any sort of logistical standpoint it would be an absolute nightmare. I know numerous people that simply won't go to Bears games anymore. It's just too much of a pain in the ass to get there, and then get out. After doing it 4-5 times over a two year period, I totally understand the frustration. 

[southsideirish71]

13 minutes ago, Tony said:

Right, it would be a giant undertaking to "fix it." 

 Jack is right in the sense from a geography perspective, it would be a cool location for the Sox to play, no doubt. But from any sort of logistical standpoint it would be an absolute nightmare. I know numerous people that simply won't go to Bears games anymore. It's just too much of a pain in the ass to get there, and then get out. After doing it 4-5 times over a two year period, I totally understand the frustration. 

It's a high bowl.  So any aesthetics of playing downtown would require demoing a large part of the bowl.   The idea of playing downtown is to have a view like what the knights have.  Something a bit further away than this would still have that iconic look.  But the problem is imagine Solider field and what would have to be done to get said view.  You might as well knock it down and start over.  

 

 

[Jack Parkman]

4 hours ago, Tony said:

Right, it would be a giant undertaking to "fix it." 

Jack is right in the sense from a geography perspective, it would be a cool location for the Sox to play, no doubt. But from any sort of logistical standpoint it would be an absolute nightmare. I know numerous people that simply won't go to Bears games anymore. It's just too much of a pain in the ass to get there, and then get out. After doing it 4-5 times over a two year period, I totally understand the frustration. 

Yeah I'm mostly talking about a geography perspective, and with a baseball stadium there you'd want the lake behind the OF. Like RF would face due east. 

 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Jack Parkman

[ptatc]

7 hours ago, raBBit said:

I could ask you the same. But you said you haven't been to Wrigley in years. Up until the end 2020, I lived in the city for the last several years. I go to a bunch of a Sox games, 2-3 Cubs games and 1-2 Bears games every year. 

Believe me, you are alone in thinking Soldier Field isn't a complete mess to get to and from.

From the south Soldier is by far the easiest.  Take the Metra and drops you off at 18th or 12th, depending on where your seats are.

Driving in you get off the Ryan at 31st and go straight to McCormick. We've had season tickets in the family since 1963. Soldier field is easy.

[ptatc]

6 hours ago, Tony said:

Right, it would be a giant undertaking to "fix it." 

Jack is right in the sense from a geography perspective, it would be a cool location for the Sox to play, no doubt. But from any sort of logistical standpoint it would be an absolute nightmare. I know numerous people that simply won't go to Bears games anymore. It's just too much of a pain in the ass to get there, and then get out. After doing it 4-5 times over a two year period, I totally understand the frustration. 

From the south Soldier Field is easy like I said in another post. 

Getting out is even easier.  Train leaves 20 minutes after the game ends from 18th street.

[Jack Parkman]

1 hour ago, ptatc said:

From the south Soldier is by far the easiest.  Take the Metra and drops you off at 18th or 12th, depending on where your seats are.

Driving in you get off the Ryan at 31st and go straight to McCormick. We've had season tickets in the family since 1963. Soldier field is easy.

We come in from 290 usually. 290 ends, turns into Congress Pkwy that goes to Columbus and then you're basically right there. 

It must be a b**** to get to from the north part of the city, but from south and west(and the Burbs) it's easy. This explains the disconnect. 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Jack Parkman

[CentralChamps21]

I don't think the location is an issue, there are more difficult places to get to, but the sides of the outer shell were too narrow to fit a proper modern stadium. The Bears had to create something very weird and unsightly and still have the lowest capacity in the NFL.

[Quin]

This dude is a quality follow.

[The Beast]

18 hours ago, Jack Parkman said:

We come in from 290 usually. 290 ends, turns into Congress Pkwy that goes to Columbus and then you're basically right there. 

It must be a b**** to get to from the north part of the city, but from south and west(and the Burbs) it's easy. This explains the disconnect. 

Nah, moving from Guaranteed Rate to Soldier Field would be a b****. It’s so easy to get to the G Spot from the suburbs and even access the park from the parking lot. Walking all around from the parking lot at Soldier Field would take a ton of time and the amount of traffic on game day next to Soldier Field is awful. Guaranteed Rate is much better in terms of fan convenience and access to the park. The south side is easier to get to from the suburbs. If anything they should have turned the park the opposite way and made it so people could see the city, or they should have built a new park in the loop.

[CentralChamps21]

13 hours ago, The Beast said:

Nah, moving from Guaranteed Rate to Soldier Field would be a b****. It’s so easy to get to the G Spot from the suburbs and even access the park from the parking lot. Walking all around from the parking lot at Soldier Field would take a ton of time and the amount of traffic on game day next to Soldier Field is awful. Guaranteed Rate is much better in terms of fan convenience and access to the park. The south side is easier to get to from the suburbs. If anything they should have turned the park the opposite way and made it so people could see the city, or they should have built a new park in the loop.

My understanding is that the area around Roosevelt/State was not all built up back at the time and could have fit a stadium + some parking. That would have been a great spot.

[bmags]

The Adam Jahns article this morning on the behind the scenes for selecting fields was great but there was a paragraph or two of Pace reiterating how every scout had consensus on Fields and it made me cringe thinking about Trubs.

[bmags]

cc @Chicago White Sox

 

Don't take me sharing this as evidence that I enjoy the exhaustingly boring nfl schedule release day, which I am forced to read all the nfl writers tweet out as if it is scoops despite it not being at all interesting.

[Chicago White Sox]

4 hours ago, bmags said:

cc @Chicago White Sox

 

Don't take me sharing this as evidence that I enjoy the exhaustingly boring nfl schedule release day, which I am forced to read all the nfl writers tweet out as if it is scoops despite it not being at all interesting.

Thanks for sharing as I had not seen that yet!  And that is actually a way better date than the early January timeframe I was concerned about.

[CentralChamps21]

https:

//twitter.com/DannyParkins/status/1392582812990115846?s=2

[StrangeSox]

Alternating home and away every week

[Soxfest]

8 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

Alternating home and away every week

Never have seen that in a Bears schedule before.

[knightni]

That's a difficult schedule (third toughest, I hear).

A lot of hard road matchups

[Jack Parkman]

 

Edited May 26, 2021 by Jack Parkman

[Chisoxfn]

Jack - Did I miss something - did you post a tweet saying the Bears were for sale?  

[Jack Parkman]

41 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

Jack - Did I miss something - did you post a tweet saying the Bears were for sale?  

The tweet says they might be soon. 

[CentralChamps21]

On 5/13/2021 at 6:33 AM, knightni said:

That's a difficult schedule (third toughest, I hear).

A lot of hard road matchups

6 of 9 road games vs 2020 playoff teams.

[CentralChamps21]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31484993/son-ghostwriter-late-senator-say-trump-intervened-stop-probe-patriots-spygate-scandal

Summary:

Sen. Arlen Specter of PA thought his beloved Eagles got screwed out of a Super Bowl win by the Patriots' cheating

Specter thought the NFL covered it up and wanted to use his power in the Senate to investigate

Patriots owner Bob Kraft promised Specter campaign donations from then reality TV star Donald Trump in exchange for dropping the investigation.