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QUOTE (shipps @ Jan 5, 2015 -> 11:30 AM) Does he have an impressive resume though? There is far less accomplishments/leadership positions held by Ballard than what Emery had on his resume when he was hired. He may be a great GM but I would really like to stay away from hiring people have have been products of the Bears system. Ballard is definitely a product of the Bears with a lot of influences from past Bear leaders that have been fired for not getting the job done. He is a hot name but I would have liked to see the Bears to make a bold move to change the course of this thing and I am not sold that Ballard is the guy to do that. Significant experience coaching & scouting, has had higher responsibility for the Chiefs than Emery ever had. Emery was basically a scout...Ballard has been far more involved in real personnel decisions and has a far greater appreciation for what it takes to coach and what players listen to, etc. Supposed to be a very good people person as well and has earned rave reviews from Accorsi and Polian and NFL network analysts have referred to him as a "rockstar" GM candidate based upon what they have heard about him. I also think Bowles would be a fantastic hire, although he presumably is a done deal to the Falcons (or at least a heavy Falcon lean). I think Bowles is the best new coaching candidate out their. I am curious to hear who these coaches have tabbed to be their assistants.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jan 5, 2015 -> 11:15 AM) Jeez. If the Bears have already pretty much told him the job is his why are they doing this song and pony dance?Why do the Bears have to be so predictably inept? Why am I asking these questions? What am I going to eat for lunch today? Doesn't mean Bears have hired him yet. He just might not be interested in Jets or may feel like he doesn't have a good shot with Jets and Jets have preference of someone else. All I know is Ballard's resume is very impressive and I am totally on board with his hire. I presume he will be hired but you still have to go through the motions.

Bears will hire their new GM's this week, I predict no later than Friday. PS: This is not sourced...just me blabbing about what will happen. It will be Ballard or Gamble.

Welcome aboard everyone. Great to see all these new faces and hopefully you all are getting aboard for what should be an exciting season!!!

Solid signing and thankfully only a 1 yr deal so if it doesn't work, no major loss. Fills a need now the key is that we utilize him appropriately.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 1, 2015 -> 03:28 PM) Mariota looking very shaky so far, lots of overthrows. I think he will be a massive bust. Winston will be a far better pro.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Dec 31, 2014 -> 09:20 AM) Bears GM/Head coach search is being aided by a group that features Accorsi, Bill Polian, Charlie Casserly, Ron Wolf, Tony Dungy, John Madden, Dennis Green, and Carl Peterson. With that wealth of football knowledge I can't see Ted and company going against the reccomendations of those guys. I am now of the belief that the bears will hire the right guy at both spots. Hopefully while working with Polian they can convince him to stay in the organization. I just hope while they narrow the coaching candidates down and move forward on both fronts, the GM is brought in first and allowed to finalize the process (maybe with a list of final 3 candidates, etc). I like that we appear to be moving much much more aggressively in years past. I also don't see Bears brass not going with the recommendations of the panel.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 30, 2014 -> 11:58 AM) Just a horrid loss. Cant sleep walk in conference play and win with 10 minutes of effort. Or a nice win. Iowa needed that one. Really thought they were going to do their typical choke routine when you all cut the lead to a couple points...was great to see them nail a few clutch shots. Maybe this year Iowa will finish strong vs. finish weak like they did last year. At least thus far they don't have a bad loss and they do have two good road wins (@ UNC / @ OSU).

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 29, 2014 -> 03:24 PM) Being reported that Mike Shanahan actively wants bears job. I'm sure his son would also be interested but Mike is publicly asking for it. I was glad that the Ted & George were very clear that the decision around Jay was going to be made by the football people brought in.

QUOTE (buhbuhburrrrlz @ Dec 29, 2014 -> 02:59 PM) Bears move too slow, have no idea what they want That is going to be the next test...how quickly and swiftly will we move. Thus far, while it would have been nice for a football czar, the reality is they did exactly what they absolutely needed to do, which was hire a football guy to help them find the next GM, who will clearly have full say over football matters (that much was obvious throughout the course of the press conference). People who want to blast Ted, really don't understand his role, imo, and just want to hate on a hater. The reality is, the owners view him as a the CEO and he's very removed from the football decisions. The key to me is getting the right GM and the owners are always going to have final say on that (no matter who the owner is). The thing is, now they have someone who has been very successful in the past at bringing in head coaches (and has assisted in hirings of GM's as well) and also understands deeply what it takes to be successful as a GM. The whole hiring a consultant thing started two weeks ago, which again, is much swifter than this franchise has ever moved in the past already. Everything I've seen so far is that this is going to be handled significantly different than past decisions (and that includes the fact that we acted quickly with the firing of our coach and GM).

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 29, 2014 -> 02:00 PM) So Ernie Accorsi is helping with the hiring. Which is a tremendous move.

Please do this right Chicago.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 28, 2014 -> 05:12 PM) Slowly moved backwards after being pushed off a block, wound up standing on top of Rodgers's leg, moved off, moved back on again, Rodgers angrily pushed him off. It wasn't a violent move, Suh wasn't moving quickly, but some of the "Standing on Rodgers" could well have been deliberate, he wasn't exactly moving quickly to get off. I agree with you. I really didn't think it was intentional.

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

QUOTE (Jake @ Dec 24, 2014 -> 09:39 AM) I have the TV version, but don't use it on my TV. I'm pissed, too, because I didn't realize that Time Warner would only have one HD game going at once. I don't always check, but I've never seen a Bulls game on the lone HD channel. D'Oh. I was going to see if you didn't use the online version (since each TV feed comes w/online access as well) if you'd be willing to sell the online access for me to use. I originally wasn't going to get because i Thought I was getting all the WGN games + national games, but have really enjoyed the season so was going to try and find a way to get at least partial access so I could stream games at night (I normally don't watch live...watch on west coast once my daughter is asleep and done with household chores, etc).

Does anyone on the site have the TV version of league pass, but not use the online access or not use it a lot?

I don't get the affair. That had to be the most boring tv show on the planet. Was awful. In terms of homeland, the last episode was far more of a set-up for the next season than anything else. All in all though, this was a great season of homeland. By the way, started watching Banshee this week. Damn, talk about entertaining. You have to throw any sense of realism out the window but totally enjoyable.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 23, 2014 -> 05:55 AM) So they fear it was taken over by hackers, does that mean that a plane can be completely remote controlled? Because that part seems a bit farfetched I mean, an entire plane completely disappearing the way this one did is farfetched, but thats another story Or is hacker another word for terrorist in the author's native language?

Welcome aboard Sean. All I'm going to say is that everything about 2005 was incredible. The blistering start, the late season struggles (where Cleveland started to get very close), Joe Crede with his clutch hit late in that season to help get us back on track and than the playoff run which was just incredible (I got to see all 3 games in Anaheim, including the game we won that clinched the AL Pennant). Truly phenomenal. My biggest memories were Paulie's grand slam to get us back in the game and than Pods with his eventual HR to win it, Blum and his late inning heroics, big bad Bobby Jenks (who while he had a blown save in the series, IIRC...the game where Pods won it for us), Uribe (who made 2 sweet plays in that 9th inning of the final game), Dye (MVP) and pitching, pitching and more pitching. Oh and who can forgot the spark that changed the playoffs for us, AJP reaching first on the ball in the dirt (or was it in the dirt) followed up by Crede delivering a huge hit. Had that not happened, we go down 2-0 heading to Anaheim who is hosting next 3. Totally different series. Instead we win the game, win the next three in Anaheim, and end up having a run of 4 consecutive complete games pitched by our starters. Total team effort!

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 22, 2014 -> 10:53 AM) According to Glazer, they are interested. I think Glazer even indicated they were the perceived front-runners. Hopefully Glazer has a good source on this! Helps that the Phins are out.

Gould is very intelligent and insightful and is publicly supporting Jay (and pretty much shredding Trestman). http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/footb...1222-story.html

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 22, 2014 -> 09:57 AM) I'd guess that a couple years with Thibs on a developing/rebuilding team and you might see real solid development from him, but on the current Bulls team he'd get buried in Thibs's doghouse and would never work his way out of it because they're a team trying to win. Oh I agree and wasn't insinuating the Bulls make a move for him. I do think if you put him in the right place with the right overall team culture and he could very well thrive and take the steps necessary. He's kind of like Cutler from the perspective of you know the tools are there to be an above average player....the results however, are not above average.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 22, 2014 -> 09:57 AM) Stan Van Gundy is a fine coach IMO, and after evaluating him he thought the best move was to pay for him to play elsewhere for like, the next 10 years ( i forgot how that provision works). I agree w/you on SVG. I think he's a good coach and the Pistons are need of the culture shock that he should bring to the table. Not sure how he is as a franchise builder and how he will do with the amount of power he has in that organization.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 22, 2014 -> 09:40 AM) It wasn't even the inefficiency that I thought was stupid, it was that the talent on their roster forced him into his worst tendencies (playing him as SF). I hope he gets it. When he would really play in the post he was a thrill. But man I would never want him on my team. I wonder how he would do with a coach like Thibbs. He really should be an all world defender and if you really managed the offensive side, he could be something. Was an awful move for the Pistons.

PS: If Coughlin is fired/retires as coach, how about hiring him as a team president.