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Looking for an upside to the Chicago Bears season that ended with a thud Sunday (Dec. 30)? Well, waiting till next year will be a lot shorter than it is for any other Chicago sports team that has seen its season end without a championship (and that would be most of them this century and last).
One of the Ben-Gals who appears in the Cincinnati calendar.
Of course, in referring to next year, the editorial staff at elliottharris.com means the calendar year. And, according to reliable sources within corporate headquarters and elsewhere, 2013 is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, meaning Tuesday (provided that you are reading this on Monday, Dec. 31, 2012). If you are reading this in Australia, next year just might already be here when you are doing so.
In the wake of the Bears’ 26-24 victory over the Detroit Lions at Ford Field that left them with the possibility of a postseason presence, Bears fandom has seen the team left out because the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Green Bay Packers 37-34 on a game-ending field goal.
For the one time in their lives that many Bears fans rooted for Green Bay to win, they were let down. But being Bears fans, they should be accustomed to being let down.
Maybe Bears fans should have stayed true to their colors and not rooted for the Packers to win (an outcome that would have left the Bears out of the postseason). Of course, to have done so would have been beyond dumb.
Unless …
Unless Bears fans seeking the departure of coach Lovie Smith thought the team’s failure once again to reach the playoffs (for the fifth time in the last six seasons) would hasten his departure.
And that is exactly what happened. After all, with a 7-1 start this season, the Bears seemed a certainty for the postseason. Raising the question whether Smith’s return was an uncertainty.
That question seems to have been answered — and fairly quickly. The Bears fired Smith on Monday with one year left on his contract. There was no formal announcement, but numerous reports had the Bears sending letters to other teams in asking to contact personnel to replace Smith. He was 81-63 in his Bears tenure with three postseason appearances (3-3 record in playoffs). The team has scheduled a press conference for Tuesday.
General manager Phil Emery has plenty on his plate this offseason. One of those items is the status of quarterback Jay Cutler — who will enter the final year of his contract in 2013. Sure, Cutler has the best arm of any Bears quarterback. But the offense that was to have been a strength of the 2012 team never materialized. Maybe with a new coach and a new system that will happen.
“I have a lot of respect for the guyn” Cutler said of Smith on the QB’s ESPN 1000 radio show. “He’s made friends with a lot of the players. He’s a players’ coach. I think right now I’m a little surprised, a little sad. Wish I could have done more offensively to help him out.”
Right now, one thing that observers of the Bears know: They are not going to stay with the status quo.
Besides having running back Adrian Peterson on their side, the Vikings also had cheerleaders. As has been noted again and again, the Bears do not have a cheerleading squad. They used to. The Honey Bears were last a part of the franchise for the 1985 season when the Bears won their only Super Bowl title.
It seems fruitless to urge the Bears to reconsider reinstating the Honey Bears. But that won’t stop us from continuing to do so. Of course, to bring them back would require being broad-minded and accepting the reality that the Honey Bears add to the fan experience.
And if that’s not enough to convince the powers-that-be, they ought to think about the Honey Bears as an additional source of revenue. Not that the Bears need any more than they already have. But it is a legitimate point to ponder.
Speaking of an upper-case Ponder (as in Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder), remember how everyone was saying he was the worst quarterback in the NFL? Well, maybe he is. What does that say then now that Minnesota is in the playoffs? Maybe you don’t need an elite quarterback to advance to the postseason. Of course, it certainly helps if you want to advance in the postseason, but remember when Rex Grossman was quarterbacking the Bears and they reached the Super Bowl? And Trent Dilfer – who might have trouble making the Dilfer Hall of Fame and won’t be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame this century — quarterbacked the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl crown.
Speaking of the Vikings, this is what their cheerleaders look like in action:
For those counting the days till the NFL draft or offseason practices or anything else, the photo-research department at elliottharris.com has spent considerable time and effort (or so the person or persons involved in that task would like us to believe), there are such things that actually let us count the days. Not by computer or some 21st century technological device, but by tactile, actual printed page. Such items are known as calendars.
Today, the editorial staff at elliottharris.com has decided to feature the calendars that feature the cheerleaders of the NFL’s postseason participants.
Which means in the American Football Conference, there are the lovely ladies from the Baltimore, Cincinnati, Denver, Houston Indianapolis and New England franchises.
From the National Football Conference, there are the lovely ladies from the Atlanta, Green Bay, Minnesota, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington franchises.
OK, not from Green Bay. The Packers do not really have their own official cheerleaders. And no evidence of a Packers cheerleaders calendar could be found.
If it’s any consolation (and the guess here is that it is not — especially for Bears fans), the Vikings do have two calendar covers.
The Packers are similar to the Detroit Lions, who do not have an official cheerleading squad. You might remember seeing the Detroit Pride cheerleaders in the Dec. 30 edition of this site. If not, feel free to peruse all that.
Today we are pleased to feature the cheerleader calendars from the 11 postseason teams other than the Packers (note: The Cincinnati Bengals are represented, but we had trouble locating a Ben-Gals calendar; perhaps another day). Also if things go according to plan (which they actually occasionally do around here, there will be more NFL calendars of non-participating teams in the postseason.
It would seem fairly certain that linebacker Brian Urlacher will be healthier for the start of the 2013 season than he was for the end of the 2012 campaign that ended with the pain of an injured hamstring. What is less certain is whether he will be with the Bears. Urlacher is a free agent. Whether the Bears re-sign him is another deicision for general manager Phil Emery.
“I feel like I can play some football,” he said on his Sunday night segment on the Chicago Fox channel. “An offseason of rehab is going to help me. I didn’t get a chance to do a lot last [summer] with my knee being banged up the whole time. This year I did some during the season, but I think an offseason of rehab will help, and whatever happens, happens.”
Urlacher did say he thought he would have been ready for a first-round playoff game this season.
How much football does the 34-year-old have left?
“I don’t know,” he said. “Being a free agent in this situation right now, I’m not sure. We’ll see how it goes the next few weeks or months, however long it takes to figure out what’s going to happen.
“I’m not in a rush right now. I’ve got time. Not being in the playoffs you have a lot of time to think about it, so that’s what we’ll do, I’m sure.”
OK, some non-football video for those who do not follow the game. Also for those who do:
Last, but certainly not least: Thank you to all the faithful readers of this site. And to the philanderers, too. And even to those who might opt for the photos and videos rather than the carefully crafted text.
May the coming year bring you and yours much happiness.
Your humble correspondent,
Elliott Harris
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