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At the Intersection of Sports and Culture

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The Most Important MRI in Chicago Sports History

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Green Bay Packers 21 Chicago Bears 14: My favorite byproduct of the whole Jay Cutler “phantom” knee injury thing was all the war stories that fans and former players felt that they just had to share.  For instance, there was this classic reaction from Maurice Jones-Drew followed by a scathing assessment from former NFL lineman Mark Schlereth.

But, by far, my favorite reactions came from friends and family. For example, my brother in law: “You (Cutler) gotta play through the injury. I had terrible shin splints last year and all I did was get myself a new pair of shoes”.

From my friend J: “MCL’s are overrated. They don’t even surgically repair them anymore. You can play through the pain as long as you run straight ahead and avoid making any sudden movements”.

My favorite reaction came from my Dad: “You know back in my day, we didn’t even use to get water breaks.  Coaches would come around and give us salt tablets that were thought to keep us hydrated. The only reason I stopped playing football was because I couldn’t find a comfortable pair of contact lenses”.

So there you have it.  The votes have been tallied. Jay Cutler should have finished the game for the Chicago Bears. Now it could turn out that he will need major knee surgery this offseason, which I hope is not the case.  Regardless, it was really fascinating to watch the public turn on Cutler so quickly. Which reminds me, did you catch him trying to stay loose on the exercise bike? That’s exactly what I look like when my somebody asks me to do something that I have no interest in doing. Cutler didn’t exactly look like someone who was dying to get back in the game.  In this case, perception is everything.

view of Soldier Field courtesy of @reschcenter

Pittsburgh Steelers 24 New York Jets 19: Did you catch the Rex Ryan headset toss at the end of the game? He looked just like Clark Griswold when the 25000 imported Italian twinkle lights wouldn’t work properly.

I gotta tell you, and as I Patriots fan I can’t believe I’m saying this, I kind of like Rex Ryan’s confidence during the post game press conference.  Sure the Jets just lost the AFC Championship game for the second year in a row but, to his credit, he stood up to the podium and boldly predicted that his team was going to make it all the way to the Super Bowl next year.  Jets fans probably won’t take much solace in his pronouncement this morning but still, the guy doesn’t waiver from his message.

Now we prepare for two straight weeks of hypotheticals. If Ben Roethlisberger wins his third Super Bowl at the age of 28 is he as good a QB as Tom Brady? If Aaron Rodgers leads the Packers to victory in Dallas do the fine folks of Green Bay finally forget about the man named Favre? If Jay Cutler is on crutches will he still be allowed to crash the MTV Super Bowl bash?

Lots to think about and with two weeks to go until Super Bowl XLV, plenty of time to figure it all out.

view of Heinz Field courtesy of @RedBullNASCAR

Punching Tickets To Arlington Texas

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CHICAGO (+3.5) over Green Bay: My cousin Bert is a Chicago native, currently enjoying his junior year at the University of Wisconsin. For Sunday’s NFC Championship game, he has chosen to return home to Chicago. Reason being, Madison, between all of the Leinenkugel and cheese curds, is going to be a very difficult place for any Bears fan to watch the game. My question to Bert, aren’t there an equal number of Chicago and Green Bay fans on the UDub campus? Gotta be close right? Madison is full of “flatlanders” and “coasties”. In fact, if you were to take an informal poll, which NFL jersey is most represented on the Wisconsin campus: Aaron Rodgers, Brian Urlacher, or Ron Dayne?

I like the Bears in this game because I respect the way they went out and played the Packers hard in Week 17, even after they had already locked up the #2 seed and a first round bye. Of course, Aaron Rodgers is currently playing quarterback like Neo “knowing” Kung Fu, so there’s a pretty good chance the Packers win by double digits.

PITTSBURGH (-3.5) over NY Jets: It has been awfully quiet in Florham Park, NJ this week.  I don’t care how much they “respect” the Steelers, I think the Jets are a better, albeit more unbearable, football team when they talk.  I have no statistical evidence to support this claim but it seems to me that their roster – Bart Scott, Antonio Cromartie, Rex Ryan – is full of players/coaches that feed off media attention.

Speaking of unnecessary media attention, if I have to hear one more time about how the Empire State Building is currently lit up in green and white lights to show support for the Jets I am going to throw up in my mouth.  We get it, New York is behind their football team.  Even more infuriating, did you hear about the story where the Jets charter plane was given permission to “fly by” the Empire State Building on their return trip home from Foxboro last Sunday? How is this legal? Mayor Bloomberg, when you are finished digging out Astoria, Queens from all that snow we had in late December, how about you investigate the flight controllers who allowed the Jets plane to buzz Manhattan? (Note: I’m not still bitter about the Patriots losing last weekend. Not bothered at all.)

view from outside Heinz Field courtesy of @albyoxenreiter

The Long New England Winter Just Got a Little Longer

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With the loss by my New England Patriots, this playoff recap was about as tough to write as any previous post. Alas, I’m a professional and I know most of you kind souls out there don’t care for a single second that Mark Sanchez will be taking his A Night At The Roxbury routine to Pittsburgh next weekend.

Pittsburgh Steelers 31 Baltimore Ravens 24: Catch the ball Housh!!!! Catch the ball Anquan!!! Help your young quarterback out. Granted Joe Flacco wasn’t playing all that well either but those drops by his two best receivers went a long way towards determining the final outcome of the game.  Give credit to Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers who just continue to find ways to win playoff games. Are you aware that Roethlisberger is two wins a way from his 3rd Super Bowl victory?  Personal life aside, guy is a beast of a QB who usually comes through in the clutch. (View of Heinz Field courtesy of @trixietraci)

Green Bay Packers 48 Atlanta Falcons 21: I think it’s safe to say that Aaron Rodgers is playing himself on to a Wheaties box. That was until the folks over at ProFootballTalk mentioned some pretty damning video regarding Rodgers snubbing a cancer patient looking for an autograph.  Not the most inspiring footage.  Luckily, Clay Matthews was there to save the the day for the Packers, but for Rodgers, the damage may already be done.  As a professional athlete, airports must be a claustrophobic nightmare with pimple faced face fans climbing the walls just to catch a glimpse of their gridiron heroes.  But, as PFT points out, this was not your typical fan and Aaron Rodgers should have had the decency to take a quick moment to sign an autograph for a person who was clearly battling something much more devastating than a Cover 2 defense. (View of Georgia Dome courtesy of @Brian_Chrispigna)

Chicago Bears 35 Seattle Seahawks 24: So much for the momentum. In the immortal words of Denny Green, the Seahawks “are who we thought they were”. Not much suspense in this one, except for those gamblers who took Seattle at +10 and were hoping Pete Carroll went for the 2 point conversion on that last TD. The future isn’t all that promising for the Hawks fans who are probably hoping for a disastrous 2011 campaign if only to have a chance at drafting Andrew Luck. The Bears, and their fans, have got to relish being 3 point underdogs at home against the Packers in the NFC Championship game.

New York Jets 28 New England Patriots 21: And it wasn’t even that close.  As a Patriot fan, what can I say?  Rex Ryan outcoached Bill Belichick.  Mark Sanchez outplayed Tom Brady. Done and done. The team of destiny rolls on to the AFC Championship Game. I do wonder what sort of sophomoric barb the Jets will use to get under the skin of their opponent this week. Will they emasculate Troy Polamalu for having long hair? Do they say something derogatory about all the middle class iron workers who populate the Heinz Field stands? Or dare they go as far as to challenge the authority of Pittsburgh head coach Darnell Jefferson? One thing’s for certain, the New York media market is going to be alive with energy this week and I am going to do my best to maintain complete radio silence. (View of Gillette Stadium courtesy of @RyanFox25Sports)

Delusional Divisional Playoff Picks

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PITTSBURGH (-3) over Baltimore: As I was reading an article in Golf Digest on Trent Dilfer I was struck by a few things. Most significantly, I had totally forgotten that Dilfer was not the Baltimore starting QB heading into the Ravens 2000 Super Bowl Championship season. That honor belonged to…Tony Banks!!! Remember him? I remember Banks more as a QB for the Rams than I do Ravens and if memory serves me correct, he was inconsistent at best wherever he played.  We give Trent Dilfer a lot of crap for being arguably the “worst QB to ever lead a team to a Super Bowl victory” however, the Ravens do not win in 2000 if Tony Banks is their QB.  That’s a fact.

Green Bay (+1.5) over ATLANTA: Mike Francesa continues to crack me up.  During his show on WFAN yesterday he picked the Falcons to beat the Packers for “no real reason whatsoeva”. Now that’s what I can ANALYSIS!!!! Seriously, he could not come up with a single reason why his Atlanta pick made sense.  Green Bay is playing better, they have a hot quarterback, and a resurgent running game. The closest Francesa came to justifying his pick was that the entire betting public is on the Packers which makes him a little nervous.  That’s it. No, “I have faith in the Atlanta ball control offense and Georgia Dome crowd”. No, “Mike McCarthy is an awful game manager who will find a way to challenge at least two stupid plays a game”. Nothing.

I’m not knocking Mike, in fact, I love listening to his show and will continue to do so.  For this pick however, I’m going to disregard his “advice” and go with my gut and take the Packers.

Seattle (+10) over CHICAGO: Since it worked out so well the last time I picked the Seahawks, I am riding them again this week. I have no real reason to believe that Seattle will go in to Soldier Field and win the game outright but I do think these two teams are closer than the +10. It also remains very hard to root for Jay Cutler.  I don’t know what it is about the guy that breeds such great disdain and animosity.  A lot of it has to do with his body language – slumped shoulders, dour expression- which inspires very little confidence.  This raises a great question, which NFL quarterback has the worst body language: Jay Cutler, Philip Rivers, or Peyton Manning?  If I were to open this question up to include all professional athletes DeMarcus Cousins would have to be somewhere on the list.  That guy is an ENORMOUS baby.

New York Jets (+9) over NEW ENGLAND: The Pats will win this game by less than a touchdown.  That 45-3 score the last time these two teams played in early December was an aberration and I would expect a much more competitive game this time around. On a personal note, my wife could go into labor at any moment and I have kindly asked that she wait until after the game ends tomorrow evening.  Mid week is best for me, miss a few days of work and then back from the hospital in time to watch the Pats host the Steelers in the AFC Championship game. Of course I’m kidding. Anytime the baby is ready is fine by me. Healthy and happy, that’s all any parent can ask for.

view of North Dakota vs Minnesota courtesy of @eyevonsa

A Seattle High Five with The Boz (No not that one)

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As Jerry Seinfeld once said: “Slapping hands is the lowest form of male primate ritual.” We here at VMS fully support the high five and believe it has a clear and important place in this world.  In our latest set of 5 questions, we asked close personal friend, and Seattle native, Ben aka “The Boz” what he thinks about his Seahawks and their glorious run to second round of the NFC playoffs.

VMS: On a scale of Nirvana “Nevermind” down to Mudhoney “Superfuzz Biggmuff”, where does the Seahawks playoff victory over the Saints rank on your all time list of Seattle memories?

The Boz: Really high.  I honestly think this was a solid Pearl Jam “Ten”.  Ten was a seminal, accessible album for the Seattle sound, and is a real classic – plus it was during Vedder’s pre-soapbox years, so that’s an immediate plus.  Saturday’s moment wasn’t quite “Nevermind” (doesn’t yet have the depth of 2005, 1983, 1995 Mariners), but still an epic moment which everyone outside of New Orleans loved, and it will be remembered for a long time by ‘Hawk fans.  Far above Superfuzz Bigmuff – but I’ve only heard that album once.

VMS: Did it take much to convince your wife to name your next child “Marshawn”?

The Boz: I think she was so excited to get me off of “John Cougar” that “Marshawn” was a relatively easy sell.

VMS: Tell the truth, part of you is kind of hoping Charlie Whitehurst has another opportunity to “resurrect” the Seattle offense.

The Boz: No way. Not this season, and maybe never.  Clipboard Jesus may be the next great ‘Hawks QB, but I kind of don’t think so.  He managed the Rams game semi-competently, but anyone can look like Joe Montana when they actually go to their checkdown instead of floating balls into double coverage, which was Hasselbeck’s M.O. for the 10 weeks preceding Saturday’s unconscious performance.

Either way (and this may not be a popular opinion right now), I think it’s time the ‘Hawks pull a Dave Krieg on Hasselbeck and let him walk before the wheels start coming off the bus.  It sucked to see Krieg in a Chiefs uniform in the early-90s, but we had to pull the band-aid off.  It feels like we’re getting there with Hasselbeck.  I’m hoping that by some miracle we can land Andrew Luck in the 2012 draft.

VMS: If the Seahawks lose to the Bears this Sunday, does their playoff run still take some of the sting out of the SuperSonics departure to Oklahoma City in 2008?

The Boz: No. I can’t go too far down this road because it’s still really soon, but suffice it to say that losing Seattle’s longest-tenured professional sports franchise was a bitter pill.  I refuse to acknowledge the existence of the Oklahoma City team, and I barely acknowledge the existence of Oklahoma City itself.

VMS: Last question, Seattle weather….bad as advertised?

The Boz: I don’t believe so.  Rainy winters, but the summers are nothing short of glorious.  Just got back from a 10-day trip to the Emerald City, and there was measurable precip 7 out of 10 days, Dec. 20-30.  So there’s your objective metric.  Not too bad, but definitely not sunny and nice either.

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There you have it.  Thanks to the Boz for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions.  He has promised VMS a free month of fresh/hot hand delivered coffee if the Seahawks pull off another miracle and beat the Bears this weekend. Go ‘Hawks!!!

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view of the Jon M. Hunstman Arena courtesy of @erikzeiner