Da Dos

Category: NFL, Bears, Twitter, YouTube, GIF

  • Camp, July 25th

    Camp, July 25th

    Tis the time of year to overreact to every dropped pass, every soft muscle injury, every INT, every obscenity a coach shouts…

    We all know the drill. I recall summer practices. They were brutal. We practiced on a field that was about as much dirt as grass. It was at least 90 degrees often, sun melting the helmets we inherited from the 70s. I can still smell the pungent stink from the sticky white padding.

    Our coaches made us do laps, hit the sleds, and if we screwed up, 100 yard crabcrawls which still makes my body quiver 30 years later.

    My position coach would line-up CBs vs WRs to box 3 times, or just hit each other as hard as possible for no discernible reason. I suspect they had bets going on.

    They barked at us to back-peddle uphill. My cleats snagged a rock, and I stumbled. Secondary coach, sporting his wrap-around Oakleys whilst chewing sunflower seeds, sneered, “Had to be a corner back…”

    One of the more memorable drills was our position coach [a former pitcher] standing about 5 yards away, making us put our hands up like a diamond, then throwing the football at our face as fast as possible.

    We had to take our off helmet for this drill, so if the football squeezed through your hands, it hit your face full force.

    Then we had hell week, aka, two-a-days.

    Good times!

    I sometimes wonder if the modern NFL player is put through all that misery. Not likely. They’re probably way more scientific, focused, and detailed than what mustachioed men in spandex shorts inflicted on us mere amateurs.

    One undeniable effect though:

    Trauma-bonding

    In Bears’ news…

    Word around the campfire is that Ben Johnson does not suffer tomfoolery. He seems to be getting frustrated at the offense not clicking how it should.

    That’s fine by me.

    In fact, I don’t really care about ‘coaching style’. The running joke is that if the former HC was fat, the next one will be skinny.

    Whether the HC is a hard-ass, player’s coach, cutting edge, or old school…

    I don’t really give a damn.

    These are pros getting PAID. Give fans results, and they’re not going to quibble if it’s Andy Reid, Bill Belichick or Ted Lasso.

    We found our new Dan Braverman!

    I’d be remiss to not relay that Raiders have shockingly cut Christian Wilkins. He’s definitely enticing, but apparently they disagreed on whether he needed surgery or not. Bears’ DT room seems full already, so I’m not expecting him at Halas anytime soon.

    Some Swift

    Misc. Cool plays!

    Hey, having Pope on Bears’ side can’t be bad, right?

    Alrighty then, enjoy your weekend, jabrones.

  • Camp Commences, etc

    Camp Commences, etc

    Things are ramping up. Camp started, and nearly all Bears have checked in. One notable absentee is Jaylon Johnson who is on the NFI [none football injury] list and will likely miss a few weeks.

    How injured JJ truly is, who knows? Maybe this buys Ryan Poles time to come up with a solution to a possibly disgruntled JJ.

    My solution?

    Pay him for turnovers. $500K per FF, INT, or even strip sack. JJ gets a bunch of those and suddenly his contract is…saucy.

    This won’t happen. Or heck, maybe Poles already bumps his contract based on TOs, but it would incentivize, that’s for sure; besides, given that JJ is not exactly Prime Time, Poles won’t have to worry much about breaking the bank.

    Bears made some corresponding moves:

    Tanoh Kpassagon is a big boy [6’7, 290]. I mean, how much Arby’s would Austin Booker have to eat to get that yoked?

    Tre Flowers is also big for a CB/S [6’3, 200]. We’re beginning to get a feel for the template both Allen and BJ prefer, and it seems to be, “The bigger, the better” [insert ‘that’s what she said’ joke here].

    Here’s a quick breakdown on the moves,

    Oh, and to top it off, the goal for Caleb is to hit 4k passing, 70% comp, scoring on drives, winning games, curing cancer, and finally releasing GTA 6…

  • Jaylon Johnson Wants a Raise?

    Jaylon Johnson Wants a Raise?

    So, all three Bear 2nd RDers are locked up. Only Burden negotiated a fully-guaranteed contract, but that seems to be what the market dictated.

    NFL is a deadline driven business. No coincidence all the dominoes started falling right before camp started. I’m sure every team acted independently in nearly a 24-hr window[wink wink].

    Maybe the agents received extra lap-dances to close the deals.

    However, just as one drama is closed, another possibly opens.

    Apparently, Jaylon Johnson is not content with his current contract and didn’t report to camp. [edit. JJ now now on NFI list. Won’t be expected for a few weeks].

    If you dig into the numbers, you can understand JJ’s gripe.

    I’m all for players getting paid, but even for me it’s hard to get behind players ‘holding out’ after they signed the dotted-line. A part of me grumbles, “You signed the fucking contract. Play it out.” though I know the opposing argument always follows, “Oh, and it’s ok when GMs dump players before their contract’s over?”

    I suppose the easiest solution might be [shorter?] fully-guaranteed contracts.

    Say 3-yr fully-guaranteed.

    Players take on the risk of injury, but the payoff is that 3 yrs later, the market will pay more.

    An extreme version of this was Derrell Revis who, if memory serves, basically signed one year deals [for like three seasons] betting on himself and made out like a bandit.

    Of course the flipside to that is a player’s achilles going out or an awful season, then next year his market value won’t be as high, which is why most prefer those longer 5 year deals.

    The GMs tend to protect themselves in the last two-ish years of such deals, so if they cut said player, cap penalty is minimal.

    That’s the GM-Agent dance as of now, but maybe that model needs to change.

    Either way, it seems most of the team is reporting for camp, so that’s great news for the Bears and if Jaylon Johnson shows up to camp, it’ll be much-a-do about nada.

    As always, stay tuned…

  • News! Trapilo and Turner Finally Sign

    News! Trapilo and Turner Finally Sign

    So, actual Bears’ news, and it’s 2/3rds good!

    I’m sure you heard, but Ozzy Trapilo and Shemar Turner both signed, leaving only Luther Burden III unsigned

    [update. Burden is now signed to fully guaranteed contract].

    This was more or less expected. Still, it’s comforting to finally lock ’em down and not worry about some prolonged camp hold-out for three rookie prospects.

    Most surmise guys like Burden are waiting for Tyler Shough to sign to create some precedent or benchmark to go off, but who knows? Wide receivers tend to be prima donnas, and Burden in specific may believe he’s a 1st RDer.

    One reason Luther fell though was ‘character concern’, as in ‘Burden seemed entitled and loafed his final college season’, so it’s understandable Halas may be reluctant to fully guarantee his contract especially after Quinshon Judkins was arrested on a misdemeanor battery and domestic violence charge.

    Guess us fans will have to wait, but hopefully it gets done before he misses any camp.

    Boy, almost makes me miss the good ole days when Cliff Stein would wrap up the entire rookie class lickety-split.

    There’s actually lots more NFL news dropping. Here’s a brief synapsis.

    Lloyd Howell, corporate hack, has resigned. That’s not going to make a lot of waves, but I think it’s a great move for the players going forward. To say Howell had some ‘conflict of interest’ is an understatement. Hopefully the NFLPA hires a real executive director who cares more about the players than own bank account.

    This meme is flooding the interwebz. Apparently this CEO got caught with his sidepiece at a Coldplay concert. Maybe they were more embarrassed being caught at a Coldplay concert…

    Beep Beep…Beep beep…
    BREAKING NEWS [7/18/25]

    Luther Burden III now signed, fully guaranteed, meaning he’ll report to camp [if healthy].

  • TBT. Hester-v-Rams

    TBT. Hester-v-Rams

    Still slow, so enjoy some HOFer Devin Hester.

    I always liked Kam Chancellor. He’s one of those safeties MB loved. Yuge, athletic, and mean. I’m surprised he didn’t suffer as many severe concussions as Brisker.

    Speaking of which…

  • Mike Alstott

    Mike Alstott

    Still quiet on the Northern front. I think I read that once the Bears lost Khari Blasingame, their season went down hill, so that just gives me an excuse to post Mike “Juggernaut” Alstott highlights. I do wonder if Ben Johnson will utilize a full-back, or if he’s trying out linemen to do spot FB duties like Doug Kramer last season.

    Random other sport’s thoughts.

    The other football – U.S. vs Mexico was entertaining. I never played much soccer growing up, so like many Americans, didn’t give it much thought ’til the World Cup hit Pasadena in 1994; then I experienced first hand the electric atmosphere it could generate. I saw a bunch of Germans, Brazilians, etc getting on top of lampposts waving their flags, just jubilant having a good ole time. Of course if they do that now they’d likely get deported, but I digress…

    Something about soccer lends itself to international pageantry. The low scores might turn-off a lot Americans, but I think they build up tension. I mean, imagine shouting “Gooooooooaaaaallll” 15 times a game…just not the same.
    Besides, hockey and some baseball games can be just as low-scoring, yet equally entertaining as long as the teams are good. Just takes a bit more nuanced appreciation like a stout beer.

    One thing that caught me off guard. [spoiler alert]. Mexico scored a goal, but was flagged “offsides,” so goal didn’t count. In the past, this would’ve been an international incident and in some countries motivated rioting and conspiracy theories.

    However, soccer now implements replay. It’s a rather fast process too. I wish the NFL would streamline its replay system like soccer instead of showing us every angle in slow-mo like it was the Zapruder film.

    Still, it’s hard for me to get TOO invested in soccer because of one MAJOR flaw.

    FLOPPING

    I mean, sometimes it’s like a whole team of Vlade Divacs out there, and it just kills it for me. Hard to respect “world class athletes” who go down faster than Mia Khalifa.

    But when there’s not too much flopping, international soccer games can be a lot of fun, though I’m not waking up at 6AM to watch matches – that’s for damn sure!

    I was also surprised that Alexi Lalas looks like this now.

    Giddy up.

  • Have you heard? Cowherd is the word

    Have you heard? Cowherd is the word

    Still not much to report, thankfully

    Colin Cowherd apparently dined and talked with Kevin Warren.
    Here’s the thing about Cowherd. He’s basically an L.A. guy now, and as such, pretty plugged in with the L.A. sport’s scene, especially USC, so he’s relatively reliable when relaying L.A. gossip. The usual is covered – Caleb Williams struggled, but still played a solid rookie campaign despite disastrous coaching, yada yada.
    More interesting is what I pointed out in my 2-part Caleb piece. Namely, that Caleb’s college bad habits indeed carried over, and perhaps worsened with terrible coaching and interior Oline.

    “The first year at USC, Caleb Williams was absolutely magical. The first 6 games in his 2nd year at USC he had 21 TD’s and 1 INT. If you look at his first 18 games at USC he was unbelievable. Then the last 6 games it was a disaster, so what happened? Notre Dame sacked him 6 times. USC had been doing smoke and mirrors in pass protection and it all unraveled against a really good coach and Notre Dame defense. That point forward Lincoln Riley knew he had the #1 draft pick and didn’t want him to get hurt. He went into protection mode with Caleb. He shrinks the playbook, didn’t allow him to run certain stuff. And then Caleb, knowing he’s going to be the #1 pick, went into survival mode. He was just trying to get into the season. He ends up in Chicago with a staff in survival mode. Caleb Williams was in survival mode. There’s no growth in survival mode. So Ben Johnson’s job in Chicago is extreme QB makeover. The talent is all there but they’ve gotta renovate the house.” – Cowherd

    Some Twitter silliness

    Of course best nickname is Sweetness! Which NFL nickname is 2nd best though?

    I’m also trying to remember best [non-gangsta…get da papers, get da papers] nickname I knew growing up

    Hmmm…I knew a guy we called Gizmo. That was pretty funny.

  • Special Pope Edition!

    Special Pope Edition!

    Well, I had nice weekend write-ups, but the Church elected the first American Pope, Chicagoan no less, without consulting me

    I TOTALLY take this as a sign that the Bears will now win 10 SBs in a row

    So, in celebration of this historic event, some of the best Pope memes from the interwebz [and trust me, there’s a million more]


    Random chuckles

    ‘The new Pope says he’s from Chicago, but he’s actually from Naperville’
    ‘Chicago produced a Pope before a 4K passing QB’
    ‘Chicago 1-Pope; GB 0-Popes’

    Got any Pope jokes, now is the time or forever hold your peace…

  • Twitter-day

    Twitter-day

    Nothing really to write about for now, so fun tweets!