Is this what passes as news these days?

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After leaving a comment on NiqueBears' post about Scott Van Pelt, it got me to thinking about other non news items we're sure to see this season.  To backtrack a bit, the Van Pelt post was about another tired "Jay Cutler has a pouty face" rant that he made on his ESPN radio show.

I guess it's a good topic for the ESPN guys to go tackle, as it is a sure way to get many Bears fans riled up, and the Bronco, Viking, and Packer fans would never shy away from a chance to pile on some more negative Cutler chatter.

Take the jump with me and I'll look at some other "News" items we'll have thrown our way, and why we shouldn't give a damn.

First off, here's the comment I dropped that got me to thinking:

Seriously

I don't give a damn about his face... Does it really matter if he looks sad/mad/distraught after throwing a pick?

It's a MOTHER F'N PICK! Should he be all happy and smiley?

If he were calling his guys out on the field or on the sideline or in the locker room or through the media... then I could see him taking some criticism. But he doesn't gripe to the media, he's not caught on the sideline yelling at his teammates, and there are no reports of him being a poor teammate in the locker room.

The Media and lazy journalism go hand in hand... this is just another example of some boob rehashing a story. See; Orton-Game Manager, Good Rex Bad Rex, Is the Tampa 2 outdated, Should Hester be a full time returner... Find a new angle fellas!

I just love blockquoting myself!

Anyway... number one with a bullet has to be Brett Favre.  He's retiring.  He's not retiring.  For the love of god, can someone please stop him or his agent from ever texting or speaking again until he's ready to say he'll officially be back?  Which will either be around preseason week 3 or right around the Viking bye week.  Book it.

Next up is something that is already getting pushed down our throats...  Did you hear the Bears defense is really taking it to the Bears offense so far in training camp?  DUH!  It's training camp!!!  The defense is always ahead of the offense in training camp.  Unless you're new to the game of football or have been living in a cave the last number of years, the defense is all about reacting to what an offense is doing, and until an offense is clicking on all cylinders there'll be some missteps.  Add in a new offense to learn and you'll have some growing pains.

Sticking with the Martzfense for the next one.  Stop me if you've read or heard about how incredibly voluminous the Mike Martz playbook is?  Wow.  It's so big it has us all wondering if the Bears receivers will ever figure it out!  The horror!  Now are you ready for the truth?  Yeah, it may be considered big in relative terms, but what's in it.  Tell us why it's hard to decipher from a receiver's standpoint.  Last I checked, a go route is a go route, unless you call it a bomb or a "9" route, in which case it's still a go route!  Sure some terminology may be different, but there are only so many pass routes a wide-out will run.

To take it even further, we have Isaac Bruce saying it took him about 3 years to fully grasp the entire playbook.  OK.  Great.  Some reporters ran with the voluminous playbook angle after that quote.  But Martz isn't implementing his entire playbook right now!  When you install an offense, on any level of football, you do so in stages.  An offensive coordinator will try and force feed what he can in training camp, then add stuff throughout the season, maybe even have a package or two saved for a particular opponent.

And how much of that monstrous playbook is dedicated solely to the QB and WR?  Martz has a number of protection schemes in his tome for the offensive line, he has a number of offensive formations in there, the entire running game is in there, specific instructions for every offensive player for each play (he is very detail orientated), and a lot of half blank pages.  So that 410 page playbook isn't really as big as we'd like to think.  But listen to Chicago sports radio and you're sure to hear 'the receivers will have a tough time learning the playbook' nonsense.  They'll be fine.  They'll learn it at a steady pace, and the entire offense will improve as the year goes on. 

But do you know the craziest thing about the whole playbook thing?  The playbook most media outlets keep referencing is the one I linked to up above.  The '99 Rams playbook.  Has anyone other than Bears personnel actually seen a '10 Bears playbook?  For all we know it might be even larger.

One other lazy media angle I'd like to see axed is this poppycock about the massive egos of Mike Martz and Jay Cutler leading them to an inevitable explosion of wills.  All because Martz nitpicked Cutler's game as an NFL Network analyst many months ago.  He ain't the first former coach to get on set and criticize a player and/or coach and he won't be the last.  It's what he was hired to do.  Anyone that has such thin skin probably won't make it to the level these guys play at.  I'm glad Martz and Cutler addressed this yesterday at chicagobears.com (as pointed out by Dane in this morning's Den).

OK, that's enough off my chest for one post.  What are some other "news" items that get you all riled up?