Here are a few evening links to satisify your Bears fix...

Do the Bears have Lito Shepard on their mind - POP!

Didn't the Bears just pay Desmond Clark a roster bonus or something?  Now he might be on the move?

Hank Baskett???  Really???  I'll leave the Kendra pics to you all...

And here's the official statement from the Bears in regards to Kevin Jones.  We hardly knew ya!  

Jeff Dickerson blogs about some possible free agents for the Bears to target.  He's left out a lot of big names who will either be franchised or are restricted free agents.  Any restricted free agent worth pursuing is not obtainable by the Bears. They have no 1st or 2nd round draft pick to compensate the other team if they were able to sign the restricted free agent to an offer.  Simply put, Jahri Evans of the Saints and Logan Mankins of the Patriots are not available to the Bears. 

Continue reading this post »

David Epstein of Sports Illustrated (SI.com) writes a very good article explaining how an enlarged heart leads to cardiac arrest in young athletes.  Excerpts:

that the finding of an "enlarged heart" is quite normal for athletes, whose hearts, like any muscle, grow from exercise. There is a difference in a heart enlarged by exercise and one enlarged by disease, and the two can sometimes be difficult to tell apart.

Enlarged heart in athletes from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can go undetected even with intense screening.

Continue reading this post »

Football Outsiders writer Doug Fararr breaks down what's going on with Jay Cutler, the offensive line, and Ron Turner.  He spoke with Greg Cosell from NFL Films and ESPN's State Farm NFL Matchup about Jay.  A sample from the article:

while I have no clue what's going on in his head, the tentative throws I'm seeing indicate a shell-shocked player in a situation that doesn't work for him at all.

HT to Hatchetm for the link

Continue reading this post »

In what has been a hot topic for both main-stream media and small football blogs, offensive coordinator Ron Turner addresses the speculation that Jay Cutler's struggles this year could be sight-related.

''I think it is totally a coincidence, I really do,'' Turner said. ''It's not a situation where it's night, it's prime time and maybe he's trying to force the issue too much. That is not the case. I went back and looked at all of them -- that hasn't been the case. I don't know.''

When one reporter brought up the fact that Vinny Testaverde was color-blind, and also had trouble throwing picks, Turner responded:

Continue reading this post »

Usually, the NightLink is a pretty serious topic among us writers; we want to make sure that we have good Bears information up here. Never fear, WCG'ers, I'm here to break up the monotony.

1st order of business: New changes to WCG

As of around 4 PM today, Dane nominated me as the Official WCG Body Language Coach. If anyone has any qualms with any Bears players, coaches, or front-office managers, please let me know and I'll give 'em a call and coach em up. With fire and passion.

Continue reading this post »

We all know that teams will have mandatory "diplomacy" rules when speaking to the media, but sometimes it can be entertaining to hear what they are saying.

Tommie Harris: 

"We have to win out," said defensive tackle Tommie Harris. "We have no room to get any more losses. If you lose again, you’re going to be hoping that another team loses for you to get in. You don’t want to be in that position. We were in that position last year. It’s basically in our hands right now."

Continue reading this post »

There's a new website out there that has some incredible work being done called ProFootballFocus.  From their home page:

What we do ...

For every game we analyze and grade every player on every play to provide you with the most in-depth statistics you can find anywhere outside the team's film room. If you want to know how your RG performed as a run blocker or how your MLB did in coverage use the By Team or By Week tabs as a starting point to locate your games.

For every game we log which players are on the field on every offensive and defensive play AND what they do. Want to know how much your rookie WR played, how much help your LT got in pass protection from the TE or how your defense line up on 3-1? Once you've found your game, click on the Player Participation link at the bottom of each 'game box'.

Continue reading this post »