From Bulls to Bears

We here at Windy City Gridiron are a football web site; dedicated to bringing you anything and everything Chicago Bears related.

That said; being that today is Chicago Sports Legend Michael Jeffrey Jordan’s birthday, and that he is currently back in the news headlines, and that it is a relatively slow day in Bears news, let’s daydream a little bit….

First basketball, then golf, then baseball…why not football? Michael Jordan is currently trying his best to buy the National Basketball Association’s Charlotte Bobcats franchise. Maybe His Airness should leave his home town state of North Carolina to return to his adopted home of Chicago, and become owner of our very own Chicago Bears!

I’m not saying that Jordan should take jersey 23 off of Devin Hester’s back and buckle up a chin strap. He should remain in his expensive tailored suit and get Halas Hall in order.

I do not have a problem with current Chicago Bears owner Virginia McCaskey, though other Bears fans may disagree. She may be getting a little long in the tooth, but she is the daughter of Bears founder George S. Halas, and for that she can stick around as long as Father Time allows. Anyway, is she really the one who calls the shots? She may ultimately write the checks, but I believe she has entrusted this franchise to team President/CEO Ted Philips and his minions.

Michael Jordan’s only link to the National Football League were his high priced commercials during the Super Bowl. But again, we don’t need him between the lines of Soldier Field. We need his ability to evaluate front office personnel and his business savvy. As we all know, he is a very stout business man.

In 2004, he successfully started up a professional closed-course motorcycle road racing team, Michael Jordan Motorsports; which in a short period of time has become one of the most popular racing teams within the American Motorcycle Association. He has also made his Jordan Brand of athletic clothing and apparel so big that it has all but branched off of super sporting apparel giant Nike.

Since his NBA playing days have ended, Jordan has dabbled in front office positions on two NBA franchises.

Though his brief stint in 2002 as the Washington Wizards Director of Basketball Operations did not go so well, he has rebounded, pun intended, quite nicely. Since leaving D.C, Jordan has become part owner of the Charlotte Bobcats and was named Managing Member of Basketball Operations. He has the second highest individual holding in the team. After only a few years on the job, MJ has the Bobcats poised to make the NBA playoffs; trying to lead the franchise away from the dubious distinction of being one of only two professional sports teams to have never been to the post season, the NFL’s Houston Texans being the other.

Only a few Chicago sports icons are as endearing to Chicagoans as Jordan. Walter Payton and Mike Ditka quickly come to mind when thinking football. I believe this town would accept Jordan as owner of our beloved Monsters of the Midway. He has done things in the Windy City that have forever changed this town, inside and outside of basketball.

Jordan does not stand for mediocrity, a state that the Bears have been in for the past three seasons. He is a winner; plain and simple. His six NBA Championship rings and abundance of individual awards proves that fact. He does not tolerate losing and demands the same from anyone who wants to join him on his quest for greatness. He would receive respect and admiration from everyone within the organization; from Ted Philips all the way down to the towel boys in the locker room.

With the current changes being made to the Bears front office and MJ’s recent desire to purchase a professional sports team, now seems like the perfect time to sell the team to Mr. Chicago himself. Three years of second rate football is no longer tolerable in the Second City.

One very popular Chicago figure is currently trying to bring change and hope to the White House. If only the most popular Chicago figure would bring the same to Halas Hall.