Hello and welcome to my first column/post. I am going to take this post and make it an opportunity to share a bit about myself and what I intend to write about now that I am a full-time writer here on WCG. Join me after the jump, won't you?
Now, I've never played any type of organized football in my life. Everything I know about the game comes from what I have read and learned while watching. This puts me at a disadvantage to many of the other contributors on here. Also, since in the real world I am a working journalist (photographer actually, but I occasionally write) this means I am really about the equivalent of Jay Marriotti or Steve Rosenbloom; my opinion means jack and really I'm just a blowhard.
That being said, I will try my best to infuse logic and ask questions and admit when I am unsure or don't know what I am talking about (Which is more than can be said for the above mentioned, am I right?).
In high school I wrote a sports column for our monthly school newspaper, it was named "SportsHouse" which is what I titled this post, but more so as a joke, I will probably NOT be calling my bi-weekly posts here the same thing, as we can all admit it's a bit cheesy and really lame. In college, I co-hosted a weekly sports Web series where we broke down the upcoming games for my alma mater, Ball State.
What I would like to talk about quickly, now that the intro is out of the way, is my love of offensive football.
I grew up in the '90s but didn't start following the Bears full-time until around 2001. Needless to say, most of the time I've watched the Bears their defense has been light years ahead of their offense, so why would I love offensive football? I DON'T KNOW!!! But I do. I love gadget plays, trick plays, the Wildcat, and all of that.
I was not, however, a fan of the Mike Martz hire at the time, but now that a full season has passed, I like it a lot more. As long as he brings balance, he is a great play caller. As great as his passing game can be, I like his run plays just as much; the sweeps, the fake one side toss to the other side with a WR at RB, I love it!
I believe some of my love of the offensive side of the ball stems from the Madden video game and my craving for the Bears to improve from the John Shoop offense. Some of the games that are the most fun for me are games like the 48-41 win over the Vikings back in '09 or the Jets game last year.
But that doesn't mean I don't like a good defensive game too. The Dolphins game last year was a work of art by our defense.
Overall, I still would like to see the Bears win 48-0 every week but a good offensive shootout is fun too! I would love to see the Martzfense take the next step, remain balanced and become something truly great. If Martz wants to throw in some trickery, like a Forte pass or even another Brad Maynard to Urlacher play, I'd be fine with that too.
So that is all for now, I guess, look for me to share thoughts and opinions on anything Bears, I look forward to entertaining you and maybe educating you too.
ALSO: Bonus points to anyone who can find online video of the Maynard fake FG play, I can't find it ANYWHERE.