buddha

the bears leased their stadium from the state of illinois. every other nfl team owns the stadium for all intents and purposes. if there are third party entities that are created to act as "owners" thats for tax purposes.

lincoln yards caused a lot of consternation around here because of the racial politics and the tax breaks for the developers. a bears stadium with a huge entertainment complex would have been an interesting alternative. regardless, there are lots of plots of land they could have used, especially 15-20 years ago. instead they put a toiket bowl on top of the existing stadium. the epitome of stupidity, ie: the chicago way.

look at this, our collective distaste for various things chicago bringing us all together.

mccormick place is another issue altogether. they've tried for years to break the power of the unions there that drive up the convention prices to astonomical levels but they canr do it. even the democratic governors tried to no avail. there are always a huge number of lawsuits that come out of there when union guys get "hurt" on the job. then you see the lawsuits. its nuts. one guy to take the extension cord to the booth. another guy to plug the cord in. another guy to unplug it. all getting union wages. its amazingly inefficient. welcome to chicago (and big city america).

there's tailgating because there are a lot of parking lots around there because of the proximity to mccormick place (the big convention center). its a horrible location. its extremely difficult to get to. there are plenty of large areas they could have picked in the city. they just approved a MASSIVE development in an old industrial yard on the northside. that could have gone to the bears. there are plenty of old railroad and warehouse lots on the near south side close to where sox park is now. 10-15 years ago they could have developed that land. but they didnt. through the city's incompetence and the bears incompetence. seriously, arlington heights is the best alternative right now because the other alternatives are all gone now.

the election is fascinating. its a white moderate (which, by chicago standards means he's a fascist republican but by the rest of the country's standards he's a left wing liberal) versus a militantly progressive black liberal backed by the unions. vallas has the white cop vote and conservative vote locked down. johnson has the white liberal vote locked down. the battle will be over how much of the black vote vallas can siphon from johnson and where the small hispanic vote breaks. personally, i think johnson will win. which is horrible for the city, but its what the rich white liberals want so its probably what will happen. white liberals love guys like brandon johnson. i hope not, but we'll see. vallas is a really good candidate and the smarter choice, but this is chicago and smart choices are not something we do well.

honestly, i doubt it effected lori that much. lori had so many other issues. 1) crime. its a huge issue. 2) there was one white candidate, one hispanic candidate, and seven black candidates. lori won the black vote, but barely and she split it with six other candidates. chuy won the hispanic vote and lori got almost none of it. 3) more importantly, she lost the lakefront vote. the white people on the northside who "identify as progressive" and the gay vote shifted from her to brandon johnson (the black liberal sponsored by the teachers union). johnson won the areas of the city that went heavily to lori the last time. 4) she's a terrible politician. she couldnt pick a lane. are you an establishment, anti-crime, law and order mayor? or are you left wing, liberal progressive? she chose both. and she won neither.

yup. the "friends of the lakefront" sued and sued sued. so it remains an empty parking lot instead of a museum. the mayor at the time called them the "friends of the parking lot." its ridiculous.

the city of chicago deserves zero credit for this. this was not done as a matter of principal that the city refused the bears' efforts to extort land and tax breaks. the city refused to work with them because the city is incompetent and run by morons and special interests. the bears never asked for that, the city knew the bears needed a new facility and refused to work with them to find a suitable area. i get the view from outside that the city shouldnt pay the bears to be here. i agree. but that is not what happened here. this is a case of incompetent leadership and nothing else.

chicago will now get super bowls and final fours and all sorts of events they could never have because of the weather. its long overdue. this is the best thing the bears have done since drafting walter payton.

its a god awful design. they lost their landmark status after they did that. deservedly so. not that they deserved landmark status before then...

wont happen.

the bears dont need chicago. the city could have easily worked with the bears to find land for a new stadium, instead the city - and rhe bears - did the stupid thing and "re-did" soldier field in a ridiculously awful looking rebuild that addressed none of the issues and just pushed the problems down the road. again, the bears are the only franchise in the nfl that doesnt even own their own stadium. they lease it from the state and the state controls all the amenities and the bears have to beg for everything. in a normal political and business environment the bears and the city/state would work together to find a solution. but this is chicago and illinois and a stupid business so nothing got done and now the bears are moving. its a great piece of land for the bears to develop in arlington heights into a nice and profitable area. the bears have not (yet) asked for state assistance and they have said they are not going to. but they will ask for state infrastructure improvements which the state should give them to help develop the area.

no one who knows the bears would really care if they moved out of soldier field. soldier field is a dump. its incredibly hard to access. its the smallest stadium in the league. the bears DONT EVEN OWN THE STADIUM. the state and city refused to work with the bears the macimize their revenue and openly insulted the bears when they made noise about leaving. the bears should have moved out of soldier field a LONG time ago. but the people who own the bears are terrible business owners and the people who run the state of illinois and the city of chicago are terrible people and politicians. the bears moving to the burbs in the best thing the bears have done as a franchise in a long, long time. its about time and its more than warranted.

i'm fine if they keep goff and extend him, i'm fine if they dont. i trust the current regime to do what's best for the franchise. besides, i dont think richardson is going to make it to #6, but i could be wrong. i didnt think willis would make it out of round one last year.

"the lions are in a market for a qb" was the title of the section of the quoted article.

from the athletic today: The Lions are in the market for a quarterback... First things first, I don’t view this as a smokescreen. The Lions do, in fact, need a quarterback. A backup, at the very least. Nate Sudfeld is an unrestricted free agent, and the Lions should absolutely look to upgrade. They’ve been able to get away with lesser talents backing up Goff, but that shouldn’t be the case in 2023. The 49ers built a roster capable of winning a Super Bowl, only to take a beating in the NFC Championship Game with their fourth-string quarterback. Holmes said he didn’t want to be in a position to scramble for backup help like he did after the preseason last year. It’s time to address it.... Now, we could leave it there. Or we could discuss the future. There has to be a nuanced way to talk about the quarterback position without it serving as a shot at Goff. I really hope we can do that here. Goff played at a Pro Bowl level in 2022 and deserves a ton of credit for how he rose above a bad situation. He’s certainly capable of leading this team to the playoffs if he repeats the season he just had. Let’s make that clear. But anyone suggesting the Lions won’t think about drafting a quarterback simply because they have Goff in place is naive to how this process works. It would probably be more concerning if Holmes and his crew weren’t looking at quarterbacks. They get paid to explore every avenue, long-term and short, immediate need or not. Doesn’t mean they will, but it shouldn’t be ruled out until they’ve done their due diligence and feel comfortable moving forward with another position. With Detroit reportedly meeting with Anthony Richardson, it appears that’s what the Lions are doing. They have the rest of this month and next to determine where to go. If they decide to select one in the first round, perhaps as high as No. 6, they’d likely feel pretty good about their support system in place. You can make the case that Holmes has built the most QB-friendly situation of any team drafting in the top 10. An offensive line with three Pro Bowlers, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams at wide receiver and a capable run game. With Goff under contract, a young QB would not feel pressured to start right away. The Lions would rather not be drafting this high again anytime soon, so there’s a case to be made for taking a QB early if a guy Holmes loves is there at No. 6.

whoever is there is going to have to find a way to make disney+ profitable. good luck with that in the short term.

i could live with that, but white is not a dt, he's an end. i'd rather see a bigger dt there. id take mazi smith before white.

he just got there! i thought desantis gets to name the new ceo, lol.

what do you think of jabari?

even if they took a qb in round 1 they'll probably sign another veteran qb backup.

the issue with drafting a qb then was that the lions did not have the "infrastructure" surrounding the qb to make it a success while still on the "entry level" qb deal that makes it attractive to have that qb there. now they arguably do. at least, that was the theory going around at the time.

you never know. a team could fall in love with any player and take them over anderson. a corner, a tackle, anorher type of defensive end, definitely a qb. as much as i think its unlikely, its certainly not impossible that anderson is there at 6.

and then he wont take richardson. thats fine. but the fact that you have goff shouldnt preclude you from looking at qb at #6 (or #18). theyve been down there to see him play multiple times. theyve talked to him at the combine already. they are interested in him. at #6? maybe not. but all the reports are that they are interested, goff or no goff.