Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) stretches before Saturday’s game against the Buffalo Bills.
AP
BEARS FANS CAN ALWAYS DREAM if they want to — even in the midst of a summer that so far merely suggests an “up” on a generally down escalator of a front office.
Ryan Poles and Caleb Williams, the alphas among others, are prompting the “up.”
George McCaskey and Kevin Warren control the escalator. It’s down at worst, stagnant at best on the topic of a new stadium.
But the No. 9 Dream for the organization and its fan base would be a positively convergent bye week beginning October 14.
FOR THE SAKE OF EUPHORIC VISION, imagine the Bears hit the ides of October:
— No worse than 4-2 under the steady QB1 progression of Williams; and,
— Prepared to announce during that 14-day break there will be “shovels in the ground” on the football arena portion of the 326 acres of Arlington Park no later than next May.
The perception that the Bears stadium carousel is quite possibly spinning back to AP was primed in part by some breakaway reporting over the weekend by Chris Placek of The Daily Herald.
Placek beat the herd with his news that the team is holding two “focus groups” this week. The intent is to solicit selected season-ticket holders to find out what “they want” in a new stadium.
(Most direct A.: A Super Bowl champion home team.)
BUT IT DOESN’T TAKE DAVID AXELROD to project the maneuver could also signal a sudden, rational turnabout from Warren’s Folly — the idea of a new Bears colossus on the high-moat Chicago lakefront — to the chip-shot reality of the McVacilators building in Arlington Heights.
“Saving Face With Grace” would be the theme. (Grace can be cast later.) That’d probably go down very well with primary imaging consultants Dennis Culloton and Tarrah Cooper.
Not to mention Bears fans from Libertyville to London.
In the meantime, dream on.
*** *** *** ***
CALEB WILLIAMS ISN’T THE ONLY skilled young quarterback currently drawing national attention to a Lake County base.
Another is young Trae Taylor, all of 15 years old. He’s entering his sophomore season at Carmel High in Mundelein and already has platinum-tier college recruiters from Notre Dame to Ohio State and beyond lighting hope candles.
Very unamazingly in the SportsMass America of 2024, Taylor reportedly also has some NIL deals going. That’s a far cut from less-limelighted teens trimming green beans at Culver’s for their daily bread.
RICH MOSER OF EASTERN ILLINOIS — — one of the region’s great sports information directors — provided some background on Taylor’s pedigree:
“His dad, J.R. Taylor, was one of the most dominant running backs in EIU history. He played from 1999-2002, all four seasons with Tony Romo under center. J.R. finished with 3,705 rushing yards, including a career-best 308 vs. Florida Atlantic, still an Eastern Illinois record.”
Romo, CBS’s $100M man, has periodically helped mentor young Taylor. A key tutor has been Mike Hohensee. Encyclopedic Bears fans will remember him as Mike Ditka‘s “replacement” starting QB during a players strike in 1987.
CBS broadcaster Tony Romo, left with Jim Nantz, has helped mentor Carmel sophomore quarterback Trae Taylor, according to columnist Jim O’Donnell.
AP
Hohensee finished 2-0 and later coached the Chicago Rush to victory in ArenaBowl XX on NBC.
A DANDY PREP SHOWCASE LOOMS on Friday night, Oct. 18. That’s when Taylor and the Corsairs will host crack Ryan Fitzgerald and defending state Class 8A champ Loyola.
He’s the second son of waylaid Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald. He’s also committed to walking on as a quarterback at Iowa next autumn.
That surprise decision has done nothing to diminish speculation that once Fitz the Father settles his $130M wrongful termination suit against NU, he might have something going in Iowa City.
STREET-BEATIN’:
The format future of Chicago’s WBBM-AM (780) — now in its sixth decade as all news — is in doubt. Beleaguered parent Audacy recently blew up WCBS-AM, similarly programmed, and sold the signal to ESPN. Craig Karmazin’s Good Karma Brands will run the restitched NYC outlet under the same sort of licensing arrangement it has locally with ESPN-AM (1000). Stay tuned. …
Guaranteed Rot backstage regulars are wondering when interim Blight Sox manager Grady Sizemore got the pleasant-fellow transplant. As an All-Star with Cleveland (2006-08), he was notorious for being one of the most difficult interviews in the game. …
LeBron James celebrated the U.S. men’s gold medal at the ’24 Olympics by taking his full family — including the teen girlfriends of sons Bronny and Bryce — to a private dinner at L’Avenue. Anyone who has trended through Paris can understand why. (Plus, it beats paying late-night homage to Jim Morrison at Pere Lachaise cemetery.) …
And hardest-core Yankees fan Dave Lundstedt, after his pinstripers were stunned by the White Sox 12-2 Monday: “Infamy … but just for one night.”
Jim O’Donnell’s Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.