Thrill Shots

I’m starting to wonder if American football may soon be a thing of the past.

It is not a secret that the lifespan of a professional football player is significantly shorter than that of the average man (football players die in their 50s on average). Common sense suggests that the abuse a player’s body takes throughout the course of his career is what leads to an earlier demise. But revelations made over the past few years that have shown the effects of the head trauma football collisions cause has me wondering how long this beautiful-but-violent game has before it is simply deemed too unsafe to play.

Over the last several years, the medical community has revealed more and more that head trauma – especially the kind prevalent in football – leads to an ever-widening array of medical problems. Concussions, once considered to be not especially serious, are now being treated with an extreme level of care. Science has revealed that players who suffer repeated concussions – which is a bruising of the brain – can increase their odds of long-term damage exponentially. It is the bruising of a not-entirely-healed brain that can lead to many ailments including paralysis and dementia, among others. Recently, a Boston University study found that head trauma can lead to ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The National Football League, for its part, has become proactive in making rule changes to try and lessen the potential for such head trauma in the game. But as the years roll on, and more and more disturbing information is released about the long-term health risks football players take, I can only wonder when the time will come that the league is forced to change drastically, or cease to exist altogether.

Given what we have learned about the relationship between football, brain injuries and the consequences thereof, I wonder how much longer American football will continue to be, and what it will look like if it is still around in ten, twenty years.

As is wildly apparent throughout Chicago Bears Nation in the aftermath of their 10-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, the time has come to pack in any and all hope for the 2009-10 season, and begin looking forward to determine what can be done to fix a deeply flawed team for next year and beyond.

There are four specific on-the-field areas of glaring weakness on this team, but none has proven to be more detrimental to the team’s success than the offensive line.  An argument could be made that with even league-average line play, the Bears’ offense would’ve made this a legitimate playoff team.  But league-average would’ve been an enormous improvement.  The left side of the line has to be remade in the off-season, no questions asked.  Orlando Pace and Frank Omiyale have been purely awful, allowing pass rushers to pillage and plunder quarterback Jay Cutler at will.  While Olin Kreutz, Roberto Garza and Chris Williams aren’t exactly studs, remaking an entire offensive line in one off-season is a monumental task.  The left side, for the second year in a row, is top priority.

While the offensive line is very much the top off-season priority, the other three primary areas of need seem to be at a similar level of importance to one another:  safety, wide receiver, defensive line.  The Bears have had a black hole at safety for years, thanks initially to never-ending injury problems for Mike Brown, and more recently due to a succession of failed draft picks at the position.  It’s difficult to determine whether or not anybody from the current crop of young safeties has any real future, but just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean the scouting department is off the hook for doing so.

They likewise do not get a pass for the ongoing ineptitude at wide receiver.  Devin Hester is a good number three NFL receiver, and Earl Bennett and Johnny Knox may well become decent twos or threes in their own right, but the Bears lack a legitimate one or two at the position, and they have since the departure of Bernard Berrian, who was a passable number two, but hardly worth the money he ultimately commanded.  It has been seven or eight seasons since the Bears last have had even a decent number one, dating back to Marty Booker’s prime, where he went to a Pro Bowl.  Unfortunately for the current crop of receivers, the quarterback who is charged with getting them the ball has no time whatsoever to get that task accomplished – thanks to the porous line play.

The defensive line is another ongoing problem that the Bears have had a bunch of bad luck with, to go along with bad drafts, and it all starts with Tommie Harris.  The line – and indeed the entire defense – was dominant when Tommie Harris was healthy and effective in 2005 and 2006 (until injury ended his year prematurely).  Since that time, only an occasional flash of the dominant Harris has appeared (including Thursday night against the 49ers, where Harris had far and away his best game of the year).  However, most of the last two-plus seasons, Harris has been somewhat invisible, rather than the disruptive beast he was early in his career.  While it remains to be seen whether Harris can ever regain that form, it has become increasingly apparent that he won’t be doing so with the Chicago Bears.  Attitude issues and questions about his effort have surfaced, to the extent that he was effectively suspended for the Cincinnati game, and was thrown out early in the Arizona game for throwing a punch.  I would be surprised if Harris is still a member of the Chicago Bears come next season.

While the defensive line has had to sink or swim with Harris, ends Adewale Ogunleye and Alex Brown have never produced eye-popping sack numbers, and as they age, are becoming less effective run stoppers as well.  The Bears are hoping that Gaines Adams – acquired for their 2nd round draft pick in 2010 – will have a big enough impact that any other changes are insignificant by comparison, this unit is plagued with some of the same problems that several other areas on the team have; lack of depth due to ineffective draft classes.  The list of failed defensive linemen the Bears have drafted over the last six years is staggering.  From Michael Haynes to Tank Johnson to Dan Bazuin and so on, the Bears have continuously shot themselves in the foot with their inability to draft effectively.

If you’ve noticed a common theme in the Bears’ problems, you aren’t alone.  College scouting has proven to be the Achilles heel of Jerry Angelo during his tenure as Bears’ General Manager.  The playmakers on the Super Bowl XLI team were primarily drafted by somebody else – whether it was the previous Bears regime, or Angelo’s acquisitions from other teams via trade and free agency.

Where Angelo and his staff have been quite good at scouting and acquiring professional talent via free agency (John Tait, Thomas Jones, Garza, Ruben Brown) and trade (Ogunleye, Cutler), his drafts have produced far less talent than is required in order to consistently win in the NFL.

Those fans calling for Angelo and Lovie Smith and the coaching staff to be dismissed will not be happy with the outcome of this coming off-season, as neither are likely to be dismissed with multiple years remaining on their respective contracts.  On the other hand, it’s quite possible – better than a 50-50 chance, I think – that Ron Turner will be made the scapegoat of the 2009 Bears, which will be quite unfair and unfortunate, considering that he was the offensive coordinator who oversaw the two most productive offensive seasons the Bears have had in the last 20 years (2006, 1995), and cannot be blamed for the poor drafting and bad acquisitions that led to him having the worst offensive line the team has had in ten years.  Nobody short of Bill Walsh himself could’ve had success with this line, yet ill-informed fans are calling for Turner’s head on a platter, and I suspect they’ll get it.  Turner does not deserve the same fate as Terry Shea, Gary Crowton, and John Shoop, but he’ll likely get it.  So goes life as an NFL coach.

As for this season, while Lovie Smith will continue to talk about improving and getting back into the playoff hunt and so on, I feel the top priority should be protecting the franchise’s most important asset:  Jay Cutler.  Keeping Cutler unscathed is critical for the long-term success of the franchise.  A healthy Cutler will be the key to the Bears’ success in three to six years, when they are next ready to compete for a championship.  Cutler is the lone shining light on this team, and is likely one of only a handful of players currently on the roster who will be on the next Bears team to reach the Super Bowl.

If Angelo has done nothing else in his tenure, he has stabilized the most important position on the field for years to come.  The horrendous offensive line he has built in front of Cutler can NOT be allowed to jeopardize the cornerstone of the franchise, as they have through the first nine games of 2009.

The past twenty-four hours have been pretty difficult for Chicago Bears fans.  It started with the team’s most lopsided defeat in six years, and continued with the overwhelming (but not unexpected) wave of overreaction to the game by fans and beat writers alike.

It is no easy task to try and say a positive word about the team after that defeat.  Quite frankly, I hate that I feel obligated to do it.  But I do, and I will, because it appears that I’m the only Bears fan whose reason and logic have not completely abandoned them.

First, a (true) cliche.  A team is never rarely as good as it looks when it is winning, and never as bad as it looks when it is losing.  A 45-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals (who, by the way, I picked to turn it around this year and go 9-7, thank you very much) is not an accurate indicator of the quality of this team.  That game was an aberration; an ugly, awful, cringe-inducing, soul-crushing aberration.  But it is no more and no less representative of the 2009 Chicago Bears as their 48-24 dismantling of the Lions, their exciting 25-19 comeback over the Seahawks, or their 17-14 triumph over the defending Super Bowl champions.

In fact, each of their six games has taught us something about this team.  In Green Bay, against Pittsburgh, and in Seattle, we learned that they’re capable of coming back from a deficit and taking a lead late in the game.  In Green Bay and Atlanta, we learned that despite valiant fourth-quarter surges, they can be beaten on the last drive of the game.  Against Detroit, we learned that they are fully capable of completely dominating an inferior opponent.  And against the Bengals, we learned that they’re capable of laying an egg.

This is not the same team I picked to go 11-5 before the season.  The offensive line is considerably worse than I anticipated it being.  The biggest strength of the defense – the linebackers – has suffered a remarkable number of injuries.  Brian Urlacher may no longer be the best player on the Bears’ defense, but there is no question he’s at least second-best, and still just as important to the effectiveness of the unit as anybody else on the field.  His immediate understudy, Hunter Hillenmeyer, also has missed playing time, and has been forced into multiple positions due to injuries to a third starter, Pisa Tinoisamoa.  Depth at the running back position has been greatly diminished due to injuries to Kevin Jones and Adrian Peterson.  While injuries to depth players shouldn’t matter too much, the inability of the starter at that position – Matt Forte – to play effectively only highlights the injuries.

Where Frank Omiyale was expected to be a rather significant upgrade at the left guard position, he has been a tremendous disappointment.  Where Orlando Pace was expected, if healthy, to perform at an above-serviceable level, his play has been poor.  Where Greg Olsen was expected to take a step from solid tight end to Pro-Bowl tight end, he has not.  And so on.

Despite the injuries and ineffective performances, this team has managed to win three games, including one against the defending champs.  They have had moments of brilliance.  They are not the 11-5 team I was expecting, but they are not the 5-11 team many are now fearing.

Take a deep breath, Bears fans.  Exhale slowly.  Relax.  And remember: it was one game.  Only. One. Game.  Do not throw out the baby with the bath water.