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"The secret to success is good leadership, and good leadership is all about making the lives of your team members or workers better." ~ Tony Dungy, NFL Super Bowl Winning Coach and Television Sports Analyst.
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!! Dolphins-Bears Preview.
By JEFF MEZYDLO (STATS Senior Writer)
Chicago supports it's Bears!!!
The Chicago Bears have shown they can win on the road.
Now, they must do the same at home.
The Bears look to avoid going 0-3 at Soldier Field for the first time in 10 years Sunday against the Miami Dolphins.
Chicago (3-3) avoided a third straight defeat and improved to 3-1 away from home with a 27-13 win at Atlanta last Sunday. Jay Cutler threw for 381 yards - his most with the Bears - Matt Forte recorded 157 total yards and two rushing scores and a banged-up defense held the Falcons to 287 yards and one TD.
''We've seen signs in the first six weeks of the season of the type of team we can be and the way we can play the game,'' coach Marc Trestman said.
Not many of those positive signs have come along Chicago's lakefront.
The Bears average 26.5 points and have a plus-6 turnover margin on the road, but have totaled 37 points and are a minus-4 in that department in home defeats to Buffalo and Green Bay. They haven't dropped their first three at Soldier Field since 2004.
Cutler has been the poster boy for Chicago's inconsistency.
He's thrown nine touchdowns, two interceptions and has a 104.6 passer rating on the road. At home, Cutler has four TDs, four picks and a rating of 84.7. He's thrown three of those interceptions and has a 58.1 QB rating after halftime in Chicago.
Forte, meanwhile, enters Week 7 leading the NFL in receptions (46) and is seventh in rushing yards (399). He's averaged 164.7 total yards in the last three games.
Forte ran for 97 yards and the only touchdown in a 16-0 victory at Miami in 2010, Chicago's last shutout.
The Bears' tall and physical receiving duo of ex-Dolphin Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery could pose a serious threat to 5-foot-10 Miami cornerbacks Cortland Finnegan and Brent Grimes after the pair combined for 11 receptions and 249 yards against the Falcons.
"We've got to bring our A game," Finnegan said. "There are some difficulties because those guys are special."
The Dolphins (2-3) rank eighth in the league against the pass allowing an average of 221.6 yards, but couldn't stop Aaron Rodgers from capping a 60-yard drive with a four-yard TD pass to Andrew Quarless with 3 seconds left in last Sunday's gut-wrenching 27-24 home defeat to Green Bay.
"I think the Chicago Bears don't give a rip what happened against the Green Bay Packers," Finnegan said. "So we've got to go out there and give them our best."
Embattled Miami coach Joe Philbin took responsibility after being questioned about his play selection when the Dolphins failed to run out the clock on their final drive, his use of two timeouts when the Packers had none on their winning drive and the coverage call on the last touchdown.
''I have to do a better job, first and foremost,'' he said. ''I'm the head coach.
Philbin and the Dolphins move on without veteran running back Knowshon Moreno, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last Sunday. Moreno, who played in only three games, gained all but 14 of his 148 rushing yards in a season-opening 33-20 win over New England.
Lamar Miller, the team leader with 330 rushing yards, is expected to get the bulk of the work and should be ready Sunday despite dealing with an unspecified injury this week. Undrafted rookie Damien Williams also is expected to see action.
''We've got some good running backs here, and we can get the job done,'' said Miller, who was held to 53 yards on 14 carries last week but has three TDs in two games..
Miami ranks sixth in the NFL in rushing (136.2 yards per game) and third in yards per carry (4.97) but faces a Chicago defense that's allowed 188 and 3.24 per attempt in the last three contests. Despite starting linebackers Shea McClellin (hand), Lance Briggs (rib), D.J. Williams (neck) and top backup Jon Bostic (back) all out, the Bears held the Falcons to 42 yards on the ground.
It's uncertain if any of those defenders will be available for this contest.
Chicago's Willie Young will be on the field after recording two sacks last Sunday to take over the NFL lead with seven.
Miami's Ryan Tannehill was sacked once in the last two games after being taken down eight times in the previous two. Tannehill, who ranks near the bottom of the league in completion percentage (60.8) and passer rating (81.5), has thrown four TDs but three picks in the last two contests.
He's completed 60.9 percent of his passes and has five TDs, six INTs and a 76.6 rating while going 0-4 on the road against NFC opponents.
Ex-NFL Ball Boy Reveals What He Saw.
Written by: ThePostGame Staff
NFL Ball Boy
In a column published in The New York Times, Kester talks about the extreme violence he saw occur on every game day, which resulted in many players sitting around in postgame locker rooms with dazed expressions from the damage inflicted.
In particular, Kester is troubled by the role he suspects he played in causing irreparable brain damage to those players. While today the football world knows about a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, Kester understood at the time as a momentary problem remedied by smelling salts.
One of Kester's responsibilities was to carry small amounts of smelling salts in his pockets on NFL sidelines waiting for players dazed from a hit. When a player would call him over -- many times after vomiting from a hard hit he had just taken -- Kester would quickly pull out the salts for the player to inhale.
The salts snapped the player back to an alert state, and he went on playing the game.
Kester argues that TV cameras were instructed not to show the smelling salts on broadcasts. But those aren't the only signs of damage Kester saw as a ball boy. He routinely found bloody and soiled jockstraps that he ascribes to a brief nervous system failure caused by a hard hit.
Kester also describes having to unwrap a wad of gum because a player lacked the fine motor skills to handle the tiny foil himself.
In the editorial, Kester calls for better mental health resources for players, as well as larger NFL reforms to save the league before injuries destroy it.
The way Kester sees it, much of the off-field trouble caused by NFL players -- particularly regarding alcohol abuse and violence -- are inextricably related to what those players endure on the gridiron.
New philosophy is paying dividends.
By Larry Mayer, Bears Senior Writer
Making their first starts of the season last Sunday in Atlanta, linebackers Khaseem Greene (52) and Darryl Sharpton combined to make 21 tackles.
It may be hard to believe that the Bears defense played its best game in two seasons without all three of its starting linebackers, but there is one reasonable explanation.
A new philosophy that Marc Trestman adopted in his second year as coach helped replacements
“We really are trying to stay true to one of the big changes we made last year, and that’s to do everything we could to make every player that [general manager] Phil [Emery] brought in here game ready,” Trestman said. “I think we saw a little bit of that [in Atlanta].”
With their top four linebackers inactive due to injuries—
“We do put pressure on them to make sure that they’re assignment-ready each and every week,” Trestman said. “We do spend time with them in off-hours working to get them ready. They’re in here very early and the coaches are down there to help them.”
Defensive coordinator Mel Tucker and linebackers coach Reggie Herring deserve much of the credit for preparing the three inexperienced players to face the high-powered Falcons offense.
“We’ve coached every single player we’ve had since Day 1 that as a player he’s going to have to go in and help us win the game,” Tucker said. “That’s what we coach and that’s the way those guys prepare. Everyone on the roster has value for us and we treat it as much day-in and day-out.
“When guys have opportunities, we expect guys to step up and fill those roles and give us everything they have, and that’s what we did.”
The Bears are getting a bit healthier at the linebacker position. On Wednesday, McClellin (hand) practiced without restrictions and Bostic (back) was limited. But Briggs (ribs) and Williams (neck) both were unable to participate. Trestman doubts that Briggs will practice Thursday and said “we’ll see” when asked whether the seven-time Pro Bowler will play Sunday against the Dolphins.
It appears, however, that Briggs, Williams and McClellin will regain their starting jobs when healthy.
“We felt good about the guys who were in there before the injuries hit, and the roles that they had previous to those injuries are roles that they earned,” Tucker said. “We’re constantly evaluating the play of guys day-in and day-out and we feel good about those guys.
“We got a one-game evaluation on [the replacements]. They stepped in and we feel good about what they did. [But] when guys are healthy and ready to go, I anticipate those guys getting back in there and filling those roles again. And we know that we have guys that can step in when needed and get the job done, and that’s the expectation for us.”
Rather than discussing whether Greene, Sharpton and Jones earned more playing time with their outing against the Falcons, Trestman is just happy the trio responded when called upon.
“The good part about this whole thing is they got the playing time and I think they gained not only their own personal confidence and being able to play and go on the road and do what they did, but just the confidence of our football team and our coaches,” Trestman said.
“That’s a great start, and we’re going to need everybody as we move forward. There are not only players that are playing linebacker positions, they’re playing on special teams and doing other things. The more players we have available, the better off we’re going to be in the total picture.”
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Blackhawks record 50 shots, fall to Hiller, Flames in overtime.
By Tracey Myers
Pre-game Blackhawks locker room.
The Chicago Blackhawks had shots. They had plenty of shots. From start to finish, tallying all of those shots was not a problem.
Getting one of those many shots past Calgary goaltender Jonas Hiller, however, was.
Hiller stopped 49 of 50 shots he faced and Mikael Backlund tallied the winner with 24.8 seconds remaining in overtime as the Calgary Flames beat the Blackhawks 2-1 at the United Center on Wednesday night. Hiller was stellar for a Flames team that had little zone time, tallied 18 shots and put the Blackhawks on the power play seven times.
Andrew Shaw scored the Blackhawks’ lone goal, a redirected power-play goal off Patrick Sharp’s shot.
The Blackhawks were understandably frustrated after this one. Hiller stymied them, and they gave him full marks for that. But there were a few shots – or even shot opportunities – they would’ve liked to try again.
“Our best shots never even got to the net,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “We probably had six or seven A-plus chances (where we) didn’t even get a shot on net. We were looking for a better play, missed (the) shot, (it was) blocked, in too tight or missed the net. Those were the ones that didn’t even add up on the score sheet, but those were the quality shots we missed.”
Then there were the power plays, all seven of the Blackhawks’ power plays. The Flames entered this game giving up five power-play goals – four on the road – in their first four games. The Blackhawks had three power plays in the first period alone; three big opportunities to put the Flames down early. Be it their own struggles on it – they were back to more passing on too many of them – or Hiller’s work, the Blackhawks couldn’t capitalize.
Oh, they finally did on power play No. 7, when Shaw was in front for his second of the season. The goal was momentarily reviewed to make sure Shaw’s stick was below the crossbar; an inconclusive review later, the call on the ice stood.
“Just a clean (faceoff) win, just go to the net, Sharpie doing what he normally does and I just get a stick on it,” Shaw said. “Sharp said he had a good view of it. He knew it was going in so, if that’s the verdict, then clearly the tip wasn’t too high.”
So what did the Blackhawks do so differently on that power play that worked? Quenneville summed it up in one word.
“Shoot.”
Again, the Blackhawks did a lot of that on 5 on 5. Whether they didn’t get enough quality shots, Hiller was just damn good or a combination of the two, the Blackhawks just couldn’t get one more goal.
“You have to give him credit. We only scored one on so many shots,” Hossa said. “They were not all were A-plus quality shots. We did some pretty plays and didn’t finish them. In some parts of the game we tried to get too cute with the puck. We thought it was going to be easy but they hung in there and then in OT, they won it.”
How 'bout them Chicago Bulls Session… Tom Thibodeau giving Bulls a championship history lesson.
By Mike Singer
Part of the allure of Tom Thibodeau is that throughout his 24 years in the NBA, he’s been around all sorts of players and coaches, but he’s also seen both winning and losing cultures.
As such, Thibodeau can cite dozens of examples and apply them to his squad when relevant. The Bulls’ fifth-year coach, speaking from practice on Wednesday, cited his first NBA job in 1989 when he was hired by Bill Musselman of the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves.
“Every night, I forget how many games we won, I think it was 22 or 23 games, but every night that team overachieved,” Thibodeau said. “When I watched the way he coached, I was amazed at his ability to get the most out of his team.”
Thibodeau, whose teams are notorious for milking every ounce of talent onto the court, is taking those lessons and applying them to a team rife with expectations. Without Derrick Rose the past two seasons, the Bulls still made the playoffs and won well over 50 percent of their games.
This year, Thibodeau is insisting that his team bring the same attitude now with a healthy Rose combined with an elite post player in Pau Gasol.
Even at 34, Gasol is a vital component to the team. Practically, he’s another shot-blocker who can allow Joakim Noah to freely roam from the hoop to the free throw line. He's also an offensive force who adds a different "dimension," as Noah said.
But less tangibly, Gasol offers championship experience from a player’s perspective, unlike Thibodeau. Noah and Gasol haven't discussed his championships from 2009 and 2010 much, preferring to let that come out over time, but Noah did concede, "He's got some good stories, though."
Thibodeau remembers the 2008 and 2010 Finals well, too.
“I had the chance when I was in Boston to coach against him in the Finals there two times, and I learned a lot about him then,” Thibodeau said. “I could tell this summer when we were talking to him, how important winning was. He was talking about preparing for, playing with Spain in the summer, and you could tell he was the type of guy when he commits to something, it’s special.”
Gasol certainly offers another voice for the team to listen to, now mired in the doldrums of the preseason, but Thibodeau has championship experience of his own.
Digging into his well of examples, Thibodeau noted the '08 Boston Celtics, who won a championship with him as an associate head coach. Against the Lakers in the Finals, the Celtics held Los Angeles to 93.8 points per game, 8.6 points less than their postseason average.
Unsurprisingly, he was preaching the same things about practice habits to that team that he is today.
“When we were in Boston, in 2008, that was a great practice team. They were unreal,” Thibodeau said. “Maybe the best practice team I was ever with. They had (Kevin) Garnett, who was incredible. But you also had (Paul) Pierce and Ray Allen, and they were great leaders. They worked at it every day and wouldn’t let anyone take a day off.”
That’s the current struggle for Thibodeau, as his teams sits at 2-2 halfway through the preseason schedule. He loves the blend of veterans, returning stars and rookies, but he wants to ensure that his team isn’t “fooling” itself now two weeks from the start of the regular season.
He knows he has a leader in Rose, an emotional captain in Noah, but he still says the team is lacking an edge. In terms of a role model for practice, Thibodeau cited another semi-famous player who made a name for himself in Chicago.
“When you look back to what Jordan did here, it’s simply amazing, and he did that with an incredible work ethic. He didn’t do that by not putting the work into it,” Thibodeau said.
In case anyone gets tired of hearing his sermons, all Thibodeau need do is cite MJ and his unrivaled approach to winning. That should get the point across.
LeBron James doesn't like idea of shortening NBA games. What's your take?
By Marc J. Spears
LeBron James wouldn't mind a shortened NBA schedule. But he isn't a fan of the league's upcoming experiment to shorten games to 44 minutes.
The Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics will play a 44-minute preseason game on Sunday as part of the NBA's experiment. The exhibition will be four minutes shorter than the NBA's standard 48-minute game with four 11-minute quarters, one minute less each than usual. James thinks fewer games would be better for the NBA in the 82-game regular season rather than fewer minutes in a single game.
"It's not the minutes, it's the games," James said. "The minutes don't mean anything. We can play a 50-minute game if we have to. It's just the games. We all as players think it's too many games in our season.
"Eighty-two games are a lot. But it's not the minutes. Taking away minutes from the game isn't going to shorten it at all. Once you go out and play on the floor, it doesn't matter if you're playing 22 minutes … or you play 40 minutes. Once you play, it takes a toll on your body."
James did acknowledge that playing fewer games would also create less revenue for the teams and the players. He liked the 66-game lockout schedule during the 2011-12 NBA season – minus the occasional back-to-back-to-back set, but he didn't have a projected number that he believes would be best for the league.
James also made note of injured All-Stars Kevin Durant and Paul George, and thinks players' health would be aided by fewer games.
"We all know that without seeing the books that less games means less selling of tickets and prices and all of that," James said. "But at the end of the day, we want to protect the prize, and the prize is the players. We have to continue to promote the game and [when] guys are injured because there are so many games, we can't promote it at a high level."
Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Take: We agree with Mr. James on experimenting with the game time. One or two minutes are not going to make that much of a difference to the players, they're going to play hard once they're on the court.
Now shortening the season is another thing. We've talked to several true diehard season ticket holders and they feel that 82 games for a regular season is perfect for the price they pay for the tickets. Hockey also plays 82 games and we never hear a complaint about the length of their season. We all know that in professional sports, everyone wants their money; the owners, the players, the vendors, the cities (entertainment taxes and parking revenues), the sponsors and on and on. Shorten the season and raise the ticket prices If you really want to see the demise of your leagues and associations, kill the goose that lays the golden egg by punishing your fan base (by raising prices). There will be a lot of empty stadiums. Continue to raise prices on cable and satellite television and you'll see the viewers decrease there also. Sports is a great release for the American fan but if you price yourself out of the market, college sports and competitive leagues will evolve. It stands to reason that if you reduce the number of games, you're going to have to raise prices to make the same revenue or more. Why fix what's not broken? Leave well enough alone and watch your fan base exceed your expectations. Sorry Mr. James but you're wrong on this point. And if you think I'm joking, ask your fan base in Cleveland, Miami or any other NBA city how they would feel about reducing their favorite team's schedule?
Now you know how we feel and what we think, What’s Your Take? Marion P. Jelks, Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Blog Editor. Please use the comment section below and have at it. Let us know your thoughts.
Wild World Series: Perfect Royals vs. tested Giants.
Associated Press
Lorenzo Cain gearing up to run on Buster Posey. Pablo Sandoval trying to launch long balls, Alex Gordon banging into walls chasing them. Madison Bumgarner and James Shields starting big games, with lights-out bullpens poised to close 'em.
The playoff-perfect Kansas City Royals. The tried-and-tested San Francisco Giants.
A pair of wild cards, set to open Tuesday night in a World Series offering most everything a fan would want to watch.
Great gloves, tremendous speed, ace pitching, clutch hitting and a bit of power. Probably room for some second-guessing, too.
And, a tasty matchup. Let the foodies start debating: The vaunted Kansas City BBQ vs. all-world flavors by the Bay.
Plus, throw in a few celebrity rooters. Jeff Foxworthy cheering for his good pal/Royals manager Ned Yost. Former Journey front man Steve Perry in the stands at AT&T Park, leading the crowd in singing "Don't Stop Believin'" during the seventh-inning stretch.
A surprising meeting? Maybe, although both teams had high expectations when they met in Surprise — that's in Arizona, where Hunter Pence homered as the Giants beat the Royals early in spring training.
By August, the Royals were rolling. They swept the visiting Giants in a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium, beating Bumgarner, Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum, and stealing seven bases in the finale.
Now, they meet again.
The Royals, after going 8-0 in the AL playoffs, back in the World Series for the first time since beating the Cardinals in 1985. That's 29 years — the average age on the Royals' postseason roster is 28.
Cain, the AL Championship Series MVP, and Kansas City will have had five days off before Game 1. In the past, long layoffs in October have often meant rust more than rest.
The Giants, trying to extend their every-other-year success after winning crowns in 2010 and 2012. Sandoval, the popular Kung Fu Panda and a former World Series MVP, and his pals also have a lengthy break after finishing off St. Louis in the NL Championship Series on Thursday night.
This will be the first time that a pair of wild cards have played in the Series since a seven-game thriller between the Angels and Giants in 2002.
And this meeting has a fair amount of mystery to it, pitting clubs that don't share a ton of history. They've played 12 times since interleague play began, with Kansas City winning nine.
Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt pitched for the Royals the last time they visited San Francisco — that was in 2005, when Barry Bonds was still the giant name in orange and black.
Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry also pitched for both teams. He earned his first career win in 1962 with the Giants when their biggest star was Willie Mays. Perry posted his 314th and final victory in 1983 with the Royals, helped by a home run from Willie Mays Aikens.
Chances are, both teams will bring out their greats starting next week.
Mays and Bonds figure to be on the field in San Francisco, with McCovey Cove barely beyond the right-field wall. George Brett has been hollering from a stadium suite in KC, with the dancing water fountains just past the center-field fence.
MLB announces start times, broadcast info for 2014 World Series.
Here's the World Series schedule:
As usual, every game will begin at approximately 8pm ET and be broadcast on Fox.
The Giants lead the Cardinals three games to one in the NLCS.