What is it about being a General Manager of a sports franchise in Chicago that turns grown men into morons?  First, an entire winter of White Sox GM Kenny Williams' mouth writing checks his budget can't cash and now, Bears GM Jerry Angelo telling the media he's pretty happy with the status quo.  Yeah, if the object were to finish in last place.

Angelo already has raised red flag number one by expressing a desire to re-sign alleged quarterback Rex Grossman.  Even Angelo has to realize that Rex is fragile and when he's not fragile, he's making a bad decision.  He certainly isn't worthy of a first round pick and there has got to be someone out there who can play smart football.  Just admit you wasted a pick on Rex and move on, will you Jerry?

Discussion bad picks, Angelo now calls Cedric Benson a "feature" not a "franchise" back.  Well feature this, Jerry.  Your team, which be the admission of their head coach "gets off the bus running" couldn't and public enemy number one was Benson.  It took a season ending injury to get Benson out of the way for Adrian Peterson, who while a second teamer and third down specialist, was clearly the Bears biggest threat out of the backfield.  Again, Benson is an error in Angelo's judgment.  He should admit it, bring in a decent back and move on.  But he won't.  And while he claims that there will competition for positions, he won't say which ones or who will be competing.

On the subject of coaches, he'll leave it to Lovie and Lovie seems to like the continuity of what he has now and will most likely keep it this way, including his coordinators. 

So, basically, in a nut shell, the Bears are telling us the record is unacceptable, but we probably won't make a lot of changes.  They look at 2007 as an anomaly, rather than what it really was, the law of averages and the swinging of the pendulum. 

Good teams get better because they bring in better personnel.  The Patriots brought in Randy Moss, not because he was a great guy that enjoyed eating at the same places as Bill Belichick, but because he could help the Patriots win.  They are 16-0 this year, I think.

The Bears, meanwhile, cast out Thomas Jones and wound up almost in the basement in rushing.   Next year you probably won't see Lance Briggs, Barnard Barrien, Moose Muhammad and others.  Some will addition by subtraction (Fred Miller, Adam Archuletta), others will not.  But all will be decided by Angelo and Smith, and you can never tell with those two. 

With both Green Bay and Minnesota stocked with fine young players, the Bears days of just showing up and winning the NFC North are over.  True, they beat the Elderly Hillbilly and the Pack twice, but also went 0-4 against the Vikings and Lions.  This needs to change quickly if the Bears want to sniff the playoffs again in our lifetime.

The sad thing is, a year removed from the Super Bowl, this team looks like it's going brain dead from the top down.  That's not a good sign for Bear fans at all.

Lightning Round

• Bill Parcells completes the enema in Miami. Stevie Wonder could have seen that coming. Now, former Cowboys head office guy and now Dolphins GM John Ireland are looking for a new coach.  I'm thinking Jason Garrett here.  Seriously.  Although if I were him, I'd wait until I found Wade Phillips slumped over the keyboard of his PC and then take the Dallas job.  Or, get a Jimbo Fisher like guarantee from Mr. Jones.  Like anyone would ever believe him.
• The Ravens are looking for an offensive minded head coach.  Mike Martz is available, but one mad genius per franchise, per decade please.  Cam Cameron also is available but may have some Dolphin damage to overcome.  Congratulations to Jim Caldwell of the Colts for serving as this year's designated minority.
• Bob Stoops should tell the Big Twelve that he'll boycott the next time they send him to the Fiesta Bowl. Rumor has it upon accepting the head coach job at West Virginia, Bill Stewart said "I want to thank God and Bob Stoops who made this all possible.  Speaking of that, it was obvious that WVU's intent was to save money and not make the same mistake they did with Rich Rodriguez, you know, hire a coach who would care about the facilities and other amenities that actually net you blue chip recruits.  Stewart is one of those "just happy to be here guys" who will toe the line and never be a diva like Rodriguez did.  Of course, he was lied to, so what do you expect?
• They're hiring at Duke and at Georgia Tech, the Ol' Johnson picks his boys.
• Look, Jerry!  Another Texas running back.  When are people going to realize the last decent one was named Campbell?
• Today's list: 10 Laughable Kitchen Gadgets