Quick Shots: At Long Last Finally The Blackhawks Mean Something Again
I read some comments on a comment board this morning where one guy in particular really cheesed me off. He said something to the effect that "the Blackhawks will always be a cult following with about 20,000 die hard fans." Dude, you are so wrong. Back in the day, when the Hawks had guys named Hull, Mikita and Esposito, the Hawks were ten times more popular than the local basketball team. They had sellouts every game and getting season tickets for the NHL was like getting season tickets for the Bears. Only the inept stewardship of William Wirtz and the arrival of a guy named Jordan shifted the balance. With the Hawks one of the rising teams in the NHL and the Bulls and NBA floundering, the time is right for Chicago to become a huge hockey town again. The guy who made the comments probably thinks the same thing about the White Sox.- Lovie Smith is mum about the future of his coaching staff. This would be code for "I'll be firing my good friend Bob Babach to replace him with Rod Marinelli. Marinelli was Smith's roommate when the two coached in Tampa. Lovie also needs to take a good, hard look at Ron Turner who I believe is a major reason the Bears offense is so ineffective.
- The Bears say they are satisfied with Kyle Orton as their starter. This serves as final notice that Rex Grossman won't be returning next season. While that's good news, the Bears need to find someone to compete with Orton in training camp. Orton, while a fine game manager isn't even the best quarterback in the weak NFC North let alone one of the better ones in the league.
- The Gus Malzahn hire at Auburn is interesting. Four years ago the guy was a high school coach. Houston Nutt was blackmailed into hiring him at Arkansas which began Nutt's downfall at that university. Malzahn moved on to Tulsa where his spread helped the Golden Hurricanes to two pretty good seasons-in CUSA. The question is does Malzahn have the cred to coach at the SEC level yet and will the spread, which doomed Tommy Tuberville last year, plague the Tigers in 2009? If Auburn is really committed to running the throttle down, wide open, Missouri type spread, they better recruit some athletes to run it now. In addition,, Gene Chizik should watch his back as Malzahn either directly or indirectly led to the insurrection that cost Nutt his job at Arkansas.
- I said it once and I'll say it again: The health of Brett Favre's shoulder and the possibility of him returning next season are directly dependent on the name of the new Jets coach. I agree with Mike Lupica on this one.
- A former Bears coach who coaches an under performing team could be out of work as early as Wednesday. Unfortunately, we're not talking about Dave Wannstedt.
- San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos has told fans in a letter that he suffers from dementia. We knew this the minute that he hired Norv Turner as head coach.
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