Sod story: Bears promise to be more vigilant
BOURBONNAIS — Chairman of the board George McCaskey has been assured that the grass at Soldier Field will be playable for Saturday night’s preseason opener against the Bills after Friday’s scheduled practice was canceled because of unsafe conditions.
“I was there (Sunday) and spoke to Ken Mrock, our groundskeeper, and John Nolan, the park district’s groundskeeper,” McCaskey said. “Both of them said that they’re confident the field’s going to be ready for Saturday.”
McCaskey said the park district needs to do a better job of maintaining the field, and the Bears need to do a better job of overseeing the situation.
“The park district has already said that it was a miscalculation on their part (that caused potentially dangerous seams between dried out rolls of sod),” McCaskey said. “And we need to take a more active role in monitoring their treatment of the field. It needs to be a collaborative effort, and we’re confident that it’s going to be.”
Corner on the market:Free agent cornerback Kelvin Hayden is expected to decide by Thursday where he will play, and one of his considerations is the Bears, who were interested in him when he was an unrestricted free agent in 2009.#147;At this time of the year we#146;re looking at everybody that#146;s available,#148; coach Lovie Smith said. #147;Kelvin has been a good football player. The last time he was available #8212; we thought there was a chance he was available #8212; we were looking into him a little bit because I know quite a bit about him. He#146;s a good football player. We have a history with him. Right now we#146;re just going to find out what we can about him and see where he is.#148;Hayden returned a Rex Grossman pass for a TD in the Colts#146; Super Bowl XLI victory over the Bears.Weather or not:Monday#146;s practice was cut short by an hour because of lightning and heavy rain. Some of the missed reps will be made up at Wednesday#146;s practice.#147;We#146;re fine,#148; coach Lovie Smith said. #147;In the end it#146;s not going to matter. We#146;re going by the same rules everyone else is. But we#146;re missing some team reps, so you need to be able to make up for it some kind of way.#148; Odds and ends:Because of a schedule change, there will be no practice today at Olivet Nazarene University. Instead, the Bears will practice on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Friday is an off-day. ... Defensive tackles Anthony Adams and rookie Stephen Paea (general soreness) did not practice Monday afternoon. ... According to Bodog, the over-under for Bears victories this season is 8frac12;.Ÿ Follow Bob#146;s Bears reports via Twitter @BobLeGere and check out our Bear Essentials blog at dailyherald.com.