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ESPN's Scott stood out in broadcast world

It was sad to hear about the passing of ESPN anchor Stuart Scott from cancer on Sunday.

In a medium now devoid of imagination and straight talk, Scott found a niche and stood out. He was one of the few left with the regular-guy jargon that is mostly gone from today's politically correct corporate world.

When I first saw Scott on ESPN, I wasn't a big fan. As the years passed, however, he would step out of the box more often than not and deliver the unexpected. In our vanilla broadcast environment, Scott was a breath of fresh air.

Condolences to his family, both at home and at ESPN, and his friends.

A replacement for Cutler

I'm reading and hearing Jay Cutler may be the best option for the Bears to return as their quarterback in 2015.

The Cutler apologists may be right, but let's take a long hard look at some other options first.

How about pulling Brett Favre out of retirement? OK, I'll get serious. Perhaps there is a second- or third-string quarterback playing for one of the other 31 teams out that is worth a look.

Remember, Steve Young and Tom Brady were both backups at one time.

Let's really look hard because Cutler brings his own kind of poison to a team. He's got a huge contract and he has yet to prove he's a winner, especially during post season play (1-1).

I think every Bears fan can agree on one main thing: the whole team needs a makeover.

The fans aren't clamoring for Cutler to stay, so if the Bears can lose Cutler and not be responsible for all of his salary, then the organization can start fresh. They simply are not close to being a playoff team right now.

Ted Phillips is still the president and CEO of the team because of his familiarity, and George McCaskey is the chairman because of his blood lines. Neither one should be allowed to make another horrendous personnel decision.

Let's hope there will be more movement soon at Halas Hall. In the meantime, maybe the newly retired Kyle Orton will reconsider.

Bulls shine:

After dealing with the Bears' poor decisions, it's nice to talk about a team making the right ones - the Bulls.

Congrats should go to a great front office with vice president of Basketball Operations John Paxson and general manager Gar Forman, who has taken his share of criticism over the years.

With players such as Jimmy Butler, Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah, the Bulls are fun to watch. Do you know Derrick Rose might be the third or fourth best starter on the Bulls right now?

By the way, Rose said the other day that he's a shooting guard. No D-Rose, you're a point guard that is a scorer.

Program notes:

Follow me on Twitter@ north2north, and listen to Fox Sports Daybreak with Andy Furman and myself from 5-8 a.m. Monday through Friday on Fox Sports radio, and check me out on iHeart radio or Foxsportsradio.com.

• North's column appears each Tuesday and Friday in the Daily Herald, and his video commentary can be found Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at dailyherald.com. For more, visit northtonorth.com.

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