North: Chicago teams give us plenty to debate
With the holidays coming, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on the enjoyable escape that sports provides us from the grind of daily life.
Things are tough in our country right now and if the roller coaster continues, sports will grow even more in importance.
So while I'm in a cheerful mood, here are some thank-you messages to Chicago's pro teams.
Let me start with the Cubs and president of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein, who picked up a heck of a manager in Joe Maddon and mixed youth and experience to give us a 97-65 team that made it to the playoffs as a wild card. Those guys did a great job and the future looks promising.
The Blackhawks are a flashy exciting team that survived some controversy in the offseason involving a sexual assault case against Patrick Kane, but all charges were dropped. Life is good again for Kane, especially on the ice with 22 straight games with at least a point.
Chicago has been blessed with three Stanley cups in six years, and that tells you how important an organization is in winning. The Blackhawks were like the Cleveland Browns of hockey until Rocky Wirtz took the wheel and hired John McDonough as president and made things happen.
The Chicago Bears and general manager Ryan Pace have spread some holiday cheer even though they lost on Sunday (26-20) to the San Francisco 49ers. John Fox was a great hire, and even though the team is 5-7 and the chances of making the playoffs this year are slim, I see a different attitude with this team and I like it.
Thanks to the Bears for making this season interesting, because after they started 0-3 I was worried my postgame show on the Drive 97.1-FM would be grim. Fox and his coaching staff, however, righted the ship and made us pay attention.
As a guy who has been paid to observe Chicago sports for 23 years, this year's team has been one of my favorites because they have overachieved and worked hard.
Onto the Bulls and the White Sox. No doubt Jerry Reinsdorf has given me gold for years with subjects such as Walt Hriniak, Terry Bevington, Frank Thomas, Ozzie Guillen and Kenny Williams. How about Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Doug Collins, Jerry Krause, Tom Thibodeau, Derrick Rose, Gar Forman and John Paxson?
You see, good sports radio is usually more about individuals than about the teams. How about those one-hot wonders the 2005 World Series champion White Sox and then those six Bulls titles?
Oh man, it has been a treasure chest to be sure. Thanks to them all because the sports scene has helped us forget our daily troubles and given us plenty to debate.
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. Listen to my postgame Bears show on The Drive 97.1-FM every Sunday.
• 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.