Jim O'Donnell: Poles, Harbaugh, Getsy, Kimmel, Rodgers — NFL dominates the media week
AT LEAST A SLUMBERING SPORTS AMERICA knows how to stay cocooned.
Two significant foreign conflicts, disruptive winter weather and the final days until the 2024 Iowa presidential caucuses — all slotted somewhere up on the national marquee.
But none higher than what has quickly evolved into an intense Super NFL Wild Card week.
Six playoff games straight ahead and a dizzying coaching carousel — come aboard, they've been expecting you.
Even with Nick Saban drifting off.
Throw in a feud between an aggrieved late-night mirth maker and an aging quarterback grounded in space oddity and who needs reality?
THE BEARS ARE OFFICIALLY charting an altered course after the firing of Luke Getsy and most offensive staff Wednesday.
Freshly crowned national collegiate champ Jim Harbaugh is reveling in a blue-and-maize haze for a while. He's proving once again that winners can indeed be choosers.
Jimmy Kimmel and Aaron Rodgers are providing increasingly embittered distraction. And the darkly retreating QB is learning the hard way that it's never a good idea to take on a skilled satirist with a nightly national platform and an impressive staff of heat-seeking young comedy writers.
GOING MICRO:
Ryan Poles — In those marvelously odd ways of Halas Hall, the Bears GM emerges from the Getsy hiring misstep more empowered than ever. … Two seasons in, he knows what he has in Matt Eberflus, can now quite coherently evaluate the future risk/reward of Justin Fields and has the explicit backing of George McCaskey and Kevin Warren, who in tandem know about as much about winning football as Bill Belichick's barber.
Matt Eberflus — A nice fellow with all the up-close charisma of a day bartender at Tony Packo's in his native Toledo. … Still, the man must be given enormous credit for steering the leaky-tiki of Poles for two seasons. … The 2022 campaign was kicked out from underneath him with the trades of Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn. … The 2023 take-off was imposted by Getsy's flailing and the sudden ashcanning of two assistants for reasons shrouded in mystery. … He deserved to be retained.
Jim Harbaugh — As has been written, knows far too much about the McCaskey Bears to ever consider coming to Lake Forest. … The Harbaugh brothers enter situations to produce champions. … That's not the McCaskey way. … Jim Harbaugh now has the leverage to re-enter the NFL at a supra-Belichick control level. … The Commanders, Chargers and Seahawks are in the mix, but it says here Mark Davis and the Raiders will offer him carte blanche worthy of a mob boss at the old Stardust.
Kevin Warren — The man's personal monthly Nicor bill must be off the charts. … What a gasbag. … His Wednesday filibuster following the Poles-Eberflus presser was a 3 a.m. night-ender at a bad comedy club. … Even TV partner WFLD-Channel 32 pulled the plug on it. … His repeated references to his association with Dick Vermeil and the 2000 Super Bowl champ Rams are a desperate cry for validity. … Three years later, he was out of the NFL and back in private law practice. … Do the McCaskeys fully understand what they do and do not have in the man?
The Kimmel-Rodgers feud — Eleven months ago, Kimmel started lampooning Rodgers about some of his kookier positions. … Rodgers finally started firing back two weeks ago during his regular weekly appearance on Pat McAfee's low-rated ESPN daytime talker. … But he did so in grossly out-of-bounds manner, suggesting Kimmel was on the dreaded Jeffrey Epstein list, implying an association with pedophiles. … Monday night, Kimmel — in his first show back after the holiday break — absolutely eviscerated Rodgers on air (YouTube “kimmel aaron rodgers”.) … Wednesday, McAfee announced that the “season” run of Rodgers on his show was over.
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MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS NOT ASKED OF POLES Wednesday:
In the NFL's annual cycle, a decision on a new offensive coordinator has to be made long before a final decision on Fields, which conceivably doesn't have to happen until Draft Night (April 25 in Detroit).
If Fields is staying, doesn't it benefit all for him to be included in discussions about and even with the new OC? Is that the Poles plan moving forward?
If Fields is staying, he should participate in the writing of a fresh playbook.
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AND PRIMARILY FOR SPECULATORS looking ahead to the NFL's weekend extravaganza:
Cris Collinsworth was asked Wednesday which wild card teams he's looking for surprises from this weekend. He cited the Packers and the Rams.
Both 'dogs play Sunday. Jordan Love and Green Bay are getting 7½ at Dallas (3:30 p.m., Fox). Matthew Stafford and the Rams are plus-3 at Detroit (7 p.m., NBC).
Collinsworth told media: “The Packers have a lot of young players who just keep getting better by the week. As for the Rams, they're 7-1 since their bye week with their only loss at Baltimore in overtime.”
From his lips to the lords of pro pixie chance.
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.