O’Donnell: From Ben Johnson to Red Panda, shoveling a snowy batch of Ins and Outs

ON A SLEIGH RIDE FROM THANKSGIVING TO CHRISTMAS, jingles and jangles spotlighting select sports Ins and Outs:

IN --- The Bears — Still standing after Philadelphia, how can they not be “In?” … If their 2025 season ended today, Ben Johnson and his resourceful regiment have brought positive energy and showed what refreshed vigor a combination of luck and steady development can generate. … Five regular-season games to go including an away-and-home set with the Packers that looms as high-flash ghost-busting.

OUT --- The Bulls — A 5-0 start that now seems as illusory as Red Panda and her tea cups and unicycle floating up above the banners at the United Center. … “The Curse of the Breakup” uncomfortably hovers on in its second quarter century. … How many restarts do Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley get? … It's like rooting for The Weather Channel.

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IN --- Major sports gaming scandals — Can't get enough of 'em. … Every new one should only serve to smarten up a catatonic American sports mainstream, especially most gullible younger bettors who chase five-part parlays. … Sure only the stupid and greedy seem to get caught. … But the powers way up high — who profit the most from the hideous meld of big-time games and legal wagering — want the public's ostrich mentality to stay put.

OUT --- Public touts — Whether it's picking NFL games or sumo wrestling matches from the Ryogoku Kiokugikan in Tokyo, no one who can consistently select winners is employed to do so. … The profiteers are doing it privately and answering only to their accountants and the IRS. … Memphis Frank's old wisdom still endures: “You don't need no one else to tell you how to lose your money.”

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IN --- Sports on YouTube — A shrewd template of how the next generations will consume televised sports. … That's why the recent impasse between YouTube and Disney was loaded with irony — 45 years ago, ESPN was the new outsider on the national TV sports block. … Viewing elasticity, new technology and innovation will always be enormous draws for both audiences and advertising dollars.

OUT --- The new NBA network TV packages — In and of themselves, many regular-season pro games can be excruciating exercises in tedium, even the ones with grand theatrical endings. … The oversaturation of televised tipoffs in Month One of new deals with NBC, ESPN/ABC and Prime Video is hammering home that reality like an Amen Thompson dunk. … The league's night-to-night theme could be the old Four Tops classic, “It's The Same Old Song.”

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IN --- Dylan Cease and the Toronto Blue Jays — A former Cubs draftee and ascending White Sox project, Cease snagged a seven-year $210M deal with the most exciting high-wire ensemble in the American League. … As for those Blue Jays, MLB and its fans should be forever grateful to Vlad Guerrero Jr., “Utility” Ernie Clement and all for breathing memorable zip into a 2025 World Series that was supposed to be about as lively as J.D. Vance at a Young Republicans breakfast.

OUT --- The White Sox — Are they in Nashville yet? … The only thing more boring than watching this band of market fleas play is following any of the franchise's predictable off-season penny-pinching. … Jerry Reinsdorf will complete 45 years (!) as managing partner of the diamond thrift shop this winter and all but 2005 has seemed like a sooty fog closing Midway Airport.

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IN --- University of Michigan men's basketball — OK, it's not even December, but anyone who watched this outfit at the Players Era Festival from Las Vegas this week couldn't help but think “Final Four.” … Yaxel Lendeborg and the Wolverines won their three games by an average of close to 37 points, capped by a 101-61 walkover vs. Gonzaga, the worst defeat of Mark Few's 902-game career. … A testament to talent identification by Dusty May and a deep NIL war chest in Ann Arbor.

OUT --- Major-college basketball in Illinois — There are 13 Division-I schools in the state and only Brad Underwood and his Fighting Illini appear properly resourced to dream of a second weekend in the NCAA's Big Dance next March. … Only six of that baker's dozen are over .500, a dreary count near the end of Patsy Month. … Big dipper is Drew Valentine and Loyola (1-7) and free oxygen to anyone who can name what conference Chicago State plays in.

Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.