O’Donnell: Is Halas Hall paying attention to a lesson from Super Bowl 60?
LAST LABOR DAY WEEKEND, anyone who had the Seahawks flapping off against the Patriots in Super Bowl 60 must have been in possession of some serious sports hallucinogenics.
But those are the names up on the marquee Sunday as another grand rite of the contemporary American winter will play out at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara (kickoff — 5:37 p.m., NBC).
The nation used to drink and go home. Now, presumptively, a more temperate spirit will prevail as a projected national audience of close to 140 million tunes in to watch, chip dip and eventually return to the polarizing political cartoon channels.
NEW ENGLAND'S SUDDEN REVIVAL — from a 4-13 log 12 months ago to NFL finalist — should stir and enlighten football souls. Hopefully all the way from the San Francisco Bay Area to Lake Forest.
When the untested Jerod Mayo came up dry in his lone season as successor to Bill Belichick, success-oriented Patriots owner Robert Kraft and staff didn't wait for a report from the National Transportation Scrimmage Board.
Mayo was gone and smash-mouth NE legacy Mike Vrabel was in.
Vrabel has been so “in” at his second pro head coaching stop that he bested Ben Johnson of the Bears — he of the scream-scheme finishes — for 2025 Coach of the Year.
THE KRAFT COOKBOOK OF QUICK-AND-CERTAIN course adjustment recalls the words of another prominent Bostonian. That would be President John F. Kennedy.
Speaking to the American Newspaper Publishers Association in April 1961, President Kennedy said:
“An error doesn't become a mistake unless you refuse to correct it.”
Hmmm … by forward-visioned transference meaning that even in an NFL context, a poor and inefficient functionary, one who is clearly obstructing a progressive path, can either be acknowledged as a correctable error to be overcome or allowed to linger and further derail matters.
THERE'S NO POINT IN SPOTLIGHTING any names at Halas Hall. The public record can cover that.
The '25 Bears, with recurring help from benevolent spirits above, presented an astonishingly entertaining football product.
On the business side, the name of the game — most impactfully, regarding a new stadium — was derailment and folly.
TIN-CUPPING IS NOT a business strategy for a multi-billion-dollar sports/show business corporation. That's regardless of how many junior-varsity political sycophants promise and promote assistance in the pursuit of corporate welfare.
And when the sounds of an alleged stadium whisperer fade toward interstate steal mills, who is to correct the error?
ROBERT KRAFT AND HIS STAFF acknowledged misstep, quickly corrected and their fresh-swag Patriots will co-star in Super Bowl 60 Sunday.
Around Lake Forest, new-stadium sports hallucinogenics will apparently remain in vogue.
STREET-BEATIN':
Now, about betting The Big Game, courtesy of Steve Makinen of Vegas Stats and Info: In the last 29 Super Bowls, the lower-seeded team is 17-2-2 against the point spread with eight games matching equal seeds and not included in that ledger. By that metric, the AFC No. 2 seed Patriots (+4½) should be a lock 'n a shoo vs. the NFC No. 1 seed Seahawks. (Good luck with that.) …
As far as the MVP of SB 60, in the last 27 championships, quarterbacks have been tabbed 18 times along with five wide receivers, three linebackers and a lone DB (Dexter Jackson of Tampa Bay, SB 37, 2003). No running back has won the award since Denver's Terrell Davis in SB 32 (1998). After QBs Sam Darnold (6-5) and Drake Maye (5-2), most popular pick is SEA WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (11-1), who is amazing. …
Back to Chicago realities, all of the words about the Bulls' mad flurry of trades at the NBA deadline can't mask the basic truth that Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley make memories of the improbable Gar Forman seem like visions of Red Auerbach. The two have been heaven-sent for firm believers in “The Curse of the Breakup.” …
An intriguing group of partners has come together to try and resurrect the idea of a harness-racing racino in the south suburbs of Chicago. A similar effort fronted by Hawthorne's Tim Carey and suburban businessman Rick Heidner was throttled in 2019 when Gov. JB Pritzker declined to sell the duo state-owned land in Tinley Park. Heidner is in the midst of a run for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. If his ballots come in, he'll face Pritzker in November. …
And Jimmy Kimmel, on the avalanche of Milan Cortina Winter Olympics coverage that began on NBC platforms Friday: “Who's ready for two weeks of trying to figure out the difference between bobsledding and the luge? Why don't they just call the luge what it really is — (backside)-sledding?” …
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.