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Letting Hester go didn't make the Bears better

I have to be honest and admit I was more than a little upset with Devin Hester's departure from the Bears.

I thought for the money — about $2 million a year — he was worth the expense.

At 31, Hester has plenty of football left, and he still is the best return man in the league. He also could run some pass patterns, and I believe he is a future Hall of Famer.

Our overnight host at Fox Sports radio, Ben Maller, recently commented that if he was watching a Bears game and Hester was ready to receive a punt or return a kickoff, he would stop what he was doing to wait and see what would happen.

That kind of star power is a real weapon.

I was a guest on 690-AM radio in Atlanta recently, and the hosts were going crazy with the Hester acquisition, and I couldn't disagree with their elation. I know one thing for certain: The Bears didn't get better by losing him.

No Tiger for the Masters?

There's talk that Tiger Woods could miss the upcoming Masters because of a back injury.

Any way you look at it, that isn't good news.

Woods isn't a family favorite, but I always enjoy a tournament more when he is playing. Everyone has an opinion on him, and everyone loves to speculate on the likelihood of him winning another major, which would be his first since 2008.

I‘ll still watch the Masters if he doesn't participate, but it won't be nearly as much fun or intriguing. I believe that winning 18 or 19 majors is a thing of the past for him, but we do love watching him compete.

NFL expansion:

There is talk the NFL eventually will add two games to the schedule, which would make the regular-season 18 games.

While NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that's what the people want, I haven't heard such talk.

Which people? The fans, or the players?

No, it's what the NFL wants. If you think 18 games sounds bad, you can be sure adding more teams also is part of the equation. That's not a good idea either. Why ruin a great thing? Let's not water down the product anymore.

Hopefully the commissioner and owners will leave well enough alone. Sometimes expansion in sports is a good thing and sometimes it's a bad thing, but right now the NFL believes it can do no wrong.

Did they forget they had trouble selling out three early playoff games? I guess so.

Program notes:

Follow me on Twitter@ north2north, and listen to Fox Sports Daybreak with Andy Furman and me from 5-8 a.m. Monday through Friday on Fox Sports radio. Catch my show from 7-11 a.m. Sundays, and check me out on iHeart radio or Foxsportsradio.com.

• Mike 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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