Ph.D.'s

Hats off to the McCaskeys. Their team goes 7-10, and the local sports’ media still bathes them in coverage as if their season weren’t over. Maybe every edition of the nightly news yesterday didn’t lead with the firing of offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and the retention of head coach Matt “call me Mickey Mouse II” Eberflus, but I’ll bet the story ran within the first ten minutes, tops. Heaven help us, and thank goodness Christ didn’t schedule the Second Coming for January 10th. Nobody would’ve been available to cover it. Nice to see GM Ryan Poles and team president Kevin Warren come out of hibernation to address reporters, and how nice of reporters not to ask them where they’ve been all season. Yes, they’re more accessible than ex-GM Ryan Pace ever was, but that’s a low bar. Whatever the McCaskeys pay them, Poles and Warren earned their salaries, and then some, piling it higher and deeper. The front office loves Eberflus and sort of loves quarterback Justin Fields. Warren said nice things about Chicago proper, adding to the sense that the Munsters may not move to the suburbs, after all. Warren was asked if developing the Arlington Heights’ site was a priority, to which he responded, “The priority is to make sure we build a world-class stadium for our fans.” [story in today’s The Athletic] And we all know Warren is a person of integrity because last week he donated $1 million for cancer research in the name of his late sister. The timing with yesterday’s news conference was pure coincidence, I’m sure. And so it goes in a land ruled by the most mediocre of sports’ franchises.