Man the Lifeboats

Well, Captain Matt “Freaking” Nagy of the good ship da Bears really rallied the troops yesterday, now didn’t he? Six days after calling for every “freaking” coach and player to wake up and six days after calling out his defense, Nagy found what that was worth, a 34-40 upset loss to the now not-so-lowly Lions, who have a 5-7 identical to the Munsters. Hey, Coach, a six-game losing streak sure is character-revealing, don't you think? One of the many problems Nagy has, in my humble opinion, is he can’t keep his mouth shut. It’s all blah-blah-culture and blah-blah-great-practice, with a healthy dose of Captain Obvious (see the full “Freaking” remark he made). On the opposite end of the scale you have the Sphynx, aka linebacker Khalil Mack, who got shut out in the stats’ department against a supposedly inferior Detroit offensive line. Productive or not, Mack will still make $90 million guaranteed. So, you’ve got one guy who won’t shut up (or, conversely, say anything that verges on intelligent) and another guy who takes the money while putting in questionable effort and not saying a peep. What do they have in common? Why, Bears’ GM Ryan Pace, of course. No Pace, then no Nagy (still rockin’ that visor, BTW), no Mack. No Pace, now there’s an idea. A brickbat here to the Chicago media, which has finally gotten wise to the fact that the McCaskeys are the Chicago football version of the Bourbons—they’ve forgotten little because they’ve learned little. That said, everyone played along with Mack’s decision not to address the media; something about how it affects his karma. Sorry, you make the big bucks, it comes with responsibilities. And you’d be doing everyone a solid by getting Nagy away from the mic.