Richard Daley is no cartographer

During a recent interview on Comcast's "Monsters in the Morning" Chicago mayor Richard Daley (inspired by the Arizona Cardinals ascension to the Super Bowl) decided to remind us of his advocacy for Chicago receiving another NFL franchise. Which is an understandable argument to bring up, considering Chicago has a population that could financially support a second franchise. Yet it is when he brought other cities and states into the debate that he showed his lack of geographical knowledge for our great nation:

"We should have a second NFL team in Chicago. If San Francisco has two, New York
has two, Florida has three teams … and when you take Washington, Baltimore and
Philadelphia, they have three teams there in that region, we could easily
support a second pro football team,..."

That is news to me, because last time I checked San Fransisco had one team in the 49ers. The Raiders play in a different city, although in close proximity it is a divided by a sizable body of water also known as the San Fransisco Bay. New York has only one team, there called the Buffalo Bills. New Jersey has two. Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia are three distinct cities with major populations of their own. Chicago is a big city in its own rite, at 228.443 square miles its not a city you can easily ignore. However comparing your fair city to a state the size of Florida probably isn't the best strategy for NFL growth in the Windy City.

King Daley, I can't imagine the Bears would be to excited about having to share the market with another franchise and without a team in Los Angeles I don't think you should expect Roger Goodell to agree with you anytime soon. So just keep up the good work on the environment, gun control , and the Olympics; but stay away from anything involving geography outside the state of Illinois. In summation, if you must get yourself into a conversation involving cities, states and/or countries you would benefit greatly by studying up and watching this show. It worked great for me in third grade, so I can imagine it would suit you just fine.

Orton named Chicago starting QB

The battle for the starting quarterback spot between Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman began when the two entered the off season training program, splitting reps with the first team offense. During OTAs and training camp they used a coin flip to determine who was first to work with the starters. Both were decent but far from spectacular in training camp. Their performances were comparable in the first preseason game against Kansas City and then the offense could not do a thing against the blitz happy Seahawks. And with that game Orton apparently won the job or Grossman lost it, for now. Orton won the competition without directing the offense to a touchdown or completing a pass of more than 17 yards. The five preseason possessions where he lead the team, resulted in two field goals and three punts. Head coach Lovie Smith hinted that this is just the beginning to another excruciatingly long season for Bears fans:

"Is it over? .... Nothing is ever over with any position. We don’t
name any guys starters for a lifetime or anything like that. But we feel real
good about Kyle just like we feel good about Olin Kreutz being our center, Lance
Briggs being our will linebacker."

Did he really just compare Orton to Kreutz and Lance Briggs? When asked how he felt about being named the starter, Kyle answered:

"I’m real excited....This is obviously one of my goals going into
the season. As a team, we’ve got a lot of goals to accomplish and this is just
the start of it....It’s a relief and now it’s just all about the unit and
knowing what everybody’s going to do and just kind of tailoring things to the
way that we like it."

Orton has a 12-6 record as a starter,with 10 of those wins coming in his surprising rookie campaign in 2005, where he lead the Bears to a 10-5 record. Last year he led the team to a 2-1 record in the final three games, with the two wins coming over the Packers and the Saints. Yet I think Orton should hold back on some of that excitement, after all he is on the team that has had 33 starting quarterbacks in the last 8 and a half seasons.