The Bears' Season Is Over

The Chicago Bears have lost three straight games following starting quarterback, Jay Cutler, suffering what appears to be a season-ending thumb injury. To have a chance at a playoff birth, the team has to win all three of its remaining games and one of those games is against the undefeated Green Bay Packers. This season is all but lost.

Over the past several years, the Bears have proven to be completely inept from the top down. Bad contracts have been given out, terrible drafts have been made, and seemingly simply tasks have been made to look incredibly difficult (i.e. having someone actually call in a trade during the draft instead of allowing time to expire). Last night's loss to the Denver Broncos proved this even more.

Late in the game runningback, Marion Barber, went out of bounds which kept the clock from running and essentially gave time back to Denver. You learn in high school or maybe even middle school, to stay in bounds in that situation. At the same time, the coaching staff has to make sure that their players know what to do and they failed their duty.

Also, the Bears' defense didn't know what it was doing. There were times when the players on the field attempted to play two different coverages, not knowing which one they were supposed to be doing. All of this led to blowing a 10 point lead and losing 13-10 in overtime.

The team's injuries to Matt Forte and Jay Cutler over the past few weeks have made the Bears show their true colors. They have no depth, the don't have a number two quarterback worthy of seeing the field, the receivers are bad, the offensive line is bad, they lack talent, and they lack coaching. It is time to start over.

It is looking more and more likely the team will finish with a losing record of 7-9. Maybe ownership fill finally unload general manager, Jerry Angelo, head coach, Lovie Smith, and the rest of both of their staffs. This is not a team built to win long-term or a team prepared to win a super bowl. Over the past few years, they have looked just good enough to pass the eye-test for most people, but the Bears were really just fooling everyone. "Begin again."

Is It Wrong?

Is it wrong to listen to the same song over 200 times in two days? I don't think so.

Dub-Metal?

Today, California based rock band, Korn, released its 10th studio album. The album entitled "The Path of Totality" takes the band's sound in a new direction. It is still heavy, it is still metal, but the band features a dub-step dj/producer on each of the 13 new tracks. Even though I'm a long-time Korn fan, I really wanted to hate this album, but I can't. I'm digging it.

"Let's Go", "Sanctuary", and "Narcissistic Cannibal" are all worthy of listening to on repeat. I was worried that this new sound would be too great of a departure from what makes Korn Korn, but it isn't. The band has managed to successfully immerse dub-step and drum-step into their sound as if it were effortless. While I do enjoy this album, I hope that this isn't the future of Korn. I am fine with them including some of these sounds and experiments in future works, but I don't want another album that is all dub-metal.

For now, I'm just going to keep my headphones on and enjoy this very intriguing new music.

Another Brilliant Idea: Party System

Why do we have two political parties? Politics is not black and white, but we try to make it that way. For everything our party system gets right, there is something that it gets wrong. We need an update. America has had to make changes over its 200 plus years, why not make another one?

Right now, so many times, politicians vote based on party lines and make decisions based on party beliefs, even if they don't support those beliefs. The two-party system has broken down. Nothing gets done because republicans and democrats can't get along. Its always a stalemate unless one party gets more power than the other. If then, that just happens in the short term. Eventually, the power shifts and then that party makes it miserable for the other one. Lets just get rid of parties.

It could be chaotic if not handled properly, but we don't need parties, do we? People wouldn't have to follow a particular party structure or pledge allegiance to a single believe system with no room for change. In America, we support people being themselves and being individuals (supposedly). Right now, politically, we don't allow for that to happen. This structural change would enable people to be themselves.

While we're at it, lets get rid of national conventions. The Democratic and Republican national conventions used to serve a purpose; they used to announce each party's candidates for the presidency. Now, we already know who the candidates are by the time the conventions come around. So, millions of dollars are spent on announcing nothing. It would more smarter and more economically to spend that money on almost anything else (literally). In a down economy, we can't afford to waste even more money.

Feel free to start poking holes in this "brilliant idea."

"Playoffs?"

Will there ever be playoffs in college football? I hope so, but I don't think so. Division 1 football is the only college sport left without a playoff system in place. Even lower divisions of football have playoffs. If the NFL adopted the NCAA's bowl system, fans nationwide would be outraged.

The current system does not always do what it is supposed to do. The lone job of the bowl system is (supposed) to be to put the two best teams against each other in the National Championship game. Schools like Boise State, Utah, and Texas Christian don't get a fair shot in this system. This year, 7th ranked Boise State was left out of a BCS bowl. That means four times in the last eight years, they were ranked in the top 10 and left out. The Big East can keep cranking our mediocre teams and still get automatic bids into BCS games. This isn't supposed to happen. There has to be a systematic change.

There can still be playoffs and bowl games. Schools, networks, and the NCAA can still make way more money than they deserve. Player's academics won't have to be affected anymore than they already are. The are tons of ways to make it would and I'll leave it up to people smarter than me to decide on which way is best. 

All I am saying is that a playoff system would better benefit the fans (get to watch more meaningful games with better matchups), better for the networks ("March Madness" in NCAA basketball gets huge coverage, why wouldn't this?), better for the schools (more national exposure), and better for the players (again, more exposure and greater chances of making it to the NFL. Players would be able to showcase their skills on a bigger stage and provide more tape for NFL scouts and executives.) So, why hasn't this happened yet and when will it?

"Bittersweet Symphony"

Ron Santo has finally been voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The former Cubs' third baseman failed to make it in during his 15 years of eligibility Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot. The Veterans Committee also had several chances to vote him in, but declined. Today, Santo was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Monday by the Golden Era Committee.

He needed 12 of the 16 voters to select him to get in and 15 voted for him. By the numbers, most people around baseball (outside of the voters) had argued that Santo should be a hall of famer for years. Santo himself, never complained about not making it in. Cubs fans everywhere can rejoice that number 10 is finally in the hall, but the Golden Era Committee was still too late. Santo died on December 3rd last year, making the celebration bittersweet.

Rest in peace, Ron Santo. 

When Can I See Master Chief Throw A Plasma Grenade at Marcus Fenix?

Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series has been hugely successful. There have been three games in the series thus far and it looks like there will be more in the future. Recently, rumors were confirmed that Sony is finally making their own Supper Smash Bros. style game for the PS3. Naturally, people are creating their own wish lists for characters to feature in the game and everyone is taking guesses as to who will make this final cut. Still, I haven't heard anyone ask this question: what about Microsoft?

I love gaming, but it's expensive. This means that I can only afford to have one console and I decided on an Xbox 360. Why not create a game where Master Chief (Halo), Marcus Fenix (Gears of War), and Commander Shepard (Mass Effect) get to beat up on each other? The knock on the PS3 is that it does not have a lot of great PS3-exclusive games, but the 360 does, meaning it has great 360-exclusive characters as well.

I would totally buy this game if it ever came to exist; I'd even pre-order it. The original Super Smash Bros. was one of the first games that I played when I first had my Nintendo 64 (N64) as a kid. I would go crazy for a modern day, 360 equivalent. Hey, Bill Gates. Make this happen.