Sports New Year's Resolutions

Chicago Has More to Offer Than Also Rans

The Chicago Bears cut ties with their head coach – again! The story is almost a cliché. Every few years a Chicago sports franchise frustrates its fans to the point where ticket sales are threatened and suddenly heads begin to roll because nothing other than a sacrificial lamb will do. Even Chicagoans at some point get tired of hearing “Wait til next year,” when that year rarely ever comes.

Granted, we've had more success than most – some cities haven't been in the winner's circle in so long, a real victory may turn the town into an inferno of celebration. The Cubs keep us humble, but we can't forget that the Bears went to the SuperBowl and won the title once, the White Sox knocked it out of the park to claim the World Series once, and that the Blackhawks captured the Stanley Cup once in recent memory. We also had the best player in basketball take us to victory so many times, we actually started to think it was our due. We got straightened out about that pretty quickly, so in Chicago it's not all bad....

But basically every year we hear the same story - players who feel unappreciated, coaches who are frustrated and underpaid, fans who feel that they are being ripped off – and they all have the same question – when is a Chicago franchise going to pick players who are world class city caliber, when are we going to get a coach who had a head coaching job elsewhere, and when are we going to stop being the retirement home to players who are still on the active roster?

Just the other day I watched the ESPN special on Bo Jackson – it was incredible. It reminded me of all that the man had accomplished, and it reminded me that we have a pattern in this town that I find troubling – we have a tendency to bring the big guys in when we can get them for pennies on the dollar. Bo Jackson had a stellar career in football and baseball and was unappreciated in both sports in my mind. There is no reason why he shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame for both sports. I remember his years as a member of the White Sox, and was chagrinned to be reminded that Jackson didn't come here until after his hip replacement. Imagine what the Sox might have been able to accomplish if he had played his whole career in a White Sox uniform?

Why can't we hire a head coach from another city? Why are we always selecting an assistant coach, elevating him in position but paying him according to his prior rank? Why not pay the coach what he deserves based on what the team needs him to accomplish during his tenure – why must we always low ball people and then get angry when we get second rate results? We need to pay these coaches what they are worth and measure their effectiveness against their results each year. But if it's always going to be a game of lowball, you're never going to get the best available.

I don't expect every season to end with us undefeated, although that would be nice! I really just want Chicago to step out of the shadows and realize its potential. This is the greatest city in the world! Can you imagine what we could get done if we had at least one team in contention for the brass ring every year? Does anyone know what the impact on the economy could be? Full restaurants, hotels filled to capacity, tourist attractions on blast! If Chicago is on point, the whole state of Illinois benefits. I don't think we hold ourselves to the proper standard, and it's holding us back.

We need to use this year to turn the corner on disappointing sports seasons – that's my hope for the new year in my kind of town!