Bears Watch '07: Ugh...

Last night was the first chance this year for me to watch the Bears play. Opening weekend I was working while they played the Chargers, and the Chiefs game was up against a Ravens game, so it wasn't shown here in Virginia.

After watching them play last night, I wish I had found a reason not to watch the game. It was an all around failure, although I can't help but think that the defense might have been better if the offense had shown up.

Frankly, my faith in this team has been shaken. So far they have looked very ugly in the two losses against San Diego and Dallas. The one victory, against an abysmal Kansas City team, didn't look much better. Grossman has only rarely shown any signs of competence, and Benson is no Thomas Jones.

It pains me to say this, but I think it may be time for the Grossman era in Chicago to come to an end. As it stands, I don't think he'll ever overcome his weaknesses, and will never become a stable option for the team. Its time to put Brian Griese in, and see if the season can be saved.

Just when I thought SportsCenter couldn't get any dumber...

...it goes and does something like this. Unlike Lloyd Christmas, however, ESPN does not totally redeem itself with this stunt.

You see, back in the day I loved SportsCenter. I loved watching Charlie Steiner, Dan Patrick, Kenny Mayne, and the rest of the SportsCenter crew. They actually showed highlights, weren't just a giant marketing wing for Disney and their crappy movies, and were genuinely cool. Who doesn't remember the great "This is SportsCenter" TV spots?

Then ESPN became part of the Mouse's evil empire, and everything went to crap. Rich Eisen and Charlie Steiner left, Dan Patrick went off to do his radio show, and Kenny Mayne was relegated to doing comedic bits and horse racing. Stuart Scott has devolved into self-parody territory, alongside Chris Berman (who was already there before ESPN went downhill).

The anchors today aren't very good. ESPN seriously compromises its journalistic integrity by its ownership stake in the Arena Football League, and embarrassed itself with the whole "Bonds on Bonds" debacle. The once great shows, such as Baseball Tonight, have turned into weak shadows of themselves, with morons like John Kruk and Steve Phillips passing as analysts.

Today, ESPN is nothing but the bloated, oversold, corpse of what used to be a cool network. I guess that is what happens when your network hits the mature stage of life; it becomes weak and bland. Without a cool young network challenging it, ESPN hasn't had any reason to change its course. CNNSI (as a network) is a distant memory, and Fox Sports was a joke.

My question is, where the hell is CSC? I mean, there was some worry it would go under a while back, but ever since that Internet millionaire bought it, we haven't heard crap from the channel and its under-dog SportsCenter challenger, Sports Night....

What's that you say? That wasn't real? Only a fictional TV show....

Nevermind...