Speaker 1: Right justin middle of the field forty five to fifteen,
Speaker 1: bring Russ in front of all leaving Lions in this way.
Speaker 1: I am Jeff jonihacklits us on Don gud Up card.
Speaker 2: What was like playing for Coach Good? I don't want
Speaker 2: to answer any questions like that.
Speaker 1: Sixty one yards what's Sunday stroll for justin Field? Ye Bears,
Speaker 1: et cetera.
Speaker 2: With the voices of the Chicago Bears Jeff.
Speaker 1: Joniac For the second time in three games, it's Bears Lions,
Speaker 1: this time Sunday at Soldier Field Noon showdown. Not sure
Speaker 1: about the weather because the threat of snow appears to
Speaker 1: be diminishing or changing every day. Who knows, but conditions
Speaker 1: right for a Bears upset. We break it down with
Speaker 1: Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Theaya. I'm Jeff Joningak
Speaker 1: and We're ready for another good old fashioned black and
Speaker 1: blue battle. And that's exactly what I'm looking for on
Speaker 1: this game. Tom. We know the Lions are gonna come
Speaker 1: in with that attitude because that's from their head coach down.
Speaker 1: They're winning. They haven't won like that in sixty one years.
Speaker 1: At ninety three, the Bears at four and eight but
Speaker 1: arrow up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I think the Bears showed them an example
Speaker 2: when they are in Detroit from the very first drive
Speaker 2: what they are capable of being. But it's about the
Speaker 2: finish of the game that they have to show them
Speaker 2: who they are. And that's kind of been a point
Speaker 2: of that has been preached about a lot since the
Speaker 2: end of that game, through the Minnesota game now leading
Speaker 2: up to the Detroit game. So if the Bears can
Speaker 2: play this similar version of game that they played in
Speaker 2: Detroit with favorable conditions in terms of playing outdoors and
Speaker 2: support of crowd noise, and they finish it, you know,
Speaker 2: the Bears should prove something to themselves and to the
Speaker 2: rest of the division coming up.
Speaker 1: We visited White Sox play by play anouncer Len Casper,
Speaker 1: a born and bred Lions Van, for some good hearted
Speaker 1: conversation and discussion about the NFL, MLB, the White Sox,
Speaker 1: and his amazing career as a veteran baseball announcer heard
Speaker 1: on ESPN one thousand. The flagship for the Chicago Bears
Speaker 1: on the Chicago White Sox the Status at House at
Speaker 1: a Tommy Costs for cleats. It's been rolled out several
Speaker 1: years now and it's expanded in the Bears building to
Speaker 1: include one hundred employees and they're all milling around here today.
Speaker 1: They got their Nike sneakers all painted up for their
Speaker 1: personal causes, and so they've really expanded it. It's a
Speaker 1: nice thing. The art is amazing to cause more impactful.
Speaker 1: It's very cool.
Speaker 2: But you know, Jeff, I was thinking about you and
Speaker 2: I if we're involved in that, and where would our
Speaker 2: cause for cleats go. Because there's a lot of things
Speaker 2: that have crossed our life in my sixty two years
Speaker 2: that I would like to pay personal tribute or personal
Speaker 2: attention to. So when I saw on the Bear's website
Speaker 2: the version of the employees on the inside painting their cleats,
Speaker 2: and even Kevin Warren taken a part of it, I
Speaker 2: think everybody has a concern, has a cause that they
Speaker 2: would like to amplify, to get just just more notification
Speaker 2: of it. Right.
Speaker 1: Mine would be for scleroderma, a disease that killed my
Speaker 1: father back when he was just fifty three years of age,
Speaker 1: So that one always rings true. It's an awful disease
Speaker 1: and no cure, but a lot of research being done
Speaker 1: on that. I'm sure you've got a whole bunch, whole
Speaker 1: bunch big.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would go orgon donor because important people
Speaker 2: in my life have got organ donorship and that's extended
Speaker 2: their life and it's made him a better life. But
Speaker 2: I was also part of it when we tried to
Speaker 2: create awareness for organ donorship after Walter Payton passed away.
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of different avenues you can go,
Speaker 2: and so I'm happy that the NFL has expanded the
Speaker 2: opportunity to talk about the different causes.
Speaker 1: And we got to give a tip of the cap
Speaker 1: to Justin Jones. He is the Bears Walter Payton Man
Speaker 1: of the Year nominee among the thirty two that are
Speaker 1: now in the National Football League. It's certainly something very
Speaker 1: close to our good friend Jared Peyton's heart, obviously in
Speaker 1: the Peyton family and they take great pride in it
Speaker 1: every year at the Super Bowl when it's rolled out.
Speaker 1: So Justin, I haven't talked to him much this year.
Speaker 1: I went in the locker room today just to congratulate him.
Speaker 1: And he works with VAM program for inner city youth.
Speaker 1: He lit up, it's important to him. That's a lot
Speaker 1: of work.
Speaker 2: You know what. I didn't find out until yesterday that
Speaker 2: if you're an active player and you win the Peyton
Speaker 2: Man of the Year award, that you wear a patch
Speaker 2: on your jersey that you know that you are a
Speaker 2: Peyton Man and you know, I think, of God, what
Speaker 2: an honor it would be to wear a patch like
Speaker 2: that on your jersey, just because if you qualify for
Speaker 2: the opportunity to win the award, then you do win
Speaker 2: the award. You're doing some fantastic stuff in your outside
Speaker 2: life of just your playing career.
Speaker 1: Normal week with a noon kickoff on Sunday out of
Speaker 1: bye week, and that mean's justin fields on Wednesdays at
Speaker 1: Halis Haul. A couple of things that really stuck out,
Speaker 1: we're going to start with. One is just what we
Speaker 1: were talking about in the earlier podcast this week time.
Speaker 1: This is episode forty. That was episode thirty nine. Check
Speaker 1: it out. We talked about what you do with the
Speaker 1: turnovers after you create the turnover, and that's punching the
Speaker 1: ball on the end zone. And the haven't done that
Speaker 1: much with this a recent rash of takeaways. Overall, they're
Speaker 1: about middle of the packing yards after takeaways points after takeaways,
Speaker 1: but they really like to see that elevate and that's
Speaker 1: part of the job is when you get the sudden
Speaker 1: change guy like Justin Fields lead the team put him
Speaker 1: in the end zone. Let's listen.
Speaker 3: I mean, the mindset is a score.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Of course, the better we play complimentary football, you know,
Speaker 3: the better we give our chance, our team a chance
Speaker 3: to win. So you know, of course we want to
Speaker 3: capitalize on those moments when the defense does give us
Speaker 3: a short field or you know, we do have a
Speaker 3: sudden change moment where they get a turnover or something
Speaker 3: like that. But yeah, definitely want to start turning those
Speaker 3: into you know, touchdowns and you know for at least
Speaker 3: you know, three points. So yeah, definitely got to do
Speaker 3: a better job of that.
Speaker 2: For sure. Was there one of those since there were
Speaker 2: a couple in the Detroit game that stand out since
Speaker 2: that was just three weeks ago, now that you know
Speaker 2: really you felt like that one.
Speaker 3: Could have been a big capital I mean, at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, I think, you know, every opportunity
Speaker 3: you know, we get, we got to capitalize on it.
Speaker 3: So not really just one in particular, but you know,
Speaker 3: every time you know that does happen where we get
Speaker 3: a short field or a sudden change in our mindset
Speaker 3: to go out there and score.
Speaker 1: All right, The key to that you just got to
Speaker 1: take advantage of your opportunity short field, get stick it
Speaker 1: in the end zone.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, Jeff, there's so many titles to segments
Speaker 2: of offenses nowadays. Oh, this is a four minute offense.
Speaker 2: This is a two minute offense, this is an offense
Speaker 2: with tempo. All these different titles you want to put up.
Speaker 2: You should have an offensive game plan. You should have
Speaker 2: a script that is immediately used after a turnover and
Speaker 2: take advantage of your opponent when the defense may not
Speaker 2: expect to go back in the game, if they're sitting
Speaker 2: on the bench and all of a sudden, there you
Speaker 2: got a defense in we got a turnover. So, as
Speaker 2: much as you want to emphasize all these other segments
Speaker 2: of the important role of the offense, I think offensive
Speaker 2: coaches should start having a script that's featured in immedia turnovers.
Speaker 1: Inevitably, this was going to be a topic eventually. Justin
Speaker 1: asked about his future with the Bears, given the team's
Speaker 1: position in the draft, with which could wind up up
Speaker 1: with the number one pick that's his own right now
Speaker 1: by the Carolina Panthers at their record but the Bears
Speaker 1: get it because of the DJ Moore trade, a lot
Speaker 1: of talk about what's next. Potentially, if not Justin, he's
Speaker 1: heard it, he's aware of it, he knows it. He
Speaker 1: was also asked if it's a fair to say, hey,
Speaker 1: these next five games are part of the evaluation of
Speaker 1: your future. This was a great answer. Let's listen.
Speaker 3: Life isn't fair. So you know me personally, I'm just
Speaker 3: focused on what I can control, and you know, the
Speaker 3: rest is in God's hands. And you know, I mean really,
Speaker 3: you just put everything in God's hands. You know it's
Speaker 3: going to turn out good for you. So you know, wherever,
Speaker 3: if I'm here next year, if I'm not, football doesn't
Speaker 3: define who I am as a person. My happiness will
Speaker 3: still be in the same place, will still be in
Speaker 3: God and really just football wise, life stuff in general.
Speaker 3: I think my faith in God is just my hoping.
Speaker 3: God is just so much more than you know, anything
Speaker 3: that can be thrown at me on this earth. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean that's why I don't I don't really stress
Speaker 3: over stuff, that stuff that I can't control. I know
Speaker 3: that guys got me in and I'm gonna be good.
Speaker 3: So I'm very blessed in the position I am, and
Speaker 3: and you know, I think a million people would love
Speaker 3: to be in the position I am right now. So
Speaker 3: really just you know, not taking that for granted and
Speaker 3: just just taking every each and every moment I have
Speaker 3: every day up here, you know, uh to the Phillies.
Speaker 2: So taking fact from the injury, do you feel any
Speaker 2: personal momentum?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think I have a different mindset
Speaker 3: in terms of that personal momentum. I'm really just trying
Speaker 3: to be consistent. I think that's the biggest thing. You
Speaker 3: can play good one game play back to the other.
Speaker 3: So I think me personally just trying to be consistent
Speaker 3: and trying to be better than I was yesterday. So
Speaker 3: just trying to continually improve, get better as a person
Speaker 3: in the player, and you know, just better myself each
Speaker 3: and every day.
Speaker 4: Take that perspective of some of that's had to have
Speaker 4: broken through to you, hearing about other quarterbacks and all
Speaker 4: that kind of stuff. So was there a point where
Speaker 4: you're just like, all right, I got to take a
Speaker 4: deep breath and.
Speaker 2: Just have some perspective on all that.
Speaker 3: I don't think there wasn't a point. I mean, shoot,
Speaker 3: since I gotten in Chicago. I mean, I don't hold back. Shoot,
Speaker 3: I mean, I hear from y'all. I hear from you know,
Speaker 3: fans and stuff like that, so you know, I don't
Speaker 3: I don't take any of it personal because I know,
Speaker 3: you know, everybody's entitles to their opinion on, you know,
Speaker 3: certain things and stuff like that. So that's one thing
Speaker 3: I try not to do is not take anything personal. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, just go about it that way. I mean,
Speaker 3: I've I've had things in my life. I've had moments
Speaker 3: in my life to where I've wanted things to happen
Speaker 3: and it didn't go that way and it ended up
Speaker 3: going another way and it worked out better than I,
Speaker 3: you know, ever could imagine. So that's really why I
Speaker 3: just you know, don't stress about stuff that happens, and
Speaker 3: just controlling what I can control in like I said earlier,
Speaker 3: just being the best person I can be and you know,
Speaker 3: striving to be the best player I can be.
Speaker 1: And that's the right answer. Focus on just you focus
Speaker 1: on what you have to do to lead this team
Speaker 1: to victory in the final five games, and it will
Speaker 1: all play out the way it's supposed to play out.
Speaker 2: I hate the question, and I'm sick of it because
Speaker 2: there's not an other player that goes up there at
Speaker 2: the end of their contract and they ask him the
Speaker 2: same question, and whether you're a tackle that's not playing
Speaker 2: well but you're at the end of your contractor whatever
Speaker 2: position you want to pick out, and I'm tired of
Speaker 2: the questions repeatedly be an answered because Justin is not
Speaker 2: in control of that. He goes out there with the
Speaker 2: ten other members of his offense and they play the
Speaker 2: play called regardless of what the scenario is. And to me,
Speaker 2: you know, if the press wanted to do some justice
Speaker 2: and stop asking that question and start asking questions that
Speaker 2: pertain to the next game, because Justin is not in
Speaker 2: control of that.
Speaker 1: It is an end of the season, look at things
Speaker 1: for a team that's four and eight, and you know,
Speaker 1: those things get put in the pile, so to speak.
Speaker 1: But I'm I'm, I'm and I saw him in the hallway.
Speaker 1: I said, Justin, I'm gonna tell you what I told coach,
Speaker 1: You're a dangerous team right now. His eyes are open,
Speaker 1: and I think this is a very dangerous team with
Speaker 1: Justin being a dangerous quarterback right.
Speaker 2: Now, right you know, you know, Jeff to me, I
Speaker 2: would look at one down specifically. So in the last game,
Speaker 2: Detroit was eight of eleven on third down and the
Speaker 2: Bears were five of thirteen. So now you decrease Detroit
Speaker 2: by three conversions on third down and you increase the
Speaker 2: Bears by three on third down, that changes the whole game.
Speaker 2: So now you're talking about three more possessions, three more
Speaker 2: first downs that keep the ball into your hands. They
Speaker 2: contribute to the time of possession. You think forty minutes
Speaker 2: time of possession, and they were only five of thirteen
Speaker 2: on third down. So to me, the biggest picture us
Speaker 2: is how can the defense do better on third down?
Speaker 2: And how can the offense do better on third down?
Speaker 1: Tom I saw an old video the other day of
Speaker 1: a game at the LA Coliseum. It was UCLA against
Speaker 1: Ohio State nineteen seventy five ish, and Keith Jackson was
Speaker 1: on the call with his color men at the time,
Speaker 1: the softspoken former Oklahoma co which Bud Wilkinson, remember Bud Wilkinson,
Speaker 1: of course, And I was I wasn't watching it, he
Speaker 1: was listening to it. It's just it's I'm working on
Speaker 1: the game and I like listening to these games, right,
Speaker 1: it's history. I like history coming back to life, and
Speaker 1: I don't remember all these things. So as a kid
Speaker 1: you watch the football, but now you're seeing it as adult.
Speaker 1: It's different. Anyway, long story boring is this he said
Speaker 1: something and I turned I turned. I turned around because
Speaker 1: Bud Wilkins had said, Keith, this game is about first downs.
Speaker 1: And that is what Tom Thayer has said forever. The
Speaker 1: game is about first downs. It's keeping the drive alive.
Speaker 1: First downs lead the touchdowns. You get a touchdown, it
Speaker 1: counts as a first down. I mean, hey, the game
Speaker 1: is about first downs. And that Tyler Scott play in
Speaker 1: the game, and I'm not just saying not picking on
Speaker 1: the kid for not making the catch, but again, that's
Speaker 1: a that's a first down catch in the future when
Speaker 1: he gets that opportunity, and that game is probably over
Speaker 1: and we're looking at a very different situation for the
Speaker 1: Bears potentially here at this record right now with Jesus
Speaker 1: four and eight. But the game's about first downs.
Speaker 2: Right you know, there's only a couple of Tyreek Hills
Speaker 2: in the league. And when you talk about a guy
Speaker 2: that could possibly win the MVP this year with two
Speaker 2: thousand yards where you're receiving and the explosive touchdowns he has.
Speaker 2: That's all good and well. However, if you want to
Speaker 2: go out there and be a team that competes for
Speaker 2: your division championship, into the playoffs and ultimately a super Bowl,
Speaker 2: you're a team that wins the amount of first downs
Speaker 2: and teach your offense on the field and fights for
Speaker 2: time of possession and gets in the end zone. So
Speaker 2: you know, I've said it, you know, our whole career,
Speaker 2: did Teith Jackson ever say oh, Nelly.
Speaker 1: Not as used to saying not in nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 1: I didn't hear it, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was one of his trademarks.
Speaker 1: Well, that was the voice of college football, you know
Speaker 1: when he did He did though, I believe he was
Speaker 1: the first guy that did Monday night football Browns Jets
Speaker 1: game at Old Cleveland Stadium. But you know, he's got
Speaker 1: the football voice. That's all there is to it. We're
Speaker 1: brought to you by PNC Official Bank of the Bears.
Speaker 1: All right, let's dig into our conversation with our friend Lencasper,
Speaker 1: one of the great announcers in a city of great
Speaker 1: announcers and a history of great announcers, especially in that
Speaker 1: baseball vein. Len Casper, the voice of the Chicago White Sox,
Speaker 1: kind enough to spend some thirty six minutes with Tom
Speaker 1: and I here around the Bears Etc. Podcast. Well on
Speaker 1: December fourth, twenty twenty stunning decision by the veteran TV
Speaker 1: voice of the Cubs to join the White Sox radio
Speaker 1: both working with Darren Jackson. And it's been a fun
Speaker 1: ride all the way through. And we've got the man.
Speaker 1: My good friend Len Casper joined against a long time
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball announcer not just here in Chicago, but
Speaker 1: also in Florida with the Marlins working with the Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers pre and postgame show. And Tom he is
Speaker 1: a Detroit area in Native but I guess it shouldn't
Speaker 1: really say Detroit area. You're a Detroit fan of sports
Speaker 1: growing up, Len, but you grew up three hours away
Speaker 1: from Detroit in a small town. We brought you on
Speaker 1: for this Detroit preview because I know you've probably been
Speaker 1: a long time waiting for something like a season that
Speaker 1: the Lions are putting on the table. Thanks for joining
Speaker 1: us on the Bears, Etc. Podcast. How you doing?
Speaker 2: You got it?
Speaker 5: Jeff tom By listen to you guys every Sunday. You
Speaker 5: do a terrific job. And here's the backstory. So my
Speaker 5: dad was born in nineteen forty seven, on the same
Speaker 5: day Steve Stone was born, exactly the same age. And
Speaker 5: a little history lesson. The Detroit Lions won the NFL
Speaker 5: championship at nineteen fifty seven, and that was a long
Speaker 5: time ago, and since then they have one playoff win
Speaker 5: and that was against Dallas back in the early nineties.
Speaker 5: So my dad has not missed a Lions game in
Speaker 5: some form or fashion since the fifty seven championship. So
Speaker 5: my fandom kind of came from rooting for him to
Speaker 5: have a little fun with it. And it's interesting. After
Speaker 5: the Thanksgiving game in which the Ackers beat up the Lions,
Speaker 5: my dad literally said after the game, I don't think
Speaker 5: they're going to win another game.
Speaker 1: So he pulled the late midninet early nineties did guy.
Speaker 1: I don't think.
Speaker 5: That's what it's like to be a Lions fan these days,
Speaker 5: is you lose a game, to go eight and three
Speaker 5: and you decide that that's it. Season's over.
Speaker 2: I've seen the passion of the Detroit fans turn around
Speaker 2: in abundance. Is it exciting for you to see? Because listen,
Speaker 2: when I meet people from Wisconsin. I want them to
Speaker 2: be Green Bay fans. When I meet people from Michigan,
Speaker 2: I want them to be Detroit fans. So we hold
Speaker 2: no grudges. But how is this run Ben for you
Speaker 2: in watching their build up to where they're at right now?
Speaker 5: Well, for my money, Tom, this is the best Lions
Speaker 5: team I've seen. And again you go back to that
Speaker 5: in ninety one ninety two kind of Erawayne Fonce and
Speaker 5: Barry Sanders, they were a pretty well rounded team. But
Speaker 5: I think offensively in and off defensive league right now,
Speaker 5: this is the best Lions offense I've ever seen. So
Speaker 5: that's fun and exciting. And they play a lot of
Speaker 5: close games. I like their coach. I'm just kind of
Speaker 5: enjoying the ride no matter how it plays out. And
Speaker 5: I know we'll talk about Sunday. I think this is
Speaker 5: a very dangerous game because of the way the Bears
Speaker 5: played in Detroit a couple of weeks ago and then
Speaker 5: the win in Minnesota. Defensively, they seem to be right
Speaker 5: now at their peak. And the one team I think
Speaker 5: we can all agree we'd like to see lose a
Speaker 5: little bit is that team up north. The Packers' schedule
Speaker 5: down the stretch is not particularly difficult, and you know,
Speaker 5: the Bears could be in a situation the Lions were
Speaker 5: in last year when everyone assumed when Seattle eliminated them
Speaker 5: that they would get steamrolled at lambeau Field, and in
Speaker 5: fact the opposite occurred. When Dan Campbell said, this is
Speaker 5: our super Bowl. I think it's possible, guys, the Bears
Speaker 5: could go into that game to maybe knock the Packers
Speaker 5: out of playoff contention.
Speaker 2: You know, one last remark about that championship run by
Speaker 2: the Detroit Lions back in the late fifties. Our offensive
Speaker 2: line coach Dick Stanfeld was a member of the Detroit
Speaker 2: Lions back then, and we fortunately had a lot of
Speaker 2: lessons about that team, about that era, about that type
Speaker 2: of football, either some of the video we watched of
Speaker 2: him or that team. So it's interesting to see these
Speaker 2: guys have their next go around. But you know, there's
Speaker 2: you think about the generations that have come and gone
Speaker 2: since the eighty five Super Bowl team and the generations
Speaker 2: that have come and gone since the late fifties championships
Speaker 2: in Detroit, that it was neat for us to get
Speaker 2: a little bit of a Midwest lesson from a guy
Speaker 2: who had a personal attachment to those teams. Yeah.
Speaker 5: And you know the other thing that I think of
Speaker 5: the Bears and the Lions rivalry. You go back to
Speaker 5: Briggs Stadium, which became Tiger Stadium, and then Wrigley Field.
Speaker 5: Those were the two home parks right for decades and
Speaker 5: decades bygone era. For sure. I never did see a
Speaker 5: football game at either place, but I wish I could
Speaker 5: go back and do so.
Speaker 1: Oh God, wouldn't you love to be on a time
Speaker 1: machine for that? Hey, listen, I mean those fifties Lions teams,
Speaker 1: and I've I've listened to some of those games. I've
Speaker 1: gone on YouTube and watched them and listened to them
Speaker 1: and just what kind of passion the fan base had
Speaker 1: during that era. They were it. Sixty two is the
Speaker 1: last sam of the Lions were nine and three. I
Speaker 1: was born in sixty two Lens, so I.
Speaker 2: Was one years old. So I think about that all
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just I you know, I for the NFC North,
Speaker 1: the old Black and Blue Division. I'm not putting Tampa
Speaker 1: in there. They were in a late comer, but I
Speaker 1: really do get up for these games. I love going
Speaker 1: to the respective cities. I've always set told in Tom
Speaker 1: knows and my listeners know, our listeners know that I
Speaker 1: never liked indoor football. I hated going to Ford Field
Speaker 1: when the Lions were a mess. Those suites were dark,
Speaker 1: there was nobody in them, and it was not a
Speaker 1: real fun place to play, a late arriving crowd with
Speaker 1: no juice. And now it's the polar opposite. You always
Speaker 1: love going to Lambeau. You know it's going to be
Speaker 1: an angry affair from the booth down to the field
Speaker 1: because Tom's inconsolable most of the time. And then Minnesota
Speaker 1: now with a Sparklink Stadium beautiful, and that place is loud,
Speaker 1: and it's it's a great call there. You know, you
Speaker 1: get these twice a year games and it just becomes
Speaker 1: a fabric of your soul a little bit announcing these games, lanth.
Speaker 5: Oh, I have no doubt. I'm a big hockey fan.
Speaker 5: I think it's like an original six matchup for sure.
Speaker 5: You know, White Sox, Twins, Cubs, Cardinals, you know, Yankees,
Speaker 5: Red Sox. You have all that stuff in baseball. But
Speaker 5: I agree, and you know it's weird now though, only
Speaker 5: six division games, so they kind of take on a
Speaker 5: little more importance six out of seventeen. Now one other
Speaker 5: scheduling note, as you guys know, you know, Bears and Packers.
Speaker 5: At the end of the year, the Vikings and the
Speaker 5: Lions played twice in the final three weeks, and if
Speaker 5: it happens that the Vikings were to get in and
Speaker 5: play the Lions, that could be three games essentially in
Speaker 5: four weeks. Tom, have you ever had a year where
Speaker 5: you had maybe three games in four weeks against the
Speaker 5: same opponent. That would be insane?
Speaker 2: You know, it's more of a midseason type happening. You know,
Speaker 2: now that the NFL has rekind of configured, they're scheduling
Speaker 2: to make sure there's a lot of division games at
Speaker 2: the end of the season. It's kind of taken on
Speaker 2: a different flare towards the end of the season, which
Speaker 2: I like, you know, and I like the fact that
Speaker 2: there's a lot of division games because it can tell
Speaker 2: you a lot about the Bear season. You know, they
Speaker 2: should have been beaten Detroit at Detroit, so they've beat
Speaker 2: Minnesota at Minnesota. If they could beat Detroit at home,
Speaker 2: then go on to beat Green Bay. That's proving a
Speaker 2: lot to the locker room going forward, saying Okay, we
Speaker 2: can go into opponent's divisional stadiums and win games, because
Speaker 2: the only way you're ever going to compete for playoffs
Speaker 2: if you can accomplish that. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a great point. And you know, again, I
Speaker 5: know the Lions are favored in this game Sunday. The
Speaker 5: weather could be a huge factor. Detroit has got five
Speaker 5: wins on the road. That's one of those things where
Speaker 5: they're a dome team and you kind of assume, well,
Speaker 5: they'd rather play on the turf in a neutral situation.
Speaker 5: But in a weird way, I feel like they've kind
Speaker 5: of been better in those pressure packed road scenarios with
Speaker 5: wins at Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Green Bay, and then
Speaker 5: you know, hanging on for dear life against the Saints.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, Kansas City to open up the season.
Speaker 2: I think that was like, you know, opening a can
Speaker 2: of worms for the league because everybody assumed, Okay, Kansas
Speaker 2: City at home, it's a four gone conclusion, they're going
Speaker 2: to win. And then Dan Campbell early in the game
Speaker 2: goes for a fake punt on fourth down and then
Speaker 2: they go on to win the game. So I think
Speaker 2: that kind of set the ball in motion going Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: everybody better take this Detroit team seriously on the road
Speaker 2: and as well at home.
Speaker 5: Yep, no, good.
Speaker 1: Point well nine to two over the last eleven road
Speaker 1: games dating back to last season when they started a
Speaker 1: surge at the end. We're with Len Casper, the voice
Speaker 1: of the White Sox on ESPN one thousand and the
Speaker 1: White Sox Radio Network with Tom There, Jeff joniak here
Speaker 1: on the Bears, et cetera podcast. A treat for us
Speaker 1: to have you on, Len, so appreciate it. I know
Speaker 1: this is this is your downtime, right even though the
Speaker 1: baseball meetings are underway and all that going on, and
Speaker 1: we love talking a little football with you. And it
Speaker 1: even goes back further for Len because he was reimpost
Speaker 1: game of the Green Bay Packers and got to be
Speaker 1: a part of Yeah, Tom, Yes, yes, yes, but you
Speaker 1: were on the air when they won a couple of
Speaker 1: Super Bowls or went to a couple of Super Bowls.
Speaker 5: Happened to be in Milwaukee working on with the flagship
Speaker 5: station there and Jeff and I compared notes back then
Speaker 5: and you were always incredibly helpful, which I'll never forget.
Speaker 5: But you know, Ron Wolf, Mike Holmgren Brett Farv that
Speaker 5: was it was quite a run they had and it
Speaker 5: was the beginning of that big quarterback run. And the
Speaker 5: other thing too that you know, I mentioned the Packers
Speaker 5: if they get in and play in Detroit. I think
Speaker 5: that's kind of the Alabama Michigan scenario, right, you know,
Speaker 5: the reaction of the Wolverine fans when they announced they
Speaker 5: would play Alabama. I think that's the last team the
Speaker 5: Lions want to face right now because of all the
Speaker 5: historical stuff that for whatever reason will pop up.
Speaker 1: We're scarred. We're scarred. I mean, I think about that.
Speaker 1: Lant like you said it up perfectly and I and
Speaker 1: I brought it up on this podcast with coach I
Speaker 1: Eberflus on Tuesday. Everybody listen to that one. We appreciate it.
Speaker 1: But I said, hey, you guys are a dangerous team
Speaker 1: right now. You can be. And he didn't go for
Speaker 1: the bait. He said, oh, we've got it, we got
Speaker 1: We've got to deal with Detroit. But in the big picture,
Speaker 1: you got five outdoor games. Frankly, they're all winnable. They're
Speaker 1: not going to be easy at all. The backup quarterback
Speaker 1: scenario in Cleveland gives them a little bit of hope,
Speaker 1: but they have the number one defense and a killer
Speaker 1: in Miles Garrett. You've got the Atlanta Falcons, they are
Speaker 1: the division leaders in the NFC South that maybe no
Speaker 1: one will want to win at six and six. Not
Speaker 1: sure what they're all about just yet, but we played
Speaker 1: them a year ago in Georgia. And then you've got
Speaker 1: the Detroit the Green Bay and of course Arizona. So
Speaker 1: five outdoor games and I'm just saying, ball up your fists,
Speaker 1: make it ugly. You know you're not gonna win pretty anyway.
Speaker 1: This team is not that built that way. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have to win ugly, and so just be the team
Speaker 1: that you want to be a physical, nasty team. But
Speaker 1: then you got that Packer game up at Lambeau and
Speaker 1: it just we're all scarred about, oh my gosh, gotta
Speaker 1: go play the Packers even now. And Jordan loves playing well,
Speaker 1: right Len.
Speaker 5: He's playing great, He's playing great. And you know, Tom,
Speaker 5: you mentioned the division games at the end of seasons.
Speaker 5: If you're the Bears right now, first of all, you're
Speaker 5: not out of it, right you run the table and
Speaker 5: see what happens. But I like the fact for them
Speaker 5: that four of their last five games have playoff implications
Speaker 5: for either both or one of the opponents. That never
Speaker 5: hurts right to stack up against a team that might
Speaker 5: play deep into January.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like that too. I like the emotional attachment
Speaker 2: and the importance. I think they'll land. It would be different.
Speaker 2: So the Bears have Carolina's draft choice and they have
Speaker 2: their own draft choice. If they only had their own
Speaker 2: draft choice, I think there would be a lot of
Speaker 2: people wishing for the Bears to lose so they can
Speaker 2: keep a higher draft choice. So I think that has
Speaker 2: a little bit of the narrative to the closing of
Speaker 2: the season that they still want to see the Bears
Speaker 2: do well but Carolina not do so well.
Speaker 5: Let me add to that though. You know, the Lions
Speaker 5: didn't make the playoffs last year, but I think winning
Speaker 5: at the end of the year was more important than
Speaker 5: maybe moving up a couple of slots in the draft.
Speaker 5: Is it possible, Jeff, that the Bears are in a
Speaker 5: similar spot as the line that culture, the winning and
Speaker 5: all that stuff you're trying to establish.
Speaker 1: Issue all we've been talking about about this team's inability
Speaker 1: to close, to finish, to have that mindset of learning
Speaker 1: how to win because a lot of these guys and
Speaker 1: I went through the exercise early in the season. I
Speaker 1: gave up after a while. But there were about four
Speaker 1: or five guys on the roster that ever had a
Speaker 1: winning record in the NFL. So it's not like these
Speaker 1: guys have experienced a ton of success. So you just
Speaker 1: hope the woe is Me doesn't kick in over a
Speaker 1: period of time, especially with these young guys. But you know,
Speaker 1: Kyler Gordon was micd up last week or before the
Speaker 1: bye week at Minnesota, and Tom and I were doing
Speaker 1: our Bears Game Night Live show and we ran that
Speaker 1: and I was encouraged and kind of excited because his
Speaker 1: genuine enthusiasm and everybody around him was legit. It was there,
Speaker 1: and that's a good sign with a young team. And
Speaker 1: is it not crazy? It is not this way in
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball with one hundred and sixty two of
Speaker 1: those bad boys. Isn't it nuts? Tom and Lenn that
Speaker 1: one twelve to ten win against Minnesota and the whole
Speaker 1: complexion of the final five games changes because now you
Speaker 1: hit the bye week, you're you're really healthy, healthy as
Speaker 1: you've been all season, and you have a five pack
Speaker 1: of games to try to finish the job. And yet
Speaker 1: if you run the table, you're in the conversation. It's
Speaker 1: nuts how this league works. It really is a week
Speaker 1: to week league. It's not just a cliche. It's nuts.
Speaker 1: We're with Len Casper and Tom Thayer here and the Bears,
Speaker 1: et cetera podcast. All right, Marquette grad pr degree that
Speaker 1: I didn't know, but it certainly helped you pave the
Speaker 1: way to where you thought you wanted to go, and
Speaker 1: that was becoming a Major League baseball play by playing
Speaker 1: man and volunteering your time in Beloit. What was the
Speaker 1: name the Beloit Snappers? All Right? The path the paths
Speaker 1: for play by play guys is insane, and yours is
Speaker 1: unique as well as anybody's.
Speaker 5: Everybody has their own path. I always wanted to be
Speaker 5: Ernie Harwell when I was a kid. He was a
Speaker 5: long time Tiger's radio voice. And when I went to college,
Speaker 5: I figured I'd get experienced broadcasting out of the classroom,
Speaker 5: but I thought a public relations degree would help its communications.
Speaker 5: And it's on the other side of the business, so
Speaker 5: to speak, from a team perspective. And when I was
Speaker 5: a freshman nineteen eighty nine, I got an internship with
Speaker 5: the Milwaukee Bucks. That was huge for me as an
Speaker 5: eighteen year old. And this is in the late eighties,
Speaker 5: so Jack Sikma is still a Buck.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: Sydney Moncrief was there, Michael was in the prime of
Speaker 5: his career, and I would go get quotes in the
Speaker 5: other team's locker room. So I got to sidle up
Speaker 5: to Magic Johnson and Isaiah Thomas and Larry Bird. What
Speaker 5: an experience for a teenager. And that was immensely helpful
Speaker 5: for me because I made a lot of those broadcasting
Speaker 5: contacts that later would would help me tremendously.
Speaker 2: Heylenn, I have a question for you, because you know,
Speaker 2: unless you're California, Ohio, Texas, rarely do you have two
Speaker 2: teams in the same state in football. Seldomly do you
Speaker 2: broadcast for two teams that are only separated by miles.
Speaker 2: Can you still enjoy the Cubs and work for the
Speaker 2: Socks or is your love so one sided that the
Speaker 2: other team is in your rearview mirror.
Speaker 5: Well, it's a very nuanced question and answer. The Socks
Speaker 5: are my team. When you get in the middle of
Speaker 5: the daily one sixty two grind, you're solely focused on
Speaker 5: what your team is doing. I still have a lot
Speaker 5: of friends with the Cubs, for sure. I'm glad they're
Speaker 5: not in the same division. It's kind of like when
Speaker 5: the Red Wings went over to the Eastern Conference, because
Speaker 5: I like the Blackhawks a lot, but it was really
Speaker 5: tough for me when they were in the same division.
Speaker 5: But now they're kind of in opposite boats. It's a
Speaker 5: little easier to be okay with them doing well. But
Speaker 5: the Socks are my focus, and if the Cubs win,
Speaker 5: I'm happy for them, but it's not priority for me because, yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm now nine miles to the south, as you mentioned.
Speaker 2: All right, well then, so we got that all cleared up.
Speaker 2: And like I said, of people from Wisconsin, be a
Speaker 2: Packer fan Detroit. When you look at the game Sunday
Speaker 2: noon kickoff, you're sitting there getting ready to watch the game,
Speaker 2: your heart has to be and I listen, there's no
Speaker 2: shame in saying it because you're a Michigan person. Yeah,
Speaker 2: your heart has got to be with Detroit considering what
Speaker 2: Detroit has suffered through for so long.
Speaker 5: No question. And you know my thing is, obviously I
Speaker 5: hope they make the playoffs, which they should be able
Speaker 5: to do, and the bar is probably a win in
Speaker 5: the postseason, and then you take your chances at that point.
Speaker 5: But again, I hate to do this, and Jeff, you're
Speaker 5: gonna last with what that quarterback up in Green Bay
Speaker 5: is doing. You know, the window is not as open
Speaker 5: for the rest of this division that it maybe appeared
Speaker 5: to be a couple of months ago. So I'm not
Speaker 5: necessarily of the mindset that all the Lions are going
Speaker 5: to be a ten to thirteen win team here for
Speaker 5: the next five straight years. These things change so fast,
Speaker 5: and it goes back to Jeff's point. When you only
Speaker 5: have seventeen of these style points don't matter. It's all
Speaker 5: about wins and losses. And you know, I just assume
Speaker 5: that when you're on top of the world, that other
Speaker 5: part's coming, and I guess when you're at the bottom,
Speaker 5: good times are right around the corner.
Speaker 1: Yeah, never apologize for one win. It's so difficult one
Speaker 1: hundred percent of the time. Let's dip in a little
Speaker 1: bit too. You know, my color man is unbelievable, all right.
Speaker 1: He has taught me the game. It's like going to
Speaker 1: grad school every week. Every time I think I learned something,
Speaker 1: I learned something more or I hear another story, because
Speaker 1: this guy's got zero degree. He's got separation of just
Speaker 1: about everybody. Was that seven degrees of separation, He's got
Speaker 1: zero degrees of separate. He's got everybody. So your color
Speaker 1: man become I'm so part of your life ingrained, and
Speaker 1: you've had several obviously some great ones, and Bob Branley
Speaker 1: and Jim Deshay and working with Pat Hughes and Ron
Speaker 1: Komer and growing up as you said, listening to Ernie Harwell,
Speaker 1: also Paul Carey up there in Detroit, and now Darren
Speaker 1: Jackson and Jason Bennetti now off to Detroit. So you've
Speaker 1: had a bunch of people to work with. I've had
Speaker 1: one guy. I've had hub Archisian in the early part
Speaker 1: of my career of course as well, and now I've
Speaker 1: Jason McKee on the sideline. So how important is it
Speaker 1: and how do you how do you how do you
Speaker 1: how do you all piece it together?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 5: With baseball, it's every day. So you know, DJ and
Speaker 5: I do spend time together when we're not at the ballpark,
Speaker 5: but we don't overdo it because I really like a
Speaker 5: lot of our conversations on the air to be the
Speaker 5: first gut answer. Maybe you know, I don't prepare him
Speaker 5: and say, hey, I'm going to ask you about this,
Speaker 5: because I'd rather have his unvarnished reaction. DJ's awesome. He's
Speaker 5: a great teammate. Someone said to me the other day,
Speaker 5: and the White Sox lost one hundred and one games
Speaker 5: this year.
Speaker 2: It was a.
Speaker 5: Brutal year on the field, and they said, you guys
Speaker 5: had your best season of the last three and I
Speaker 5: took that as a great compliment, and I would pay
Speaker 5: you guys the same compliment. I've listened to some games
Speaker 5: over the years and it hasn't gone well for the Bears,
Speaker 5: but you guys always make it entertaining and it's our
Speaker 5: job to do that. But it is hard when the
Speaker 5: on field product is not always great. But it kind
Speaker 5: of forces you as a baseball announcer to dig a
Speaker 5: little deeper. And I give DJ all the credit in
Speaker 5: the world for not giving up. When the game is
Speaker 5: ten to one in the seventh inning. We still have
Speaker 5: three innings to cover, even if people have already turned
Speaker 5: off their TV or the radio. And I thought we
Speaker 5: had a really good year, and having a great partner
Speaker 5: is what I think is part and parcel to people
Speaker 5: complimenting you. You know, if you work in a situation
Speaker 5: where you don't have chemistry with your partner, it selfishly
Speaker 5: reflects on you. So you know, you want to be
Speaker 5: a great teammate for a lot of reasons. But even
Speaker 5: if it's about yourself, it makes sense to let your
Speaker 5: partner shine because it just makes the broadcast better as
Speaker 5: a whole.
Speaker 2: Hey, Lenn, So you know, Jeff and I we have
Speaker 2: to watch a lot of tape because that's the way
Speaker 2: football rolls, and you have to pay attention to your
Speaker 2: opponent as well as you do your team. You have
Speaker 2: to pay pay attention to the segments of positions. So
Speaker 2: what is prep like for a baseball season? Is it
Speaker 2: going to the batting cage? Is you know what? What
Speaker 2: is your description of preparation?
Speaker 5: Yeah, in some ways, guys, it's almost the opposite for
Speaker 5: opponents in terms of the White Sox. Yes, I think
Speaker 5: it's our job to be around the batting cage.
Speaker 1: Talk.
Speaker 5: I talk to the manager every day, kind of get
Speaker 5: the big picture stuff, get biographical notes from the players,
Speaker 5: and just kind of chat with them about whatever's going
Speaker 5: going on. And you never know what small little piece
Speaker 5: of information that might be really interesting to you that
Speaker 5: might not be interesting to them, but you can bring
Speaker 5: into a broadcast. But in terms of the opponent, you know,
Speaker 5: we have series, so I don't try to overdo it
Speaker 5: with the other team beyond kind of the basic stuff,
Speaker 5: and then over the course of three days, you really
Speaker 5: feel like you get to know a team and a player.
Speaker 5: So I try to have a little bit of a
Speaker 5: blank canvas. The more I've done this, the more I
Speaker 5: realize that if you over prepare, you end up missing
Speaker 5: the stuff that's right in front of you, if that
Speaker 5: makes sense. Whereas football, the preparation versus game time is
Speaker 5: what a million to one. Yeah, in baseball it's a
Speaker 5: little more even, and you know every day there's something
Speaker 5: new to talk about and you kind of build on
Speaker 5: that as the season moves along. If that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Oh, my great respect for every baseball announcer out there.
Speaker 1: I don't care what level, because the grind is the grind.
Speaker 1: The travel is unique, It wears onya but you do
Speaker 1: love it. You gotta love it in order to do it,
Speaker 1: and you call it like you love it. And Lynn
Speaker 1: Bramer once said the same thing about me, that calling
Speaker 1: it like he's loving it. That's how I feel about it,
Speaker 1: and we feel about it as broadcast crew here for
Speaker 1: twenty seven years together in twenty three in the booth.
Speaker 1: But it's interesting because as the deeper I've gotten, and
Speaker 1: Tom has told me to do the same thing. In fact,
Speaker 1: he made me. He shamed me into reducing my board
Speaker 1: information on the team playing a few weeks ago. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm never too old to take a little
Speaker 1: bit of advice, and so I took the advice and
Speaker 1: it's made it an immediate difference because I had too
Speaker 1: much in there. I don't need it. And like you said,
Speaker 1: when you lose sight of what's important. I just talked
Speaker 1: to Kevin Harlan about it at our game in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: and he goes, Man, he goes, I've gotten away from
Speaker 1: all the minutia, and it goes people want to know
Speaker 1: the score at the time of the game and get
Speaker 1: a feel for the moment, and if there's something big
Speaker 1: that's going to happen, I'm going to have that in
Speaker 1: my list, which I do too, And I think that's true.
Speaker 1: I think that's true. You can sometimes overprepare, but you
Speaker 1: never know when something you're looking for is going to
Speaker 1: be pertinent, and so you hope to have it. You
Speaker 1: hope to have it, in hope to have it in
Speaker 1: the holster, so to speak.
Speaker 5: Baseball is non linears, so you got to be paying attention.
Speaker 5: There's just a million things that can happen that if
Speaker 5: you don't see, you end up not talking about. And
Speaker 5: I always try to keep my eyes on the field
Speaker 5: as much as I can. I actually have a question
Speaker 5: for you guys, maybe more for Tom than Jeff. Do
Speaker 5: you guys always have the windows open regardless of the
Speaker 5: weather unless it's raining.
Speaker 2: Only at the stadium doesn't allow it to be open.
Speaker 2: There's a couple like we when we played in Tottingham
Speaker 2: and London, or we played was it Kansas City.
Speaker 1: Kansas City, Miami. They don't have that, and I hate
Speaker 1: every second of it. That window's got to be open.
Speaker 1: I don't care. Then it can be. It could be
Speaker 1: seventy five below zero. Windshield time's going to be bundled up.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be in a light sweater and I'm
Speaker 1: going to call the damn game.
Speaker 5: Yeah. The only time I need the window opened. It
Speaker 5: The only time we ever closed the window we were
Speaker 5: in Kansas City a couple of years ago in August,
Speaker 5: and Kurt Hassler, the White Sox bullpen coach at the time,
Speaker 5: had a thermometer out in front of the mound. It
Speaker 5: was one hundred and thirty six. WHOA, I can deal
Speaker 5: with cold in April, and having worked at Wrigley for
Speaker 5: sixteen years, there was some bone shilling days. But it's
Speaker 5: really hard when it's one hundred and seven and you're
Speaker 5: swimming on your shorts. That's no way to work, you know.
Speaker 2: Last question for me is we've we've had two rain
Speaker 2: delays in our time, and you have multiple rain delays
Speaker 2: during the course of the season. How do you how
Speaker 2: do you fight through that time?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had a tornado against the Baltimore Ravens. I'll
Speaker 1: never forget that one. You know, the ex meteorology major
Speaker 1: got to be a weather man for a couple of hours.
Speaker 5: I have two quick stories about weather delays, both on
Speaker 5: the road and I invariably there's a conversation during a
Speaker 5: long rain delay where the broadcasters have this chat how
Speaker 5: many hours of your life have been wasted sitting during
Speaker 5: a rain delay? And I don't even want to contemplate it.
Speaker 5: But final game of the All Star Break two thousand
Speaker 5: and four, I think or three Mets at Marlins and
Speaker 5: Miami played four or five games on Sundays. Due to
Speaker 5: the heat, so this is middle of July. We had
Speaker 5: four rain delays. The game ended at about eleven thirty
Speaker 5: that night, and because the All Stars it all missed
Speaker 5: their flights. Mike Lowell, I believe, and maybe another Marlin
Speaker 5: had to fly on the Mets charter to the All
Speaker 5: Star Games. So that was pretty cool. And then we
Speaker 5: were in Cincinnati when I was with the Cubs about
Speaker 5: fifteen years ago, and it was a one o'clock start
Speaker 5: and they kept announcing game will not start on time,
Speaker 5: we will update you in a half hour. Well, the
Speaker 5: game got called at five thirty and never started, and
Speaker 5: it probably had about four hours of no rain. They
Speaker 5: were anticipating the rain. So that's always fun when you're
Speaker 5: at the ballpark from nine in the morning till five
Speaker 5: thirty in the evening and it doesn't rain for about
Speaker 5: half that time and you don't play.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's a challenging sport. And I
Speaker 1: had the good fortune to do a half a dozen
Speaker 1: games at Wrigley with the help of Len Casper, no
Speaker 1: question setting me up, and there was a long rain
Speaker 1: delay before I had to go to I think we
Speaker 1: left the stadium at one thirty in the morning. I
Speaker 1: had to drive to bourbon A to do training camp
Speaker 1: the next morning, but it was about seventy five pitching
Speaker 1: changes and I'm like, how do these guys do it
Speaker 1: for one hundred and sixty two plus exhibition season. So
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a unique position, and that's why that's
Speaker 1: why it's such a big deal when baseball announcers get
Speaker 1: the Ford Frick and they go on the Baseball Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. It is a fabric of our lives. Just
Speaker 1: sitting here, we're on zoom watching each other. But Tom
Speaker 1: it's almost like I'm listening to a ballgame because they
Speaker 1: have the time to sell stories and here's the pitch,
Speaker 1: but the stories, and that's something that is crafted over
Speaker 1: a lifetime. It's going to continue for the rest of
Speaker 1: your career. The stories that you'll be able to tell
Speaker 1: twenty years from now, as long as you want to
Speaker 1: do it. Because baseball announcers last forever are what makes
Speaker 1: it so great, and we help pass the summertime with
Speaker 1: the voice on the radio. It's different than and that's
Speaker 1: probably what your draw was too, painting the picture for
Speaker 1: radio the story time, right, I love it. It's what
Speaker 1: I love. I love it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I love it. And you know we'd be remiss
Speaker 5: before we finish. Guys, we're now teammates, have the same
Speaker 5: flagship in Chicago, ESPN one thousand and welcome to the family.
Speaker 5: As I told you, Jeff, when this all came about,
Speaker 5: great situation, a great group, and really good things are
Speaker 5: right around the corner for the Bears, and you guys
Speaker 5: are in a great spot on the radio.
Speaker 1: We appreciate that very much. It's been a wonderful experience
Speaker 1: with good Karma brands. And hey, we'd like to say
Speaker 1: the same for the White Sox too. You know, a
Speaker 1: new stepping stone, a new platform to build from, and
Speaker 1: we're kind of in the same boat here because you know,
Speaker 1: we're still building here. The Bears are still building and
Speaker 1: when it actually happens and you construct the house and
Speaker 1: put the roof on and have multiple championship runs, that
Speaker 1: that's what we're all looking for. And it was Tom
Speaker 1: I don't even remember, but the New England Green Bay
Speaker 1: back to back games in the Trustman era when we
Speaker 1: got blown out, I get a phone call from a
Speaker 1: guy named Led Casppar says, Hey, remember what you're doing here.
Speaker 1: You're calling the game because I went into tank after
Speaker 1: we're down forty two nothing at halftime and things aren't good.
Speaker 1: But I often retell that story lend because it did
Speaker 1: recalibrate me. You got to remember what we're doing. We're
Speaker 1: in the homes, we're in the cars, we're in the radio,
Speaker 1: we're in the phones of people's lives and they're looking
Speaker 1: for a little reprief from their lives. And I get it,
Speaker 1: I get it. That is partly our job as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, you want to be a fan, you
Speaker 5: want your team to win. But you know, my thing
Speaker 5: with rules and you know your league has all kinds
Speaker 5: of crazy stuff with replay is you know, yes, the
Speaker 5: former player wink wink can say, oh that was a
Speaker 5: terrible call. I hate that call. But the play by
Speaker 5: play job is to explain why right, even if you
Speaker 5: don't agree with the call, and Baseball has a million
Speaker 5: of them. You know where my partner's saying, you know
Speaker 5: that's not interference. You know he's in Well he wasn't
Speaker 5: in the lane. That's why they call it. So you
Speaker 5: kind of have to play both sides of it a
Speaker 5: little bit. But our job is to tell the listeners
Speaker 5: and the viewers here's why the umpire or the referee
Speaker 5: made this particular call. Then you can go off on
Speaker 5: a math.
Speaker 1: Tom and I get into this all the time sometimes
Speaker 1: that God, you know, I know you're right, Tomkife, but
Speaker 1: you know there's another side of the story he gets all.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's interesting because the I'm grateful to have
Speaker 1: him because the guy played for a decade and he's
Speaker 1: been a part of it ever since in some form
Speaker 1: or fashion. So it is deep in his soul, no
Speaker 1: different than Ron Santo was, or different than any X
Speaker 1: player that has lived a lifetime of this town. And
Speaker 1: so his raw passion comes out. And and Tom, I
Speaker 1: think you'd agree. We also believe save it for the radio, right.
Speaker 1: We don't go over a plan ever. And it's funny
Speaker 1: when we do our TV show, you know, you have
Speaker 1: all these other people, directors, producers, and they want to
Speaker 1: know what your role cues are and all this because
Speaker 1: it matters, and we just kind of chuckle because we
Speaker 1: don't do it that way, like everything's wrong. I don't
Speaker 1: want to know what questions you're asking me.
Speaker 2: I want to react camera.
Speaker 5: We'll figure it out.
Speaker 1: We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Indeed, lastly,
Speaker 1: for me, the craft of the call. I know, we
Speaker 1: all have influences from the time we were little kids,
Speaker 1: even before we knew we were going to do this
Speaker 1: for a living, and so they come around and it.
Speaker 1: You know, I study the old guys, the people that
Speaker 1: came for us, all the way back to the forties
Speaker 1: and fifties, because I get a kick out of it. Right,
Speaker 1: they didn't have color commentators, they didn't have a tent there,
Speaker 1: they didn't have it. Darren Jackson, did it come natural
Speaker 1: your craft of the call of your call? Or do
Speaker 1: you feel that a lot of those influences are what
Speaker 1: you enjoyed, so you're assuming your listeners are all enjoyed the same.
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, Ernie Harwell certainly has influenced me. What I
Speaker 5: liked about Ernie was he was always the same a
Speaker 5: matter of the score. He was very even keeled on
Speaker 5: the air, and he kept it simple, like you say,
Speaker 5: where's the ball, what's the score, what's the inning? Where
Speaker 5: the base runners? But he found a way to kind
Speaker 5: of repeat the same information with different verbiage, and a
Speaker 5: lot of his play by play really reads like poetry
Speaker 5: to this day. But I try to avoid the big words,
Speaker 5: and I want to make it as obviously explicitly playing
Speaker 5: what is happening, because if you try to get too cute,
Speaker 5: people are going to miss what's going on. And that's
Speaker 5: the cardinal sin in our broadcasting world is for someone
Speaker 5: to go, what just happened. That's the last thing you
Speaker 5: want to hear as a radio announcer. So I've really
Speaker 5: dug in on the details. And I just like I
Speaker 5: told you earlier, guys, I try to see stuff. And
Speaker 5: I did it on television where we could actually shoot it,
Speaker 5: and I would say, Hey, there's a conversation over here,
Speaker 5: could you get a shot of it. On the radio,
Speaker 5: I might just say DJ, why is the umpire talking
Speaker 5: to Eloy Jimenez right now? And he might go, well,
Speaker 5: he might be asking him this or that, or he
Speaker 5: might say I really don't know, but it's interesting. We'll
Speaker 5: keep an eye on it. So those are the things
Speaker 5: that they only happen on the radio if you say
Speaker 5: they happen, And it's our job to see the stuff
Speaker 5: that other people don't see, and I can ask a
Speaker 5: guy who was down on the field in those moments
Speaker 5: to get his feedback on it, and that, to me
Speaker 5: is the greatest part of his job.
Speaker 1: Hey, Tom, can I give you a question, because I
Speaker 1: know you always ask everybody now analytics, like you know,
Speaker 1: for baseball, it's it's it's a part of the fabric
Speaker 1: of it, all right, and we we are getting exposed
Speaker 1: to it. Tom's got a grin on his face right now,
Speaker 1: So ask him how he uses it or if he
Speaker 1: believes in it.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 2: I think analytics are much more usable in baseball than
Speaker 2: they are in football because there's a certain, you know,
Speaker 2: process to the game of baseball that analytics can come
Speaker 2: into play, whereas in football, I think it's more of
Speaker 2: a reactionary sport and it's unpredictable, and it's there's eleven
Speaker 2: guys trying to accomplish one goal and within the structure
Speaker 2: of a play called in the huddle. I just think
Speaker 2: there's different than a batter picture. You know, how often
Speaker 2: the pitcher throws this type of pitch and what is
Speaker 2: a batter susceptible to throughout the course of his career.
Speaker 2: So I think analytics are relatable.
Speaker 5: In baseball, it's much more quantifiable than other sports. For sure.
Speaker 5: I'm kind of like Kevin Harlan and I do way
Speaker 5: less than I used to. And the quick short story
Speaker 5: example is, for instance, there's a defensive analytic. It's a
Speaker 5: team defense number. It's called defensive efficiency. It's number of
Speaker 5: balls in play that turned it out. So it's a
Speaker 5: bit of a math thing. The bottom line is you
Speaker 5: just look at where a team ranks and you go,
Speaker 5: they've been really good defensively. That's all you have to say.
Speaker 5: You don't have to talk about what the analytic is.
Speaker 5: Just compare a couple of different numbers and you go,
Speaker 5: this team has been really good on defense. And I
Speaker 5: think that's all people really want to know right at
Speaker 5: the end of the day. And I think for football
Speaker 5: it's the same thing. How many points do you give up?
Speaker 5: How many points do you do you score? And you know,
Speaker 5: that's really all people want to know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's so much to it. It's interesting. Everybody has
Speaker 1: a different flavor for it. But you're right, when we're
Speaker 1: on radio, if somebody turns away to yell at their
Speaker 1: kid in the back seat of the car, they miss something.
Speaker 1: So you got to constant leave you.
Speaker 2: Ready to go.
Speaker 1: Well, hey, this has been fun. We could talk for
Speaker 1: another half hour and forty minutes. We promised fifteen to twenty.
Speaker 1: We're hitting at thirty six. So we appreciate giving us
Speaker 1: all your time. And enjoy your call every week, every
Speaker 1: day in the baseball season. I should say, so, enjoy
Speaker 1: these final weeks of your off season because it'll fly
Speaker 1: by fast.
Speaker 5: Guys. I will be listening to you on Sunday. I'll
Speaker 5: be traveling on Sunday, so I will not be in
Speaker 5: front of a television, but even if I were, I
Speaker 5: would sync it up.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's the only way to roll, right, Big.
Speaker 2: Tom, awesome man, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Len Casper, the outstanding voice of your Chicago White Sox
Speaker 1: on ESPN one thousand. All right, So, what we didn't
Speaker 1: get into Tom is his hometown Mount Pleasant, Michigan. But
Speaker 1: then he grew up in nearby Shepherd, a rural town
Speaker 1: about fifteen hundred people. So Len was small town USA,
Speaker 1: loving sports like you did. I love the journey because
Speaker 1: we all have a good one. We have a good
Speaker 1: story to tell. But he dabbled in just about everything
Speaker 1: to get to where he was and I know I
Speaker 1: read an article about a guy that he met along
Speaker 1: his journey coming from Marquette that said, you needed to
Speaker 1: do like five hundred games of minor league baseball to
Speaker 1: be seasoned enough to be even considered for a major
Speaker 1: league baseball job. And he never reached that number. But
Speaker 1: he did what we some of us have done, and
Speaker 1: that's you take the tape of corder and you go
Speaker 1: and practice, or you do things for free, and you
Speaker 1: invest in yourself. You pay yourself with that equity of experience,
Speaker 1: even if it's not actually on the air, actually doing
Speaker 1: a game. And I respect the way he's done gone
Speaker 1: about his career.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, whether it's you or Len Casper, whomever
Speaker 2: you meet along the way, and you talk about these
Speaker 2: guys that come from a small town, the first thing
Speaker 2: that pops into my mind is a transistor radio, absolutely,
Speaker 2: because I still have a transistor radio that's powered by
Speaker 2: batteries that my mom and dad and I. I you's sit
Speaker 2: in the living room or sit in the backyard and
Speaker 2: listen to sporting events. And when I think about you
Speaker 2: guys grown up, that's what it was back in the
Speaker 2: day when all you guys were kids. It was transistor
Speaker 2: radios that introduced you to play by play whatever sport
Speaker 2: you listened to, And so.
Speaker 1: Duck it under my pillow at night and listen it
Speaker 1: through the pillow strow. I wouldn't get in trouble for
Speaker 1: having being up late because they had the transistor listening
Speaker 1: to a game. So yeah, well it was awesome.
Speaker 2: Earlier in the show, you had a story about Keith
Speaker 2: Jackson and listening to it, So I just want to
Speaker 2: tell you a quick story. So my freshman year of
Speaker 2: the first game I got to travel, I ran into
Speaker 2: the locker room at Notre Dame because they put up
Speaker 2: the traveling squad, and I was so happy that I
Speaker 2: made the traveling squad because we were playing Michigan at
Speaker 2: Michigan and so I walk out early and I come
Speaker 2: out and I'm snapping practice punts and I'm out in
Speaker 2: the field early and Jeff, I look over there there's
Speaker 2: Keith Jackson, and I go, oh, my god, Keith Jackson.
Speaker 2: And then I look up in the sky and it's
Speaker 2: the Goodyear blim and I just remembering the impact of
Speaker 2: those two instances is in my football life. Of seeing
Speaker 2: Keith Jackson in person for the first time, of my life,
Speaker 2: and then seeing the blimp above and we went on
Speaker 2: the last play of the game, Bob Crable blocked the
Speaker 2: field go by Ali Haji Sheik and we won the game. So,
Speaker 2: whether you're listening to Keith Jackson in a rebroadcast of
Speaker 2: the past or whatever your first experiences in seeing him
Speaker 2: in person, you know you kind of don't forget those
Speaker 2: landmarks of your sports life.
Speaker 1: Never asked you this, but you know you have always
Speaker 1: said football or nothing as a career. Clearly you loved sports.
Speaker 1: If you didn't make it in football, or you got
Speaker 1: injured and you couldn't play, what would have sports broadcasting
Speaker 1: be something you would have gone into.
Speaker 2: I had never thought of. I was not going to
Speaker 2: not make it. I just I had no second option,
Speaker 2: and I never even you know it's people always talk
Speaker 2: about what happens if you would have got hurt. I
Speaker 2: never thought about getting hurt because it never entered my mind.
Speaker 2: My only was to get better in this game, get
Speaker 2: back into the weight room and get better next week,
Speaker 2: and never have a second option. My second option was
Speaker 2: I wanted to get a diploma out in college, and
Speaker 2: that was what I wanted a lot. But I wanted
Speaker 2: to make I was I was going to make it
Speaker 2: in the professional football.
Speaker 1: Well, you certainly didn't mess around sees get degrees, but
Speaker 1: you got one from Notre Dame, and then you went
Speaker 1: and played for the charter franchise of the National Football League,
Speaker 1: of which now you continue to be their broadcaster for
Speaker 1: some thirty years. I mean, come on, right, you didn't
Speaker 1: you didn't go You didn't. You didn't go small? You
Speaker 1: want you thought big? You're one stubborn son of a gun,
Speaker 1: aren't you.
Speaker 2: Yeah? Oh yeah, I had to be. I'm the youngest
Speaker 2: of my family, you know.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank God for them, Thank God for them to
Speaker 1: help you all right. Injury report today at Hallisaw. We
Speaker 1: know what was going to be light coming out of
Speaker 1: the bye week. They felt very good about it. Busy
Speaker 1: Heart Celtser, the official Heart Seltzer of the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1: Larry Borum back from his illness, Deyonta foreman Tom back
Speaker 1: from his ankle injury, and he was starting to really
Speaker 1: get some things going. He was feeling it. He's a
Speaker 1: guy you need to give the ball to and get
Speaker 1: lathered up over the course of a game and for
Speaker 1: that matter of season. So I hope his return means
Speaker 1: that they will share that backfield and spread out and
Speaker 1: give it to the hot hand, whoever the hot hand is,
Speaker 1: and that could be Deontay Forman of what I believe
Speaker 1: is going to be a very physical game against Detroit.
Speaker 2: Well, he's I think he brings a real physical approach
Speaker 2: to the point of attack running game, and I think
Speaker 2: he's committed to it. He does a really nice job
Speaker 2: and I think with the backs they have, it's going
Speaker 2: to be a difficult choice and who gets the most.
Speaker 2: But I also think going forward, Roshawn Johnson is a
Speaker 2: guy that's delivered and he deserves more snaps, whether it's
Speaker 2: catching balls out of the backfield, pass protector for blitz
Speaker 2: pick up, or a ball carrier.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna I'm not going to forget about Killo
Speaker 1: Herbert too, because Khalil Hibbert is a game he can
Speaker 1: he can rip off some big gains for you, and
Speaker 1: he's a patient runner and can catch the ball out
Speaker 1: of the backfield. Tyreek Stevenson good to go full go
Speaker 1: with that ankle. Noah Sewell limited with his knee. I'd
Speaker 1: love to see him play against his brother Pine. It
Speaker 1: would be kind of a cool story.
Speaker 2: I agree, But the thing about him, you don't want
Speaker 2: to have, you know, competitive family getting to the way
Speaker 2: of making sure your knee is one hundred percent, because
Speaker 2: I think Knowle's got a long, healthy career in front
Speaker 2: of him. So be healthy, get healthy, and then get
Speaker 2: on the field.
Speaker 1: For the Detroit Lions, the biggest injury is a significant one.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's going to keep him out
Speaker 1: or not. Frank Ragnos first half of the game last
Speaker 1: week left, it says here, knee back in tow He
Speaker 1: left what he appeared to be bent back in that
Speaker 1: game against the Saints on that astroturfa or whatever they're
Speaker 1: calling it there in New Orleans. But he's important they've
Speaker 1: had so if he doesn't play, that's nine different combinations
Speaker 1: of starters, much like the Bears this year. They've weathered it,
Speaker 1: of course, winning nine games. But Frank Ragnow is legit.
Speaker 1: He is an outstanding center and that would be to
Speaker 1: me a step no, no disrespect to Gary Glasgow, uh,
Speaker 1: but this is uh, this is a very good player.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know rag Now, you know he's got
Speaker 2: a reputation not only in our division but around the league.
Speaker 2: He's instrumental in the success of that offensive line, and
Speaker 2: he's he's been there through the building process of this
Speaker 2: offense and this offensive line. So yeah, you know, I
Speaker 2: don't know what's one of those three injuries that you
Speaker 2: describe are the most significant. But if you have a
Speaker 2: bad and you can't push equally to your right or
Speaker 2: to your left, that can really affect your performance.
Speaker 1: You've always said it. I knew you were going to
Speaker 1: say it when I put toe on there. I knew
Speaker 1: you were going to weigh in at it.
Speaker 2: And Walter Payton missed whim in his entire career because
Speaker 2: of a toe injury that kept.
Speaker 1: Him out and he didn't want to miss. He didn't
Speaker 1: want to miss right Aurora of Native Graham Glasgow filled
Speaker 1: in last week. He could be the guy. Alex AZELONEI
Speaker 1: had a hand injury, he had to leave the game
Speaker 1: or didn't play in the game rather against New Orleans.
Speaker 1: He is a full go as well, and he had
Speaker 1: fifteen tackles against the Bears. You can't miss him with
Speaker 1: the long, flowing blonde locks. He's a very good player
Speaker 1: and a key member of a defense that is kind
Speaker 1: of under a siege right now. Tommy as was pointed
Speaker 1: out in the media sessions up at Hallis Hall on
Speaker 1: Wednesday from Stacy Dale's rom NFL Network. The lines have
Speaker 1: given up the second most points in the NFL since
Speaker 1: Week seven. That's a significant for the Lions. They lost
Speaker 1: Alee McNeil, their best interior defensive lineman. He has five
Speaker 1: secs and he's a terror in there, so that doesn't
Speaker 1: help them. They're trying to create a pass rush outside
Speaker 1: of Hutch. What do you see as vulnerable for the
Speaker 1: Bears to attend.
Speaker 2: Something I would do. I would look at Angeloni and
Speaker 2: see if he's got his hands significantly taped or wrapped
Speaker 2: in any way that will interfere with him fighting off blocks,
Speaker 2: and then I try to have offensive formations that I
Speaker 2: put him on the same side as Irvin. Here's a
Speaker 2: thirty six year old defensive end that just came aboard
Speaker 2: who to me, I think he should be suspended for
Speaker 2: what he did to Car in the New Orleans game,
Speaker 2: but we'll talk about that at the later podcast. He
Speaker 2: did have a second get yeah, But if I could
Speaker 2: get those two guys on the same side, and I
Speaker 2: knew one linebacker didn't have one is able to fight
Speaker 2: equally with both hands and I had a guy that
Speaker 2: I knows not in one hundred percent game shape, I
Speaker 2: would get him on the same side with the formation
Speaker 2: and I would attack them repeatedly.
Speaker 1: You got a level with me because we've had a
Speaker 1: much so many different players have come through, even in
Speaker 1: the last few years. All Right, if we had a
Speaker 1: game a quiz about guys that have been on the
Speaker 1: team or not, I wonder how we do because there
Speaker 1: are certain guys I do not remember being on the team,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, you look, but Bruce Irvin, Yeah,
Speaker 1: scared completely forgot about it. I'm doing is his chart,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, why does it keep saying bears? This
Speaker 1: has got to be a misprint. I do not have
Speaker 1: any recollection in twenty twenty one of him being a bear.
Speaker 2: Well, you better go to the health food store and
Speaker 2: get some of those mind enhancing drugs that you know.
Speaker 1: I would you know it would be one of these,
Speaker 1: because I'm often accused of also being stubborn and thinking
Speaker 1: I know what I think I know. And if you
Speaker 1: would have challenged me, I would have said, no way,
Speaker 1: he wasn't on the team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was just twenty twenty one, and I heard
Speaker 2: he was a really nice guy in the locker room,
Speaker 2: so it's nothing against him. But when you see the
Speaker 2: type of hits that they review and try to kick
Speaker 2: players out nowadays in the NFL or in college football.
Speaker 2: For what he did to car last week and he
Speaker 2: came back with a back injury, a neck injury, and
Speaker 2: a rib injury because he purposely drove him, you know,
Speaker 2: into the ground. That should be reviewed as well.
Speaker 1: All right, So you can't replicate the game plan per se,
Speaker 1: you know, just do like a carbon copy, or can you?
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 1: Can you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean I would. I would take that first
Speaker 2: script of plays and say, okay, we went down and
Speaker 2: we drove down the field in a hostile environment. How
Speaker 2: can we make that script better? Because you're going to
Speaker 2: be able to ignite the get off of the offensive line,
Speaker 2: because you're going to be able to be in control
Speaker 2: of the snapcount. You have put justin Field's in a
Speaker 2: position of success and confidence. And I think that if
Speaker 2: you've had success in the plays that were successful, you
Speaker 2: know you can use them again. You can have a
Speaker 2: little bit of different window dressing. You can have receivers
Speaker 2: in different positions or maybe you know, a half back
Speaker 2: in place of a fullback or a tight end in
Speaker 2: place of a fullback, however you want to use them.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you know, and that's what Ditk always used
Speaker 2: to say, is we're going to run this play until
Speaker 2: they stop us. And I think you have to have
Speaker 2: that same mentality as well.
Speaker 1: Justin pointed it out, and yeah, of course this is
Speaker 1: the case. Detroit will have a little something different that
Speaker 1: they haven't seen on tape or you know, un scouted
Speaker 1: looks or whatever. What is it they possibly could do
Speaker 1: to prevent what has been happening to them by Justin's legs.
Speaker 1: He has run for almost four hundred yards against him
Speaker 1: in the last three games.
Speaker 2: You know, they could have exterior defensive back and outside
Speaker 2: linebacker rushers. They could have more contained and more contained upfield.
Speaker 2: They could try to have a rush that tries to
Speaker 2: keep Justin in the pocket. They could take Hutchinson and
Speaker 2: move them to the inside and have them rush against
Speaker 2: the guard with a little bit of more immediacy of
Speaker 2: a tall guy pressure. They could run a couple more
Speaker 2: line stunts against them. So you know, there's a variety
Speaker 2: things that they could do to try to control Justin.
Speaker 2: But if they get away from what they've been doing successfully.
Speaker 2: Then you know, it's a little late in the season
Speaker 2: to try to be someone you haven't been.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't have that other rusher right now to
Speaker 1: pair with Hutchinson, and I believe those corners they can
Speaker 1: be tested, especially with speed on the edges, and that's
Speaker 1: where I'd continue to focus and let Justin do his thing.
Speaker 1: I think this is a wonderful opportunity for the Bears
Speaker 1: to beat a really good team. Do it at home,
Speaker 1: get the crowd engaged early, don't let them off the hook,
Speaker 1: and just play a bloody knuckle game. I know this
Speaker 1: was like, this is how I mean, I'm acting like
Speaker 1: the tough guy, right. Yeah, I just come on that,
Speaker 1: you know, relentless, you know, as Jim Kriner, the former
Speaker 1: head coach at Ioway stayed, alwa, Jeff, we're going to
Speaker 1: play with reckless abandon. I'd like to see that, and
Speaker 1: they do play. The Bears do play like that, especially defensively.
Speaker 1: But I want that whole thing adopted from special teams
Speaker 1: on over.
Speaker 2: Who's the guy that got Lucas Patrick?
Speaker 1: It is one of the aqoras.
Speaker 2: How yes, I would have I would I would go
Speaker 2: after him and I would say make sure you keep
Speaker 2: your head on a squibble because some way, shape or form,
Speaker 2: we're going to get crack back on you. We are
Speaker 2: going to trap you, We're going to have a guy
Speaker 2: pull and hit and cut you at the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 2: Just to make sure that you know we're not going
Speaker 2: to forget about that.
Speaker 1: Well, let me tell you I did talk to Lucas
Speaker 1: Patrick that following Wednesday, and he kind of flashed the
Speaker 1: damage done and it was significant in terms of a way.
Speaker 1: I don't mean to laugh. I mean that was as
Speaker 1: dark and nasty of a bruise and it wasn't little.
Speaker 1: It was He left the game with what they call
Speaker 1: the bat. It wasn't a back. It maybe affected how
Speaker 1: he walked and how he could play. But this bruise
Speaker 1: was lower back, all the way down the left side.
Speaker 1: I think it was the left side of the right
Speaker 1: side of his cheek down through the thigh. It was nasty.
Speaker 1: I said, whoa, it was nasty.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I would I would just you know, put
Speaker 2: him on notice that you better keep your head on
Speaker 2: a swibble because somebody is gonna come at you in
Speaker 2: an awkward direction. And you know, well, I.
Speaker 1: Feel differently if CJ. Gardner Johnson was in the game
Speaker 1: because that guy would be chirping all day and he'd
Speaker 1: be trying to draw the Bears into trouble. That guy,
Speaker 1: they miss him. He's a tone guy on defense.
Speaker 2: They signed him for that specific purpose that he's a
Speaker 2: good player, and he's a little bit of a chirp.
Speaker 1: A little bit.
Speaker 2: He got hurt.
Speaker 1: He's in all of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well we've seen it. You know, there's evidence of
Speaker 2: it playing against the Bears when he took a couple
Speaker 2: of uh, well you know, late punches.
Speaker 1: Yeah, off the sidelines. Yeah, who did it again? Javon
Speaker 1: Whims Yep. That's still the most unbelievable thing I've seen
Speaker 1: in an NFL game, come off the sidelines to purposely
Speaker 1: colcocka guy, tap him on the shoulder, and punch him
Speaker 1: in the face.
Speaker 2: I mean, this modern day NFL.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. All Right, a
Speaker 1: couple of nuggets now, as you wrap things up here
Speaker 1: on the podcast, we have many different sponsors including Blue
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Speaker 1: Jake Browning Jake brown put on a show on Monday
Speaker 1: night for the Cincinnati Bengals in for the injured Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow three point fifty four a touchdown and a touchdown run.
Speaker 1: He's the AFC Player of the Week tom and the
Speaker 1: tenth player ever ever with three hundred and fifty plus
Speaker 1: yards and eighty five percent plus completion percentage in an
Speaker 1: NFL game. I mean, the backup quarterbacks that have come
Speaker 1: in have really made headlines this year all across the league.
Speaker 1: And now you're going to see Tommy DeVito is going
Speaker 1: to remain the starter in New York with the Giants.
Speaker 1: You saw what Tyson Bagent did here the Joshua Dobbs
Speaker 1: run with the Vikings. He is back as a starter
Speaker 1: again for this week's game. I mean, we can go
Speaker 1: on and on crazy.
Speaker 2: You know. The most impressive thing about Browning is in
Speaker 2: the first quarter he had negative point ninety yards passing
Speaker 2: per attempt, and then in the second quarter it was
Speaker 2: over ten yards per attempt. So they went to that
Speaker 2: lateral screen game because they were a little worried about
Speaker 2: threatening downfield with him, and then when that didn't work,
Speaker 2: they said, okay, we got to start going downfield and
Speaker 2: then he blew up. So he had that amount of
Speaker 2: yardage in three quarters. If they would have given him
Speaker 2: that first quarter to actually throw downfield, the record would
Speaker 2: be even a bigger number.
Speaker 1: One time, I saw something too, you touch something here,
Speaker 1: touched upon something about the screen game because everybody was,
Speaker 1: you know, apparently unhappy the way the screen game was
Speaker 1: implemented against Minnesota to try and mute that pass rush,
Speaker 1: and people didn't like it. It wasn't fun to watch. Whatever,
Speaker 1: it wasn't effective, whatever, the Bears won the game. You know,
Speaker 1: Rock Perdy and the forty nine ers are the number
Speaker 1: one screen team in the NFL and production. I mean,
Speaker 1: the screen can kill you. Let's be honest, it can
Speaker 1: kill you. So don't go away from it. You don't
Speaker 1: have to do what every play, but don't go away
Speaker 1: from it.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's really valuable on the road because
Speaker 2: if there's an offensive lineman that gets off of eighth
Speaker 2: of a second late and you can get the ball
Speaker 2: out of the quarterback's hands without suffering a sack. So
Speaker 2: you have to look at the reasons behind it, and
Speaker 2: then you have to look at the type of guys
Speaker 2: you're throwing to. To me, DJ Moore, Darnell Mooney and
Speaker 2: Cole for that matter, are some of the more creative
Speaker 2: guys with the ball in their hands. DJ is a
Speaker 2: tough tackle, Cole is a tough guy, and Darnell is
Speaker 2: one of the more creative guys with the ball in
Speaker 2: his hands.
Speaker 1: Tevin Jenkins against the Lions in pass Pro re Revisit
Speaker 1: twenty nine pass blocking snaps, no sacks, no pressures. Again,
Speaker 1: he's really good right now and just stay healthy and
Speaker 1: good things are going to continue to happen to him.
Speaker 1: Nate Davis has also been very good. So the two
Speaker 1: guards can you can you do more damage against Detroit
Speaker 1: with those two guards, say than maybe running on the outside.
Speaker 2: But you know that's a staff that they've come up
Speaker 2: with and now they talk about it. But as an
Speaker 2: off linemen, you don't have the luxury of giving up
Speaker 2: a sack per game. So Tevin, that's what I expect
Speaker 2: out of him, not only against Detroit, I expect them
Speaker 2: that out of him weekly. So if you go through
Speaker 2: a season and you think that you have the right
Speaker 2: to give up six seventeen sacks goal, I only gave
Speaker 2: up one stack game. You're not playing for me. So
Speaker 2: when you talk about what Tevin and Nate are doing,
Speaker 2: that's that's why they're here and that's what we expect
Speaker 2: from them. So yeah, I'm I. You know, I believe
Speaker 2: that Tevin should be playing equally as well as he
Speaker 2: did in that game and each week. And I think
Speaker 2: Nate should be playing better because he missed a little
Speaker 2: bit of time in the middle of the season, miss
Speaker 2: training camp, and I think he's a good player.
Speaker 1: Good news, Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new planes
Speaker 1: with all the bells and whistles, like Bluetooth connectivity screens
Speaker 1: at every seat and room for everyone's rollerbag. United Proud
Speaker 1: to fly the Chicago Bears and you too, Jeff Time
Speaker 1: of the Bears, etc. Podcast CJ. Stroud leaving the NFL
Speaker 1: in passing yards. He's the top vote getter at the
Speaker 1: quarterback position for the upcoming Pro Bowl, which I know
Speaker 1: how you feel about it, and I feel the same
Speaker 1: way as you do. But this one caught my eye
Speaker 1: and there's a reason why I'm saying this, and I
Speaker 1: want your perspective as an offensive lineman. So he is
Speaker 1: second in the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns on
Speaker 1: first and second down play action. Okay, but the Texans
Speaker 1: are twenty ninth in the league in success rate on
Speaker 1: first and second down runs. I can't remember what that means.
Speaker 1: Is that three yards or more on the run. It's
Speaker 1: something like that. So what basically they're doing. They have
Speaker 1: to do something they're not good at setting up what
Speaker 1: they do best. Why is it still effective If it's
Speaker 1: not been productive and he is feasting on that play
Speaker 1: action pass.
Speaker 2: Because it's a more aggressive, easier block for the offensive line.
Speaker 2: If your offensive line, which seems evident by the numbers
Speaker 2: you're telling me, aren't a good run blocking offensive line,
Speaker 2: then you don't do well with the run game. However,
Speaker 2: if you can go out there and keep your helmets
Speaker 2: low and give the deception that you're running the ball,
Speaker 2: and you can be super aggressive at the line of
Speaker 2: scrimmage and be deceiving to what the defense thinks they're seeing,
Speaker 2: and then you have a quarterback that can turn that
Speaker 2: into a completion, then you're playing right into the hands
Speaker 2: of an offensive line that you want to make them
Speaker 2: better rather than try to beat your head into the
Speaker 2: wall and do something that they don't do very well.
Speaker 1: Repeatedly, find it very interesting. This sport is something else.
Speaker 1: It's not so simple. This sport is not simple.
Speaker 2: I love play action means and if you want your
Speaker 2: offensive line you talk about screens and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: If you want, if you want your offensive line to
Speaker 2: be one hundred percent aggressive, but they don't have to
Speaker 2: sustain it block for a long time, then run play
Speaker 2: action passing and that's going to help your offensive line
Speaker 2: develop in your offense to be more explosive.
Speaker 1: All right, lastly, before we go, and we want to
Speaker 1: thank Ticketmaster Bears fans. You can be there for live
Speaker 1: NFL action all season long as the official ticket marketplace
Speaker 1: for the Bears and the NFL. Ticketmaster as a white
Speaker 1: selection of tickets available for every game. Find tickets today
Speaker 1: at ticketmaster dot com. Slash Bears Special Teams. I want
Speaker 1: it to be really, really, really good these last five weeks.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying they haven't been, but need better net
Speaker 1: average on punts it's still the lowest in the NFL.
Speaker 1: The return game is really not giving a lot by
Speaker 1: choice sometimes, but you're not enhancing field positions so far
Speaker 1: with the return game. And I don't know if Vayalas
Speaker 1: Jones will be up in active, but if he is,
Speaker 1: if it's seven yards deep, bring it out. I just want,
Speaker 1: I just want something to happen, a busted tackle that
Speaker 1: leads to a forty yard return. Something on special teams
Speaker 1: and error free special teams in the last.
Speaker 2: Five games is that the weather deteriorates. The special teams
Speaker 2: never become more of a bigger point of emphasis than
Speaker 2: they do during the beginning of the season. Hot weather
Speaker 2: kickers kick them out of the end zone. Hot weather
Speaker 2: punters have a softer ball, they get a higher hang time.
Speaker 2: Now when you get to these cold weather games, it
Speaker 2: affects the flight of the football. Kickers don't kick it
Speaker 2: as far. You get more returns. Punters don't punt it
Speaker 2: as far because of the temperature of the football. So
Speaker 2: you're going to have an opportunity to either stop returners
Speaker 2: or return the ball yourself. And they will play a
Speaker 2: significant role in each one of the outcomes of these games.
Speaker 2: Extra point and field goal protection or kicking I don't
Speaker 2: care about because it's usually close enough to the goal
Speaker 2: line that you do it. But if there's a deciding
Speaker 2: factor kick that's maybe fifty one yards or back, then
Speaker 2: it is into the mind of the kickers if they
Speaker 2: can make it to depending upon the direction of the wind,
Speaker 2: the footing, or the type of climate you're playing in
Speaker 2: at that moment.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, Cairo Santos, so I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about Cairo. Cairo's outstanding, right, he's having a Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl season six for six fifty.
Speaker 2: When you bring in a kicker, an indoor kicker from Atlanta,
Speaker 2: Are you bringing a kicker indoor kicker from Arizona or
Speaker 2: you know, Detroit, those types, those types of player are kickers.
Speaker 2: They're not used to these conditions and they don't like
Speaker 2: banging that football, you know, frozen football off their foot
Speaker 2: when they don't have to all year round.
Speaker 1: All right, Tom, that's going to wrap us up. So
Speaker 1: look forward to it on Sunday. Come check us out
Speaker 1: on ESPN one thousand. You got the pregame coverage. We've
Speaker 1: got Mark Silverman, you got Lance Briggs, Elbogie and Dion
Speaker 1: Miller from Channel seven with a pregame at ten we're
Speaker 1: on shortly before noon and we'll have the entire call
Speaker 1: for you. Thanks for listening, everybody to our podcast here
Speaker 1: today for timp there and White Sox Radio announcer Lynn Casper.
Speaker 1: I'm Jeff Joniak. Please subscribe on The Bear's official app, Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcast. Tom give me one.
Speaker 1: Will you give me one the way I send it off,
Speaker 1: give me some emotion. This is an NFC North gowl. Oh,
Speaker 1: I got my dog scared, scared, Blue popped up in
Speaker 1: a hurry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Sweet Lou. I'll take
Speaker 1: care of it for you. Bear down, everybody,