We Owe It To WHO?

How do you tell when a football team has lost all focus and purpose?

It's easy. You talk to the players. You walk right up to one — say, the biggest, most trouble-making one who, perhaps, has under-performed thus making him more trouble than he's probably worth — and ask him a question.

So, on Monday, the media sidled up to good ol' No. 91. And Tommie Harris off the field is completely different from the Tommie Harris on the field: Off the field, he does not disappoint.

Harris says there is one big reason the Bears should win: They owe it to Lovie Smith.

I am not making that up.

"We owe it to him," Tommie Harris said. "That guy has been great to us from training camps to what he's done with the facilities. Different things that you see other coaches really don't care about, but this guy has come in and helped us out tremendously, and we owe it back to him."

So help me out here: You owe giving your best not to the franchise that employs you, the city for whom you play, the season ticket holders who spend thousands, the fans who spend millions, the league that provides a precious few athletes with a special opportunity to be a part of a special legacy ...

No, you owe your best to your coach cuz he's "been great to us." What? Lovie makes sure the facilities are swept up routinely?

I'll have to look up "Profiles in Courage" or "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" to find the chapter on: "He's Got Your Back (In Mediocrity) And You've Got His (In Mediocrity)."

Tommie: When all of those words tumbled from your brain into your mouth and off of your tongue, no red flags went off? No alarms or buzzers? Nothing said "Wait! Stop! This makes no sense! Even for a guy who got fined for punching out a helmet! Honest to god: You punched out an F'N helmet!"

Tommie Harris has not been known of late for acting on rational impulses. And "All for one and one for all" is the last refuge of someone bereft of any real answers, so, perhaps, it was unfair of the media to expect much more from Punchdown Tommie.

In any case, it is best that this addled logic is out in the open. This team LOVES LOVIE. They love the lack of contact tackling in practice. They love the low expectations. They love the lack of passion or emotion. They love the lack of initiative to, say, change schemes when "coaching philosophy" begins to Titanic. They love the unflagging support for bad play and the willingness of a mediocre coach to consistently take the blame for his mediocre team and his cadre of mediocre coaches.

These Bears are soft and they like their fluffy, marshmallow soft coach.

Even more of a reason to throw the bum out.

Lovie, I mean. But Tommie and everyone else on the Bears who's first name ends in an "ie" can go, too.

More later,


Mark