Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011
9:43 p.m.
By John Mullin
CSNChicago.com
Richard Dent and the Hall of Fame selectors made their choices known as far as the Bears defensive end earning inclusion in that august fraternity. But Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com (http:tinyurl.com6jlnkfw) takes a contrarian course along with thoughts from Mike Florio and Jason Whitlock on why Dent had to wait as long as he did for the necessary votes.
A piece that doesnt make sense, however, is that part of the Dent discussion uses tackle Willie Roaf as an example of someone more deserving. That doesnt seem to be relevant, though. Roaf most definitely deserved to be voted in, having made the Team of the Decade for two different decades. More apt comparisons might have been Dent with Rickey Jackson or others like Andre Tippett in past classes.
Dent and Roaf belong in the Hall of Fame.
Not a company man
Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy won a Super Bowl trophy in spite of losing 15 players to injured reserve through the season. A 16-game season.
As Gregg Rosenthal notes on ProFootballTalk.com, McCarthy is not in any hurry to get to 18 regular-season games, even if NFL owners have that as part of the collective bargaining agreement discussion (http:tinyurl.com4mynrut).
NFL
Hard to argue with someone whose team limped, literally, into NFL history. Best guess here is that the 18 games will happen, in some form. The TV money is so massive from two real games vs. two meaningless preseason games, and TV is the NFLs biggest customer.
But teams wont go into an 18-game calendar with existing roster sizes. And one thought may be that coaching itself may need to change as far as use of starters. Currently a quarterback and most key players are rarely taken out of games until they are beyond even blowout level. The need in an 18-game world may be to use reserves more frequently and in longer stretches as a means of saving wear on critical starters.
Not a done deal, either way.
A final thought
I did a short video report on this, but just in case you didnt catch it:
Richard Dent and I had dinner sometime back and he reflected on the 85 Bears, but also on so much more.
My thing, he said, is that they put on your grave the year you came and the year you left. In between is the little dash, and life is about what you did with your dash. You met some people, you had some fun, some people helped you and you helped them, and thats your dash. Thats what its all about: filling your dash. Its gone too soon.
Words to live by from The Colonel.
John "Moon" Mullin is CSNChicago.com's Bears Insider, and appears regularly on Bears Postgame Live and Chicago Tribune Live. Follow Moon on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bears information.