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Jerry Angelo: Rags to Riches
Published: June 3, 2009
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Just a couple of months ago, the majority of the Chicago Bears faithful were calling for Jerry Angelo’s head.
They finished the season a game away from a wild card berth, and a trip to the playoffs with a disappointing loss to the Houston Texans.
Jerry Angelo was being compared to the likes of Matt Millan, and most Chicagoans saw no way that Angelo could revive his reputation and become a god throughout the city.
But that’s exactly what he did.
A couple months into the offseason, and Chicago Bears and Jerry Angelo had done nothing to improve the team, by only letting players like longtime safety and Chicago favorite Mike Brown depart.
They had made minor signings, like that of offensive lineman Kevin Shaffer, but nothing that looked promising enough to improve the team in any way from the season before.
Optimistic Bears supporters were hoping to see Kyle Orton develop more in the offseason, to solidify himself as the QB he was during the first half of the 2008 season. But even the most optimistic still felt a feeling of disgust with general manager Jerry Angelo.
Then, a day to go down in Chicago Bears infamy, on Thursday, April 2, 2008: Jerry Angelo pulls the trigger on the deal to bring Pro Bowler Jay Cutler to Chicago, and in a matter of minutes, signed another Pro Bowler and future Hall of Famer Orlando Pace, to give Cutler more support on the offensive line.
Even after the trade though there were some critics ranting that Angelo gave up too much for Cutler and put the Chicago Bears in a horrible position for the upcoming NFL Draft.
Then Angelo did what he does best: make impressive picks and find underrated talent in the NFL Draft.
Come this 2009 NFL season, many around the league will agree that Angelo made a brilliant move in attaining Jay Cutler and did an equally impressive of a job of finding young talent in the draft.
In a matter of one day, Jerry Angelo attained that status of a Chicago god, and will no longer be hearing the cries of Bears fans to the McCaskey family to let Angelo go.
If there was a GM of the year award, I would congratulate Jerry Angelo on winning the title in ’09.
Regardless, he should be awarded Comeback Player of the Year. Well done, Jerry.
The Christmas of Sports: NFL Draft Day
Published: April 23, 2009
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Forget articles on mock drafts and who will pick who. Let’s take some time to appreciate the NFL Draft for what it really is: the Christmas of sports.
As a kid there is no better feeling in the world than waking up on Christmas morning knowing you have an hour ahead of you of nothing but new gifts and toys that will keep you occupied for the year or years to come.
For a grown man or women who loves football, the NFL Draft is the equivalent to that feeling.
You get a day full of watching teams select players that could make or break their franchises for years to come. You get coffee tables overflowing with finger foods like summer sausage and cheese, cold beer, and a day relaxing on your couch deciding whether or not you’ll be buying your team’s first-round selection’s jersey.
You get a day dedicated to football midway through football’s offseason. If it weren’t for the NFL Draft, many people would go insane due to a lack of the NFL in their life, and I’m definitely one of those people.
We’ve all been there, the night before the draft jumping into bed a 9 PM just because you want the draft to come that much sooner. But you inevitably lie in bed until one or two in the morning half dreaming about those amazing words, “And with the (enter team’s pick number here) in the NFL Draft, the (enter team here) select…”
And as every hour passes, you watch each minute tick off that alarm clock next to your bed as it seems to be going backwards in time, just that much longer until the draft clock begins on the first team.
Finally when you jump out of bed in the morning, still an hour to go until the draft clock starts, you watch pre-draft coverage knowing that you’re dedicating the next day or two to staring at the television screen watching as each pick rolls through on the bottom line, keeping track of what team is up, who Mel has them taking, and where your team is in relation to the team at hand.
And when the draft finally ends after what seems like years of NFL Draft coverage and the draft itself, despite whether your team selected the guys you were hoping for or not, you die a little bit inside, knowing that you now have months until you get to watch those players play and see your favorite team finally take the field.
There is no doubt in my mind that Friday night I will get virtually no sleep. And you better believe when Saturday finally rolls around, I’ll feel like a little kid on Christmas.
