Rick Telander

2 months ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Neil Steinberg |Rick Telander |Rick Morrissey |Mark Potash

As a rule, you’re not supposed to draw attention to what isn’t in the newspaper. The idea is, you’ve got everything right here, in your hands. All the news you need to know today, plus a horoscope, comics and tomorrow’s weather. Anything that isn’t here doesn’t matter. But the key rule about newspapers is: There is no rule that can’t be scrapped as circumstances dictate. Sometimes the stylebook gets set aside. Sometimes the loss is too big to ignore.

2 months ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Rick Telander

Will the Bears ever get a new stadium? I wonder. Not just another building. I mean a magnificent arena that is large and comfortable and beyond modern, that has all the bells and whistles and delights that elite thought and design can bring. Build a stadium that will be the envy of the NFL, of the entire global sporting world. It could happen. Why hasn’t it? Does our city have to burn to the ground, as it did in 1871, to get the Bears to think new architecture?

2 months ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Rick Telander

The free-agency period in the NFL is like a game of poker where everybody’s cards are on the table face-up. It’s wild to see who raises with what. It’s also educational because you learn once again that, despite what anybody says about loyalty, roots, teamwork, location, chemistry or wanting that ring and only that ring, money is everything. In case you had forgotten. The Bears got much-needed free-agent help where they really wanted it: on the offensive line.

Mar 3, 2025 | chicago.suntimes.com | Rick Telander

With most of humanity gambling on everything from the bounce of Ping-Pong balls to anything that rolls, flies, moves or fights — including dice, horses, dogs, pigeons, camels, roosters and flat-faced MMA creatures — well, cheating has to happen. And it has in college basketball. You might not have paid much attention (too busy with odds?), but players at Fresno State, Iowa, Iowa State and New Orleans have come under suspicion for gambling or fixing games in the last year or so.

Feb 24, 2025 | chicago.suntimes.com | Rick Telander

Sports are filled with might-have-been stories, the bittersweet tales about what could have happened but didn’t. Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball fits in here, sadly. But before we get too down, let’s note his story is unfinished. Hope survives for his complete comeback, even if only by a thread. Ball injured his left knee Jan. 14, 2022, against the Warriors, and it seemed at first to be the kind of thing that would be fixed pretty fast.