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h/t: Forum Blue and Gold

h/t: Chicagoist via White House Flickr Page

Obama wears a Chicago Bears jacket as he plays football with Brees, Pittsburgh Steelers safety Polamalu and Ware. A shorter version of the spot will air throughout the season.

“I was like ‘Ohhhh my God,”’ when Obama came out in a Bears pullover, Ware said in a telephone interview. “It was me, Polamalu and Drew Brees there, so you know how we feel about the Chicago Bears. But he’s a big Chicago Bears fan. He greeted each one of us, and he knew everything about our teams.”

Honestly, I know Obama is a basketball guy, but there is no way Ware, Brees and Palomalu would be less scared of Obama than the Bears this season.  Boom, roasted.

“Today (Oct. 26) – Obama ties Pres. Bush in the number of rounds of golf played in office: 24. Took Bush 2 yrs & 10 months.”

Obama has also played tons of basketball and tennis.  This is about to get a bit political and include me railing against the media, so please leave the room if you are pregnant or have any heart-related illnesses.  Gone? Okay, here’s my problem.  Why are we just hearing about this now?  Did you have any idea Obama was playing so much golf? When Bush even took an afternoon off, the media covered it ad nauseum.  With Obama we don’t hear a peep.  Until now.

Why, you ask? Here’s my theory.  The media has an agenda, be it NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, or whatever.  This applies to the news media as much as the sports media (heard about that Favre guy lately? Or how “violent” the NBA culture is?).  I’m not here to comment on whether Bush deserved the criticism or not (he definitely did, though), but the media turned on him very quickly, and all of a sudden they magnified everything he did and painted it in the most negative light possible.  With Obama, the exact opposite happened.  Instead of reporting on what Obama was actually about, the 24-hour news media decided to play to its adoring audience (like my girlfriend, who wants to sleep with Obama as much as she likes his politics) and throw puff pieces at him.

Well it appears his “honeymoon” with the American people is over.  Unfortunately the media’s treatment of him hinges on what the ratings say (or whatever the media’s secret agenda is) and not on what he is actually doing.  That is the reason the information about all the golf just came out.  That’s why Bush was skewered for days off while Obama was not, even though they are both taking quite a bit off (golf is pretty much a day off, let’s be honest).

So beware, loyal readers.  The media plays its own game and you cannot always trust that their agenda is pure.  This applies to sports media and news media alike.  Feel free to mock this wild “Mainstream Media is Corrupt” conspiracy theory all you want, but you have to admit to yourself it is a little true.

K.C. Johnson

The Bulls are scheduled to meet President Barack Obama Thursday afternoon in the Blue Room of the White House.
“A great honor for the Chicago Bulls organization,” said Steve Schanwald, executive vice president of business operations. “The President has been a fan of the Bulls for many years and we are very appreciative of this opportunity to say hello to him and pay our respects.”

Perhaps the Bulls organization should heed Barack’s messages and vision for this country when they are deciding how to handle their own affairs.  Here’s how his messages can help:

Change: The Bulls need to change the way they think and do business.  Building around the young stars works fine, but once you fall in love with “young assets” and refuse to make the big moves that this franchise needs to take the next step, then you have problems. 

Hope: There is hope for this franchise, but it is way down line (similar to our economy, no?).  With Derrick Rose to build around and a ton of cap space in 2010, its pretty irrelevant what happens the next two years.  The two things they need to focus on are making Chicago an attractive place to play and keeping all that cap space cleared up.

No More Business As Usual: Fire Vinny Del Negro.  Also the way the organization is run at the top needs to be different.  Reinsdorf’s meddling may have caused countless problems and they can’t have the owner micromanaging the GM’s moves.  Not to say Paxson would make all the right moves without Reinsdorf’s interference, but its just not a good way to run a business.

Yes We Can: Listen to the fans!  We are the ones buying the tickets and supporting the team.  We aren’t as clueless as you might think and we care passionately about the team.

I was going to write one about bi-partisanship, but it doesn’t look like Obama was all that sincere about that one (not a single Republican vote on the stimulus package, are you kidding me?).

I get that Obama is a White Sox fan and that’s fine; cool for the White Sox even. However, the Sox are starting to look like the girlfriend of the NBA star that just got into the league. She doesn’t realize her man is busy now, and frankly isn’t paying as much attention. I’m not saying Obama doesn’t care about the White Sox anymore, that’s his team, just quit inviting him everywhere.

First it was to come and throw out the first pitch on opening day. That’s a great idea, but it seems like every couple of weeks I’m reading that the offer still stands. You don’t say? Don’t stop reminding. Now they want him to tour the new training facility. Unless Ozzie is interrogating suspected terrorists there, it’s hard to imagine any interest.

A rant against the White Sox here might be a little premature, but with four or five announcements since the election, it might be time to scale back on the public invitations. It’s nice to show him you’re still interested, but left unchecked this ends with Kenny Williams calling the White House switchboard and hanging up before making a scene on a public tour.

**Update: Now the Cubs are getting in on the act. Seriously Chicago teams, enough President stalking, he doesn’t want to visit your shitty winter homes!

jmy5686@yahoo.com said…
Stop being so self-righteous and acting as though your life is crumbling right before you because A-Rod or Bonds took steroids. You sound like you go to sleep a night, crying on your pillow because some athlete wanted to gain an edge. Honestly, I wish there was a steroid that would enable you to write a good column for a change.

meeus said…
Mariotti, you are SUCH a loser!!! Ronnie “woo woo” Wickers is more qualified to cover baseball than you!!!

chilco said…
OBAMA IS LAUGHING at MARIOTTI AS HE FIRES UP ANOTHER KOOL CIGARETTE. HE STOCKS THEM BY THE CARTON IN THE WHITEHOUSE PANTRY.

koos458 said…
Mariotti is a utterly useless piece of self-promoting crap.

jonathan said…
You couldn’t make it as a journalist and your blogging days should be numbered too. All you ever write is nonsense.

Feel free to post your own comments on his story. Be careful though, I think he survives on hair gel and hate mail.

Since 1972, some 79 elected officials have been convicted of corruption in the Land of Lincoln, including 27 aldermen, 19 judges, 15 state legislators, three governors, two congressmen and one mayor. Those are some pretty ugly statistics.

Senator Obama hopped the hope train to DC. Governor Blagojevich’s not-so-silent auction ended prematurely. The Senate seat is still empty.

Enter Mike Ditka. His achievements on the football field as player and coach include five Super Bowl wins and titles like NFL Coach of the Year and Pro Football Hall of Famer. A five-time Pro-Bowler and two-time first-team All-Pro, Ditka brings some stats you can really flaunt.

When will the good people of Illinois realize that the only politician they can trust isn’t a politician at all?

I don’t know if Ditka would make a good Senator or Governor or politician of any kind. His temper would probably make it difficult to work with others (e.g. Buddy Ryan, Jim McMahon, countless others). Even though those people he worked with hated him, many had great success when they were working with him. He may not be the nicest guy, but he would definitely get things done, and I highly doubt he is corrupt (though you never know). Let’s go to his campaign video: