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.

Cubs Injury Issues: Now Zambrano gets scratched with back problems.  It’s been a season-long injury issue with this team, with Fukudome and Theriot being the only real iron-men on the team.  How are the Cubs supposed to live up to the potential of their ridiculous payroll when none of the big money spent is even taking the field on a regular basis?  Can we blame the trainers? Or Hendry for signing a team full of players made from glass?

Richard Dent Gets Screwed: It’s a real shame that this kind of thing happens.  Richard Dent is one of the greatest defensive ends in the history of the game.  He dominated the position on what was the best defense of all time.  Be it journalists, or veteran’s committees, or whatever, the selection processes for professional halls of fame needs to be amended to actually let in hall of famers.  Dent had 137.5 sacks and was the Super Bowl XX MVP.  He created more turnovers and havoc in the backfield than any end in NFL history.  Why he didn’t get in the Hall is beyond me.

Broncos Fans Boo Orton: Broncos fans really suck.  I mean they are just terrible.  Apparently Orton got booed for having a bad practice.  Not a bad game or series of practices; one bad practice.  Gee I wonder why Cutler wanted out of Denver.

Kevin Gregg is Still Having a Better Season Than Kerry Wood: Even though he blew 2 saves last weekend, his numbers are still far better than Woody’s this year.  Gregg and the entire bullpen has just been overworked and needs some time to rest their arms.  Unfortunately that may or may not happen.

Obama Almost Wore a Cardinals Jersey: I really want to like this guy.  I do.  He says all the right things to make me believe he can turn this country around and he has pretty good handles on the hardwood.  Then he stalls on health care, makes some terrible appointments, continues many of the old failed policies of the last administration, wears a White Sox jacket, and now this.  Apparently he almost wore a Cardinal’s jersey at the All-Star game.  That would have literally lost my vote right there (not to mention make me vomit in my mouth a little bit).  Thank god he didn’t do it.

Hoffpauir Sent Down, Soto Called Up: It’s a numbers game, I get that, but why do the Cubs have to send down Hoffpauir?  Although his average has slipped a bit since he gets less consistent playing time, he still has the power numbers to be an effective left-handed option off the bench.  I mean do we need Scott Baker, Mike Fontenot, Andres Blanco, and Aaron Miles on the squad?  How about send Aaron Miles down, that guy sucks and everyone knows it.

Bulls Save Some Money on Tim Thomas: The Bulls bought out Tim Thomas’s contract which was worth 6.4 million but they only paid 4.8 million.  Every little bit of cap space helps.  I’m still wondering who will shoot the 3 on this team though.

Ben Wallace Returns To Detroit: Just kidding, even I don’t give a shit about this.

I Just Don’t Like Matt Holliday, Why Do I Need a Reason?: Either Mozeliak, LaRussa, or Holliday himself sold his soul so that Holliday, who had been hitting just .276 with 8 home runs before the break, all of a sudden is hitting .525 with 4 home runs since being acquired by the Cards.  I hate that whole team, and Holliday is no exception.  I’m sure he’ll do some classless Cardinal-like thing soon enough (that organization is character poison) to give me a good reason to hate him, but in the meantime I just don’t like him and I have no good reason.

Fine, Gordon Beckham is Good, But At Least I Was Right About Carlos Quentin Being a Fluke: The title says it all.  I was skeptical about both Beckham and Quentin this winter after every Sox fan I talked to told me Quentin was the second coming and Beckham will be great.  Quentin is not the second coming.  Don’t you find it odd he didn’t come up to the majors until he was 27?  And don’t even start with the “he’s been injured” crap.  If anything that just means he is injury-prone, proving me correct that last year was a fluke.  Props to Beckham though, that kid is filthy.

Marlins Little “Goat” Stunt Not Appreciated By Sweet Lou: Who cares Lou?  If the goat and the curse are all bullshit, then it doesn’t matter.  I’m sure you get sick of that stuff, but getting mad about it only brings more attention to the idiots who mock the Cubs.  I never thought I would say this, but Lou needs to just shut up about this stuff.  No one would have even batted an eye if he didn’t get all worked up about it.

The Return of Fire Joe Morgan: My favorite sports blog of all time will be returning (sort of) for one day.  On September 16, the old crew from FJM consisting of Dak, Ken Tremendous, and Junior will be running Deadspin for a day.  Hopefully it inspires them to start writing FJM again, but either way it should be fun.

Some White Sox Fans Might Be Actually Retarded: Not to be too rude, but how can you not laugh a little at how dumb some Sox fans are when you see this picture.  Did you really think Rowand was spelled “R-O-W-A-D-N”?

The “Derrick Rose Had A Rough Summer” Story is Bullshit: He didn’t have a tough summer, okay?  The two stories this is referring to are the gang sign thing and the SAT cheating thing.  Both are bullshit.  No one cares that he might have made a gang sign to a camera one time in college.  And he didn’t cheat, he was proven innocent pretty convincingly.  Here’s the real story of D-Rose’s summer: He tried out with Team USA, worked on his jumpers, and probably bought a lot of cool stuff with all his new money.  I don’t want to hear about the “cheating” or the gang signs anymore, okay mainstream media?

Tom Gorzelanny Can Pitch, and He Looks Like Sloth from the Goonies: So he probably isn’t as good as he was in his start for the Cubs, but to be honest all we need is 3-4 halfway decent starts from him until Lilly comes back.  If he pitches really well for the next couple weeks and its a tough decision whether to send him down or keep him in the rotation, that is the kind of tough decision a team wants to have.  Oh yeah, and he looks like Sloth from the Goonies.

Let’s Get Real, The Peavy Trade Probably Won’t Mean Much This Season: I know this will sound like sour grapes, but seriously, if he comes back healthy he can make 3 starts in September.  If the Sox make the playoffs, which seems less and less likely, then he can definitely be a factor.  Otherwise, this signing was for the future.  The Sox rotation will be formidable with Buerhle and Peavy at the top and Danks and Floyd at the 3 and 4 for the next few years.

So much cool stuff happened in the couple months I was AWOL.  The Cubs corner outfielders established themselves as the worst defensive tandem in the league (league history?), 46 celebrities died, and apparently a lot happened with the Bulls, despite them not playing any games.

What really has my mind boggled though is how Stormin’ Norman managed to engineer a reverse peephole, actually catch the sideline princess in her Joe Berry suit, and manage to direct zero hits to NQTC in the process.  All I know is Leo Durocher would have picked up that virus circulating the interwebs today for sure.

Anyway, I’m not so “connected” to the goings on in Chicago these days, but ESPNChicago is keeping me up to speed.  Okay, not really, but I’ll likely chime in with some Cubs posts from time to time, some White Sox hating as they and the Tigers battle the Tigers starting pitching for the AL Central, and Big Ten football is right around the corner.  Hey, didn’t the Blackhawks sign Marian Hossa for about a dozen years?  If Kane starts now, he can probably have a decent playoff beard by the time the Hawks have a chance to win the Cup in 2021 or so.

Oh yeah, Obama threw out that first pitch sporting the Sox jacket.  That’s awesome!  I heard Tommy Lasorda declined an invitation to be a base coach because he heard a Sox fan was coming onto the field and he didn’t need another near death experience at the All-Star Game.

The Bears are probably in some kind of training camp, watching movies and getting makeovers with their lovable coach.  Mike Vick’s out of prison, so maybe the Bears will look at taking him on as a wide receiver.  Probably less of a PR risk than Brandon Marshall would be.

I really don’t know what the point of all this was, so it seems like I picked up right where I left off.  Good to be back.

Clinton, college basketball fan, and Carville, political strategist, went through the lineup.

“Who have you got in the Final Four?” Carville asked Clinton.

“”Louisville, Memphis, Pittsburgh and North Carolina,” Clinton said. “Or Louisville [versus] Connecticut. I can’t tell. Memphis may have a good enough defense, but they’re skinny, so U Conn can probably match up against them and I think they’ll get by.”

Clinton went on to predict a Louisville-North Carolina final, with the Cardinals emerging from a tight contest as National Champions.

“Louisville was so good to us the last go ’round I kind of think Louisville will win,” the former president said. “But North Carolina I still believe, you know, they sort of show up sometimes and sometimes they don’t.

Oh Slick Willy, you can never nail that guy down.  Clearly Bill hasn’t lost any of his political savvy, not allowing Carville to stick him with a pick that may end up being wrong.  I think Slick Willy is a legit College Basketball fan though.  Remember when he went to that National Championship game that year the Razorbacks won it?

I would go to that sleepover with the ‘85 Bears. Sounds like fun. What is with John Stewart and Chicago sports? First he rips the Cubs and now this. Tsk tsk.

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?).