The Bears stand at 4-5 and without a winning streak of some kind, they will likely be out of the playoffs.  Hell, Lovie and Jerry Angelo will probably be out of a job.  That being said, the media, fans, and pretty much everyone connected to the league in any way is down on the Bears.  As such, Lovie, Jerry and Jay have gotten pretty sick of answering questions about their terrible team.  So sick in fact, that they will no longer be answering those questions.  Not for NBC at least:

In a sign of how difficult things have become in the Bears’ world, the beleaguered team stunned a network giant Wednesday by rejecting NBC’s request for prime-time access to coach Lovie Smith, quarterback Jay Cutler and general manager Jerry Angelo.

Smith and any requested players, including Cutler, will be made available to NBC for standard pre-production meetings Friday with announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth. Such sessions always are off-camera. But no Bears personnel will be on-camera for NBC’s pregame show.

I’m not sure what this is meant to accomplish.  As the article points out, an opportunity to talk to Costas is usually a chance to put your own spin on the story.  That being said, I’m sure the frustration of the last month or so is difficult to deal with and having to explain to the media over and over again what’s wrong can’t be good for anyone’s confidence.

Or maybe the Bears are just hoping that if they don’t talk about how bad things have been, those things will just go away.

Dan Marino was doing some halftime highlights of the Dolphins-Buccaneers game today when all of a sudden he dropped the S-bomb on everyone.  If you listen closely you can hear the other analysts in the background snickering.  Enjoy!

Hey, just because we don’t get to watch the Bears lose this Sunday, doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy us some football right?  Or some on-air slip-ups by studio guys for that matter.

This is the kind of thing people joke about, using exaggeration for humor.  ESPN defies the doubters:

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Brett Favre’s streak is not in danger: He has a bent fingernail.

Favre’s throwing hand was clearly hurting after his last throw for Minnesota in Sunday’s win over Detroit. He was hit by two defenders in the fourth quarter during a touchdown pass to Percy Harvin.

Ugh, you can’t be serious. KILL IT!

It’s no secret that Stormin’ Norman and myself hold ESPN in the lowest regard. Gone are the days when I would watch Sportscenter four times per day, use anchor catchphrases in everyday life, and tolerate Chris Berman. Junior High was great though.

I also believe I’m past the days of picking apart everything the WWL does and blasting them for it. Instead of being pissed that the Red Sox and Yankees led off the show even though they may have played the Orioles and Rangers, I’ll need a full 15 to 20 minutes of Sawks-Yanks to start the show in order to fume. Now with the emergence and swarm of the blog world, this has turned into more of a blogs vs. msm issue.

For all the slamming of blogs done by the mainstream media, they were quick to use us in regard to some stories this week. Not “us” as in NQTC–we’re trying to keep the Andrews thing on the DL until Stormin’ Norman can destroy evidence–but blogs in general. Where was the Erin Andrews story in the mainstream media early this week? Even if you picked up one of those archaic newspapers you wouldn’t have seen it mentioned.

Was it really news though? I honestly wasn’t sure, because as much as the sports blog types and their readers are infatuated with Andrews, she’s probably not that big of a deal. So msm got a pass for staying mum on the story. Then it hit CNN, it hit Fox News; I even saw a story in the Tribune. The story is almost a week old! Some of these “reputable” media outlets even played the video or showed stills from it. With the Andrews story, it is clear to see what new function blogs are performing: testing.

All these news outlets allowed the story to make its way around the Internet for a few days and sat back to gauge reaction. Not only that, but they let the shock factor wear off. By the time these stories hit, just about every male sports fan had either seen the video or picked up a nasty computer virus, allowing the networks to show the video while falling just short of being completely appalling, which I guess is what they strive for.

ESPN gets a pass on the sideline princess saga, because…you know…awkward! However, shame on them for the Ben Roethlisberger incident. Their official comment was something about how they don’t report on civil cases? Really? Deadspin pointed out that most civil cases they have reported on are at least tied to criminal matters, but this sounds more like an excuse on the level you use to get out of going to someones wedding. In fact, one civil case involving Rich Rodriguez and West Virginia comes to mind as an example to the contrary.

The WWL’s Blog Buzz has also been suspiciously absent from the program.  I guess they only use it when they like what blogs are talking about. 

So do what you like, mainstream media, but we’re not going anywhere and now that you’ve figured that out you’re changing the way you do things.  We’re in your brain-case!

• Cubs win the opening game of the series in Houston.  Harden looked good and Reed Johnson provided a three run triple.  [MLB]
• The season hasn’t gotten off to a good start for the New York Yankees.  The new stadium is having its share of growing pains and some crazy things are going on in there.  Ninja things. [Deadspin] & [The Sporting Globe]
• Steelers fan goes on the Price is Right.  His name is Dr. Bummer, he’s a gynecologist, and he makes the age-old 69 joke. I’d watch.  [PSAMP]
• Oh man, Brett Favre is at it again.  How many people can actually be on his side this time around?  [Sharapova's Thigh]
• Fausto Carmona told the media he’s not talking to them the rest of the year.  “But you just talked to us.”  “No I mean after that.”  “You did it again!” [FanHouse]
• Barcelona shocked Chelsea with a late goal to advance to the Champions League final against Manchester United.  That’s right, soccer! [ESPN]
• Cubs sent down Samardzija and called up righty Chad Fox before last night’s game.  [Tribune]
• Here’s a Q&A with Jerry Angelo mostly about the Cutler trade, and a little about the always comfortable topic of what’s wrong with him.  [Sun-Times]

So I finally checked out ESPN’s new Chicago centered site (site? blog? page?  whatever it’s called) expecting to be shocked, appalled and generally saddened about life the way I am with anything new ESPN does outside of their Sportscenter commercials.  Really though, I’m not sure how much this affects us Chicago folk and if anything, it could be a good thing.

The new site seems to be just like their main site (ESPN East Coast) with all Chicago stories.  I haven’t been doing this blogging thing for very long, but from what I’ve seen it’s natural for bloggers to react with some fear anytime mainstream media do something that seems to tread on our territory.  Especially with a company with the power of ESPN, the idea that it can provide the same thing we do for readers with the advantage of all their financial backing and unparalleled access is scary.

I can’t say for sure what ESPN Chicago will be all about, but from spending just a short time on it today, I get the feeling it provides the same thing as ESPN.com does.  It’s your straight up sports news with some commentary from people that not everyone cares to hear from.  All due respect to the writers over there, but if something is going on with Lou and Ozzie, I’m going to Bleacher Nation and South Side Sox before I even think about heading to ESPN Chicago.

Blogs provide something deeper than the general interest that ESPN is based on.  When they try to get in depth or personal on a story all you get is another manufactured story from their hype machine.  When I say deeper, I don’t mean in an intellectual sense (blogs still have the market on poop jokes and pictures of drunken athletes), but in a personal and passionate sense.

ESPN Chicago will likely be nothing more than a great resource for some Chicago sports news.  It will be a good place to stop by once in a while to skim the headlines and look for an interesting story we can go check on elsewhere.  But when Orton and Cutler square off in a game of flip-cup, we still know where to go.  So I guess I missed an opportunity to hate on something ESPN has done, but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, and will hopefully produce more good than bad.

After months of games, the college basketball season will come to an end tonight at Ford Field in Detroit, and the script really does seem like something out of a movie.  At least that’s what CBS and ESPN are telling us.

Despite all the hyperbole and sappy package pieces, the Michigan State-North Carolina match-up does present a great story.  In my mind the real story is being slighted by all this “hopes of a city” and “hopes of a state” talk that is being associated with MSU’s run.  Yes, it’s great and it is a nice distraction for people who are struggling, but people won’t be devastated if they lose and won’t have it any easier if they win.

It sounds fantastic, it sounds like a phenomenal story, but it just isn’t the case.  Michigan State basketball  is simply the most recent in a long line of inspirational stories of success in sports  for teams in the state.  They aren’t saviors, they aren’t “just what the state needed,” in fact about half the people in the state either doesn’t care if they win or hopes they lose.

So what’s the big deal with the media blowing this angle of the story out of proportion?  I feel like it only makes up part of what the story should be today and pushes one particularly  important angle right out of the spotlight: respect.  Why are we not talking about how badly the Big Ten and Michigan State were disrespected all year?  While the Big East had a great tournament, our horse knocked out two of their 1-seeds.  A couple weeks after Vitale was incredulous when talk of a 1-seed for the Spartans came up, they’ve knocked out two of the top dogs in convincing fashion.

Speaking of fashion, teams from the Big Ten are supposed to win ugly.  All I heard before the UConn game was how MSU needed to play it at their pace.  I’m certain they didn’t mean the pace where they score 80 points, but that’s actually how Izzo prefers it. And speaking of Tom Izzo, can we finally acknowledge that he is a top five coach in college basketball?  Five times in the last 11 years the guy has taken his team to the Final Four, his teams are rarely outworked and never under-prepared, and he hasn’t had a hint of scandal, something very few coaches can say these days.

I know it’s an easy story to get caught up in, and an easy story to generate interest for the media, but can we agree that there is much more to the story and that maybe things are getting a little carried away?  At least take a moment to consider all the Big Ten hate from earlier in the year.  Maybe Michigan State isn’t the savior for Detroit, but they certainly were for the Big Ten this year.

NQTC has a sort of love for Jay Mariotti.  And by love I mean we hate the guy.  There is no bigger douchebag in all of sports media (I guess that’s arguable, but as a Chicagoan Jay pretty much takes the cake).  We make a special effort to cover anything that mocks Mariotti, as you may have noticed from our regular posts glorifying comments that degrade him on his AOL Fanhouse column.  In fact, it’s not a secret that Jay isn’t well-loved by most of the world.  In general I would say that most people would probably punch him in the face if they were given the chance.  I know I definitely would. 

Well Chicagoans, I have some good news: You can punch him in the face!  Or at least heckle him in person from behind some sort of thick protective glass.  That’s right, last week our old pal Jay started taping his Around The Horn segments from ESPNZone in River North:

This week, the controversial sportswriter began taping his daily ATH segements from ESPNZone in River North. Fans (he’s gotta have a couple, right?) and hecklers can check out Mariotti at work each weekday starting at noon. At least ESPN has enough sense to keep him locked safely behind glass.

Noon, huh?  If I race out of work and head over to River North, I can tell him how shitty a human being he is and still make it back to school in time for class.  I hope to see you all there.

I don’t see how this can end well.

H/T Shrek

• What a win for Northwestern!  The Wildcats ruined Purdue’s Senior Night with a stunner; I heard they can still be as high as a six seed in the Big Ten Tournament.  Bubble?  [Lake The Posts]
• I absolutely agree with 3:10 to Joba that Tim Lincecum is awesome and so is the new commercial he is in. [3:10 to Joba]
• Big Ben posed for a very funny photo the other day at the premier of Watchmen.  [KSK]
• Carolina: where wide receivers go to buy houses they can’t afford.  Just kidding.  Mushin Muhammad is selling his house on e-bay, but I guess it’s not because he’s hurting for money.  [FanHouse]
• This is why you should never listen to the draft talking heads.  Well, this and the fact the mere sound of their voices makes me want to stab myself in the brain.  [Mass Hysteria]
• Michigan State clinched the Big Ten regular season title with a close win over Indiana (wtf?) the other day.  Now Tom Izzo has to keep his word and shave his head.  Didn’t he, you know, scout the Big Ten before agreeing to this?  [World of Isaac]
• Michael Jordan for executive of the year?  Josh Q. Public drops a beat about it.  [Josh Q. Public]
• Newcomers help the Bulls to a win over the Warriors.  Salmons had 23, Brad Miller had 19, and some other new guy oddly named Noah had 14 points and 17 rebounds.  [Sun-Times]
• Another idiot media member from Detroit.  Radio host Mike Valenti decided it would be good to make fun of the NFL players lost at sea, and presumably dead, on the air.  I’ve always thought he was an idiot, now I know.  [Awful Announcing]
• The Sox beat the Cubs with a ninth inning single (and other runs) 6-5 in Vegas.  I’m just happy I got to watch baseball on WGN!  [MLB]