What’s Going On Wants To Go Back To That Same Old Place

By Kevin Schroeder
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: January 22, 2016

One and one is two

In the Trib Sunday, David Haugh wondered about the possibility of a second NFL team coming to Chicago. In the article, he says of the idea

“It still seems a little farfetched, but not as crazy as it seemed four years — or even four weeks — ago.”

Which, okay, technically, he’s right. But like, the chances of it happening went from about one percent to three or four, tops. Haugh wonders if Illinois grad Shahid Khan might think about moving his Jaguars to Chicago. While Urbana-Champaign isn’t exactly Chicagoland (It’s a 135-mile drive from U of I’s Memorial Stadium to Soldier Field, says Google Maps.), it’s close enough that I would think Khan would know that if he moved the Jaguars to Chicago, they would be Chicago’s “other team.” They would be the Clippers to the Bears’ Lakers, only worse. First off, the Bears have more history in Chicago than the Lakers do in Los Angeles. On top of that, let’s be honest, Chicago is just a better sports city than L.A. It would be a lot harder for a new team to gain support in Chicago since the existing teams are already such a big part of the identity of the city. L.A.’s had two football teams leave. Yeah, they’re getting one back now. But still, they left. For St. Louis and Oakland. Yes, Chicago also had a football team leave for St. Louis. That was because they weren’t making money playing second banana to the Bears, which proves my point about how bad of an idea a second NFL team in Chicago would be. Also, it seems pretty likely that keeping the AFL out of St. Louis was the biggest reason the Cardinals moved there. Baseball fandom in the Windy City is split between the Cubs and Sox. The Bulls ruled the city during the Jordan years, but had some tough years since then. And, today’s NBA is such a superstar-driven league that a lot of people root for players over teams. Case in point: Shayne. Even with as much success as the Hawks have had lately, they still don’t “own” the city similar to the way the Bulls did in the ‘90s. Everywhere you go in Chicago, you’ll see people wearing Blackhawks hats, t-shirts, sweaters, what have you, but still, hockey’s the smallest of the big four sports by a pretty good margin. But even with their struggles on the field as of late, there’s a football team who rules the city. A team that would provide a heckuva barrier to entry for another franchise. A team known as da Bears.

(Daaaa Bears.)

I mean, it would be kind of cool to have an AFC team in Chicago because with it comes the possibility of an All-Chicago Super Bowl. If the city’s second team didn’t share a conference with the Bears, there’s the possibility it wouldn’t be a total failure. But there are enough markets hungry for an NFL team that coming to Chicago, playing second banana to the Bears, and having the franchise’s ceiling be “doing okay” really isn’t a very good idea.

Okay, fine, let’s talk about the Swenson thing

Downers Grove South OT Erik Swenson decommitted from Michigan after having his offer was no longer a committable one. Teddy Greenstein of the Trib skewered Harbaugh for it. Michael Spath of Rivals pointed out that Swenson was told the offer was no longer committable in November. I’m almost always on the side of the players when it comes to matters like this in college athletics because they’re the ones with the skills that people pay to see, they’re the ones putting their bodies on the line, and yet they don’t get a share of the millions upon millions of dollars that college athletics brings in. The rug was not pulled out from under Swenson, though. Yes, he’s been committed since 2013 and is a big Michigan fan, and with that being the case, this sucks, and I feel bad for him. But Jim Harbaugh asked him to camp at Michigan over the summer. He didn’t. So his 2015 was going to be all Harbaugh had to evaluate him on. It was not good.

So, they told him he should start looking elsewhere. Which, even if they did only tell him this two weeks before signing day, is still better than signing him and then telling him after he’s already signed that he’s not going to see the field and either has to take a medical scholarship and end his football career, or transfer. (Lookin’ at you, Urban.) Bryan Mac from MGoBlog had a great take on the situation as well.

For all you young hockey players out there

The Chicago Plan Commission OK’d the plans laid out for facilities for the Blackhawks and Rush University Medical Center at the site of the old Malcolm X College.

“Peter Hassen, senior executive director of marketing for the Blackhawks, estimated that the community would have access to the two-rink facility 50 percent of the time.”

Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz said a single rink would have been enough to meet the practice needs of the Stanley Cup champs and still accommodate “a little bit” of community involvement.

But two rinks will accommodate the “explosion” of youth and women’s hockey triggered by the Hawks’ three Stanley Cup championships and still allow Blackhawks Charities to oversee year-round programs and clinics for underprivileged youths.

“We’ve been on the West Side for almost 100 years. It’s been very good to us. We want to be very good back to the community,” Wirtz told the Plan Commission.

“You can’t teach people how to play hockey or anything about the game if you don’t know how to skate. . . . It’s something we’re excited about. What we’ve done in the schools and in the gyms — now it’s time to bring it to the ice.”

Awesome stuff here from Rocky Wirtz and the Blackhawks organization. Rocky’s everything you could want in an owner. He hires the best people and legitimately cares about his team and the community. He’s a great asset to the city of Chicago. This should be a great way to grow the game in the Chicagoland area. Like I just said, hockey’s the smallest of the big four sports by a pretty good margin, so stuff like this that can help narrow the gap is great. The Hawks’ success on the ice has certainly made hockey more popular in Chicago. Hopefully, this is the next step in turning the Windy City into a hockey hotbed.

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com