Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Chicago Bears are a disaster

Episode Date: December 18, 2021

Laurence Holmes from 670 The Score joins the show to talk about what has gone so wrong with the Chicago Bears this year and why the Minnesota Vikings should beat them at Soldier Field. Why is Matt Nagy's offense so bad for Justin Fields? What happened to Allen Robinson? Why does Matt Nagy seem to have the Vikings' number even though his teams haven't been good? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and joining me to preview Bears and Vikings, because he has to. He has no other choice. Lawrence Holmes, 670 the score. So we have long-traded appearances on each other's shows, Lawrence, and so you have to do it even though i'm sure that chicago has i don't know a baseball lockout to talk about no uh what do you got the basketball team basketball team's good okay everyone's got covet so they haven't played in a week

okay so they're one of the best teams in the eastern conference this year but they haven't played in a week hockey team not so great no not a great time to talk about the blackhawks at all for a lot of different reasons so you'll have a new coach next year in football right but right we do you Will we have a new coach? You have to. Right. I would suspect that that would be the case after eight and eight, eight and eight and then six and eleven or whatever the Bears are going to end up as. But that's not always been the way that the Bears operate.

If you look at last season, it felt like it was moving in the wrong direction last season. And we get a kick out of it down here. I don't know if the sound bites have made it up to the northern country. But Ted Phillips, who's the president of the Bears, said last year in a press conference, did we win enough games? No. Did we get the quarterback position right? No. Did we get the quarterback position right? No.

Now that's where it should have stopped, but he kept going talking about how they really like the continuity and collaboration of Ryan pace and Matt Nagy. And when you present it that way, bears fans are stuck going, do you know what you're doing at all? Like if, if the two most important things to a franchise is

having a quarterback and winning games. So if you're not doing either one of those things, what exactly are you doing? What would you say you do here? So you and I talked after the draft or maybe it's right before and we talked about justin fields and uh you know my friend rami macklaw too and he's a huge bears fan and i i remember having this conversation with him as well where it was like well this is amazing for the franchise right you get this quarterback that you maybe didn't think you were going to have a chance to get that a lot of people had as the number two quarterback coming out in the draft what a steal great job bears and i remember rami said i'm not even excited as long as matt nagy is not the or is the head coach um then no one's going to succeed at the quarterback position and even i was a little

skeptical about that i was like i don't know like wasn't traviski just bad at football and that was the reason but i think this year you've truly seen this is a coach who does not know how to play to the strengths of a quarterback. End sentence. There's no more debate. I agree. If you look at every quarterback that Matt Nagy has had, there's always been something that's been in the way where it's like, oh, well, Mitch needs more time to get the playbook. We need someone who understands the scheme. All right, let's go get Nick Foles. Nick Foles goes out there and says, this thing that you want to do, this scheme that you want to run, we can't block it.

So we shouldn't do it because we can't block it. And you know what they did to him? Banished him. They sent him to the third string, even though what they told us was they wanted experience with the scheme and the offense. So then they went chasing after Deshaun Watson, didn't get him. Probably better that you didn't. They go chasing after Deshaun Watson. Didn't get him. Probably better that you didn't. They go chasing after Russell Wilson. They can't wait to tell you how close they were to getting him, but they didn't get him. Here's where I look at like the front office and it makes me so mad.

Like overall, if you look at the way that the offseason went, they were not in a position to get Justin Fields until the board broke their way. There were some really bad decisions. What the fifth pick the ninth pick. There's a lot of bad choices that were made that allowed the Bears to go. Oh, we might have enough draft capital to move up to where we can get Mac Jones or Justin Fields. But remember, before they got to that place, the only planted quarterback that they were able to execute was Andy Dalton.

It was overpaying Andy Dalton and saying, here's another guy that understands this system. And that's going to be the difference for a lack of creativity and imagination, a lack of personnel. We just need the guy that understands the system and we can make it all work. And it didn't work because it's Andy Dalton and it's Matt Nagy calling plays.

I, I feel like I've said this and I'm actually not sure anymore, but I think it's something to ponder. I think that if Matt Nagy gets another chance to be a head coach down the road, he has the chance to be more successful than he is right now. But every time I imagine him getting something, like processing all of the things that haven't worked, I'm then reminded that he can't learn from the mistakes that are right in front of him. And he still goes out here and runs some of these sets where you're going, why exactly are you putting Justin Fields and shotgun so much? Why are you running these scat protections where you're asking for a five man protection?

It doesn't make any sense. I worry that he'll never learn. He's so dogmatic, so married to his scheme that i don't think it's going to allow him to be great you know what's odd about that is that for a period of time they ran outside zone play action like as if gary kubiak had whispered to them how to help a quarterback, like give Trubisky the bootlegs. And then all of a sudden Trubisky played pretty well and beat the Vikings. And their running game was good with the outside zone stuff. And so I had really thought, and I know I've mentioned this a few times on the show, just sort of my bewilderment here, because sometimes I do shows with Sage

Rosenfels used to play in the NFL. He played in this Kubiak system and he said, I watched any train, Justin Fields. Right. Right. So like I, with the quarterback collective, right. So, and his point is drop back passing is really hard. And if you have Peyton Manning, of course he can do it or Tom Brady, he can do it. But if you're talking about young quarterbacks, like they need a lot of help and they need things simplified and kind of broken down and open receivers to throw to. And you just like, why did you go away from something that actually helped Mitch Trubisky look reasonably good for a little while and not bring it back? And that's a great point. There are just coaches who seem to not care about the success or failure. It's just, well, look,

I am right. and everyone else is wrong like um there's if simpsons fans like a principal skinner like is it me who's out of touch no it's the children who are wrong like is it my scheme no it's the players who are wrong but if the players can't execute it then it's wrong like just fundamentally and that's what i cannot wrap my head around with matt nagy sage is one of our experts on the score. Like he comes on every Tuesday and he's been chronicling exactly what you two have been talking about, where you have their devices in place that can help young quarterbacks get along. And one only need to look at what's happening in New England and see what they're doing. How are they protecting Mac Jones?

They're running the ball. They've got an emphasis on it. They're using play action. And if there are past plays, like design past plays, it's one, two reads, go. That's not what they've been asking. That's why I go back. To me, the Nick Foles element to the failures of the Bears offense is really important because the way that they sold Nick Foles to Chicago was we've got it all fixed now. Look at the success that he had in a similar, if not the same,

system in Philly. It's Doug Peterson. It's the same staff was on the same staff with Matt Nagy in, in Kansas city. And the guy who ran that system so well that he was able to win a Superbowl MVP in a shootout against Tom Brady. Tom still won't shake his hand. Told you this won't work. And they didn't take that constructive criticism. They pushed back on it. It was on the Monday night broadcast against Tampa Bay, where you saw Brian Greasy talking about this. The Bears pushed back on it, and then eventually Foles found his way to the bench. It's that type of lack of taking input from the people who were actually in it. Before, it was Trubisky who was telling you, okay, I'll do whatever you want because I'm a young, impressionable quarterback.

But I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that my favorite stuff is when we use play action and when we get out on the run and when I can use my legs to help make plays. It seems like every piece of advice that they have gotten, every piece of criticism that has been given to them by their players, they just ignore. And to me, that's terrible coaching. It's terrible. And when I hear a guy like Sage, who you know Sage, like Sage isn't out here hot taking it up.

He's giving you really good analysis. And when he's so frustrated that his anger comes across on the air, it lets me know that we are seeing a fundamental lack of coaching. And I keep wondering. So, Matt, a lot of people have been trying to figure out if with Justin Fields, that game against Cleveland where he got sacked nine times, people were worried about the David Carr effect, right? Your brain's beat in your rookie year, and then you can't fulfill your promise. I'm not worried about the physical toll, even though he has been out there with cracked ribs, which I don't like. I'm worried about instead of the car effect,

should we look at this as the Alex Smith effect? Where what happens to a quarterback who has talent who isn't coached well? How long did it take Alex Smith to get to that space? It took him half a career to let me get with a coach who understands what it is that I do and then can build some stuff around me and I can excel. You look at Ryan Tannehill, same thing. I've been getting terrible coaching, meaning people not coaching to my skills. I go someplace else. I'm the number one rated quarterback in the NFL. It's, I think that it might be more damaging to a young quarterback

to have bad coaching than it is to get their brains kicked in. Yeah. And I think, I think that's right. That one of the things that playing for a really horrendous coach does for you is that I think it makes you readjust entirely to good coaching when you land with it. of sort of overcoming the Adam Gase effect and, you know, having some success in the NFL. So I don't think it was as much of an adjustment because he had been around for quite some time. Maybe same with Alex Smith. He'd been around for quite some time. But I think it really early on. Absolutely. That now you have to basically relearn football and how it's supposed to be played when you have a guy that like Matt Nagy is so far off. Now, here's my question though, based on this, why does Matt Nagy keep beating Mike Zimmer and the Vikings? Because we have spent a lot of time on the show, whether it's Sage coming on or just

like looking at the bears where every bears analyst, whether it's Rami or other people we bring on or yourself is like, dude, this guy is the worst. Has no idea what he's doing. But against the Vikings, he's freaking Vince Lombardi. I'm not sure about this. Like, I'm not sure why it keeps happening. I remember the Sunday night game that they played. We were doing pregame. It's me, Alex Brown, Matt Forte, and Lance Briggs.

And we were talking about this subject where it's like, we don't quite get it. Like we don't quite get what it is that Matt Nagy is able to do, but he seems to have Mike Zimmer's numbers. And I wonder if, if we went back and looked at all of the losses, the Vikings have suffered against Matt Nagy. And we looked at like the injury reports of those weeks.

I wonder how big of a deal. I don't know this to be. I'm just curious. Like, I'm curious if if the Bears just kind of kept hitting the Vikings at the exact right time of every season. I don't see it happening this Monday, though, to tell you the truth. Yeah, I don't see it happening this Monday though, to tell you the truth. Yeah, I don't either. I see. I, I would be shocked if the Vikings can't figure this team out. Right. Because they're bad everywhere. See, in the past, they were not bad on defense. In fact, they were great on defense at times. And I think that that's somewhat of your explanation. See, in the past, they were not bad on defense. In fact, they were great on defense

at times. And I think that that's somewhat of your explanation. Now, last year's game, where Chicago comes to Minnesota, puts up a ton of points. Now, I think the Vikings were without Eric Hendricks in that game, which is a huge deal. The defensive line had been completely depleted. Anthony Barr was out for the season, Daniel Hunter, so they couldn't stop the run at all. And then once Chicago was able to run, you get a few nice plays from Allen Robinson. You've got yourself a win. And the Vikings offense was really good in that game, but you only needed one or two plays because the Vikings defense was so bad. Wait, wait a second. You said a name there that I don't really remember. Did you say Allen Robinson? Oh yeah..i.p where is he gone that's another thing like where where is alan robinson someone i forget who which who it was was one of the

analysts over at espn uh their stats and infos i'll just tell you someone in the robinson camp said to me about week 10 hey you might you might want to go look at the routes that Alan Robinson's been running. And I said, Oh, okay. All right. I'll take a look. They have him on this shortest route tree that you've ever seen. And no one really understands why why I don't know if there was some sort of directive that they were going to feature Darnell Mooney more in the offense because he's a fifth round pick and he's the only player that Bears owner George McCaskey mentioned last year in his post game as postseason press

conference was Darnell Mooney. But I know that Ryan pace is completely bungled. The bears portion of Allen Robinson's career at the end of the 2019 season, Robinson made it clear that he wanted to stay here long-term. Everyone thought that there would be an extension at the beginning of the 2020 season. And then that didn't happen. And so we're like, oh, okay, that's weird that they let this get into the season. And by the end of the season, you're thinking, well, this guy has been a good soldier. He's been great in that locker room. He's never said anything untoward about the way that this team is coached.

And it still didn't happen. And then the offseason got here and you're like, they're just going to tag them and they're not going to still negotiate. From what I've been told, that relationship between Allen Robinson and the Bears is irreparable. And what sucks is in a season where they really could have tried to develop a relationship with Justin Fields and Allen Robinson. Because there's nothing better for a young quarterback than a guy whose catch radius is as robust as Allen Robinson's is. And they still couldn't make it work.

And now they've got him basically running these hitch routes. That's pretty much all Allen Robinson's doing right now. And it seems like a waste of everybody's time. And I keep wondering with Robinson, because I feel like Minnesota would be a really good place for him. I think Green Bay would be an excellent place for him. But I keep wondering what it is that he will want. He's had a career now where Blake Bortles and Mitch Trubisky

and a rookie have been his quarterbacks. Does he go to where the most money is? Or does he say to his representation, here's a list of 12 quarterbacks I want to play with. Whatever the best deal is, get it. But I want to have an opportunity to win and maybe it's not about the cash but i'm telling you man they have absolutely wasted that man's time and and in doing so i don't think that they look particularly good to the outside world

and i don't think that they gave themselves the best chance to win even in 2020 it's ridiculous man go go look at the routes because you'll i was surprised like i was legitimately like i thought it was bad it's one of those things where you're seeing it and you're going is it backed up with data and then you find out it's backed up with data. Folks, it's that time again where you're doing your online shopping for the holidays. And look, if you want free shipping, I can help you out with that. For all of your Minnesota sports-inspired goods,

use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER when you go to SodaStick.com. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. You can get their North State beanie, their Adam Thielen autograph shirts, Marcus Foligno fan club design for all of you hockey fans out there, and the one I always mention because it's the best one, the Randy Moss disgusting act. You can put that on a hoodie, shirt, or almost anything else.

And plus, anything you want with Skol it. So to stick has it again, that's S O T a S T I C K.com. Perfect for gifts. And you can get that shipping free by using the code purple insider. Well, I was going over the numbers, just getting ready for the game. And I was like, what has happened here i mean just you know the numbers have just gone in a completely different place um even if you look at the advanced numbers just even his pff grade and things like that that have just completely disappeared from him being an elite wide receiver which i think he had a really good case for being one before that and i think what we've landed on lawrence is that the bears are just a tiny bit dysfunctional

i'm starting to get this feeling from your words that there's some dysfunction there and where do you think that it most comes from like okay bad coaches happen you know sometimes you get a coach that doesn't know what he's doing and you can move on from that and so forth but there seems to be a deeper rooted issue with the bears. We don't have so much in Minnesota ownership issues. Like they sort of are in the background and then it's the people who are doing the jobs, do the jobs. And, but the situation with the Nagy reportedly getting fired, but they're not getting fired. And then the decisions that are made and why they're made by the front

office. I mean, it does not feel like they are anywhere close to snapping their fingers and taking that big step to be a really dangerous team. Even though when you think about quarterback on a rookie contract, Fields is very, very talented and has maybe an opportunity to take that big step in year two. But the things that you're describing seems so fundamental to dysfunction that it's almost like, wait, are we talking about the Jets or the Giants or like Jaguar territory? Like that's where Chicago has gone to from just a couple of years ago. Like, look at how great this team is. They got Khalil Mack, they're winning 12 games. And then just a couple years later, you would compare them to the most dysfunctional teams in the league.

Yeah, I used to joke that before the Browns got competent, that they were the NFC version of the Browns. That's what they were. They were the Cleveland, the Chicago Cleveland equivalent. Ownership, I do think, is an issue. One of the things that I've been exploring on the show over the last couple of weeks is I don't understand how if your grandfather started the league, why there hasn't been a real legit learning curve with George McCaskey.

Why is it that he has to almost always, when it comes to matters of football, go outside the organization to get perspective on it? Why does he always have, like the Ernie Acorsi hire is one of the most galling things. How have you been a part of football your whole life? And let's say it's your whole adult life.

Let's say, George is 77. We're talking almost 60 years of you being in and around the game, you working inside the organization. Where's your Rolodex? How do you not know names to call? Why do you have to have Ernie Acorsi go in there? And then the other part, I've been championing this cause,

and it's partially because I've spent a lot of time watching and talking football with some of the bear greats, you know, through my career on the radio and having a television show that is specifically tailored to the post doing post games of bear

show for four years. I'm sitting in a room with Olin Crute, Matt Forte, Alex Brown, Lance Briggs, Dave Wanstead on occasion. I'm sitting in a room with Olin Krutz, Matt Forte, Alex Brown, Lance Briggs, Dave Wanstead on occasion. I'm listening to them talk about things and I go, have the Bears ever asked you guys about any of this stuff? And the answer is always no. And I don't understand if you have a resource like that, why you wouldn't want to take advantage of it. And for some reason, they don't.

I mean, pay the guys for their time. But most of these guys would just, they just want to help. Like, they don't want the Bears to look like this publicly. And they continue to. Now I'm a descendant to some silly, OK? I refer to Ryan Pace now as Zach Morris because that's who he is. He's Zach Morris up there with Zach Morris hair and the whole nine yards. They seem to only listen to him and he's been able to create whatever type of narrative that he wants

about why the team has failed matt this dude and people try to talk about oh well he does well in the late rounds of the draft he's been in charge of the draft for seven years. He's had two guys make the Pro Bowl. Two. It's stuff like that where the people that could offer you counsel could say, what's he telling you? Because the results don't match the words. They can give you the ammunition to ask the questions that you need answered. For some reason, George doesn't want to do that. It's sad because I find George to be very earnest. I find him to be someone who wants the Bears to succeed. He doesn't

know how to do it. And he's been given now multiple opportunities. They ran Lovie Smith up out of here after a 10-6 season. Think about that. And now we're talking about no playoff wins in the Pace era. They ran Jerry Angelo out of here. And I get it that a lot of relationships have an end date.

I get that. And we were probably at the end with Lovie Smith. And things change and folks want power and all sorts of other stuff. They've been chasing the type of success that they had under Lovie Smith since Lovie Smith left. And no one up there seems to understand what the deficiencies are. And they want to sell the old. They want to sell the history of the Bears. We get it. We get it. We get that there is a rich history

with the charter franchise in the NFL. But when are you all going to get to the present and start thinking about the future? And they don't have a good answer for that. And it's really, really disappointing. Other than that, though, everything's fine. Very promising is the way I look. It seems like everything's going in the right direction. And the crazy thing is that

in the past for so many years it was just like well look they've got a lot of good players but the quarterback position and the the jay cutler era had its ups uh from time to time but more downs but at least you're competitive and you have a quarterback who could potentially win you games and so forth uh but for a long time aside from from the Cutler era, it's just, well, this team never has any quarterbacks and they draft Kate McNown. That's why they're not good. But now you're in a position where you can't botch this. Fields is too talented. And look, anybody could be a bust. I don't know. You don't know after one year if someone's going to be good or not. But this quarterback has a very unique talent. There are not too many guys that big, that fast with that kind of arm talent. And if you can't figure it out and you waste his rookie

contract, he will be playing for another team doing the Ryan Tannehill thing. And the Vikings and the Packers and the Lions, somebody will pass you by and you'll miss your opportunity. And it's really kind of amazing to think about. They missed their opportunity because Trubisky wasn't good to have this unreal defense in 2018 and maybe a kicker double doinked or something. And that's part of the problem, too. Think about what they said the issue was the issue that they felt like 2019 people outside may not have heard about this but in 2019 after the cody parker thing they had this really bizarre kicking competition i remember this yeah i remember this. They were acting as if the only thing holding them back was Cody Parkey.

Yeah. Cody Parker. Cody Parkey. Parkey, yeah. That was the only thing that was holding them back. And it wasn't. It was myriad things. If you look at Matt Nagy's offense from week 12 of the 2018 season on,

it's been this. It's been 16, 17 points per game. That's, and you're not, unless you have the ass-kicking-est defense ever, you're not going to win with that type of offensive output. Unless you have Devin Hester returning kicks an offense that's that's competent enough another Rex Grossman in 2006 was fantastic by the way um and a defense that just gets after it they're wasting

Khalil Mack and Akeem Hicks. They're wasting it. They've wasted three seasons with these guys being mediocre. And now you're starting to see that it's never, and you've covered the NFL forever. It's never a talent issue when players get older, it's a health issue, right? It's you're not available anymore. And at first you think, well, it's no a talent issue when players get older. It's a health issue. Right.

It's you're not available anymore. And at first you think, well, it's no big deal. I've got this hamstring. I'll be ready to play. And then it's, oh, you missed three weeks in a season with a hamstring. Oh, now you're missing half the season with all sorts of different ailments. It's what happens to every single player that plays beyond three years in the NFL. It's not their want to, and it's not their talent. Eventually the body just gives out and you're wasting all of this time that you had, you have

prime Akeem Hicks, You've got prime Khalil Mack. And you're not going to the playoffs. And even when you do, you're not a legitimate contender to win anything. Right. I think about this for a baseball theory about hitting and pitching matching up. Right? That in order to be a great team, it's sort of common sense. But sometimes teams have great pitching

and not so good hitting. And then you'll have this throughout a season where one needs to kind of pick up the other. And then when they match you're you're hot and where the bears had this defense with Khalil Mack, uh, still very much in his prime, Akeem Hicks, very much in his prime and cornerbacks who were good and safeties who were good. And now what you're looking at is this defensive backfield that has Jalen Johnson and kind of nobody else. And you have your, now those guys are a couple of years removed from when they were truly great or truly healthy and great.

And they have a great player, middle linebacker. Roquan Smith is one of the best linebackers in the league, but your priorities were so out of whack that you decided to keep jimmy graham instead of kyle fuller which is insane and then and then you don't use jimmy graham right yeah eight catches yeah like none of it makes any sense like none of it yeah and fuller is none of it. Yeah, and Fuller's a great player. I don't really understand the thought process there because what we just know, how valuable corners are in the NFL today.

We're seeing it in Minnesota, and we see it everywhere. That is the position outside of pass rusher. You lose a giant pass rusher, and you don't have corners to make up for it, and the team is awful. How about that? Yeah. But it's, it's remarkable though, to me, how the you know, the offense has something promising to think about for the future, but the defense now needs to be revamped again. So whoever is the next head coach, assuming there is one has to take on this roster that you're going, like, I don't really know what to work with here with this roster,

which was what I was going to ask you about is kind of, I mean, the long-term of this, it's just hard to see the bears being a competitive team, even next year, even with a new coach, like the new coach has to fix all these problems first and then try to take them to the next level. Right. I mean, roster turnover happens every season for every team no team is ever going to be the same like even the Buccaneers you were bringing back all their starters there is still roster churn the Bears have so many positions to fill like it's they're unsure and this is another mistake by the front office. They let go to serviceable to below average tackles.

Both of them ended up finding starting jobs, by the way. And they were going to turn those two positions over to two rookies, one of which had never played the position that they were going to ask him to play in the pros. And by the way, he had a serious back injury.

They didn't have, there was a point in the season when Tevin Jenkins was on the IR, where the Bears didn't have anyone on the roster who had actually played left tackle. Wow. That's terrible planning. Yeah. It's hard to over- Is left tackle wow that's terrible planning yeah like that it's it's hard to over left tackle important i don't know it seems like i don't know it seems like especially for a right-handed quarterback that it might be a a really important position yet they they decided that it wasn't that important it's decisions like that that make you go, how the hell are you going to dig out of this hole that you're in? Because I don't see a real path to you figuring it out.

This group, for sure, not figuring it out. And the next person who comes in is God, if they make a change. Because look, you might think that i'm kidding it is very possible that on january 10th on january 10th the bears walk out there and go we're so close oh no we're just gonna run it back oh my that i that would be uh a burned down soldier field type of situation hey man they're going to arlington heights anyway so they don't care oh is that they're going to build a new stadium i think i mean the vikings would love that i mean they've just had this incredible history of losing a soldier field like build a new stadium maybe that one won't be cursed i don't know about you guys but i've gotten very good in my life at admitting when i need some help if you are struggling to figure out how to

navigate workers' compensation and disability laws, I've got a team that can lend you a hand. Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer are dedicated and experienced disability attorneys, so if you find yourself on your company's injury report, Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer Law can help you understand your rights

under Minnesota's workers' compensation laws. Their team of disability attorneys have secured their clients tens of millions of dollars in unpaid and denied benefits. They can help you fight wrongfully denied work comp claims, or if your claim has been accepted, they can assist with rehabilitation or medical disputes, help you get a second opinion, or ensure that you're getting everything you're entitled to. Mike, Pat, and Evan will take care of all the legal aspects of your case while you focus on what's most important,

that's your recovery. There is no fee or cost for reaching out to them. You do not pay a single cent unless they are successful in obtaining your benefits. So make sure to go to their website, yourminnesotaworkcomplawyer.com. That is yourminnesotaworkcomplawyer.com. This has been an attorney advertisement for Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer. Well, they bought this parcel of land out in Arlington Heights. And for $320 million, I think that it's more about protecting some of the personal financial interest of the mccaskey family i think i i think that it makes the the franchise more valuable if they want to sell virginia mccaskey is 98 years old and then they're the way that their

ownership structure is there's pieces of the team that belong to her children and her grandchildren right there if she passes away the tax implications on that are going to be huge okay yeah that makes sense yeah and there might not there might not be enough cash on hand for each individual who's going to have a piece of the bears to afford it so i think that partially this is in case we need to sell it we we have now made it more attractive because the new buyer can come in and say i'm going to go get financing and build a new stadium. I know this much. What's been really interesting about it is the city of Chicago and the Bears have a very tenuous relationship. They don't run Soldier Field.

The city does. The Park District does. And so there have been weekends. There's been less lately. But I remember specifically a weekend where there was the city high school championship on Friday, a college game on Saturday, and then the Bears. Or the city rented out Soldier Field to Kanye West. Right. Yes. Or the city rented out Soldier Field to Kanye West. Right. Yes. Two weeks before a game this year.

And he transformed the whole place. So there's going to be a war because Arlington Heights is still in Cook County. Okay. So there's going to be a lot of, there are a lot of city people that are like, we don't care. Go. We're not paying for this. Right. Yeah.

And obviously, Chicago is the biggest city in Cook County. Like, go ahead. But don't come asking us for money to build your stadium. You better find someone to finance it. And because the the the Bears ownership is structured in a very different way, this is what they do. I don't know what the Wilfs do outside of owning the Vikings. Real estate. So they do real estate, right?

Yeah. You know Jerry Jones does oil, correct? ShotKhan has all sorts of ventures that he's into. The McCaskies have football. Right. That's all sorts of ventures that he's into. The McCaskies have football, right? That's all they have. So them leveraging another business to pay for the business of football is a pipe dream.

Like they can't do it. So it makes me wonder what ends up happening and whether we could see someone like Jeff Bezos come in and make them the godfather offer and then Virginia be like great now I don't have to worry about all this nonsense everyone can cash out and we can be done with all of this and then you can play in space hey Jeff Bezos is your is your owner that's why they'll uh have the first levitating stadium and the vikings will still lose inside is what's gonna happen michael strahan will be on the call that's right that's right okay acclimated one more thing one more thing and i can't imagine

you doing this on a daily basis with this team like i do i was gonna say i'm surprised that you just haven't had a vein in your brain explode there have been days uh so you think the vikings win this one yes okay by a lot what's a lot i mean for the vikings it's more than 10 the vikings are not favored by much it's only three and a half what's the line it's not much three and a half i i would feel really good about that bet yeah the bears are they've got some covet issues they've got injuries their coordinators are now all on the covet list yeah so you can end up you can end up in a game where Matt Nagy is back calling plays. Mike Patton is the defensive coordinator. Cause he's one of their defensive analysts.

And I don't know who's going to cover special teams. Like I don't even, we were joking today that they should ask Patrick Manley or shared McManus to come back and handle the special teams for him. With everything that's still available to the Vikings, the playoffs are still in front of them. I can't imagine they lose this game. But like you said, if ever there was a matchup that Mike Zimmer loves to lose,

it's against Matt Nagy and the Morabund Bears. Yes. Yes. They, they were very Morabund ish in 2016. And yet, you know, it happened.

So it can happen. And even last year, the bears were pretty bad. They came to us bank stadium and won that game after losing at soldier field. So, well, look,

national audience enjoy it because it's usually a bleep show every time these two teams play against each other and with every vikings game lawrence they will find a way to make it compelling or to have you kind of clutch in the edge of your chair at the end of the game no matter what this is what i've learned of this football team so at very least we know it'll probably be entertaining if not just hilarious is the most likely situation so you enjoy that um also uh good luck to the bulls and the other teams there because i i don't think this is getting better anytime no i don't think that's getting any better but luckily the bulls are good the

white socks were in the playoffs they won the better. But luckily, the Bulls are good. The White Sox were in the playoffs. They won the American League Central. I think the Cubs are actually going to spend some money if there's a baseball season. If there's a baseball season. Which I'm not sure about. But they're going to spend some money. DePaul basketball, my alma mater, is 9-1 right now. So there is some things to feel good about i guess i guess

well uh lawrence you're one of my favorite people in the world to have on the show it's always so much fun when we get together and it's all it's always my plan to be like i will talk for 15 20 minutes and it's never that way when we start talking football which uh it's because i'm long-winded man and i apologize for that i'm sorry this this was a compliment to you lawrence this is not a criticism i was not saying long-winded i was saying that we always just start yelling about football and then look up be like oh we've been talking for a while so i'll be on your show and we'll have some more fun with it uh but uh good luck just making it through the rest of the football season and and we'll we'll do it again these two of the football season and we'll, we'll do it again.

These two teams will play again and it'll be funny again. Thank you very much. Kind sir. Have an excellent, excellent day. You too, man.