Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Transition: Bears right guard Jonah Jackson is cleared to play against Patriots

Episode Date: October 21, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote welcomed on Laurence Holmes and Mark Grote for the daily transition segment.

Hey, Joe, are you around? Come here. Come here. You're on with Lela and Mark. Hey, how you guys doing? I mean, we've had a lovely week of some old school radio stuff. The caller from prison, Joey bag of donuts, some theater of the mine. That's where he'd be grody.

I got a whiteboard that for Lawrence who just gave the, you gave the right look. Like, what was that? That sounded like another call from prison. Only in your mind. That was Chuck Swirsky, who we. asked Lawrence. We said, is Joe Bag of Donuts around? Could we put the Bulls Play-By Play Announceer away and talk to Joe Bag of Donuts for just one moment? He owes us a bag of donuts. He does. Yeah. Which donuts would you want? Like, can you do that? Can you even play favorites?

You're asking the right guy here. You're a connoisseur. I, ooh, that makes it. I want to give a second here? You want to think about it? Sure, go ahead. Marinate. Yeah. You marinate on that. I will thank the people that, in my opinion, made this show great today, including you, Leila Rahimi, you made this show great today. Clay Harbor was on. He just left the studios just now to go to one of his many jobs that he does at a very high level. Beautiful day to get out to Clay Harbor today. Oh, yeah.

Oh, I bet the greens are nice and firm. Is it legit 70 out there? It is. Not in the shadows, but if you're in the sunlight, it's delightful. Oh, that means puffer jacket for me still, as I am weak. It's weird. It's like 40 degrees in the morning and then 70 degrees when you walk home. Welcome to Chicago. Welcome to Denver. That's a, that's a Denver. With the sunshine? Yes. And no humidity. Yes. Herb Howard was on the show today. He was terrific like he always is. Chuck Swirsky, Bulls play-by-play. Man, a joint bag of donuts was on as well. Let me tell you about drink. Who else was on the show today? Oh, Mike Floreo. Mike Floreo was on today. We love having Mike on. Tyler. Bauterbaugh and Ray Diaz.

Thank you so much for your excellent work. Connor O'Donnell, Max Curtis, Jacob Studs are our video producers. And the scorechicago.com editor is Cody Westerland. And now it is time for transition with Spiegel and Holmes. Spiegel is not here, but Lawrence is. We're Spiegs. He's right. I don't know where Speegs is off today.

Big Aunt Heron is going to join us in a little bit, and he's going to hang out with me for the rest of the show. My choice, and there's a lot of good choices. Love Spunky Dunkers out in Palatine. Do Right Donuts is still a favorite right down the street for me. You can, Huck Finn is always right there. I literally traveled to this place this past weekend. And I'm like, man, it just can't. Fleckenstein's out in Mochina.

Okay. It is outstanding. Okay. Absolutely outstanding. One of the, one of my favorite bakeries, like just to walk, they all have incredible stuff all the way around. But I'll, you know what? Maybe one of these, I'll,

I'll figure out a way to get out there on a Sunday and bring you guys some stuff on a Monday. You're too kind. Yeah. It's easy and they're really good to you out there. So it's a good thing. What's the favorite donut that Fleckenstein's does? For me, it's their zebra donut. So it's a chocolate with white and chocolate with vanilla and chocolate icing on top.

So think of a chocolate cake donut with vanilla and chocolate. It's really, really good. But they also, like, they have lady fingers that are great, like fudge-dipped lady fingers. Can't beat it. What was that bakery, the Polina Bakery? What was it? It was, uh, dinkles. Is that correct?

Dinkles. Yeah. I miss that. I used to get my hair done over there and I would go and check out dinkles after I got my hair done every time. And what would you get at? Dinkles. Various things.

Yeah. That's kind of the way. I was in the mood for. Yeah. And so, so Chuck owes us all donuts. Right? Because his Indianapolis Colts thing, he didn't just say that he was going to get donuts for the Colts. He said, I'll get donuts for everyone here at the station and for the Colts.

So I'm waiting for the donuts because he owes us donuts. So he never paid that off. No. Wow. Well, you didn't even remember that he said it. Remember? That's right. Like, that's the part of the problem.

Ant's walking in with some sort of. Whoa. Whoa. Oh, Aunt got just salad. Very serious briefcase. That looks like something dangerous might be in there. My goodness. That's using what I carry like that.

like the unit in. Yo. I'm sorry, buddy. The broadcast unit. He had big Anthony Heron walking into the studio right now. He was filming in for Matt Spiegel on Spiegel and Holmes. Just walking across the street from the Fox 32 studios. He switched it up on us and I get to hang out and just wear a t-shirt.

I love it. This will give me a second, Lawrence. You and I are here right now. So you watch the movie, Holiday Touchdown. A Bears love story. You watched it. I did. As a show, we're going to break it down when Speaks gets back.

But did you catch the Pat McCasky cameo? I missed the – somebody else told me about that. I missed the Pat McCasky cameo. I think I'm pretty well in line with the rest of the cameos, and then somebody – I don't remember who somebody told me about that. No, I missed it. Pat McCaskey was the fire chief. Oh, wow.

Oh, that's amazing. And he might be my favorite of the McKayskys. And here's the other thing. And I don't know if this has happened on the morning show yet. I know that the beautiful and lovely Miss Connie Payton has been talking about being on the show. Jared is also in the movie. And I haven't heard him talk about it on the air. And maybe it's because he doesn't appear appear unless I missed his cameo.

It's his voice. It's his voice. He is the PA announcer at Soldier Field. My mom watched it over the weekend. So she was like asking me about, I said, did they have the Chris kindled market in there because I saw one of the pictures. Hampton and Loveland. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. And you realize how big

Colston Loveland is because he's standing next to Dan Hampton and they're the same size. A couple of handsome men right there too. The Hampton still frames are just perfect. He was, I think as far as athletes or coaches who were acting in the movie, Hamp was

the best hands down. He is a... I mean, he is a natural character. He is. Like the 30 for 30 when Dick had passed, it was on again. that there's 30 for 30 on ESPN and I watched it that night. And you just, you forget how so good some of those guys really were just being on camera.

There's going to be a nice tribute to Dicca before the game tomorrow night. Saw that in the plans for Soldier Field tomorrow. Big Ant is here. He's going to be sitting in for Speaks. Hello, sir. Hello, sir. Yeah, I am here.

That was one of the cooler things about Coach Dicca because he was obviously a huge personality in his own right, but then he allowed his players to show and to showcase their personalities. Didn't necessarily try to restrict that too much. And it probably would have been difficult to restrict it with that particular group anyway. But, you know, so many guys who went on to careers beyond football in the entertainment business in a wide variety of ways. And, you know, I think when you're comfortable enough in yourself and in your leadership style,

then you can have players who you allow to show their personality like the Bears did. Amen. That was a wonderful cast of characters when you consider it all together. We have a little breaking news. Good news. Breaking news on the score is brought to you by IDOT. At some point in the day, everyone is a pedestrian. Slow down and give them space.

Share the road. It's not a game. Bears right guard, according to Brad Biggs, Jonah Jackson, was listed as a full participant. Wild. In today's estimated practice before? And he has no status. So, like, it looks like he's full go because he has everyone else. Stevenson is questionable.

T. T.J. Edwards is doubtful. Jack Sand Lacker is out Kyle Monungai is out There are no designations for Kishon Elliott or Jonah Jackson which usually means that they are ready to play. It's important to denote

it was a walkthrough so there's that piece of it. But that's why I gave the game status part because it's just blank for Jonah Jackson that's a really good sign. I did not suspect that with the short turnaround. I didn't expect him to play and we'll see if he does

because it's the same thing with like the thinking on Caleb where if you give Jonah this game off, then he's basically got two weeks to get himself right. But if they got back and looked at his hip and he's like, I think I'm good and everything seems to be aligned and everything. That's a great news for the Bears. And there's a similar type of stress testing, and we still don't know exactly what was going on with the hip.

We just know it's the hip that's messed up. Jonah's got a hip. But they put them through the rigors of movement tests and whatever Layla's doing, like the limbering up. It looks very uncomfortable. My hip hurts just watching that. Whatever Layla's doing on the Twitch stream right now. If you don't use it, you lose it.

That's a very good point. Mobility is keeping us alive as we get older. So as they're stress testing Jonah Jackson on his mobility, on the actual strength, you know, while he's bending, while he's moving, the suddenness, the thrust that you need to be able to have, especially for a position like guard where there's so much ground-based power involved in it, then I guess that seemingly they like the progress, if nothing else, for where he's making. Now, you know, I feel like Ben Johnson can scheme up the game in a way where you can survive

one without Jonah Jackson, but also you've got the mini-bye that's going to be coming up. It's a mini-bye that has a Monday night football game on the other end of the two. So, yeah. So, I mean, you know, maybe they just feel really good about where he's at. Extra bonus minibire. Yeah. Or maybe they thought, like, it seems worse. And then they were like, oh, it's actually not that bad.

Jonah, how you doing? I'm doing all right. The scan say I'm okay. All right, let's see what we can do. You do a limited participation in a walkthrough, and then you do a full participation in a walkthrough, and you ice it down and ice in the stem until tomorrow morning, see how you feel tomorrow morning, and let's ride.

And it's always a really difficult calculus because there are so few football games. So they're all precious. This is a game out of division. It's a game out of conference, but you've struggled within the division. So it would be one thing. You know, like the Patriots, and in a position where they probably feel like they're going to just dominate their division.

Maybe the calculus for all those Patriots injuries is a little bit different. The Bears are 0 and 2 in the division after only having two wins in the division that they won last season. So I wonder how that calculus goes, just knowing that the Bears play in one of, if not the best divisions, in the National Football League, with every game being precious and recognizing that you're not just going to sweep the rest of the division very likely here. So these games out of conference, these games out of division, are the reason they won the NFC North last year, so you can't necessarily just afford to let any of these slip away. And strangely enough, the conference games themselves start to matter

for a team that expects to be in the playoffs. You come out of it, and on the Monday night game, you're playing Seattle. That's an important game, because that game might be the difference between playing at home and getting on a plane and flying 3,000 miles to go play at one of the toughest places in the country. So it's really interesting, like,

how everyone will think about doing this, except for the Eagle staff. I mean, they're all good, Lawrence. They're just fascinated. They're all good. No problem. At this point, I feel like they should just flash up a graphic that says, P.S. don't sue us.

Like, where is this going? Well, the NFLPA ducked their heads out yesterday and was like, hey, we're kind of supposed to be a part of any sort of thing that you do. So we're going to investigate this on our own. Was there an investigation? Was there not? If there was,

We didn't hear about it. And nobody say nothing to us. Yeah, right, right. That's a whole thing. J.J. McCarthy now officially the new starter for the New York Giants. Nine, even though he doesn't wear nine anymore. Oh, that's alter ego. Is he 18?

Yeah, he's a teen number now. It's a good idea to change it up. Just double up. Yeah. It doesn't, it does it. Mandy Ramirez. Alex and I were actually discussing this. And if you're the Giants, it makes all the sense in the world to start him.

You know what James is. You know it's 20 touchdowns. 20 interceptions. That's what it's going to be. That's so James. And since Jackson Darts not coming back, they're in first place in that division. That division can be won.

Matt and Aggie, that's what it is, man. I think it's that it's losing the least wins you that division. Did you know they've gone two straight weeks without a win in the division? Yes. The division has. And two teams played each other. I'm Lila Rahimi with this Odyssey Sports Minute. Oh, yeah.

I did get the Odyssey Sports Minute on the OECD. She nailed it, man. I'll do it again. I'll be like more like the N.S. Do it again. Am I right? I'm Lailah Rehimi. Here's something else that you can add.

Washington is 07 and 1 in the last eight games that Jaden Daniels has started. With two really bad moments for him, Jaden Daniels. I don't know if we're taking him out of the Dunkin' Donuts race in the 2024 draft class. Does he pull to the back? Is J.J. McCarthy about to race forward again? Is Bo Nick's going to get his ass benched? What's going on with 2024? I'm Mark Rodney.

Jay Jain hasn't been there very long. So, I mean, I understand they know exactly what James is. That's true. But because they're in first place in the division, because John Harbaugh wants to make the postseason, wants to see if they can make a run, I don't think they should thrust him out there before. They really feel like he's got a good sense for the system.

I mean, that little kind of run at the end of the game was cool. We saw J.J. McCarthy do that against the Bears in the fourth quarter of last season. A couple of dropped interceptions in that, too. Like the numbers look better than he actually played in that. There's some weird stuff going on with that team. Like, Nasi Harris is like, yeah, I'm not sure what my role is, but I'm happy to do what I need to do. You're cut. He was complaining.

He was complaining. Like, I need to get in the rhythm. And, you know, I'm not completely like, why don't you have me out here a little bit more? It's been hard. And John Harbaugh kind of took a couple of days saying, well, play better and you'll get into a rhythm. Play better. Make more plays and we'll run you more. And then suddenly he was just gone.

Meanwhile, Cam Scatterboo is. like, I fumbled, but I really love another chance to get back out there. You sit on the bitch and you don't like it. That's how we do football here. That is an odd place right now. Did Huber have a Sports Minute about that? See, there you go. You can just start doing, that's your lineup.

Do every one of the teams in the East as your sports minute. No. No, I like football. That's what I'm saying. I don't want to be doing this right now. You could literally make the argument that none of those teams is going to win the NFC East. I'm Layla Rahimi. Oh, no, I've been through that as a long-time Cowboys fan.

This is what I'm saying. I'm just programming the sportsman. I'm saying that now we just knock them all out. You're doing one on Dallas. You're doing one on the Giants. You're doing one on the commanders. You're sad. You've got to have an East Coast bias anyway now.

Now that you're national, do they tell you it's got to be all East Coast? East Coast Laila's here. The other one I do is a women's sports minute. Could you do one on how the Sky I messed up the Angel Reese trade. Well, I mean, that would be legit. And, of course, the comments are the most ridiculous about this because, well, the experts

that are self-proclaimed have never seen a game in the WNBA. So, you know, on our post, for example, on Instagram, it was always Angel Reese being punished. And I'm like, if you knew WNBA for two minutes, you would realize that she was traded to a contender. And then everybody was saying rebounds. league's leading rebounder for having a years in a row, and now she's the defensive player of the year. Defensive player of the year,

and she might end up being the finals MVP. Right, and I don't think you're calling Wemby Meebounds. Say that to Victor Wimbenyama's face and see how that goes. I saw someone comp her game, and I'm like, I'm really mad at myself that I never did this comp. Someone comped her game to Yannis. I was going to guess that. I was going to guess Janus.

And it's a really good comp, where Janice kind of looks awkward, but you know he's like... And was not nearly as skilled early in his career as he became. And there were still stretches while he was winning MVP and defensive player of the year. He's like, well, Janice, are you really good at shooting threes? Why are you doing that? Janice, should you really be the point guard? But he just continued to work his tail off.

And that's what Angels done. That was what suited the bucks at their best. Like, John isn't the best point guard in the sport. But for the bucks, him having the rock in his hands is what made them exceptional. It's just also you get more chances at the rebound because of the physical mismatch in the post in the league. You don't normally have that kind of hype mismatch. And her motor doesn't quit. So she's smart to be there.

But that would require all those people to understand basketball in the W and have to watch the games and know that that wasn't a punishment getting traded from the sky. I'm Lailah Rahimi. Nice job. There it is. See? With your Odyssey Sports rant that went seven minutes instead of the 30 seconds. Three years. Yeah.

Was not a punishment for Caleb coming to the bear? is either drafting number on overall. Grotty made the note about the 2024 draft class. So you've completely just discounted Jayden Daniels. He's done. Well, I don't know. I don't know that he is because that's just, that's why I was called the Dunkin' Donus race. Just when you think like the biggie bagels out of it, he comes from behind and wins the thing. So I just think it's not gone well for him the last year and a half. I always root for Cuppie Coffee. I mean, he's running with liquid. There's no lid. Unbelievable. Dashing donut just doesn't even get your attention.

I mean, Cuppie coffee's doing it with no lid and hot liquid. I got to give him props for making it. So that's always my choice. I'm always rooting for Cuppie coffee. Bulls. Bulls. Bulls back tonight. It's going down, man.

It's one of the things that we're going to spend some time talking about on tonight's show, today's show, because the sun is still out. The Sunday show. The sun will set before the show ends today, though. This is the first time of the year. You're going to be all right? I'm fine around. The 4 o'clock sunsets are creeping in. They're coming, and it's scary.

Cam Smith is going to join us at 325. We will talk to him about the Bulls. Jermaine Wiggins is going to talk Pats with us. I'm looking forward to that of the Marconi-winning W-E-E-I radio. Yeah, they beat us for the Marconi. Damn, damn it. Oh for two this year? Yeah, and we'll keep going.

We will keep going. We are going to spend some time since Big Ann is here. Ant has been in Kevin Byrd's situation, and I guess technically, Gary Bradbury's, situation. Also true. Right? So we will ask Ant about that. We will ask Ant about the NFL PA getting involved with Jalen

Hertz. But we're going to start things off with the NFC player of the week. That's right. You guessed it. On the show on the score, we're going to talk about Caleb Williams. That is after Tanny's Open, which you know is must listen radio. It comes up next here on the score.

Now listen, Tyler, no notes today, baby. It's all good. Great job. Thank you. And this segment's Sponsored by Jewelosco.