O’Donnell: Jeanty and Arlington Park loom as a winning exacta for the Bears
THE FELLOW ASKING THE QUESTION was smart, professionally accomplished and as savvy as any fan with the intellect to properly process hyper-opinionated modern sports media.
“What,” he asked, “will make the spring a success for the Bears?”
The response was succinct:
Two things — a firm start date for shovels in the ground at Arlington Park and Ashton Jeanty.
That's it. Boom-zappo, forward hoe.
The shovels continue to blow in the wind. The hoes remain on hold.
IS IT MORE THAN CASUAL IRONY that Thursday — April 24 — is both the date of the first round of the 2025 NFL draft and the first anniversary of the comically surreal day when Kevin Warren and accomplices made their dead-paws announcement about a new Bears stadium “ask” on the Chicago lakefront?
That laugh rendering began with a minister's prayer and quickly went poof brimstone from there.
That idea had all the loft of coloring Hunt's Jell-O cubes as a traditional Easter egg replacement.
So the Bears continue to quietly crawl back toward AP, looking for little smile markers along the way to save face.
NOW ABOUT JEANTY:
One thousand reasons can be put forth about why drafting the remarkable RB from Boise State shouldn't be a primary aim of Ryan Poles and staff on Thursday.
But two words should be emblazoned inside the thought bunker at Halas Hall.
And they are: “franchise energizer.”
In case anyone hasn't noticed, Saquon Barkley has made the explosive running back once again fashionably “Super Bowl champion” in the NFL. Derrick Henry and Josh Jacobs round out the fresh blast trifecta.
POLES HAS DONE an aggressively commendable job in the past 12 weeks attempting to bolster and solidify the team at its neediest spots.
Perhaps in the deepest recesses of his young football mind, the Bears GM has come to the realization that draft-and-develop isn't the only way to resuscitate.
That means an upgraded offensive line, which would be wondrous for Jeanty to rumble behind. It must also have Caleb Williams lighting licensed Papa Bear candles of gratitude on an hourly basis.
EXPERTS SAY JEANTY WILL BE GONE — as “the best player available” — to Jacksonville at No. 5 or Las Vegas at No. 6.
If that's the likelihood, the charge to Poles then becomes out-gaming those suitors and beating them to the powerful blue-turfed tynamo.
If he does make it to Lake Forest, Jeanty's biggest hurdle would be overcoming the haunting that has plagued the greatest Bears running backs of the TV age.
GALE SAYERS NEVER PLAYED in an NFL postseason. In Walter Payton's first nine NFL seasons, the team — even with the beatified Jim Finks calling the personnel shots — finished above .500 only twice.
Cedric Benson — the last running back taken as a No. 1 by CHI, in 2005 — barely qualifies as a $2,000 “Jeopardy!” response.
SHOVELS IN THE GROUND, Ashton Jeanty to the burnt orange and blue.
It's enough to electrify the fans and the new infrastructure to come at Arlington Park.
* * *
THE BULLS AND THE BLACKHAWKS concluded their water-pistol 2024-25 seasons this week.
The best that can be said is that they're both over and that a merciful lord of local cable television kept their games and the ill-planned CHSN off of Comcast, the Chicago area's dominant — and imperious — carriage provider.
Mahjong tournaments from the deck of the S.S. Lido Shuffle off Bimini would have been more entertaining.
In terms of “The Disgusting and Disgraceful Derby,” the Bulls won.
DESPITE AN ARTIFICIAL 15-5 CLOSE to their regular season (thank you Mike McGraw), Billy Donovan and his disorganized apprentices looked awful in a 109-90 play-in loss to Miami at the United Center.
(On game day, a certain stooge predicted, in his Daily Herald sports and media column, a 107-104 Chicago win. He was last seen after the game dancing for cold Lenten fish sticks and lemon wedges outside of Eddie's Lounge in downtown Arlington Heights.)
Most hopeful message from that disaster was that even Reinsdorf father and son must realize that Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley are not the answer atop the team's balky basketball ops machinery.
They have devolved into impediments. Their continued employment could spawn a surge of mockingly nostalgic “Krause and Forman!” hoodies at the UC next season. Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler were once more significant symbols of post-Jordanian hope.
AS FOR THE BLACKHAWKS, some normally sharp NHL observers noted “a slight uptick” in the tenor and tone of the team despite its 25-46-11 finish. That was the second worst in the 32-team band of blue liners.
Sophomore Connor Bedard was downgraded from “can't miss” to a 19-year-old “with a sky-high ceiling.” Sam Rinzel and Frank Nazar played with the fury of youth on a green ice crew consistently overmatched. The team's 4-1-1 ending was an April rainbow.
Trending history would suggest that the Blackhawks have never recovered from the 2018 scandal that prompted the ouster of Joel Quenneville. That was followed by the sad and sudden passing of Rocky Wirtz in 2023, further distancing the organization from the glory and gliding confidence of three Stanley Cups.
COMPETITIVELY, THE UNITED CENTER ain't no place to be a Chicago fan in winter anymore.
Still, they come.
And the water pistols squirt on.
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.