And furthermore . . .
Yes, Bryan Cox can be a loose cannon. But he is also a hired gun and when the Bears brought him here as a free agent last year, one of their expressed motives was to supply some edge to a rather shy football team.
Now it seems fashionable to blame the emotional linebacker for a few ailments that existed on the Bears when Cox still was stirring the pot with the Miami Dolphins. How convenient. The Bears talk a better game than they play, but they did that before his arrival.
Question: If Cox had thrown a tantrum and then his helmet, sticking up for mates and defending the rule book, but the Bears had won in Green Bay Monday night, would he be portrayed as spinning out of control?
Or, much as Dennis Rodman’s table manners are excused because the Bulls are so wonderful, would Cox be hailed for re-creating the feisty old Bears’ attitude? Would he have been fined by his team for taking a stand in victory?
Meanwhile, coach Dave Wannstedt has to look both ways and wonder. He has Cox sticking a finger in his chest and President Michael McCaskey looking over his shoulder, wondering where Rick Mirer was in the fourth quarter.
– Speaking of the Bears, for what grand occasion are they saving Darnell Autry? This year’s Super Bowl, or next year’s? . . . Why didn’t we think of this first? Mike North of WSCR radio suggests Wannstedt and White Sox manager Terry Bevington are the same person. “Has anybody ever seen those two guys together?” . . . Consider what Buddy Bell is doing in Detroit and Terry Francona in Philadelphia and the Sox didn’t have to go outside the organization to offer the manager’s job to Jim Leyland last winter. Both Bell and Francona once worked for the Sox.
– Brett Hull is telling pals in St. Louis he doesn’t plan on playing for the Blues much longer and wants to go to Chicago so badly that he would take less money to sign a contract extension with the Blackhawks than any other team.
Which doesn’t mean the Blues will give him away. The Blues are short on money, warm bodies and draft choices after the tumultuous reign of Mike Keenan. The Hawks need goals and a box office attraction, both of which Hull would satisfy. But the Hawks also need leadership. Rightly or wrongly, Hull has acquired the label of a coach-killer.
– What’s this? The Sox say they want “to see more” of Jaime Navarro and his corpulent 5.87 earned-run average? What exactly does “more” mean? Must Navarro crack the 400-pound barrier before they remove him from the rotation? . . . What does it say when the Pirates, widely regarded as baseball’s worst team at season’s start, get pennant provisions like Shawon Dunston from the forlorn Cubs, with quadruple Pittsburgh’s payroll? Not how much you spend, but how.
– Whew. What a relief that Juan Antonio Samaranch was re-elected president of the International Olympic Committee. We feared the doddering little dictator might be in trouble after his Fascist background was revealed, or after he insulted Catholics, or after he filled his pockets during last summer’s track meet and then dissed the host city.
Our fondest memory of the 1996 Olympics was returning to Atlanta for the World Series and hearing from staff of the hotel where he stayed what a pompous and rude man he is.
But Samaranch is back and he ran unopposed, so strike one candidate for commissioner of baseball.
