Good morning, Dick Jauronstedt.
Your players sound downright giddy when talking about how much fun practices are with Jim Miller at quarterback instead of the injured Cade McNown, which tells you what little use the players have for the cocky, wet-nosed patient.
But wait. There’s more. Here’s a source talking about offensive coordinator Gary Crowton coaching McNown:
“Dave Wannstedt was organized. All the coaches would tell you the same thing. This guy [Crowton] is out at practice saying, `Maybe if we try this, it’ll work,’ like he’s drawing up plays in the street. It’s not stuff in the playbook.
“You can’t do that in the NFL. You need structure.”
– Let’s say there was a running back or a quarterback out there for the Bears to get in the draft or free agency. Would you trust Mark Hatley to find him? I mean, what has he done at the two most important positions in the offense?
– Quick, someone tell Jauronstedt the Blackhawks fired an assistant coach eight games into the season.
– Here’s the deal on why the Hawks fired assistant Don Jackson, according to a source:
“The coaches were in a meeting and Jackson told [coach] Alpo [Suhonen] things needed to be simplified because the guys weren’t getting his system. You know what Alpo said? He told Jackson, `You don’t like me because I’m European.’
“Can you believe that? Then Alpo went and told [General Manager] Mike Smith whatever he told him and Jackson was fired.”
– Patrick Roy, the all-time winningest goaltender, becomes a free agent next year, on the off chance this Jocelyn Thibault thing doesn’t work out.
– Wolves veterans called for the team rookie dinner last Saturday night. Actually, it was the team Ricky dinner, because goalie Rick DiPietro is the only rookie on the team. The kid goalie, the No. 1 pick overall by the Islanders, popped for dinner at Carmine’s downtown but refused to say how much it cost.
– Chris Chelios isn’t happy that his friend and former coach Pat Burns was fired in Boston, but he’s glad Mike Keenan is back in the league. Chelios played for the monster Keenan back when the Hawks organ-I-zation was worth playing for, and now he’s in Detroit playing for Scotty Bowman, Keenan’s mentor and the original Dr. Frankenstein.
“Mike is more involved with his players,” Chelios said. “Scotty talks to you as a team, but you know whom he’s talking about. Mike gets right in your face so there’s no doubt who he’s talking about. But I love them both.”
– The Bulls, who keep bragging about their sellout streak, recently sent out a ticket brochure that includes a picture of tickets to the Lakers game on the cover and a shot of Shaquille O’Neal inside. Thing is, you can’t buy tickets to the Lakers game.
“We’d just be sending people their money back because the Lakers game sold out when tickets went on sale,” Bulls ticket manager Joe O’Neil said.
Then why lead people on with Lakers tickets and pictures on the brochure?
“We just tried to put together a nice brochure so people could order tickets,” O’Neil said.
– The White Sox have won 13 World Series games since 1906. Going into Thursday night, the New York Yankees had won 15 since 1996.
– Red Sox GM Dan Duquette asked a Boston Globe reporter to pass along his best wishes to former Cub Turk Wendell, a native of Dalton, Mass.
“It’s good that you recognize Dalton’s importance to the baseball universe,” Duquette said. “The difference between Turk Wendell and me? Turk doesn’t cook his meat before he eats it.”
– E-mailer Brian Wilson: “In 1994, we asked what could be worse than having no World Series. This year, we have our answer.”
– The end: Raptors GM Glen Grunwald, on exercising his option on Vince Carter: “I didn’t do too much tossing and turning over this one.”
