Man who broke into Walgreens stores during 2020 looting gets 6 months community confinement

Authorities say these images depict William Lorenz, who admitted breaking into a series of Walgreens stores with Ivan Bermudez in May 2020. | U.S. District Court

William Lorenz asked U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman for a break so he could deal with his drug addiction and care for his teenage son and elderly mother. Prosecutors also said Lorenz cooperated in their investigation, helping them find his partner in the looting spree.

A man who admitted he used a sledgehammer while breaking into a series of Walgreens pharmacies during the May 2020 rioting and looting in Chicago was sentenced Monday to six months of community confinement.

William Lorenz, 42, asked U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman for a break so he could deal with his drug addiction and care for his teenage son and elderly mother. He called his crime the “worst decision I’ve ever made in my life.” Prosecutors also said Lorenz cooperated in their investigation, helping them find his partner in the looting spree.

Feinerman said the looting of the drugstores “was inexcusable and added to the mayhem of an already destructive day.” He said he “struggled” with Lorenz’s sentence. Had it not been for Lorenz’s mother and Lorenz’s stable employment at Panera Bread, he said he would have sentenced Lorenz to nine months behind bars.

The judge said the six months in a community confinement facility like the Salvation Army might help Lorenz keep his job.

Feinerman handed a 15-month prison sentence last fall to Ivan Bermudez, who admitted he joined Lorenz in breaking into the pharmacies. Lorenz’s attorney argued it was Bermudez’s idea to join the looting. Bermudez’s plea agreement said Lorenz told him he wanted to go “score.”

Bermudez called Lorenz on May 31, 2020, told him he was looting, was near Lorenz’s house and was gathering tools, according to Lorenz’s plea agreement. It said Lorenz decided to join Bermudez, and they decided to break into pharmacies to steal codeine syrup and OxyContin.

They made their way around 6 p.m. to a Walgreens near 1600 North Pulaski Road, according to the document. When they got there, they realized it had already been broken into, but they went inside to see what was left, it said. Lorenz did not take anything, according to the document.

Bermudez took one bottle of promethazine, according to his plea agreement.

They then drove to a Walgreens near 3100 West Armitage Avenue, Lorenz’s plea agreement said. That’s where Lorenz admitted he used a sledgehammer to break the window on the pharmacy door. His plea agreement said he then stuck his hand through the broken window and unlocked the door. Inside, they again looked for codeine syrup and OxyContin, the document said. But they failed to find any, and they went back to the car.

Eventually, they decided to go to a Walgreens near 4000 West Irving Park Road, according to Lorenz’s plea agreement. They parked in the back and saw that other people were already trying to get in through the Walgreens’ back door. Someone then managed to break through the front door, and Lorenz went inside and went toward the locked pharmacy, the document said.

The plea agreement said “they eventually broke into the pharmacy by using a sledgehammer to break the window to the pharmacy door,” and it said Lorenz slid his hand inside to unlock the door. Inside, it said Lorenz saw all of the Adderall and OxyContin was stored in a locked cabinet that did not open when another person hit it with a sledgehammer.

Bermudez and Lorenz also left that pharmacy without taking anything, according to the plea agreement.

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Russia, US Exchange Harsh Words Over Ukraine at UN

Russia accused the West on Monday of “whipping up tensions” over Ukraine and said the U.S. had brought “pure Nazis” to power in Kyiv as the U.N. Security Council held a stormy and bellicose debate on Moscow’s troop buildup near its southern neighbor.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield shot back that Russia’s growing military force of more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders was “the largest mobilization” in Europe in decades, adding that there has been a spike in cyberattacks and Russian disinformation.

“And they are attempting, without any factual basis, to paint Ukraine and Western countries as the aggressors to fabricate a pretext for attack,” she said.

The harsh exchanges in the Security Council came as Moscow lost an attempt to block the meeting and reflected the gulf between the two nuclear powers. It was the first open session where all protagonists in the Ukraine crisis spoke publicly, even though the U.N.’s most powerful body took no action.

Although more high-level diplomacy is expected this week, talks between the U.S. and Russia have so far failed to ease tensions in the crisis, with the West saying Moscow is preparing for an invasion. Russia denies it is planning to attack. It demands pledges that Ukraine will never join NATO, a halt to the deployment of NATO weapons near Russian borders and a rollback of the alliance’s forces from Eastern Europe. NATO and the U.S. call those nonstarters.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the Biden administration of “whipping up tensions and rhetoric and provoking escalation.”

“You are almost pulling for this,” he said, looking at Thomas-Greenfield. “You want it to happen. You’re waiting for it to happen, as if you want to make your words become a reality.”

He blamed the U.S. for the 2014 ouster of a Kremlin-friendly president in Kyiv, saying it brought to power “nationalists, radicals, Russophobes and pure Nazis,” and created the antagonism that exists between Ukraine and Russia.

“If they hadn’t done this, then we to date would be living in a spirit of good neighborly relations and mutual cooperation,” Nebenzia said. “However, some in the West just don’t clearly like this positive scenario. What’s happening today is yet another attempt to drive a wedge between Russia and Ukraine.”

Nebenzia pointedly left the council chamber as the Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya started to speak. “How long Russia will pressure, will pursue a clear attempt to push Ukraine and its partners into a Kafka trap?” Kyslytsva asked.

The vote on holding an open meeting passed 10-2, with Russia and China opposed, and India, Gabon and Kenya abstaining. Nine “yes” votes were needed for the meeting to go ahead.

China’s Ambassador Zhang Jun said he voted against the public meeting because “what is urgently needed now is quiet diplomacy, not megaphone diplomacy.”

The U.S. and its allies had pressed to hold the meeting Monday, the last day of Norway’s rotating presidency of the council, before Russia takes over Tuesday for the month of February.

Any statement or resolution by the Security Council is extremely unlikely, given Russia’s veto power and its ties with others on the council, including China.

After all 15 council members spoke, the U.S. and Russia sparred again, with Thomas-Greenfield saying she was “disappointed” in Nebenzia’s comments, stressing that Russian threats of aggression are “provocative.”

“I say to Russia simply this: Your actions will speak for themselves,” the U.S. envoy said.

Nebenzia shot back: “Everything that we wanted to say is in our statement today. However, we really just don’t understand what threats and provocations and escalation by Russia is being talked about.”

U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the meeting was “a critical step in rallying the world to speak out in one voice” to reject the use of force, seek military de-escalation, support diplomacy and demand accountability from every member “to refrain from military aggression against its neighbors.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not make any visible progress in easing the tensions at their meeting in Geneva earlier this month. They are expected to speak by phone Tuesday, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. A senior State Department official confirmed the Russian account.

Biden warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call Thursday that there is a “distinct possibility” Russia could begin an incursion in February, but the Ukrainian leader sought to play down the war fears, saying Western alarm over an imminent invasion has prompted many investors in the country’s financial markets to cash out.

Zelenskyy said Friday that “we aren’t seeing any escalation bigger than before,” and charged that the Russian buildup could be an attempt by Moscow to exert “psychological pressure” and sow panic.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit Ukraine on Tuesday for talks with Zelenskyy, and will also speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin to urge him to “step back,” Johnson’s office said. Johnson says he is considering sending hundreds of British troops to NATO countries in the Baltic region as a show of strength.

Speaking Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Thomas-Greenfield said of Russia: ”We’re going into the room prepared to listen to them, but we’re not going to be distracted by their propaganda.”

She said last week that council members “must squarely examine the facts and consider what is at stake for Ukraine, for Russia, for Europe, and for the core obligations and principles of the international order should Russia further invade Ukraine.”

On Friday, China’s ambassador Zhang said both sides have shown willingness to continue negotiations and should be allowed to continue.

On Sunday, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, said that in the event of an attack, lawmakers want Russia to face “the mother of all sanctions.” That includes actions against Russian banks that could severely undermine the Russian economy and increased lethal aidto Ukraine’s military.

The sanctions under consideration would apparently be significantly stronger than those imposed after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Those penalties have been seen as ineffective.

Menendez also raised the prospect of imposing punishments preemptively, before any invasion.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday the administration was encouraged by the bipartisan effort in Congress “to hold Russia accountable.” The administration has previously expressed concern that preemptive sanctions could diminish their leverage on Russia, but the White House sounded warmer to the prospect as the Foreign Relations Committee moves to act.

“Our view is that sanctions can be an effective tool of deterrence, and the deepening sell-off in Russian markets reflects our message to Russia,” Psaki said

___

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Aamer Madhani in Washington and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

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Ryan Poles: Matt Eberflus’ defensive style got my attention

The Bears hired Ryan Poles as general manager last week. | Kansas City Chiefs

Even before he met Matt Eberflus, Ryan Poles had a sense of who he’d be. That’s what’s unique about the NFL, he said: what you see in a team on tape often reflects the personality of the coordinator.

Even before he met Matt Eberflus, Ryan Poles had a sense of who he’d be. That’s what’s unique about the NFL, he said: what you see in a team on tape often reflects the personality of the coordinator.

And he liked what he saw in the Colts’ defense.

“It was a fast, violent effort,” Poles said in Monday’s introductory press conference. “Very good defense. But it was more the style they played with that got my attention.”

Poles first reached out to Eberflus, the Bears’ new head coach, years ago. There was a “little bit of a relationship — but it got even deeper when we got into the interview process,” he said. Poles said that he knew Eberflus was his choice minutes after he interviewed him Wednesday.

Poles spoke Monday, six days after the Bears hired him to replace Ryan Pace. He was chosen by a five-person panel that consisted of chairman George McCaskey, president/CEO Ted Phillips, advisor BIll Polian, vice president of player engagement LaMar “Soup” Campbell and senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion Tanesha Wade.

Poles said he was given the latitude to expand the Bears’ search beyond the three finalists selected by the five-person committee. But he knew who he wanted.

“I chose him,” he said, looking to Eberflus.

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Winter Olympic Games: What to Know as Start of 2022 Competition Nears

The countdown to the Winter Olympics is on.

In a few short days, the Games will begin as athletes from all around the globe arrive in Beijing with hopes of winning gold. The Opening Ceremony will be held on Feb. 4, just six months after the Closing Ceremony for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

After hosting the 2008 Olympics, Beijing is set to become the first city to ever host both the summer and winter editions of the Games.

Team USA will once again head to eastern Asia to compete in the Olympics, this time trading in surfboards for snowboards, sneakers for ice skates, and skateboards for skis.

Here is all you need to know about when the 2022 Beijing Olympics will start, the events that athletes will compete in, which Chicago-area athletes you can root for, the COVID-19 protocols at the Games, the overlap of Super Bowl Sunday, and more:

When do the 2022 Beijing Olympics begin?

The 2022 Beijing Olympics begin on Feb. 4 and will run through Feb. 20. The Games will coincide with the host country’s most important holiday, the Chinese New Year, which begins on Feb. 1, 2022.

Competition will actually begin ahead of the Opening Ceremony. That means that in Chicago, the first Olympic event can be watched as early as Wednesday.

The Paralympic Winter Games will run from March 4 to March 13, 2022.

Where are the Winter Olympics in 2022?

The 2022 Olympics are located in Beijing, China. The competition will be split into three zones: central Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.

Opening and closing ceremonies, along with four snow events (men’s and women’s snowboard big air and freestyle skiing big air) and all the ice events (curling, ice hockey and skating), will take place in central Beijing.

Yanqing, a suburban district of Beijing, will host all Alpine skiing and sliding (bobsleigh, skeleton and luge) events. Finally, the Chongli district in Zhangjiakou — a popular skiing destination — will host the rest of the snow events (snowboard, freestyle skiing, cross country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined and biathlon).

When is the Opening Ceremony at the Beijing Games?

The Opening Ceremony at the Beijing Games will take place on Feb. 4, 2022. The event will be held at the Beijing National Stadium (commonly referred as the Bird’s Nest).

How many events will there be in Beijing?

The Beijing Olympics will feature 109 events across 15 disciplines in seven winter sports. Here is a breakdown of the sports featured in the 2022 Olympics:

• Biathlon
• Bobsledding (bobsleigh and skeleton)
• Curling
• Ice hockey
• Luge
• Skating (figure skating, short track speed skating, and speed skating)
• Skiing (alpine, cross-country, freestyle, nordic combined, ski jumping, and snowboarding)

The Beijing Games will feature seven new winter Olympic events. The newly-added events include the women’s monobob, freestyle skiing big air (men’s and women’s), and mixed team events in short track speed skating team relay, ski jumping, freestyle skiing aerials and snowboard cross.

Who are Team USA names to watch at the 2022 Olympics?

The United States will send almost 80 athletes to compete in Beijing, including some familiar faces.

Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin will look to add to her medal haul at her third Olympics. Shiffrin won gold in Sochi, and added two more medals in PyeongChang.

Veteran curler John Shuster, a Wisconsin native, has represented Team USA at every Winter Games dating back to 2006, and will look for his second Olympic gold in Beijing.

Snowboarding star Chloe Kim will compete in her second Olympics after making history at the 2018 PyeongChang Games as the youngest competitor to win gold on halfpipe. In addition to her Olympic gold, Kim is also a six-time X Games gold medalist.

Check out other Team USA athletes you should know ahead of the Beijing Games here.

Which athletes on Team USA are from the Chicago area?

An elite group of local athletes is making their mark at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

The Chicago area is well-represented in the Games this winter, with athletes from the city and suburbs taking part in several sports.

Repeat Olympians like Kendall Coyne-Schofield, Hilary Knight, Jason Brown, Alexa Knierim, Kevin Bickner and more will be returning on Team USA alongside some exciting newcomers.

See a full list of local athletes here.

What are the COVID rules, protocols for the 2022 Winter Olympics?

Olympic athletes, team staff and journalists that will attend the Beijing Olympics are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be subject to a 21-day quarantine, according to the International Olympic Committee.

Exceptions to the vaccination rule will be evaluated “on a case-by-case basis, based on medical reasons.”

Team USA won’t have to worry, though, after the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced it would require all athletes, coaches and staff to be vaccinated before Beijing.

In addition to the vaccine mandate, daily coronavirus PCR tests will also be required.

Will Super Bowl Sunday 2022 overlap with the Beijing Olympics?

The 2022 Super Bowl will occur during the upcoming Winter Olympics. Super Bowl LVI will be played in Los Angeles on Feb. 13, 2022, right in the middle of the Beijing Games.

For the first time in the history of the league, the NFL’s season was extended to 18 weeks, thus pushing the big game back. NBC, which televises both the big game and the Olympics, commented on the overlap and how it will affect coverage of both events.

“We have been in constant communication with our partners about this change, and we’re excited for the unprecedented opportunity of presenting the American audience with the two biggest events in media simultaneously,” NBC said.

“We will promote the Super Bowl during the first week of the Winter Olympics, and we’ll promote the second week of the Winter Olympics during the Super Bowl. It’s a win for us, our partners, advertisers, and certainly viewers.”

How to Watch the 2022 Winter Olympics on NBC and Peacock

NBCUniversal will present a Winter Olympics-record 2,800+ hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app when the XXIV Olympic Winter Games from Beijing, China, begin this February.

In a Winter Olympics first, but similar to its coverage of the Tokyo Olympics, NBCU will provide unprecedented full-day coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday. Feb. 4, on NBC and Peacock. The day will include live coverage in the morning followed by a special edition of TODAY, an afternoon Olympics preview show, and an enhanced primetime presentation of the Opening Ceremony, with a special focus on Team USA.

As with recent Winter Olympics, the NBC broadcast network will feature 18 nights of primetime coverage, beginning on Thursday, Feb. 3, the night before the Opening Ceremony. USA Network, the new home for many of NBC Sports’ biggest events, will be the cable home of the Winter Games, providing coverage from Feb. 2-20. And, Peacock will live stream all Winter Olympics coverage on its premium tier and immediately host replays of all competition to ensure fans won’t miss a moment.

More on how to watch the Games here.

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Bears coach Matt Eberflus calls new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy ‘innovative’ thinker

The Colts allowed the 10th-fewest points in the NFL from 2018 through ‘21 under defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. | Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP

Getsy will run the offense in his first time at the coordinator level.

One of the biggest decisions for Bears coach Matt Eberflus was picking a coordinator, and he believes he found an “innovative” strategist in new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.

He hired Getsy from the Packers after serving as quarterbacks coach.

“I’m big into metrics, and where he comes from they’re big on that,” Eberflus said. “He’s been on my radar for a while.”

Fields started 10 games as a rookie and finished with 58.9% completions, 1,870 yards, seven touchdown passes, 10 interceptions and a 73.2 passer rating. He also rushed for 420 yards (5.8 per carry) with two touchdowns. He fumbled 12 times.

The Bears hired Eberflus last week after four seasons as Colts defensive coordinator. Before that, he was the Cowboys’ linebackers coach from 2011 through ‘17. He also spent 17 seasons coaching Toledo and Missouri.

The Bears job came open at the end of the season after going 6-11 under Matt Nagy. Nagy went 12-4 in his first season and led the Bears to the playoffs, but stumbled to 22-27 over the next three and was fired.

Eberflus’ first order of business was hiring Getsy. With Eberflus’ background being on defense, Getsy is likely to have autonomy running the offense.

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Chicago is a fine place and worth saving

In Tokyo, “Chicago” is a chain of shops that sells second-hand kimonos. Mayor Lori Lightfoot is hoping to boost Chicago’s reputation at home and abroad by highlighting its world-shaking accomplishments. | Photo by Neil Steinberg

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s new initiative hopes to buff city’s tarnished pride.

One evening I was walking in Harajuku, Tokyo’s trendy fashion district, when I noticed a bright neon sign: “CHICAGO.” I went in. There is joy in finding evidence of home when you’re far away, plus a special insider delight in noting what they get wrong, like those palm trees on the sign. Or the fact the store sells used kimonos.

So when an email from the mayor’s office hit my inbox, announcing the “Chicago Not Chicago” publicity initiative, highlighting Chicago’s global impact, I felt ready to play along. Not to snarkily tick off the many ways the world misinterprets Chicago. But to elaborate on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s theme that “Chicago is truly a trailblazing city of firsts” that pulse out of our beating heartland and animate the world.

Where to begin? The city is right to stress architecture, one of Chicago’s most obvious global gifts to the world — Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, a parade of greatness right up to Jeanne Gang. When Tom Cruise does his stunts on the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, in “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol,” that’s a designed-in-Chicago building he’s bouncing off of, created by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Adrian Smith.

Next? Let’s pick music. The first composition considered to be jazz by musical scholars is Jelly Roll Morton’s “Jelly Roll Blues” published in Chicago in 1915; the New Orleans transplant so appreciated the welcome given him by Chicago, which he found not nearly as racist as St. Louis, he renamed the tune “The Chicago Blues.”

I could fill three columns with ways Chicago music rocked the world. The Rolling Stones are one of many bands sprung root and branch from the Chicago sound. Their name, remember, is based on a lyric from a Muddy Waters song, and they came to Chess to record his “I Can’t Be Satisfied,” which years later they returned to reinvent as “I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction).”

The mayor mentioned cell phones, debuted in the parking lot of Soldier Field. Don’t forget the atom was first split at the University of Chicago, which also discovered REM sleep while inventing sleep research. Videotape debuted here. And loudspeakers. And shortwave radio.

The most iconic piece of technology to come out of Chicago has to be Shure’s Unidyne Model 55 microphone, its distinctive look inspired by the grill of a 1937 Oldsmobile, a rare piece of electronics almost unchanged for 80 years. To convey that a person in a picture is singing, and not just standing there with their mouth open, a Model 55 microphone is the go-to prop.

We’ve barely scratched the surface. The Wizard of Oz was written here. Edgar Rice Burroughs never stepped foot in Africa but did his research at the Chicago Public Library and the Lincoln Park Zoo. Just as the world gets Chicago wrong, we misinterpret the world. There are no tigers in Africa, which Burroughs learned after “Tarzan of the Apes appeared in All-Story Magazine in 1912.

I haven’t even suggested the most globally important development to come out of Chicago. It might be a tie, between the Montgomery Ward catalogue (Amazon is really only Ward’s, updated) and the cables carrying animal carcasses through the Union Stockyards, which inspired Henry Ford’s assembly line.

“The idea came in a general way from the overhead trolley that the Chicago packers use in dressing beef,” Ford said in 1922.

But Neil, you might ask. Is this project not just a distraction from all the terrible things going on in Chicago? The murders and the school crisis and the drip-drip-drip water torture of COVID-19? Are you really falling for this?

Yes, I am. And I’ll tell you why. Because, if I felt we could argue and blame our way out of this situation, I’d be scoffing and crying doom with the best of ‘em. And sometimes I am.

But part of saving something is realizing it can be saved and is worth saving. Chicago is both. Like every city in the world, Chicago has always had problems. Big problems. But we’ve always solved those problems, from jacking our city up eight feet to literally raise it out of the mire, to inventing the trunnion and bascule bridges that go over our river. Sometimes those solutions send ripples around the world. It’s happened before, many times. It’ll happen again.

Photo by Neil Steinberg

It can be a small thrill to see the name “Chicago” pop up when far away, even this, in a list of cities emblazoned on the facade of the Barclay’s Bank at W. 50th Street and 7th Avenue in New York CIty.

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Cautious optimism greets Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus

New Bears head coach Matt Eberflus (with headset) was the Colts’ defensive coordinator the past four seasons. | Zach Bolinger/AP Photos

After a decade of high hopes dashed by disappointment, Chicago is welcoming the arrival Monday of Poles and Eberflus — two more fresh faces with new ideas — with anticipation but not celebration.

New Bears general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus are sure to be basking in clean-slate popularity as the new faces of hope at Halas Hall when they are introduced at a press conference Monday — they haven’t lost a game yet.

But this time, the feel-good moment might also come with a little bit of a different, more sober tone, born of another first-day-on-the-job reality — they haven’t won a game yet, either.

After a decade of high hopes dashed by disappointment, Chicago is welcoming the arrival of Poles and Eberflus — two more fresh faces with new ideas — with anticipation but not celebration. Color ever-faithful Bears fans hopeful but cautious, if not wary and dubious. Poles is the third new general manager in the last 10 years. Eberflus is the fourth new head coach in nine years. More Bears fans than ever have been here before. They know now that winning the press conference is like beating the Chiefs in a preseason game.

Poles and Eberflus arrive as unknowns — a 36-year-old first-time general manager hiring a 51-year-old first-time head coach. Their popularity today is rooted in the change they represent: Poles is not Ryan Pace, and Eberflus is not Matt Nagy. The rest is up to them.

Neither is coming in with a significant buzz, but Poles and Eberflus are not without credentials. Poles comes highly regarded after helping build the Chiefs’ Super Bowl teams as director of college scouting and player personnel — and not just because former bosses Scott Pioli, Brett Veach and Andy Reid say he’s awesome, but because other teams wanted him.

Poles had interviews with the Giants and Vikings and was a finalist fof the Vikings job that went to Browns vice president of football operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, but only after Poles cancelled a second interview to take the Bears job.

Eberflus, the Colts’ defensive coordinator, was a finalist for the Jaguars coaching job but took the Bears’ job before seeing what was going to happen in Jacksonville.

Still, he’s not coming in as an anointed savior. Eberflus is a defensive-minded coach on a Bears team with a desperate need for offense and a top-10 drafted quarterback in Justin Fields. It’s not like Nagy, who came in with a glow as an Andy Reid disciple who could develop Mitch Trubisky. Or John Fox, who had Super Bowl credentials. Or Marc Trestman, a quarterback whisperer who could turn Jay Cutler into a star. Eberflus is a guy whose biggest job is hiring an offensive coordinator.

Be that as it may, Poles and Eberflus will be appropriately feted when they introduce themselves and answer questions from the media at Monday’s press conference — hopefully the first of many for both. It’ll be mostly cliches, generalities and indefinite answers to questions about players, coaches and scheme. But, assuming chairman George McCaskey also is available, here’s a look at key issues likely to be addressed:

THE PROCESS

With Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian presumably in charge, the Bears cast a wide net in their search for a general manager, but it concluded suddenly. Poles was hired on Jan. 25 — with finalists Eliot Wolf and Monti Ossenfort still up for second interviews. Did the Bears rush to hire Poles to keep him from the Vikings? Why didn’t Wolf and Ossenfort get second interviews?

Poles’ own search for a coach was brief. He interviewed three candidates — former Lions and Colts coach Jim Caldwell, former Falcons coach Dan Quinn and Eberflus and hired Eberflus — like Poles a client of agent Trace Armstrong — less than 24 hours after taking the GM job, only six days after his initial interview.

Even if Poles tipped off the Bears to preferred candidates, it seems quite the coincidence that the only candidates he considered were coaches the Bears already interviewed. What’s the deal with that?

FIELDS AND THE OFFENSE

With a first-year general manager hiring a first-year head coach, the Bears are putting prized quarterback prospect Justin Fields and their offense in the hands of yet another rookie with the hiring of Packers quarterback coach/passing-game coordinator Luke Getsy as offensive coordinator.

It was one thing for Nagy to hand the reins of the defense to Vic Fangio in 2018 and leave the defense alone. It’s quite another for Eberflus to hand the keys to the offense to Getsy. How much trust will Eberflus put in Getsy to do that job? And what is Eberflus’ vision of the Bears’ offense and Fields after the development of both was a disaster under Nagy?

EBERFLUS’ DEFENSE

Eberflus ran a 4-3 defense with the Colts, but inherits a 3-4 defense with the Bears. Even though most NFL defenses are in base less and less, and key Bears defenders transcend scheme — Roquan Smith, Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn in particular — it still would be a significant transition for others, particularly nose tackles Eddie Goldman and Khyiris Tonga and defensive end Bilal Nichols. It’ll likely be mini-camp before we get any real answers on that front.

If the Bears truly hired Eberflus to be a head coach more than a defensive coordinator, Eberflus could hire Fangio, keep the 3-4 and concentrate on doing the bigger job. But that’s probably expecting a little too much. It’s presumed Eberflus will be calling plays, but that’s not a sure thing.

And hopefully, George McCaskey will shed some light on what is different at Halas Hall that gives hope that these changes will produce better results than the previous seven changes? How was this process any different from the one that brought Pace here? Did he rely on Polian’s intuition or his own in hiring Poles? Did the Bears have any interest in Jim Harbaugh? Does Poles have any more authority over the “entire operation” than Pace had? How significant is the hiring of assistant GM Ian Cunningham — a first-time position at Halas Hall?

There will be many questions. And probably not a lot of answers. Monday’s event is mostly for show. Bears fans won’t be fooled again.

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Chicago’s leaders fail, over and over, to find a solution to gun violence

A memorial for Melissa Ortega in Little Village. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

A summit including the Chicago Police Department, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Library, church youth group leaders and anyone else who works with youth needs to be held.

A beautiful 8-year-old girl is brutally gunned down in broad daylight by another idiot gangbanger and the usual handwringing by the mayor and police superintendent ensue. Same story, different day, and nothing changes. Justice will be served for her and her family, blah, blah, blah.

So it was with hope that I read Arne Duncan is considering running for mayor of Chicago. As somebody who grew up in Chicago and has worked with Chicago’s beleaguered youth, I think Duncan has a real sense of the urgent need for change in how we address the city’s out-of-control gun violence.

SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. We want to hear from our readers. To be considered for publication, letters must include your full name, your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be a maximum of 350 words and may be edited for clarity and length.

While I like his plan to free up police officers to address violent crimes, I don’t completely agree with his premise that arresting violent offenders will prevent further crimes by those seeking revenge and retaliation. I believe people living the thug life will continue to adhere to that lifestyle, and the cycle will go on.

As somebody who spent the past 45 years working with Chicago’s youth, I have always been dumbfounded as to how the leadership of this city, whether it was Mayor Daley, Rahm Emanuel or Lori Lightfoot, has failed to devise a comprehensive plan to combat violence.

A summit including the Chicago Police Department, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Library, church youth group leaders and anyone else who works with youth needs to be held. A strategy needs to be devised to help track, foster and mentor children most at-risk to become involved in the lifestyle that leads to involvement in these violent crimes, from shootings to carjackings.

Then the city and state need to actually devote the resources necessary to make the plan successful. Until then, the same old story will play out again and again, with more handwringing from leaders and blah, blah blah.

Gary Kuzmanic, Edgebrook

Pouting about guns

Jacob Sullum’s Jan. 27 column pouting about a California federal judge’s “disrespect” for the Second Amendment is a fine addition to his library of callous, dishonest and immoral screeds that place more value on gun rights than human life.

Sullum probably has these columns dialed in to a deplorable cut-and-paste exercise. But like his prior columns on guns, he’s only telling half the story. Sullum fails to mention that a clear majority of Americans, across all political parties, support common sense gun safety laws like universal background checks.

Sullum also conveniently never mentions that the Second Amendment was originally intended to allow significant regulation and that limits on gun ownership and use were common for the first 150-plus years of our nation. Or that the GOP, and some of its most respected leaders, supported and passed gun safety regulations for decades.

Sullum knows it wasn’t until the 1960s and ‘70s that the gun lobby radicalized the GOP on this issue, convincing the judges they elect and nominate into approving the expansion of gun rights. There is no historical, legal or moral support for this expansion of gun rights — it was solely to serve the financial and political interests of the GOP and the gun lobby.

Sullum, the gun lobby and the GOP cravenly place more value on the right to own and wield guns than they do on human life. This will never change, no matter how many times Sullum cuts-and-pastes gun lobby talking points and will forever be to their shame.

Barry Owen, Lakeview

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70-Year-Old Woman Killed in Highland Crash

A 70-year-old woman is dead after a vehicle ran a red light and slammed into her car Sunday morning in northwest Indiana.

According to police in Highland, the woman was driving her vehicle at approximately 8:55 a.m. when she approached the intersection of US 41 and Ramblewood Drive.

Police say the woman was driving through a green light when another vehicle, traveling southbound on US 41, ran through a red light and slammed into her car.

Authorities say the woman, a Munster resident, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the other vehicle, identified as a 51-year-old Highland resident, was taken to an area hospital, where she was receiving treatment for head and leg injuries.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Department is continuing to investigate the crash.

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Chicago Bears Hire Luke Getsy as Offensive Coordinator

Chicago Bears hire Luke Getsy as offensive coordinator originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

Luke Getsy has accepted the Chicago Bears offensive coordinator job, leaving the Green Bay Packers to do so.

Getsy, 37, has coached at the NFL level for seven years with the Green Bay Packers, most recently as the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2020. He began in 2014 as an offensive quality control coach, advancing to wide receivers coach in 2016. After serving as Mississippi State’s offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2018, he returned to the Packers as quarterbacks coach.

Getsy, who was offered the Bears job on Friday, had interviewed for the Denver Broncos head coaching position before the team hired Packers’ previous offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. That left a vacancy with the Packers that Getsy seemingly would have been next in line for, but he opted to join Matt Eberflus’ staff in Chicago.  

Getsy is expected to have play-calling duties for the first time in his NFL career as he runs the Chicago offense and oversees the development of second-year quarterback Justin Fields.

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Former Blackhawks Coach Jeremy Colliton Takes Reins for Canadian Olympic Team

After Canadian men’s hockey coach Claude Julien suffered an injury that will prevent him from traveling to Beijing for the upcoming Olympics, assistant coach Jeremy Colliton will take over behind the bench, Hockey Canada announced Sunday.

Colliton, the former coach of the Chicago Blackhawks, was elevated to his new role after Julien suffered fractured ribs during a team-building activity in Switzerland, according to Hockey Canada officials.

“While it is difficult to fill in for a coach that has a pedigree like Claude Julien, I am honored to be considered as the person to lead Canada’s men’s Olympic team as head coach,” Colliton said in a statement.

According to Sportsnet, Tyler Dietrich and Nolan Baumgartner will serve as assistant coaches on Colliton’s staff.

Colliton took over as head coach of the Blackhawks following the firing of Joel Quenneville in 2018. In 205 games, Colliton posted a record of 87-92-26, and was fired after a 1-9-2 start to the 2021-22 season.

Colliton has appeared in three tournaments as a player for the Canadian squad, including the 2005 World Junior Championships, where he won a gold medal.

Canada will get their Olympic tournament underway on Feb. 10 when they take on Germany, the reigning silver medalists in men’s hockey.

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Incubation Period: How Long Should You Quarantine With a COVID Infection?

As coronavirus cases continue to spread throughout Chicago and Illinois and officials update incubation period guidance, how long should you quarantine with an infection?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance last month, shifting the timing for isolation and quarantine as some experts say the time frame when people are most contagious is earlier.

“It is taking less time from when someone is exposed to COVID to potentially develop infection. It is taking less time to develop symptoms, it is taking less time that someone may be infectious and it is, for many people, taking less time to recover. A lot of that is because many more people are vaccinated,” Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said.

The Illinois Department of Public Health said the changes from the CDC come as “the omicron variant continues to spread throughout the U.S. and reflects the current science on when and for how long a person is most infectious.”

Here’s what we know.

How Long Should you Quarantine or Isolate?

First things first, those who believe they have been in contact with someone who has COVID and are unvaccinated should quarantine. Those who test positive, regardless of vaccination status, must isolate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s the difference between the two:

Quarantine

Those who have been within six feet of someone with COVID for a cumulative total of at least 15 minutes over a 24-hour period should quarantine for five days if unvaccinated, or if they are more than six months out from their second vaccine dose, according to updated CDC guidance issued Monday.

Once that period ends, they should partake in strict mask use for an additional five days.

Previously, the CDC said people who were not fully vaccinated and who came in close contact with an infected person should stay home for at least 10 days.

Prior to Monday, people who were fully vaccinated — which the CDC has defined as having two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — could be exempt from quarantine.

Those who are both fully vaccinated and boosted do not need to quarantine if they are a close contact of someone with COVID, but should wear a mask for at least 10 days after exposure. The same goes for those who are fully vaccinated and not yet eligible for their booster shot.

Local health authorities can also make the final determination about how long a quarantine should last, however, and testing can play a role.

Illinois’ health department said it will adopt the CDC revised guidelines on isolation and quarantine for COVID.

In Chicago, those who travel to or from certain parts of the country and are unvaccinated must quarantine upon arrival to the city, but the length of time they should do so for depends on whether they get tested for COVID.

The city has not yet said if the new CDC guidance will change its travel advisory guidelines.

As of Tuesday, the city’s travel advisory recommends those who travel from designated warning states should:

• Get tested with a viral test 3-5 days after travel AND stay home and self-quarantine for a full 7 days.
• Even if you test negative, stay home and self-quarantine for the full 7 days.
  • If your test is positive, isolate yourself to protect others from getting infected.
• If you don’t get tested, stay home and self-quarantine for 10 days after travel.

Isolation

People who are positive for COVID should stay home for five days, the CDC said Monday, changing guidance from the previously recommended 10 days.

At the end of the period, if you have no symptoms, you can return to normal activities but must wear a mask everywhere — even at home around others — for at least five more days.

If you still have symptoms after isolating for five days, stay home until you feel better and then start your five days of wearing a mask at all times.

So how do you calculate your isolation period?

According to the CDC, “day 0 is your first day of symptoms.” That means that Day 1 is the first full day after your symptoms developed.

For those who test positive for COVID but have no symptoms, day 0 is the day of the positive test. Those who develop symptoms after testing positive must start their calculations over, however, with day 0 then becoming the first day of symptoms.

When Are People with COVID Most Contagious?

The CDC says that its guidelines were updated to reflect growing evidence that suggests transmission of COVID-19 often occurs one to two days before the onset of symptoms and during the two to three days afterward. 

“This has to do with data from the CDC that really showed after seven days there’s virtually no risk of transmission at this point,” Arwady said. “And in that five-to-seven-day window, you know, there’s some depending on whether people have been vaccinated, underlying conditions, etc., but the risk drops a lot and the feeling is that in the general population, combined with masking, etc. the risk really is very low.”

For those without symptoms, CDC guidance states they are considered contagious at least two days before their positive test.

When is the Best Time to Get Tested After Exposure?

The CDC states that anyone who may have been exposed to someone with COVID should test five days after their exposure, or as soon as symptoms occur.

“If symptoms occur, individuals should immediately quarantine until a negative test confirms symptoms are not attributable to COVID-19,” the guidance states.

Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said that incubation times could be changing, but those who test early should continue testing even if they get negative results.

“We might be learning that the time of incubation might be a little shorter. So maybe you’d be testing at two days,” Ezike said. “Obviously if you’re symptomatic, you test right away. But you know, if you want to test at two days, but that negative test… the two days should not make you think, ‘Oh good, I’m clear,’ you know? You might want to test again and of course symptoms you cannot ignore – scratchy throat, headaches, all kinds of symptoms – anything new can be a symptom of this new illness.”

How Soon Might Symptoms Appear?

According to earlier CDC guidance, COVID symptoms can appear anywhere from two to 14 days after someone is exposed to the virus.

Anyone exhibiting symptoms should get tested for COVID-19.

When Should You Call a Doctor?

The CDC urges those who have or may have COVID-19 to watch for emergency warning signs and seek medical care immediately if they experience symptoms including:

• Trouble breathing
• Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
• New confusion
• Inability to wake or stay awake
• Pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds, depending on skin tone

“This list is not all possible symptoms,” the CDC states. “Please call your medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning to you.”

You can also notify the operator that you believe you or someone you are caring for has COVID.

What If You Test Positive Using an At-Home Test?

Those who test positive using an at-home test are asked to follow the latest CDC guidelines and communicate the results to their healthcare provider, who is responsible for reporting test results to the state health department.

According to Chicago-area health departments, people should assume the test results are accurate and should isolate from others to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.

“If you test positive for COVID-19, you must isolate,” Arwady said. “There is no need to repeat a positive at-home test in a medical setting. We don’t want people going into the emergency department just to get a tested. Treat a positive as a positive, stay home and isolate for five days.”

When Can You Be Around Other People After Having COVID?

If you had symptoms, the CDC says you can be around others after you isolate five days and stop exhibiting symptoms. However, you should continue to wear masks for the five days following the end of symptoms to minimize the risk to others.

Get the latest news on COVID-19 in your inbox. Click here to sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter.

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Indiana Dunes National Park Entry Fee to Begin This Spring

The National Park Service has approved an entrance fee for Indiana Dunes National Park beginning on March 31 to help fund parking and transportation improvements, visitor services and a bike trail.

The fees vary depending on the method used to enter the national park. The rate for people who walk, bike or boat in will be $15, up to a maximum of $25 per family. A motorcycle pass will cost $20 and a one- to seven-day vehicle pass will cost $25. An Indiana Dunes National Park annual pass will cost $45 and a commercial fee for a motor coach, up to $100.

Holders of the following federal land passes will not pay an entrance fee: Annual Pass, Senior Pass, Veterans, Military and Gold Star Family Pass, 4th Grade Pass, Access Pass (for permanent disability), and the Volunteer Pass.

“This is a positive step to keep the park accessible, safe and vibrant for all, while allowing us to grow and meet the increased needs of our visitors,” said the park’s Superintendent Paul Labovitz. “Out of town guests expect a fee at most places they visit and everyone can obtain an annual pass for what might be the best bargain in town. Stepping up our maintenance and public safety is needed as well as expanding our role in bringing new amenities forward.”

Revenue will support the Marquette Greenway Bike Trail, a planned regional trail extending through Northwest Indiana’s Lake Michigan shoreline communities between Chicago and New Buffalo, Michigan.

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Chicago Man Released From Prison 20 Years Later After Twin Brother Confesses to Murder

A Chicago man who spent nearly two decades behind bars for murder over a deadly 2003 shooting has been released years after his identical twin confessed to the crime.

An emotional Kevin Dugar broke down into tears as he was released from the Cook County jail on Tuesday night and reunited with his loved ones as a free man, his lawyer Ronald Safer told NBC News on Friday.

Dugar was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 54 years in prison. For years, he maintained his innocence.

Still, his fate appeared to be sealed until what Safer described as a “stranger than fiction” plot twist that saw Dugar’s twin brother, Karl Smith, admit to having carried out the murder in a confession that was first made in a letter to Dugar in 2013, nearly a decade after he was convicted.

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Initially, the admission had little impact on Dugar’s case, with a judge ruling in 2018 that Smith’s confession was not credible and declining to offer his twin a new trial, according to The Chicago Tribune.

After Tuesday’s ruling, he will have a second chance to prove his innocence.

The Cook County state’s attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full story here on NBCNews.com

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Winning $1M Illinois Lottery Ticket Sold in Bolingbrook

A lottery player who bought a ticket in suburban Bolingbrook won Thursday night’s $1 million Illinois Lotto jackpot, making the third winner in the last two weeks, state lottery officials announced.

Though the winner has yet to come forward, Dashank Desai, co-owner of Stop 24 Liquors, said he knows who bought the ticket.

“The customer was in our store this morning when an Illinois Lottery
representative informed us that we sold a $1 million winning Lotto ticket,” said
Desai. “The customer then called someone on the phone, read out loud the
winning Lotto numbers, and then blurted out that they matched all the numbers.”

The Bolingbrook liquor store, located at 319 Veterans Pkwy, sold the winning ticket, which matched all six Lotto Million 1 numbers: 26-29-33-41-44-50.

Desai said his family, who owns the liquor store, has sold several winning Lottery tickets over the years, but this jackpot was the largest.

For selling the winning ticket, Stop 24 Liquors will receive a bonus of $10,000, which equals 1% of the prize amount.

The jackpot winner has one year from the date of the drawing to come forward.

Winners are encouraged to visit the Illinois Lottery website to learn how to claim their prizes.

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Tom Brady Retiring From the NFL After 22 Seasons

Seven Super Bowl titles is the end of the line for Tom Brady.

Brady’s TB12 Sports company confirmed the news in a tweet Saturday afternoon.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, months away from his 45th birthday, is retiring after 10 Super Bowl appearances, 15 Pro Bowls, three MVP awards and countless other records.

Brady, who spent the first 20 years of his career with the New England Patriots, had said for years that he planned on playing until he was 45.

Brady, who turns 45 on Aug. 3, has already outlasted every player from his own draft class in 2000, when he was drafted 199th overall by the Patriots in Bill Belichick’s first season. He’s also outlasted every player drafted in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

Brady led the league in both passing yards (5,316) and passing touchdowns (43) in 2021, the second time in his career he’s led the NFL in both categories in the same season (2007).

A member of the Hall of Fame all-decades teams from both the 2000s and 2010s, Brady retires as the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards (84,520), passing touchdowns (624) and completed passes (7,263). Brady retires after 47 career playoff games, most all-time and 15 more than the next-closest player in former Patriots teammate Adam Vinatieri. His 318 regular season appearances are seventh-most all-time.

Brady had been attempting to lead the Buccaneers to back-to-back Super Bowl titles, something no team had accomplished since Brady’s Patriots in 2003-04.

Over 285 appearances with New England, including 283 starts, Brady went 219-64, plus 30-11 in the postseason and 6-3 in Super Bowls. He won MVP honors with the Patriots in 2007, 2010 and 2017, though didn’t win the Super Bowl in any of those seasons. Brady was MVP in Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII, XLIX and LI with New England and LV in Tampa Bay.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington reported the news on Saturday ahead of TB12’s social media post.

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Lego-Inspired ‘Brick Bar' Brings Interactive Experience to Ravenswood

“The Brick Bar: Chicago” will open for two days in the city’s Ravenswood neighborhood, giving a new excuse to craft while enjoying a drink.

The pop-up bar will consist of over one million building blocks in the form of sculptures and as a way for guests to make their own creations, according to the website.

Located at 1801 W. Foster Ave., the Lego-inspired event will be hosted on March 4 and 5. Tickets are available here for $22 in a reserved time spot.

After 6 p.m. the bar is only open to those over the age of 21, the website noted.

The bar is also making appearances in Indianapolis, Austin, San Francisco, San Diego, Denver, Seattle and Los Angeles.

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Blackhawks' Kirby Dach Removes Social Media From Phone to Block Out Noise

Why Kirby Dach removed social media from phone originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

When you’re a top pick in an NHL Draft, naturally there’s going to be pressure to live up to those expectations. Internally is one thing. Externally is another.

For example, nobody puts more pressure on Kirby Dach than Kirby Dach himself. He’s confident he can be a great player but gets frustrated when he’s not living up to his own high standards, perhaps to a fault.

But when you mix in the fact he was taken No. 3 overall by an Original Six franchise that has a passionate fanbase, it’s hard to block out the noise. In an effort to do so, however, Dach revealed on Saturday that he removed social media from his phone at the end of December to try staying away from it all.

“I just felt like it was something I wanted to try and I started having good games after,” Dach said “After that initial week of deleting it you kind of stop going on your phone as much. I got the screen time down, which was good.”

Mentally, Dach said he’s seeing the benefits of it.

“It’s a nice break,” Dach said. “Obviously you miss out on news, what’s going on and stuff cause that’s how you get it nowadays but I’ve enjoyed it. I like the break from it.”

Blackhawks interim head coach Derek King admitted he didn’t have to worry about social media as a player. Sometimes he would read the newspaper, but it wasn’t too difficult to ignore.

That’s not the case nowadays.

“This day and age, they read into it too much,” King said. “I used to read the papers a little bit the next day after a game. I only read it after I scored a couple goals cause if you didn’t, there was a little bit of negativity: ‘King’s got to wake up, he’s got to be better.’ And it can get to you a little bit.

“And then you get those fans that are yapping at you when you’re coming off the ice or in the parking lot, but this social media stuff is taking it to another level. I can see it bothering kids, especially young kids. Maybe it’s a smart move, more guys should do it, just kind of put their social media stuff on pause during the season.”

Perhaps one of the reasons why it feels like Dach has more weight on his shoulders than anybody from the 2019 class is because the draft really did start with the Blackhawks’ pick. Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko were the slam-dunk choices for No. 1 and No. 2. There was no debate.

Meanwhile, the Blackhawks had a pool of players to choose from at No. 3. There were legitimately around eight or nine players that could’ve been taken in that spot and nobody would’ve blinked.

So of course you want to repay the franchise by proving to them that they made the right choice over the rest. And you’ll do anything it takes to do that, even if it’s adjusting your game to carve out a bigger role in different ways, whether it’s producing on offense or becoming a dependable two-way, shutdown-type-player.

“You look around the league, the Aleksander Barkov’s, Patrice Bergeron’s, Sean Couturier’s, Ryan Getzlaf, Mark Scheifele, those types of players,” Dach said. “Obviously they’re all putting up numbers and they’re in their own role and in their primes. I’m freshly 21 and trying to find my own groove still.

“It’s been an up-and-down three years. Those guys that are so great at every little detail of the game. That’s where I want to get my game to, not necessarily putting up 100 points every year but being able to shut down other lines and have that challenge each and every night. I thrive off that.”

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Remember when Bears, Rams were peers? Then they took vastly different paths

The Rams rocked the Bears 34-14 in the 2021 season opener. | AP Photos

They were two of the NFL’s best teams in 2018 with a combined record of 25-7. Since then, the Bears have plunged. Meanwhile, the Rams are in the NFC title game Sunday.

The Bears spent all of last offseason claiming everything was fine.

Don’t worry, they said, about the alarming holes at left tackle and cornerback. And never fear, the competent veteran quarterback of their dreams was here. The best part, of course, was that Matt Nagy just knew the fourth year was when this offense would finally click.

It was perfectly appropriate that the Rams were the ones to expose all that fraud. They undressed every single one of the Bears’ lies and laid waste to the false hope in a season-opening beatdown that gave the national television audience a clear-cut view of the truth: The Rams were the real thing, and the Bears weren’t even close.

Throughout the Bears’ backslide from their surprising success in 2018, the Rams provided a glimpse into an alternate reality of how they might’ve looked if they’d gotten everything right.

What if the Bears had actually swung a deal for a game-changer at quarterback?

What if Ryan Pace hadn’t run out of moves to sustain the incredible defense that carried the Bears in 2018?

What if the coach the Bears hired actually was an offense guru rather than someone who had to give up play calling two years in a row?

Well, then they’d be the Rams.

The Rams have had the right answer at every turn since hiring coach Sean McVay in 2017, the year before the Bears chose Nagy, and now they’re one win away from playing in the Super Bowl as they host the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday.

No one would be shocked if they won it all this season. There’s no mirage, no empty promises with them. They’re everything the Bears pretended to be.

In 2018, they were among the elite — the Bears because of an overwhelming defense and the Rams because McVay had already engineered an offensive machine even with Jared Goff at quarterback. The Bears’ 15-6 win on Sunday Night Football was seen as a precursor to the NFC title game.

The two teams went a combined 25-7, with the Bears falling on the Double Doink and the Rams running into the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Both teams thought it was just the beginning. Only one was right.

The Bears swooned to a 22-27 record over the next three seasons, including 5-18 against playoff teams, scored the sixth-fewest points in the NFL and fired Pace and Nagy. The Rams went 31-18 in that span, won a playoff game as a wild card last season and — still unsatisfied — went all in by trading for Matthew Stafford nearly a year ago.

As the Bears shopped the clearance aisle for Andy Dalton, McVay was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, recruiting Stafford as the Rams put together a trade package that included two first-round picks. The Bears were interested, too, and oddly, Nagy was in Cabo when the deal went down. He was curiously squirrely when that came up shortly before the opener.

“I think it might have been a coincidence,” he said.

The Bears pivoted from that idea to the moonshot of trading for Russell Wilson, hoping he could instantly fix all that ailed them.

And that’s another key divergence between their path and the Rams. Stafford catapulted them from good to great, but the Rams still would’ve been solid — and maybe even an NFC contender — even if they’d been stuck with Goff. That’s because so many other parts of their team were in place.

Consider wide receiver Van Jefferson, for example. He had 50 catches for 802 yards and six touchdowns this season and he’s probably better than anyone the Bears have. He’s the Rams’ third option behind Cooper Kupp and Odell Beckham, Jr. And longtime star Robert Woods tore his ACL in November.

When Bears general manager Ryan Poles draws up plans to surround Justin Fields with proper personnel, he should take a good look at what the Rams have done.

They’re an ideal team in the modern NFL — built to pass and stop the pass. Their defense is centered around seven-time all-pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald and outside linebackers Von Miller and Leonard Floyd.

Remember Floyd? Pace drafted him No. 9 overall in 2016 and he averaged 4.6 sacks over four seasons. He has 20 in his first two seasons with the Rams.

With that pass rush, the Rams were third in the NFL with 50 sacks and had the fifth-best opponent passer rating at 83.8. Predictably, that led to them being third in interceptions.

And most importantly for their long-term viability, the Rams have McVay. He took a team that had gone 60-131-1 over its previous 12 seasons and he has yet to finish worse than 9-7. The players will come and go, but he looks like he’ll be their coach for at least a decade. That’s not just continuity for continuity’s sake. That’s finding the right coach and letting him do his thing.

As Poles and new coach Matt Eberflus try to steer the Bears out of a rut of getting it wrong at nearly every turn, this is what it looks like when a team gets everything right.

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Winning $426 Million Mega Millions Lottery Ticket Sold in California

A single ticket sold in Southern California matched all six numbers and was the lucky winner of the $426 million Mega Millions jackpot prize.

The winning numbers drawn Friday night were 3, 16, 25, 44 and 55. The Mega ball was 13, the California State Lottery said.

The winning ticket was sold at a Chevron gas station in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles.

The winner is yet to be known. Lottery officials say the ticket holder has one year to come forward. They’ll have the choice of taking a lump sum payment of approximately $293 million (before federal taxes), or the entire jackpot amount in graduated payments over 29 years.

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“It’s always exciting when we have a winning ticket with such a big jackpot in California,” said Alva V. Johnson, director of the California State Lottery. “What makes it particularly meaningful is that California’s public schools are also a big winner! Raising money for education is why the Lottery exists in the first place, and we take a lot of pride in that.”

The jackpot was advertised as $421 million, but skyrocketing sales lifted the the total to $426 million.

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CSO, Muti find music of the baroque an interesting challenge

Maestro Riccardo Muti leads members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a program of works by Vivaldi and Handel on Thursday night at Symphony Center. | © Todd Rosenberg Photography

The conductor and orchestra brought the same skill, care and commitment to this music as they do to everything else they take on, but it seems fair to say that this repertoire is not their forte.

Riccardo Muti has performed and recorded a vast variety of works in his long and distinguished career, emphasizing composers like Giuseppe Verdi, but the music of the baroque has never been at the forefront of his conducting.

Much the same could be said for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. While the ensemble has not ignored the baroque era — roughly 1600-1750 — it has not paid the epoch much heed, either. And that’s not surprising, considering that it tends to focus on later musical periods where larger-scaled pieces are the norm, and considering that Chicago boasts a first-rate group known as the Music of the Baroque that specializes in such repertoire.

Given that background, it was intriguing Thursday evening at Orchestra Hall to see the Chicago Symphony and Muti, who serves as the orchestra’s Zell Music Director, devote the first in a pair of programs entirely to the baroque. They took on four works by two of the era’s biggest stars — George Frideric Handel and Antonio Vivaldi.

The conductor and orchestra brought the same skill, care and commitment to this music as they do to everything else they take on, and there were some notable musical moments throughout the evening, but it seems fair to say that this repertoire is not their forte.

Since the 1960s and ‘70s, with the rise of groups like the Academy of Ancient Music, baroque playing has come to come to be dominated by ensembles that use period instruments like gut-string violins and employ historically informed performance practices, leading to a lighter, earthier and more translucent sound.

As Muti has made clear in interviews over the years, he has objections to aspects of the period-instrument movement, but Thursday’s performance conformed to at least a few of its tenets. These included the use of a harpsichord to provide continuo and the small ensemble sizes — just 20 instruments for a couple of the Vivaldi selections.

Moreover, Muti cultivated a real sense of intimacy in these works, as tough as that is to do in a venue as large as Orchestra Hall, forgoing his usual use of a baton and just relying on his hands to lead and shape the musicmaking.

Few if any composers have written more concertos and in more dizzying variety than Vivaldi, who produced more than 500 works in the form. The orchestra took on three of these works, none of which it has performed more recently than 1975 and one of which it had never before played.

The most fascinating was the Flute Concerto in G minor, “La Notte (Night),” Op. 10, No. 2 (RV 439), Vivaldi’s eerie conjuring of a nighttime realm. Although this unconventional work runs just 10 minutes, the composer packs a great deal into its six highly varied movements, none more memorable than the slow, spare fifth, “Il sonno (Sleep).” It was delicately rendered with playing so soft at the beginning that it was barely audible.

The featured soloist was Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson, the orchestra’s principal flutist, who delivered a stunning performance, playing with ease and sensitivity and subtly altering his tonal color to fit the work’s ever-changing moods. He possesses a pure, shimmering sound that ideally suited this often spare work.

The first half opened with the Concerto in B minor for Four Violins, Op. 3, No. 10 (RV 580), which showcased concertmaster Robert Chen and associate concertmaster Stephanie Jeong as well as assistant concertmasters David Taylor and Yuan-Qing Yu, who are both first-rate players but are rarely heard in such solo roles.

All four delivered fine individual performances, but the interpretation overall never really came together and sparked. It didn’t help that the tempos in the fast sections seemed to lag just a bit, something that occurred a few times elsewhere in the program as well.

Rounding out the first half was the Concerto in C major (“Per la solennità di San Lorenzo”), RV 556, a kind of concerto for orchestra, spotlighting players across the ensemble including guest harpsichordist Mark Shuldiner, who acquitted himself admirably all evening.

Culminating the evening was the Suite No. 1 in F major from Handel’s spirited “Water Music,” which he famously wrote in 1717 for an excursion by King George I and his court on the Thames River that lasted well into the night.

NOTE: An abridged version of this program will be presented by the CSO at 7 p.m. Friday at Apostolic Church of God, 6320 South Dorchester Ave. The concert is free and open to the public.

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