Remember last fall after Aurora Christian senior QB Jordan Roberts became the most prolific high school passer in Illinois history?

Remember when he didn't get a single Division I scholarship offer?

Why was that? A couple of things - 1. arm strength, or lack thereof (so said D1 recruiters) and 2. size.
Some said he couldn't see over the line very well.

He's not the only one. It doesn't matter the stats - you can't get any love if you don't have certain cookie-cutter measurables. Even if your last name is Favre.

The Bulls suck.

Man do they suck.

Just rank.

So after months of resisting, I'm giving in - I decided to pull up the complete list of the free agent class of 2010

And actually, it has given me hope.

there are the stars....
Joe Johnson (Hawks), LeBron James (Cavs), Dirk Nowitzki (Mavs), Dwayne Wade (Heat), Amare Stoudemire (Suns), Manu Ginobili (Spurs), Chris Bosh (Raptors)

and miid-level stars...
Drew Gooden (Mavericks), Josh Howard (Mavs), Kenyon Martin (Nuggets), Tracy McGrady (Rockets), Yao Ming (Rockets), Jermaine O'Neal (Heat), Peja Stojakovic (Hornets), Al Harrington (Knicks), David Lee (Knicks), Carlos Boozer (Jazz)

all to be had for the right price.
John Paxson has to get this offseason right. Has to. Or he might be the first GM Jerry Reinsdorf has had to fire since Hawk Harrelson....

A good friend of the Sports Beacon could use a little help this holiday season, and beyond, as golf pro Jered Wieland has set up a web site to help raise money for treatment for his wife, Lana.

And how Jered has come up with some of this stuff is truly amazing.

He reached out to friends and colleagues to see if they could help him set up a few prizes that people could bid on - and it's amazing what those people did.

Just a couple of the prizes include:
Lunch with Golf Legend Billy Casper
Golf with Bo Jackson
Golf with Julius "Dr. J" Erving
Take 11 friends to see the St. Louis Blues play in a penthouse suite
N.Y. Mets Batting Practice/Dining Experience
Golf with NFL Great Joe Theismann
VIP White House Tour
Behind the scenes tour of the 2010 PGA Championship
and much, much more.

Please visit www.lanashope.org for more information as well as the ebay store where you can bid and win on these great prizes.

your entire career is magnified, then magnified again...
you get pumped up, then torn down, then pumped up again...

Good thing Waubonsie Valley alumnus Michael Bowden's got a good head on his shoulders...hopefully he'll find himself in the bigs for good in 2010....

I really enjoy what I do - and I enjoy what my colleagues produce. Most of the time.

At other times, I scratch my head and wonder why certain stories are done.

This is one of them.

The regular season for NCAA Division I men's basketball is anywhere from 31-35 games before the NCAA tournament - so any stories done on undefeated seasons is really lame until a team A)gets to its conference tournament or B) gets to the NCAA tournament - without a loss.

So writing about West Virginia (7-0), Seton Hall (8-0) and Missouri State (9-0) or even Kentucky (10-0) going undefeated is highly premature.

It's like asking an NFL coach about going undefeated after starting 2-0.

This guy just can't win can he?

First, his sponsors start dropping him one by one, and now the one big overseas cash cow in his pocket is taking it on the chin...

El Tigre can't wait for 2010..

dumb!@#

the internet is a great thing.
but this is one of the reasons why someone would want to take a shotgun to the whole darned thing

the thing I don't understand is why ol' boy is showing a handful of money.

not to be outdone, Iowa BCS opponent Georgia Tech has their own idiots with a drum machine..

what makes this worse is that these two goofs had connections - they got onto the field, had the mascot and some players involved...bad...

that said, those will never be as bad as this gem...

which of course leads me to this other 80s classic video

Well, if I gave Jesper Parnevik props for speaking his mind and not backing down from his opinions, I have to do the same for these two golfers.

If these are indeed fabricated quotes, Life & Style Magazine has a !@#storm on their hands. I have a lot of respect for freelance journo's - I know many more now because of the state of the newspaper industry - but it's unbelievable to me that someone would jeopardize their entire career over something that is so easily fact checked.

another fun edition of "only in sports"

good day Bobby Bowden....and good night...

Yay! Almost World Cup time!

oh, how this guy wishes for a hand ball

and fans wonder why players don't interact with them more during games...this is why

through no doing of their own.

the Detroit Fire Sale is in full effect, as Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson will be shipped out of town for hot garbage.

This probably means Kaneland's Casey Crosby will make his major league debut this season, perhaps sooner rather than later depending how successful they are in dumping some other starting pitching or bullpen parts.

And, as my colleague Jason Bauman duly noted, Crosby will probably beat the White Sox since the Pale Hose can't seem to beat rookie left handers.

So the Bulls turned in an absolutely pitiful performance over the weekend against Toronto, one in which Joakim Noah got so sick of that he decided to get tossed. I don't blame him. I wasn't a fan of Vinny Del Negro anyway, but games like this are huge black marks.

Anyway, this little piece of information was very disheartening, probably overblown, but nonetheless very interesting...

Too often today athletes have to apologize/back track/justify things they say from the heart after the fact. Usually it comes after it blows up on the internet and their PR team gets a hold of them.

When given that chance on Thursday, Jesper Parnevik said ....
the exact same thing.

Good for him

the White Sox fan inferiority complex.

This report says the White Sox have one of the worst farm systems in all of baseball.

Just the type of thing to rile up Sox fans who either A) think Kenny Williams has done a great job restocking the system or B) the ones who think that Sox management continues to just hype up crap talent to the fans

It's a no win - but you will hear "at least the Cubs suck too."

it's well known that I'm not a fan of Jerry Angelo and his draft record the last several years - its the primary reason why the Bears are falling apart in 2009.

But to illustrate the points further, I decided to break down the last 4 drafts and the Bears selections, followed by a similar positional player that was selected after the Bears pick.

While the Bears have undoubtedly whiffed more often than not - though they were not the only ones. It is slightly unfair to highlight the players selected after the Bears picks in that other teams made the same mistakes ... but obviously someone's scouting department hit it out of the park

note: I don't buy the "evaluate the draft 2-3 years after the fact. No. This is the NFL. Rookies are expected to produce. So yes, 2009 counts.

2009 - No 1st or 2nd Round picks so you can argue the Bears would not be able to get impact guys anyway, but the fact remains that only 2 of 9 picks have even seen the field. FAIL.

No. 68 - DT Jarron Gilbert
Has not played yet, which equals bust and any of these would have been better picks: DT Terrance Knighton (72), RB Glen Coffee (74), DT Roy Miller (81), WR Mike Wallace (84),

No. 99 - WR Juaquin Iglesias
No. 105 - DE Henry Melton
Neither has played yet, which equals bust and any of these would have been better picks:
WR Mike Thomas (107), WR Brian Hartline (108), OL T.J. Lang (109)

No. 119 - DB DJ Moore
Has not played yet, which equals bust and any of these would have been better picks:
WR Louis Murphy (124), WR Austin Collie (127)

No. 140 - WR Johnny Knox
Considered a "win" at this point...the only bright spot of this draft.

No. 154 - LB Marcus Freeman
Everyone else in this area has busted out thus far...so a wash..

No. 190 - DB Al Afalava
He is a starter, so this makes his selection a "win"

No. 246 - OL Lance Louis
No. 251 - WR Derek Kinder
Everyone else in this area has busted out thus far...so a wash..

2008 - mixed results at best, but quickly looking like another failure...
No. 14 - T Chris Williams
In a tackle heavy draft, the Bears picked a guy with known back problems. This forced him to sit out all of '08. Which makes all of these better picks - Gosder Cherilus (17), Jeff Otah (19), Duane Brown (26).

No. 44 - RB Matt Forte
It's hard to argue with the Rookie of the Year, especially with where he was picked. He's been bad this year, but I still lean toward a win for Angelo.
Passed on RB Ray Rice (55), Kevin Smith (64)

No. 70 - WR Earl Bennett
Didn't play at all as a rookie in 2008, which should make him an automatic bust. But only 2 wide receivers were picked after him - Early Doucet (81) and Harry Douglas (84). Also passed on RB Steve Slaton (89)

No. 90 - DT Marcus Harrison
Only one defensive tackle was taken after Harrison, which kind of means he's a "win."

No. 120 - DB Craig Steltz
No. 142 - DB Zackary Bowman
Not too many DBs were chosen after either of these picks, which either means they're a soft "wins" for the fact they're on the roster or again - they were over valued.

No. 158 - TE Kellen Davis
Only two tight ends were picked after Davis - Tom Santi (196) and Matt Sherry (207). Santi could be the heir apparent to Dallas Clark in Indy and Sherry never played in NFL. Minor win.

No. 208 - DE Ervin Baldwin
No. 222 - OL Chester Adams
Never played a down, which means any of these would have been better picks: FB Peyton Hillis (227), RB Justin Forsett (233).

No. 243 - LB Joey LaRoque
No. 247 - OL Kirk Barton
Never played a down - washes as no one drafted that low proved to be worth anything.

2007 - Total bust out for the Bears GM. Total.
No. 31 - TE Greg Olsen
passed on pass catchers: Anthony Gonzalez (32), Zach Miller (38), Sidney Rice (44), Steve Smith (51)

No. 62 - DE Dan Bazuin
* not only did Bazuin never play for the Bears, but here's the real interesting thing - only 2 defensive ends were picked between him and the Bears next pick that year at the end of the third round. And while Quentin Moses (65) and Charles Johnson (83) aren't exactly lighting the world on fire - they at least have played.

No. 93 - RB Garrett Wolfe
passed on running backs Michael Bush (100), Antonio Pittman (107)

No. 94 - LB Michael Okwo
- very similar to Bazuin in that he didn't play a down for the Bears. Only 2 linebackers were picked between Okwo & their next pick - Stephen Nicholas (109) and Zak DeOssie (116). Nicholas has played some, but again - what were the Bears scouts thinking?

No. 130 - OL Josh Beekman
No offensive linemen selected after Beekman have been as productive as the center/guard. Is projected as Olin Kreutz's replacement - and he has been OK as a guard - so let's call this mild victory for Angelo.

That said - players selected after Beekman include LB Clint Session (136), RB Le'Ron McClain (137), WR Steve Breaston (142), RB Kolby Smith (148), TE Kevin Boss (153), TE Dante Rosario (155), TE Brent Celek (162)

This fact alone makes Greg Olsen's selection in the 1st round even more of a bust. This was obviously a draft that had similar - if not better - players than Olsen much further down in the draft.

No. 167 - DB Kevin Payne
No. 168 - DB Corey Graham
These can be considered good picks by Angelo in the 5th round in that they've played quite a bit and no other DB selected between them and the Bears' next pick have produced as much.
In fact, the best players picked after them are kickers Nick Folk (178) and Mason Crosby (194). TE Ben Patrick (215) has been mildly productive.

No. 221 - DB Trumaine McBride
RB DeShawn Wynn (228) is probably the only player that has had more of an impact than McBride the last few years. Which isn't saying much...

No. 241 - OL Aaron Brant
- never played for Bears, which means any of these players would have been a better pick: RB Jason Snelling (244), RB Kenneth Darby (247), RB Ahmad Bradshaw (250), DB Nedu Ndukwe (253)

Northern Illinois fans don't know for certain, yet, if their 7-5 football team is going bowling or not, but they can take steps to reserve tickets if the Huskies do get an invite.

In a press release issued Tuesday, the school announced that it has worked with Ticketmaster to create an online ticket reservation site at www.niuhuskies.com for four possible bowls that remain possibilities for the Huskies. Credit cards will not be charged until the bowl bid is officially extended, which wouldn't come until late in the day this Sunday. The order would also be confirmed through a phone call to the purchaser.

Huskie officials, no doubt, are looking for a good response from their fans to help impress prospective bowl committees that the school would be represented well at their site.

Bowls possibilities include two that the Mid-American Conference has tie-ins with, the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit (Dec.26) and the International Bowl in Toronto (Jan. 2). The other two most likely to have openings for an at-large bid are the EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C. (Dec. 29) and the Roady's Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho (Dec. 30).

Fans can make reservations for any or all that they would be able to attend.

The Humanitarian Bowl is probably the least likely of the four since organizers there are leaning toward the University of Idaho as one of its participants. The Huskies lost a three-point decision to the Vandals at home this season and a rematch appears unlikely. Bowling Green, another bowl-eligible MAC school, is thought to be the more likely candidate for that game.