One place I regularly check for fantasy information is talentedmrroto.com.  Much like other fantasy websites, it offers a quick blurb about a player along with the fantasy implications.  I will be visiting much more often after reading this blurb on their frontpage this morning:

So far, there hasn’t been any mention in the Chicago press regarding plans to rest any starters. This is despite the team effectively having a 3 game lead for the home field advantage in the NFC. The Bears are in their toughest stretch of games in the season, and this discussion will emerge after the New England game on 11/26. This stretch of games is so important to the Bears that Jay Mariotti was actually observed in the Press Box of a game last week! OK, it was in New York, I forgot he doesn’t attend any Chicago sporting events in Chicago.

Nice to see that even websites devoted to imaginary sports are taking shots at Shortie.

Well, three days later Jay has finally decided to weigh in on Bobby Knight’s bitch slap of one of his players.  We all knew this was coming, and frankly, Jay’s column is so mind-numbingly boring that I can’t bring myself to analyze it.  I mean, we’re talking about news that is three days old, and in today’s sports-saturated world it has been beaten to death (pun me!).

Jay’s column basically states that this form of discipline is unacceptable.  So let me just say that perhaps if Jay were shown a little “tough love” when he was growing up, he might not have grown to be the pathetic specimen he is today.  Unfortunately for us, he was undoubtedly babied, thus resulting in the whiney, attention-seeking, know-it-all of a man we all know today.

Anyone who plays for Knight knows what he is getting into.  I even think the players wear having such a hardass coach as a badge of honor.  Here is the video of the slap, though, in case some of you haven’t seen it. 

STOP THE PRESSES!!!

Did you know Jay Mariotti thinks the Tribune Company should sell the Cubs?  Well, he does.

In a column he must be able to write in his sleep by now, Jay takes time out of preparing to outwit Woody Paige on “Around the Horn” to remind us that the Cubs haven’t won a World Series in a very long time.

Which is, of course, all the Tribune Company’s fault. Even though their stewardship doesn’t even cover a third of the Cubs reign of terrible.

It’s not that I wouldn’t be open to, or even excited by, a change in ownership.  Any sports fan would prefer an eccentric, free-spending billionaire like Mark Cuban or George Steinbrenner (minus the evil) to a faceless corporate monolith like the Tribune Company.

Still, at least in recent memory, the Cubs have spent like a big market team.  Maybe not enough to keep up with the Yankees and Red Sox, but more than enough to (theoretically, at least) field a competitive team.

Could the Tribune Company spend more considering the cash cow they have in the Cubs?  Absolutely.  I think I paid for the Kerry Wood deal myself strictly with Old Style and nacho cheese. 

But all owners, even the crazy ones, are businesspeople.  As much as we would like owners to spend like drunken sailors, most rational fans accept that it usually won’t happen.

With the Tribune’s well-publicized struggles, maybe Jay will finally get his wish for someone new.  I’ll believe it when I see it.

Although Jay should be careful what he wishes for.  Without his rival paper doubling as ownership and providing him with column fodder, he’ll have one less topic to use for repetitive columns that don’t say anything new.

Now THAT’S a reason to hope for new ownership. 

Jay claims to have actually attended the game last night!  It seems that the secret to getting him to attend a football game is putting it on national television in a major city.  That’s when “Jay Hollywood” blows in.

The strange predictable part is that his attendance at the game didn’t result in any further insight.  Jay is still afraid to go into the locker room, so instead of giving us a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the players, he went with a frighteningly stalker-like attention to Jerry Angelo.

Jay goes out of his way to give us a play-by-play on Mr. Angelo.  When Muhsin fumbled, his eyes were locked on Angelo.  When Muhammad later scored, Jay’s eyes were locked on Angelo.  And when Desmond Clark scored, Jay’s eyes were again trained on the Bears’ GM.

Consider this your warning, Mr. Angelo: Jay’s undying focus on you is either a sign of pent up love or pent up rage.  Either way, it will only end ugly.

But alas, Jay “graced” the press box with his impeccably combed pompadour, pretending that he is the pride of Chicago.  Part of this little charade, I imagine, is convincing himself that Chicagoans actually agree or care about what he has written.  He writes on and on about how we can finally stop worrying about the Bears, when very few of us shared his knee-jerk reaction to last week’s loss.

The people of Chicago are intelligent football fans.  We understand the game and we understand our team.  Jay doesn’t.  This is best exemplified by his pathetic attempt to belittle his readers:

What is he doing? I’m sure you asked that question when Hester, standing in front of the Bears’ goalpost, opted to return the ball instead of downing it when Jay Feely’s field-goal attempt fell short early in the fourth quarter.

Actually, Jay, I am pretty sure that anyone who reads the sports section of a newspaper thought of Nathan Vasher’s return the instant Hester caught that ball.  So, no, unlike you, were weren’t asking, “What is he doing?”

But we’re intelligent sports fans, so we’re at an advantage.

Nice work Jay.

With the Bulls about to face off against potentially the most unstoppable player in the league, you have to go and get him all riled up.

What an unnecessary column.  Mariotti lucks into Lebron James having a minor incident right before he plays the Bulls, allowing Jay to write yet another in and endless series of nonsense contrasting LeBron and Jordan.

This wasn’t Randy Moss heading to the locker room or Pippen’s infamous playoff meltdown.  This was a competitive player expressing some frustration in a game that was clearly over.

I haven’t seen the actual footage, but judging by the relative silence I’ve seen elsewhere, it feels like Jay might be blowing things out of proportion.  How shocking.

Frankly, I don’t understand the media’s whole complex with LeBron (and everybody else) being the next MJ.  They build these players up in an instant, and then when they inevitably fall short of Jordan’s greatness, they whine about how everybody raised expectations too high.  Yet they were the ones who raised expectations in the first place.

It’s a vicious cycle.

As far as I’m concerned, no NBA player can even be mentioned in the same sentence as Jordan until he has multiple rings as the best player on his team.  Sorry Kobe.  Sorry Dwyane.  Sorry Harold Miner.

It’s not LeBron’s fault.  I actually think it’s amazing someone heralded as the next king of the NBA hasn’t fallen woefully short of expectations or cracked under the pressure.

Jay might have you believe he cracked last night.  But that was just to fill column space.