Author: Frank the Tank

The Upside Down World of Illini Recruiting

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, College Basketball, College Football, Illinois Fighting Illini, Sports2 Comments

ronzookreadytorock.jpg

Ron Zook has done it again and then some. After scoring a solid recruiting class for Illinois football last year, the coach with the guns that can’t be carried across state lines has made national headlines (from ESPN to the New York Times) by securing a legitimately stellar group on National Signing Day yesterday. Rivals.com has ranked the 2007 Illini recruiting class #18 in the nation, Scout.com has us at #22, and ESPN.com put us as high as #12. This has occurred despite the program’s pitiful 2-30 record in Big Ten games over the past four seasons. While the ability for top players to start right away in the Big Ten as freshmen is certainly an enticing carrot that Zook can dangle that many of the traditional powers can’t provide, this alone isn’t a sufficient explanation since there are plenty of other BCS schools with poor records that could provide those same opportunities yet they haven’t had the same recruiting success.

So, there’s been grumbling in the college football world about whether Zook is running a clean program, including a questionable remark from former Michigan State head coach John L. Smith in the above-linked New York Times article (please note that Illinois’ lone Big Ten victory last season came against Smith’s Spartans in East Lansing, which pretty much sealed his demise) and a Chicago Tribune article from today intimating that Notre Dame is behind the negative press as a result of losing a number of head-to-head battles for recruits with the Illini this year. While Zook himself has stated that he’s taken advantage of the lack of NCAA limits on text messaging recruits, there have never been any type of sanctions against him in the past (as opposed to, say, Satan’s Spawn).

What’s fascinating, if not frustrating, as an Illini fan at this point is that we now have a football program that has been a bottom-feeder for several years and a coach who doesn’t have a great reputation for play calling yet is able to attract top recruiting classes and a basketball program that was a Luther Head three-pointer away from a national championship two years ago with a coach that’s considered to be one of the top minds in the game but is losing top in-state recruits left and right. Ron Zook seems to be a case-study in the power of personality judging by his recruits continually stating that they chose Illinois because he’s a great guy with a young man’s intensity and could see him being a friend for life. Meanwhile, Bruce Weber appears to be stuck in a recruiting rut. The Eric Gordon situation was particularly painful, but that was an issue where the player’s lifelong “dream school” close to home ended up getting a new coach just prior to the end of the recruiting process. More disturbing to me is how the Illini have lost every single recruiting battle for the top players out of the Chicago-area since Weber became coach, particularly to former Illinois and current Kansas coach Bill Self. If we can’t protect our home state the way Self, Lon Kruger, and Lou Henson had done in the past, Illinois is going to lose all of the momentum that it has built over the past decade in basketball if it hasn’t already.

It could very well be argued that Ron Zook is the Bill Self of college football: an intense personality that is able relate to young players so exceedingly well that he essentially becomes a pied piper for the program, yet the jury is still out as to how he can translate that talent into success on the field. Of course, while recruits only matter if they’re able to produce results, I also believe that any coach would tell you that great players contribute a whole lot more in winning games than coaching strategy. It’s the ultimate paradox that the stronger Illinois basketball program has been struggling with attracting top talent while the weaker Illinois football program is nabbing national attention for its recruiting success. I’d love to see Illinois get to the point where it’s consistently a national power in both sports on par with Florida, Texas, and Ohio State (and I honestly don’t think that’s an exceedingly crazy notion), but the two Illini programs still have a lot of work to do in totally different areas.

(Image from Deadspin)

Land-o-Links – 2/7/2007

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, College Basketball, College Football, Illinois Fighting Illini, Land-o-Links, Major League Baseball, NBA Basketball, NFL Football, Random Thoughts, Sports2 Comments

sad-bears-fans.jpg

As I thaw off here in Chicago, here are some links:

(1) Where Does Disaster XLI Rank? (Chicago Tribune) – Steve Rosenbloom’s ranking of Chicago’s worst sports disasters. As I noted in the aftermath of this year’s Super Bowl, the only time that I ever felt worse after a sports event than the Bears’ performance on Sunday was the Illini basketball teams’ loss in the 2005 National Championship Game. I can understand Rosenbloom’s ranking of the 2003 NLCS above Super Bowl XLI from a broader Chicago sports fan perspective (even though I personally didn’t feel much distraught from that event as a diehard White Sox fan), but I’m not sure how anything could have been more disasterous than the Black Sox scandal during the 1919 World Series.

(2) Bears Offseason Preview I: The Quarterback (Da’ Bears Blog) – Believe me, I have a love-hate relationship with Rex Grossman as much as anyone. However, are we really at the point where David Carr is the answer? Yikes!

(3) Illinois Has Rivals Fuming About Its Recruiting Coup (New York Times) – Ron Zook is drawing attention across the nation with a top flight recruiting class coming to Champaign next season. Of course, a lot of it stems from what he could possibly be promising such highly-rated recruits. I’ll have many more thoughts on the Illini recruiting situations for football and basketball very soon.

(4) Tempo-Free Aerial: Point Per Possession vs. Opponent PPP (Big Ten Wonk) – A quick chart showing the relative strengths of Big Ten basketball teams during conference play so far.

(5) We Hear That’s Why MJ Did It, Too (Chicagoist) – John Paxson put down a David Stern-esque hammer on Tyrus Thomas for the rookie’s comments on only particpating in the Slam Dunk Contest for the money.

(6) Mars Scraps Snickers Ad After Complaints (Washington Post) – I like to fancy my site as an equal opportunity blog. That being said, am I supposed to feel bad that I thought that this ad was actually one of the few entertaining spots from Sunday?

(7) Sweet Home Sports – A new Chicago sports blog that features the talented authors of the Chi-Sox Blog and Fleece the Pig, Flog the Pony.

And finally…

(8) In the Eye of the Beholder (Wall Street Journal) – What happens when a survey of the American public reveals that the Bellagio is one of the top 25 favorite buildings and structures in the country? Architects go apeshit, of course.

(UPDATE: I couldn’t leave this article from the Chicago Sun-Times on the University of Illinois “Girls of Engineering” calendar off of the links today. Since I was a business major – meaning that I was able to partake in binge drinking with little consequence at Illinois while still under the guise of a “practical” academic program – I’ll just let my readers that attended or are attending the College of Engineering comment on this.)

(Image from Chicago Tribune)

Super Bowl XLI in a Nutshell: 3rd Down Kills the Bears

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago Bears, NFL Football, Sports8 Comments

devin-hester-alone-super-bowl.jpg

When Devin Hester ran back the opening kickoff for a touchdown to put the Bears up only seconds into the game, I thought this was going to turn into one of the best nights in Chicago sports history.  Instead, I should have remembered the fate of Ohio State only a few weeks ago when Ted Ginn Jr. did the same for the Buckeyes and his team subsequently got trounced by the Florida Gators.  The fact that the Bears were only down by 5 points to Colts in the 4th quarter was a false hope – Chicago was soundly beaten after the 1st quarter on all fronts with the exception of special teams by Indianapolis.  There’s also nothing quite like watching my Illini brother Kelvin Hayden run back an awful Rex Grossman interception to effectively put the game away.

To me, the story of this game was 3rd down.  With the Bears so frightened of a big play from Marvin Harrison or Reggie Wayne, our defense failed to stop to torrent of Peyton Manning’s underneath passes to convert 3rd-and-long situations a ridiculous number of times.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, we couldn’t convert a 3rd down into a 1st down against the worst run defense in the NFL.  I believed in my heart of hearts that the Bears were going to win the Super Bowl, not just because I’m a lifelong Bears nut, but that they were the better and more balanced team.  However, the credit goes to the Indianapolis Colts since they overcame some lapses in the opening moments to completely dominate the game on both sides of the ball the rest of the way.

This is only the second time in my life where one of my teams made the championship game or series and failed to go all the way (the other time being the 2005 NCAA Basketball Championship with Illinois, which was even more of a personal buzzkill than last night if that could have been possible).  I guess you can say that I’ve been relatively lucky during my just short of three decades on this Earth having been a witness to the ’85 Bears, Michael Jordan’s heroics during the Bulls dynasty, and the foul mouth of Ozzie Guillen with the ’05 White Sox.  Still, it’s going to take quite awhile to get over the Bears not bringing home this year’s Lombardi Trophy that I truly believed was theirs for the taking.

(Image from Chicago Tribune) 

Why I Believe in the Bears: Counterpoints to the Conventional Wisdom on Super Bowl XLI

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago Bears, NFL Football, Sports3 Comments

rex-grossman-super-bowl-media-day.jpg

Is there anyone outside of the Windy City that believes in the Chicago Bears? While the fact that the Colts are heavy favorites in Super Bowl XLI is at least based on some logic as opposed to the avalanche of ridiculously premature and misguided praise for the New Orleans Saints a couple of weeks ago, the way that the Bears haven’t attracted any non-partisan believers anywhere is nauseating (as in people that actually believe the Bears are going to win as opposed to those that might be cheering for the Bears as part of the anti-Peyton Manning crowd). I know that the Bears aren’t exactly a perfect or dominating team, but they are playing arguably the worst Colts team of the past 5 years that has equally glaring or worse flaws. Let’s tackle the misconceptions that have become the “conventional wisdom” this week:

(1) “The NFC sucks. No one from that conference can beat the AFC champ.” – There’s no doubt that the NFC has been a whole lot worse than the AFC for the better part of the last decade. This past year, however, should have provided empirical evidence that knocking the quality of play of a conference or a league (which I have admittedly done numerous times) is extremely short-sighted when it comes to championship matchups. Otherwise, we’d be seeing UConn Final Four T-shirts, Dallas Mavericks NBA Champs banners, and Detroit Tigers World Series rings. In the end, it’s the individual matchups between the particular teams that matter and I believe that the Bears match up with the Colts extremely well. This leads to the second flawed piece of conventional wisdom…

(2) “Peyton Manning and his giant cranium are going to take Rex Grossman to school.” – The quarterback comparison was going to be inevitable with Manning being the most high-profile player in the NFL and Grossman having had to go through weekly psychoanalysis sessions on Chicago talk radio over the last 3 months.

Here’s the thing that people seem to forget: Peyton Manning won’t be facing Sexy Rexy head-to-head. Instead, Peyton will be taking on a top tier Bears defense that shut down the most prolific offense in football this year in the NFC Championship Game. Meanwhile, Rex will be leading the Bears offense against one of the worst run defenses in football and, better yet, practices every week against a superior defense that runs essentially the same coverages and schemes as the Colts. The general misguided perception right now is that the Colts’ defense has turned it around in the postseason, but the only real great game that unit put together was against the Chiefs in the wild card round. After that, the 6-point hold against the Ravens was really a function of how awful Baltimore’s offense was while Tom Brady and the Patriots were able to tear the Colts up before Peyton Manning saved that game for them.

The whole seemingly basic point is that the matchups are between the teams’ offensive units and defensive units as opposed to the media preferred storyline of the differences between the quarterbacks. For what it’s worth, if people keep bringing up Rex Grossman’s 0.0 QB rating against the Packers, they also ought to note that he’s got a higher QB rating in the playoffs than Manning (75.4 for Rexy to 66.8 for the Giant Head). Regardless, as the old adage goes, offense sells tickets and defense wins championships. I can’t help you if you actually believe that the Colts have a better defense than the Bears. As for the final item to discuss…

(3) “The Colts have been on the national stage for years and finally got past the Patriots, so they know how to deal with pressure better than the Bears.” – A couple of points here. First, if anything, the Colts are much more susceptible to a letdown by beating their long-time rival in an emotional game in order to get to the Super Bowl. Minneapolis Red Sox has pointed out that this didn’t affect the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 World Series after their comeback against the Yankees in the ALCS, but the emotional carryover/letdown effect is a much more prominent factor in football than baseball. I have the impression that the Colts are very happy to just be participating in the Super Bowl by finally beating the Patriots and figure that Dennis Green can just “crown their ass”, while this year’s Bears are sick of the dual tracks of hearing how they’re such big underdogs to Peyton and the continuous infatuation the City of Chicago has with the ’85 Bears team.

Second, only teams in three other cities can possibly understand the constant pressure of playing in the Chicago media market: New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. I was watching an ESPN report yesterday where the reporters were commenting how well Rex Grossman was handling all of the “tough” media questions about his skills this week. Uh, does anyone realize how much this guy has been put through the ringer in a massive media market with competing sports radio stations and newspapers that have a 24-hour-a-day focus on the Bears during the NFL season? Believe me, the pressure and spotlight this week in Miami are nothing compared to the 4-month in-your-face grind of being the starting quarterback in Chicago. I’m expecting Rex to come out a lot more relaxed and prepared than the national press is predicting at this point.

With all of that, here’s my prediction for Super Bowl XLI:

Bears 46, Colts 10.

OK, seriously:

Bears 35, Colts 24. Even this score would shock everyone but me. That’s alright, though. Super Bears Super Bowl!

(Image from Chicago Tribune)

Land-o-Links – 1/29/2007

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, Chicago Bears, College Basketball, College Football, Illinois Fighting Illini, NFL Football, Random Thoughts, SportsLeave a comment

One week until the Bears dominate the Colts and Peyton Manning’s missing link forehead in the Super Bowl. To tide you over, here are some links:

(1) Levi’s Turns to Suing Its Rivals (New York Times) – For all of you people out there that like to knit and sew, expect a subpoena from Levi’s very shortly.

(2) Illiniwek: Symbol or Mascot? (Chicago Tribune) – You say mascot, I say symbol… let’s call the whole thing off.

(3) Monster Fine for ‘Monster Garage’ (Los Angeles Times) – It looks like Jesse James and the West Coast Choppers crew are churning out smog machines.

(4) NFL’s New Game: Travel Packages (Wall Street Journal) – I was seriously thinking about dropping the cash to head down to the Super Bowl because who knows when the Bears will be back again. Then, I figured out that I could buy plasma screen TVs for every room in my house (as in bedrooms, bathrooms, and crawl spaces) for about the price of one hospitality package. So, I’ll be watching from the comforts of friend’s house instead.

(5) Kind of Looks Like Steve McMichael on a Bender (Deadspin) – The Lyric of Opera of Chicago: They Were Who We Thought They Were.

(6) Ask Chicagoist: “L” or El? (Chicagoist) – Proof positive that the CTA has no idea what it’s talking about.

And finally…

With Peyton Manning’s ubiquitous presence on television commercials throughout the year, let’s not forget this performance from when he was a young boy:

Illini Rough Up Satan’s Spawn

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, College Basketball, Illinois Fighting Illini, Sports1 Comment

warren-carter-vs-indiana.jpg

I’ve been looking forward to Indiana’s visit to the real Assembly Hall for months so that Hoosier coach Satan’s Spawn could receive a few choice words from the Orange Krush. Illinois rose to the occassion by winning a bruising game last night marked by aggressive defense by both teams on the floor. (By the way, have you noticed the Super Bowl symmetry over the last couple of days with a Bulls – Pacers game on Monday followed up by last night’s Illinois – Indiana game? OK, maybe it was just me.) However, for all of the attention paid to the Bruce Weber – Eric Gordon – Satan’s Spawn triangle last night, the more important matter is that the Illini have salvaged some hope to get back into the NCAA Tournament, although we’re still in some dangerous NIT territory.

Not surprisingly, the Big Ten this year has turned into Wisconsin, Ohio State, and then everybody else. There’s a good chance that the Illini won’t be facing another ranked team for the rest of the way (save for possibly the corresponding road game at Indiana on February 10th), so getting a win against the Hoosiers was critical to our NCAA Tournament resume. Even then, an above .500 record in conference play is going to be the bare minimum this season, which means that we need to go 6-3 the rest of the way (Illinois is currently 15-7 overall and 3-4 Big Ten). My gut is telling me that the away game at Purdue this Saturday is dangerous, particularly since it follows such an emotional contest, while future second games against Indiana, Michigan, and Michigan State are all going to be tough matchups regardless of whether Brian Randle and company are healthy. That means the Illini are going to have little margin for error the rest of the way if there’s going to be a reasonable chance to get back to the big dance.

For now, though, Illini Nation can revel in the fact that we were able to vanquish Satan’s Spawn last night. Repeating this again in Bloomington in a couple of weeks would be even sweeter.

(Image from Indianapolis Star)

Super Bears Kill Bambi (and Save Me)

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago Bears, NFL Football, Random Thoughts, Sports1 Comment

halas-trophy.jpg

My very earliest sports memories were from the 1985 Bears season when I was 7 years old. After witnessing that Bears team demolish the Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX, my naive young self believed that this was something that was supposed to happen every year for the City of Chicago. Little did I know that the primacy of that Super Bowl victory in my life would cause me to have unreasonable expectations for the Bears for the next 2 decades. While I was able to rationally deal with ugly performances of the Bulls (such as the sight of 5 pasty white guys on the court at the same time the year after the second Michael Jordan retirement) and White Sox (the Albert Corky Belle years) when they fielded subpar teams over that period of time, it didn’t matter whether Peter Tom Willis, Cade McNown, Moses Moreno, or anyone else from this awful list was starting at quarterback at Soldier Field – I was angry everytime that the Bears lost a game, which meant that I spent a good amount of time over the past 21 years sulking through entire NFL seasons. The Illini football and basketball teams are the only others that affect me in this way, so it’s a wonder why I’m not the youngest person to ever have to receive an angioplasty.

Considering this personal history, as much as the media wanted to spend the next 2 weeks bombarding us with stories about how the Saints have single-handedly rebuilt all of the broken levees and dilapidated houses in New Orleans (a reporter from the Chicago NBC affiliate thought that the Bears beating the Saints would be as popular outside of the Windy City as “killing Bambi”), I knew deep down in my heart that the Bears couldn’t possibly screw me again. As I noted on Friday, I was confident heading into the game that the Bears had the “disrespect” card going for them and the Saints, while being a solid team, definitely didn’t deserve the disproportionate heapings of praise that they were receiving when they were only able to beat the Eagles by 3 in the Superdome a week ago.

While I was a bit nervous when Drew Brees began leading his offense down the field at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half, the Bears ended up putting together one of their most complete all-around games of the entire season. Ron Rivera’s defense, after being uncustomarily maligned across town this past week, hammered down on the Saints’ running game and stripped the ball with reckless abandon. Sexy Rexy, even though he had only an average game stats-wise, made a number of key throws and was aided by some outstanding catches by our receivers (particularly Bernard Berrian’s circus catch on his back for a touchdown). Most importantly, the Bears running game was established early and implemented often, with the Thomas Jones – Cedric Benson tandem peaking at the right time.

The upshot is that I get to watch the first Super Bowl in 21 years where I have more than a bunch of money on squares on the line. I sincerely believed that we were destined to have a Super Bowl XX rematch (I was looking forward to footage of Richard Dent’s decapitation of Tony Eason on the field being played continuously over the next 2 weeks) if only because I thought that picking the Colts to actually win a meaningful game against the Patriots would be the equivalent of putting my life savings on black at the roulette wheel or Mark Prior starting more than 5 games next season. Nevertheless, I’m hoping that the endless Peyton Manning media orgy that we’re going to endure up until Super Bowl XLI will stoke the same fire under the Bears as the national fawning over the Saints did for the NFC Championship.

Lovie Smith made it a point over the past few days that his vision was for the George S. Halas Trophy to be handed to Virginia McCaskey, the daughter of that trophy’s namesake, on Sunday. However, Bears fans aren’t going to be satisfied until we get one more trophy this year, even if it’s named after an enemy Packer.

(UPDATE: Here are some more Bears thoughts from orange-clad TK and our resident Packer fan Minneapolis Red Sox.)

(Image from Chicago Tribune)

Frank the Tank’s 2006 NFL Conference Championships Picks

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, Chicago Bears, Illinois Fighting Illini, NFL Football, SportsLeave a comment

kyle-orton-drunk.jpg

I’m sure that you were wondering if I had suffered a heart attack from the Bears’ eventual win in overtime last week since there hasn’t been a post all week. It’s been a little nutty around here, but I have a few moments to put down my picks for the weekend, with the home teams in CAPS (my bonus upset special is Illinois defending the honor of its home court against #2 Wisconsin tomorrow – as long as we avoid making Warren Carter three-pointers the centerpiece of our offense, I feel inexplicably good about the Illini right now):

(1) AFC Championship: New England Patriots (+3) over INDIANPOLIS COLTS – In a twist, the much-maligned Indy defense has looked great over the past couple of weeks while Peyton Manning has been rattled. This gives hope to all of those Colts fans that have suffered through some ugly defensive playoff performances in the past, right? However, we’ve been down the Indy vs. New England playoff path before with the conclusion the Colts are simply cursed against the Pats in the postseason. This means that being actually being able to take 3 points with New England is more than gravy – Tom Brady is pulling off the straight “upset” again.

(2) NFC Championship: CHICAGO BEARS (-2.5) over New Orleans Saints – I was nervous enough in anticipation of the Bears’ game against the Seahawks last week, so the fact that my team is now playing for a spot in the Super Bowl for the first time in 18 years is going to wreck my sleeping habits for the next couple of days. The national media has been obsessed with the Saints all week since they have superstars at the offensive skill positions along with the “comeback from Hurricane Katrina” factor, but the fact remains that they only won by 3 points to an inferior team at home last week just like the Bears.

Am I horrified that the Saints’ speed on offense could tear up a suddenly ordinary Bears defense in the same manner as Steve Smith last year? Absolutely. However, as I’ve said before, there isn’t a better motivational tool in sports than the feeling that you’re being disrespected, and the Bears are definitely feeling it this week on both offense (i.e. Rex Grossman can’t hang with Drew Brees and the Thomas Jones/Cedric Benson tandem isn’t in the same constellation as Deuce McAllister plus Reggie Bush) and defense (i.e. the absence of Tommie Harris means the Saints will run the ball with impunity and the New Orleans speed at wide receiver will cut up an average secondary). If the Saints are as unstoppable as people are making them out to be, then they should have destroyed the Eagles in the Superdome last week, which definitely didn’t happen.

Despite popular opinion, “Bear” weather isn’t going to be a factor on Sunday (in the 1988 NFC Championship Game, the surfer crowd from San Francisco came into Soldier Field and blew out the Bears with sub-zero wind chills) and, in the end, this is about as evenly matched of a game as you can get. Yet, I do believe that the Bears have a more balanced attack on both sides of the ball and when it comes down to it, I still trust the Chicago defense to make the key stops that are integral to winning in the postseason than the New Orleans defensive unit. So, we could be looking at a Bears vs. Patriots Super Bowl – doesn’t that sound familiar?

Go Bears, Go Illini, and have a great weekend!

(Image from Deadspin)

Frank the Tank’s 2006 NFL Playoffs Divisional Round Picks

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, Chicago Bears, College Basketball, Illinois Fighting Illini, NFL Football, SportsLeave a comment

jim-mcmahon-trivia.JPG

Some quick picks against the spread for the weekend, with home teams in CAPS:

(1) BALTIMORE RAVENS (-4) over Indianapolis Colts – I’m sure some people will be lulled into picking the Colts in the wake of another Wild Card round destruction of the Chiefs by Peyton Manning.  As for me, though, I never fell for that one before and certainly won’t be doing it here.  The Colts have never been able to beat upper tier defenses in the playoffs.  Well, the Ravens have the top-ranked defense in the NFL.  This is a no-brainer.

(2) Philadelphia Eagles (+5) over NEW ORLEANS SAINTS – There’s going to be the inevitable deluge of stories about how the Saints are bringing some light back to the city of New Orleans, not to mention the “genius” label applied to Sean Payton, who is the latest Bill Parcells protege to make good.  As for actual game play, it’s really the Saints’ ability to stretch the field on offense against the Eagles’ stronger running game and defense.  I hate having to ask Jeff Garcia to do very much here, but being able to run and defend are the keys to success in the postseason, so I’ve got the Eagles at least beating the spread, if not pulling an outright upset.

(3) CHICAGO BEARS (-8.5) over Seattle Seahawks – Obviously, I’m extremely biased here, yet I believe that the Bears genuinely have the “disrespect” card in the their collective pockets right now.  Everyone keeps bringing up Rex Grossman’s problems, the way the Bears blew the playoff game at home against Carolina last year, and the defense’s letdown over the last month of the season.  As a result, the Bears are ridiculously hungry for a team that went 13-3 during the regular season.  More importantly, if the Bears can’t back their way into the Super Bowl facing a group of NFC teams that came straight from the short bus, the personal disappointment will rank with the Frank Williams-led Illinois teams only maxing out at the Elite Eight and the Frank Thomas-led White Sox teams from the 1990s only making the playoffs once.  This Frank’s pick: Bears 412, Seattle -7

(4) New England Patriots (+5) over SAN DIEGO CHARGERS – I’ll take 5 points with a Bill Belichick team in the playoffs anyday, particularly against Marty Schottenheimer.  Plus, I’m getting an extremely bad vibe in the wake of the Chargers restricting ticket purchases to the game to only those with Southern California addresses in order to prevent Pats fans from buying up seats.  That means that the home field advantage for the Chargers is going to be minimal.  Granted, LDT can carry a team on his back as well as anyone in the NFL, but the Tom Brady vs. Philip Rivers QB matchup should be pause to anyone putting too much money on San Diego.

Go Bears, Go Illini (but curses to CBS for scheduling the Illinois-Michigan State game to conflict with the Bears game on Sunday), and have a great weekend!

(Image from Bookweb)

Frank the Tank’s Classic Music Video of the Week: Cherry Pie – Warrant

On By Frank the TankIn Classic Music Videos, MusicLeave a comment

This is the definition of a “classic music video”: it merges a dated and simple song with a dated and simple video, yet the combination is about as memorable as you can get.