Williams Was Hurt...Surprise

Well, the Bears had been insisting that Bears rookie OT Chris Williams didn't have a pre-existing condition that led to his recent injury, but as Brad Biggs tells the story:

"I had a herniated disc before I got here," Williams said after watching practice Sunday afternoon at Halas Hall. "We knew that. Everyone knew that. It just was a thing where most people it doesn't affect. It wasn't affecting me so if nothing is broke, you don't fix it. Then something happened in practice that second day, the disc started moving and that caused some problems."

[...]

The organization was [originally] adamant that Williams was not damaged goods when he was drafted and that the injury was a new one. For two weeks, the company line in camp was that he was suffering from back spasms. It took a while to get to the root of the problem. The Bears have been embarrassed to the point that they have been doing spin control since and worked over every house organ they could find. Williams also disputed a published report that he injured his back this summer in preparing for training camp.

Just so we're clear, Mr. Angelo: we don't believe anything you say. Time and again it's been made obvious that you will go beyond normal spin to the point of out-and-out lies when speaking to the press/public. The current Bears regime, when it comes to mistakes, will do anything it can to avoid admitting said mistakes.

One wonders how many more years of this we'll be forced to endure before the team brings in new management that has, y'know, some ethics.

I Guess We Can Relax

Bears fans can rejoice: Kyle Orton has been named the starting quarterback:

The decision was not unexpected, considering how Grossman struggled Saturday night against Seattle. Naming Orton now gives the Bears a chance to work the first-team offense well into the second half of Thursday's third exhibition against San Francisco.

Ending last season 2-1 as the starter didn't hurt Orton's cause either.

"We take a lot of things into consideration," Smith said. "But in the end, it comes down to a gut feeling you have.

Well...hmm. I don't necessarily disagree with the decision; Rex has shown occasional flashes of brilliance, surrounded by heaping gobs of incompetence.

Still...if an employee of mine admitted -- in private, let alone in public -- that he made a major personnel decision based on a gut feeling, I'd fire him on the spot. It should NOT come down to a gut feeling; it should come down to objective analysis.

But for whatever reason we commonly put former athletes in charge of sports franchises, forgetting that most athletes didn't become successful athletes by using analysis (or even by knowing how to spell it).