Why Lovie Smith got fired by the Chicago Bears -GRIM facts & trends that were increasingly hard to swallow for loyal Bears fans: the Bears have made the watered-down NFL playoffs only ONCE in the past 6 years despite much talent on the team, including failing 3 seasons in a row AFTER making the Super Bowl. If anything, it was an overdue decision; Bears should strongly consider hiring Brian Billick as head coach and REALLY helping Jay Cutler's progress

ESPN YouTube Channel video: ESPN correspondent Ed Werder on the Chicago Bears firing of head coach Lovie Smith on Monday, and what he may do. Uploaded January 1, 2013. http://youtu.be/mUOnaPIMPD4

While there clearly are a lot of people who like Lovie Smith's personality and experience, including some current players, consider how the players have actually played for HIM, since it seems to be something that ESPN and a lot of social media types keep ignoring.

The Bears have made the watered-down NFL playoffs only ONCE in the past 6 years despite the talent on that team, including failing 3 seasons in a row AFTER making the Super Bowl. 

That's more than embarrassing and is NOT something that fans of an NFL team in the third-largest city in the country are going to be satisfied with. 
Nor should they be.

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=8938166&pid=null

The one year the Bears made the playoffs in the past six seasons, 2010, they promptly lost the NFC Championship game -at home- in large part because they were so grossly unprepared for an injury to QB Jay Cutler.
Whose responsibility is it to ensure that you have competent back-ups if not the head coach?

As has been noted here many times before, I lived in Chicago in the mid-1980's and that coincided with their 1985-86 Super Bowl run and win, and I still usually root for the Bears.
But these CHRONIC weaknesses with the Bears, like not being able to assemble a good staff or a competent offensive line to keep Cutler upright, can be laid squarely upon Lovie Smith as head coach.

In the end, the facts didn't lie -one playoff appearance in the past six years is NOT satisfactory.
If anything, his firing was an overdue decision for fans of the team.

Just like the one the Eagles and Chargers made to finally be rid of Andy Reid and Norv Turner.
Both need to stay away from the NFL for a year for their own good -and ours.
We can't stand the utter predictability of their problems every year and their chronic inability to adequately resolve them. 

If the Bears were smart, and that's not a given, obviously, they'd hire former Ravens head coach  and Vikings OC Brian Billick, someone who knows something about offense when he has some talent to work with, like he did with those Vikings teams of the late '90's when they were one of the most-exciting teams of the past 25 years.
Give Jay Cutler some help from someone who knows what they're talking about.

While crime and flash mobs roil Chicago-area residents, City Hall, Police, Tourism & Business Establishment act like ostriches. Sounds familiar!

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

WMAQ-TV (Chicago) video: Woman Believes Beach Violence Covered Up. City officials say incidents handled promptly.

Story at http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/beach-north-124629279.html#ixzz1QgnHf0Lt

Hard as it is to believe, all indications are that the City of Chicago and the Chicago downtown business establishment are STILL trying to deny what so many thousands of Chicago-area residents have seen LIVE over the past few weeks, and what tens of thousands more Americans have now seen via posted videos on YouTube, thanks to quick-thinking witnesses.

It's indicative of many troubling things, not least, a giant fundamental govt. dis-connect to reality.

View more videos at: http://www.nbcchicago.com.

WMAQ-TV (Chicago) video: The Talk: The Real Story Behind the Beach Closure.

Amy Schwartz talks with host Marion Brooks.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/shows/nonstop/The_Talk__The_Real_Story_Behind_the_Beach_Closure_Chicago-124726299.html

The situation in Chicagoland and how poorly it's been handled from the beginning, months before Rahm Emauel was elected mayor, gives you some real insight into how a similar situation down here in South Florida would likely be handled, where much-smaller city governments already have their heads firmly in the ground like ostriches, about what everyone in their own towns (plus visitors) can already readily see for themselves 24/7 about the general state of govt. incompetence, longstanding corruption and the lack of sufficient and properly-trained law enforcement in places where it can make a positive difference.

This despite the fact that Police & Fire personnel costs make up the clear majority of local cities' budgets.

See this post from the CTA Tattler blog,

Flash mobs ride CTA to commit crimes, mayhem on Near North Side

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/cta-tattler/2011/06/flash-mobs-ride-cta-to-commit-crimes-mayhem-on-north-side.html

WLS-7 TV (Chicago) video: Security stepped up for Taste of Chicago

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=8213855

Here where I live in South Florida, in the SE corner of Broward County, as I've often commented with exasperation on this blog, the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. STILL does NOT regularly patrol the actual public beach, even on crowded, three-day holiday weekends.

Like what's coming up in a few days...

But if you ask me, I can tell you exactly where I've watched them sit in their patrol cars on the road for 5-10 minutes with their A/C going when they have shown up to "investigate."

Or, later, where they stand in the shade (of The Beach Club) when they do actually get out of the patrol car -to smoke or check-out the female 'scenery'.

That's many things, but it's NOT the kind of serious patrolling HB taxpayers have a right to expect at one of the main public areas in the city.

Is it true that there are more HBPD police cars than there are actual HB police officers and administrators, and if so, why are there seemingly DOZENS of police cars that NEVER EVER move from the HB City Hall parking lot, no matter what time of the day you happen upon them?

Some answers to these questions may well be forthcoming, but I don't think I'm ruining the suspense when I tell you that I don't think you'll like the facts I have to share with you on this matter.

It's just more of the same inexplicable, inefficient, wasteful and status quo mentality we deal with here on an everyday basis.