but apparently not 'close' to making themselves better


Regularly providing the public the feelgood moment of calling me an idiot . . .


Left tackle Orlando Pace has been released by the Rams. He's a seventime Pro Bowler. Naturally, the Bears have no interest in him. At least, that what it says in our football blog.


Get a load of the reasons why: The Bears value John St. Clair and the Bears want to get younger. Yes. Well. Hmmm. Pace is 33; St. Clair is 32. Nothing says youth like that age difference, huh? Pace, again, is a Pro Bowler; St. Clair is, well, um, not.


Oh yeah, I also forgot another reason: money. It's always money with the Bears. No, wait, not always money; not when it comes to Ted Phillips and Jerry Angelo giving themselves big raises and big extensions. Maybe that's where all the money to sign wide receivers went. Maybe Kyle Orton should aubible to the team president's suite. Do a checkwithme once we get to the line for the raw shrimp. Houshmandzadeh or any other veterans who are better than what's here, it's an insult Ben Roethlisberger Limited Jersey to the fans to have the head coach tell us the Bears are "close'' and then watch the team do "close'' to nothing in free agency.


The head coach never said "close'' to what. We presume he means championship, but it might be just that the Bears are a closeknit group that promotes its own BFFs because the head coach fears the shadow of all former players who represent threats to his potentially dead fiefdom.


Anyway, you tell the fans you're "close,'' you better act like it. The Bears don't. Or can't. The Bears don't seem to know the truth or tell the truth anymore than they know what wideouts and safeties look like.


The Bears start with a quarterback who has as many questions as answers. Only the most important position on the field. And he's all dressed up with no place to throw.


I mean, Devin Hester, Rashied Davis, Earl Bennett is it too much to ask of a supposed NFL team to design a play for a wideout that's more productive than pass interference?


And then John Tait leaves one of the most important positions on the offensive line and St. Clair gets talked about like he's Anthony Munoz and Chris Williams is still a rookie, and not a healthy one at that, and a guy like Orlando Pace has no spot here?


Whether Bears coach Lovie Smith knew it or meant it, when you tell fans that you're "close,'' you're making it urgent. Like, right now. This year. Go.


But then www.officialsteelersfootball.com/7_ben_roethlisberger_jersey_authentic_black_limited_cheap.html the Bears tell us about getting younger and staying away from aging veterans and money, and are you kidding me? This is like some sort of SAT question, right?


"Close'' is to getting younger as:


A) Angelo and Smith are to truth


B) Michael McCaskey is to genius


C) Devin Hester is to Larry Fitzgerald


D) All of the www.officialsteelersfootball.com above


Look, the Bears aren't the New England Patriots, not in any Ben Roethlisberger Elite Jersey way. This is not a franchise that ought to act as if it's building for the future. The Bears' future involves a lot of pain. Their present is what this is all about.


Their present starts with a defense on the wrong side of great. It might not be as bad as it looked last year, but it will never be 2005, no matter how many times Smith clicks his ruby red slippers together and says, "There's no place like Rod Marinelli's position room.''


The main guys on the main unit of the Bears are getting older. They are not getting better, especially not at tackling with a coach who doesn't believe in practicing such a barbaric thing. But it might be good enough if other areas get better quick.


In my country, we call this a window. It opened in 2005 for the Bears. It is screaming down shut entering 2009. Think guillotine. That means will all be over soon. Heads will roll. There will be blood. So, do something.


If the Bears are going to sell this "close'' stuff, then they'd better buy something that makes them significantly better.


We been getting the same load of manur from Angelo and Lovie for quite a while now.


We all know that the only thing the current Bears defensive roster is "close" to is retirement and the offence is "close" to being no more than average.


Instead of building on the success of the 2005 team by adding talent, they treated that off season like a holiday and just back.