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player ready...As usual, there are several rivalry games this weekend bigger than Bears-Packers.
A game has to mean something to both teams to draw more than local interest. Although they play each other after Thanksgiving almost every season, Bears-Packers games rarely are important to both.
Only twice in 11 games during the Brett Favre era, including Sunday, have both teams had winning records when they met in the stretch run. One was in 1993, the only time the Bears beat Favre in Chicago. The Bears went on to lose their final four games.
The best was in 2001 when the Packers were 8-3 and the Bears 9-2. The Packers won, but the Bears won their final four games to win the division.
During the entire Mike Ditka era, the Bears and Packers never met after Thanksgiving when both teams had winning records.
In 1983, the 7-8 Bears beat the 8-7 Packers in the season finale so that each .500 team could share second place.
Yet Bears-Packers remains big, if only in the minds of the fans.
This week, Giants-Cowboys, Falcons-Panthers, Bengals-Steelers and Broncos-Chiefs all are much bigger division games between teams with winning records.
Eyes on Singletary
Mike Singletary, who is available, and New York Jets coach Herman Edwards, who isn’t, were the two fan favorites for the Lions’ coaching job on a Detroit News Web site poll.
Lions President Matt Millen wanted Singletary to interview for an assistant job when Singletary joined the Ravens in 2003.
Now with the San Francisco 49ers as assistant head coach, Singletary is qualified to take the next step, according to 49ers head coach Mike Nolan.
“The command that he has, his presence and his parenting skills, I think are extremely important to running a football team,” he said.
Parenting skills are sometimes the most important.
Nolan added: “In the years that I’ve been with Mike, I’ve talked to Matt and he frequently brings up Mike’s name just to ask how he’s doing. They were both players at the same time, and there’s a lot of respect between the two.”
If Millen interviews Singletary, can he risk hiring a third straight ex-49er after Marty Mornhinweg and Steve Mariucci?
And Singletary’s backup
Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, who used to back up Singletary, also is going to be a hot head-coaching candidate. After playing for Ditka and Buddy Ryan, coaching under Philadelphia’s Andy Reid and defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, and now coordinating the league’s No. 1 defense under Lovie Smith, there isn’t much left for Rivera to put on his resume.
Sly Bly
Has Dre Bly heard of the Terrell Owens case? The Lions cornerback ripped quarterback Joey Harrington, then apologized to the team. The Lions did not suspend him for detrimental conduct.
“I think it is behind us,” interim coach Dick Jauron said. “The circumstances were unique. That doesn’t excuse what he did and he doesn’t feel like it did and that is why he apologized. He is a very emotional guy in a game of very emotional people. He got carried away because of the circumstances. We have been disappointing as a team and then the firing of Steve [Mariucci], and I think he just got carried away.”
Offensive question
Detroit reporters asked Jauron about his offensive philosophy.
“I have a philosophy, but at this point I don’t think it really serves a purpose to start talking about it,” he said. “Five or six weeks from now we can start talking about it.”
On his offensive philosophy in Chicago: “I think you could probably pull out a tape and see it sometime. Sometimes we did well, and sometimes people like you were not very flattering toward us.”
Holiday reading
Walter Payton’s widow Connie and children Jarrett and Brittney put out a coffee-table book “Payton” (Rugged Land) that includes chapters written by each of them plus outstanding photographs. The foreword is by Favre, who grew up in Mississippi after Payton and idolized him.
Dave Meggyesy, former St. Louis Cardinals linebacker, has reissued his excellent 1970 book “Out of Their League” (Bison Books), the first critical look at the dehumanizing aspects of pro football.
“The Rise and Self-Destruction of the Greatest Football Team in History” (Triumph) is Tribune reporter John Mullin’s revealing review of the 1985 Bears. Ditka also has written his recollections with Rick Telander in “In Life, First You Kick Ass” (Sports Publishing).
“Pro Football’s Greatest Quarterbacks” (Sporting News) selects the top 50. There are three Bears–No. 14 Sid Luckman, No. 27 George Blanda and No. 44 Paddy Driscoll. But Blanda was best in Houston and Driscoll played first with the Chicago Cardinals. No. 17 Bobby Layne also was an ex-Bear. No. 1 is Johnny Unitas, No. 2 is Joe Montana and No. 3 is Otto Graham, so the book has credibility.
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David Halberstam wrote “The Education of a Coach” (Hyperion) about Bill Belichick. John Feinstein wrote “Next Man Up” (Little, Brown) about the 2004 season with the Baltimore Ravens.
The Concannon snap
When former Bears quarterback Jack Concannon died last week, former center Mike Pyle recalled the play that characterized the frustrations of the Bears in the late 1960s and early ’70s.
Against St. Louis, a run to Gale Sayers was called with the snap count on the first sound after “ready, set.”
“Jack sets the line, but Sayers says to Jack, `I forgot the play,'” Pyle said. “So Jack starts pulling his hands out. Then he said, `Time out.’
“I feel his hands coming out, and I snap the ball as hard as I can.”
The ball flew straight up into the air so high that Cardinals linebacker Larry Stallings had time to catch it and run for a touchdown.
“Nobody could believe it didn’t bounce off of somebody,” Pyle said. “It didn’t hit anything. Larry Stallings intercepted my snap.”
Pyle said the clip made “maybe a dozen appearances” on the “Tonight” show with Johnny Carson.
Unusual fans
Dolphins running back Ricky Williams had his own special cheering section last Sunday in Oakland. His guests were 20 or so well-wishers from the California College of Ayurveda in Grass Valley, a holistic medicine school that Williams attended during his hiatus from pro football last year.
“It was nice,” Williams said. “For them, they had no idea of my persona in this. They knew me as a student and now picture me playing professional football. A lot of the people never watched a football game before in their lives.”
Don’t complain
The Chiefs’ schedule: Denver, Dallas, Giants, San Diego, Cincinnati. Some reward for beating New England last week.
McNair despair
After watching his 1-10 Houston Texans blow a 24-3 lead to St. Louis last week, owner Bob McNair said: “I’m on my way to hit some golf balls, and I’m going to make them suffer. I’m not going to drive off any cliffs. There aren’t any around here, anyway. I know because I’ve been looking.”
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