Since, this is my first column of the year, I am going to start off by discussing all major sports teams for Chicago. At the time I wrote this, I was also shopping for a Bugs Bunny Tune Squad jersey so I was really just in a sports kind of mood.

I’ll start by talking about the Chicago Bears. Currently, I think the Bears just need to suck for a few years and rebuild. We hired a new coach in John Fox who I think will help the team tremendously, BUT I do not want to have us go 8-8 or 9-7 every year and just get mid-round draft picks and never make the playoffs. I would rather have us go 2-14 then 8-8, because we then would get a top three overall draft pick and a great player to build around.

For us to rebuild though, we need to get rid of Jay Cutler. He is not producing how the team hoped and signing him to a huge contract has not helped in the slightest.  Now, Cutler is not trash, he is one of the top 32 quarterbacks in the league and deserves to start on a team, but he is just not going to win us a conference championship or Super Bowl any time soon. He will make us suck for the first half of the season, and then play good every once and awhile and make us go 8-8 again and ruin our chances of getting any better.

One thing to note about the overall roster, Robbie Gould is the only player left from the year that the Bears went to the Super Bowl.

So, I do not really feel like watching a Bears team that is mediocre, I would rather watch us suck and rebuild for a few years than watch us go .500 every year. However, I really think the Bears are going to go 8-8 this year because I think John Fox is a quality coach and the new offense is going to help us win games. We still are not going to beat the Packers this year though. So basically, my advice for the Bears is to just suck for a few years so we can be good again at one point in my life time.

Next up, I’ll go with the Blackhawks because that will be the shortest and easiest. Personally, I don’t watch hockey much. In all honesty, I just bandwagon the Hawks once they hit the playoffs and even then it’s not truly that hard until they go into the Stanley Cup finals for like the 34th time. I know they are going to be good again this year, but how good may depend on this Kane rape accusation. We will see. The team has lost a lot of players this offseason so it will be a different team this year than lasts, but still expect them to succeed just as much as they have before. Toews is still on the team along with other players so I don’t expect a drop off in competitiveness or record from the Hawks.

Bulls time. Now, I was never really that into basketball until recent years so I’m starting to pay more and more attention to the NBA and college basketball and the Bulls specifically. For this season, the Bulls are going to make the playoffs, whether Rose is healthy or not, and they are going to be competitive in the East. How competitive will be determined by A. The health of Rose, B. how well Jimmy Butler and Rose mix, and C. how the young players on the team progress. I could sit here and talk about how the Bulls won’t be as competitive this year because we got rid of Thibs or any other things that could be related to Thibs, but I really don’t want to because what’s done is done.

I am really hoping that the team can make it to the Finals next year, but I don’t really think this will necessarily happen. It’s possible, but I doubt it. There is a lot of good teams in the East especially with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the same division as the Bulls. I truly think that, with the team healthy, the Cavs will win the NBA finals this year and LeBron will bring his home city a championship at last. I really don’t think the Bulls can compete with LeBron just yet, I am probably wrong, but it’s just my opinion. I’m not going to comment any further on the Bulls until the season starts though.

Next up is the Cubs. Like hockey, I’ve never really been a fan of baseball. I couldn’t sit down and watch a whole baseball game up until this year. I’ve sat and watched five whole Cubs games this year because I am so interested in this team  and how well they are doing(yes, I know, five games is not a lot, but it is a lot for me). I usually just watch the highlights of games and watch the home runs and stuff like that, but no I sat and watched a few games this year. Honestly, the Cubs are so interesting that how can you not watch them? No way could you tell me you expected the Cubs to be third best in the National league and fourth in the MLB and expect me to believe you.

The pitching has also been excellent recently with Jake Arrieta throwing the 14th no hitter in the franchise’s history recently. They also got Jon Lester in the offseason so that has been a big help, but it has been Arrieta who has really been the ace for this Chicago team.  He is even competing for the Cy Young award. I also am happy to see Addison Russell at his natural short stop spot. He has been a solid young player for this team defensively and offensively. I haven’t even mentioned Kyle Schwarber yet who has been a great addition offensively for this team. Ever since he was brought up, he has been an amazing addition to this team. Now, finally I have to talk about Kris Bryant. I won’t talk too much about him, but he has been amazing for this team. He really has lived up to all the hype this year and more. Delivering on offense and defense, he has been a great player for this team all around.

There is so much I could talk about on this team, but I don’t know baseball enough to continue in all honesty. This team is really getting ready to make the playoffs. I don’t know if anyone expected it, but it’s true! With all these great young players on the team, I am really hoping they can continue to develop and give this team their first World Series title in over 100 years. I just want to see them win one before I die (Think of all the people that said that 100 years ago and that never came true).

For the White Sox, I don’t have much to say other than Chris Sale is an absolute monSTAR (Space Jam reference?) because I don’t really pay attention to the White Sox. So I apologize to the Sox fans that read this, but I honestly have nothing to say about the Sox. Sorry to all Sox fans…

There are some positives and negatives to being a Chicago sports fan right now. We have some good teams, and we have some bad teams. No matter what happens though, I won’t watch the Sox or Hawks until the playoffs, I’ll watch some Bulls and Cubs games, and I will watch every Bears game this year no matter if we are 0-16, 8-8, or 16-0.

I am a die hard Chicago fan, I am just looking at some of the teams realistically and evaluating their standings for THIS season.