So the guys were talkin' Bears and it was recently discovered that the great Earl Bennett didn't crack the starting lineup in the receiving corps because he didn't learn the playbook until over halfway through last season - I'm not gonna say that it's easy to play WR in the NFL, but you have ONE job and are very well compensated for it...I would douchebagged him for it, but I still think that the Bears coaching staff is partly to blame for not throwin' him in there once his dumb ass finally decided to do his job

Very interesting story. I wonder how prevalent this sort of thing is in the NFL. It would be interesting to see how well he knows it compared to Devin Hester. Obviously Hester is more talented and they will let him on the field simply because of his speed, but as you alluded to, what does this say about the coaching staff if you have 2 highly drafted players who can't figure out the damn playbook? Especially considering the Bears don't throw the ball all too often, nor do they run too many elaborate plays.

Lemme see.... NCAA tourney started today. The Hawks are in the dumper and lost in OT to Columbus Wednesday night. The Bulls won their third straight Wednesday night. And my favorite show was debating the merits of Earl Bennett today? Mercy. I hear Bears every day on every show I sample. Meatball City, I say. When will they move Zorich to linebacker?

Admittedly I'm a meatball, but if you had your own show I doubt I'd have gotten a breakdown of the Hawks and Bulls today.

YOU knew that?

Fixed.

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I should have been playing the Bulls lately, Donspiracy, but I haven't played them in a couple months. Moved on a half-dozen NCAA games yesterday and split. Was leaning toward Western Kentucky last night but wasn't going to stay up for the finish so I stayed away. Dumb.

Mackie,

The tourney started; but most games hadn't bee played yet. Silvy and Waddle don't do hockey all that often; and leave it for your former teammates the hockey snobs to cover.

Now, the Bulls should of been talked about; but considering Tom is the only Bear on the radio who can get through a sentence without a stammer every 1.2 seconds I don't see a problem with him and Mark talking about Bennett. Especially since Tom played the position.

And yes, we are a Meatball City. Your departure from the "Afternoon Saloon" has made that painfully obvious, as those other two Meatballs can't get away from a very bad Superfans impression...

Valid points. And I think the tourney gets AMPLE coverage on Monday. Also agree with Silvy early in the week when he begged the question "Where are the stars?" in college hoops these days.

Nonetheless... the Bears wear me out. I love football far more than the other sports, too. Would rather be at a college footbball game or in front of multiple HD screens on Sunday than at any sporting event. That's not an exaggeration. I'd rather go see Iowa host Purdue at Kinnick in October than go to the NBA Finals or the Daytona 500. Love, love, love my football. But at what point do the Bears get back-burnered in this town? The coach is dull and has made multiple mistakes... the GM's record is beginning to look like he's not the right guy. The star players are jagoffs. When do we give the BAD BEARS, the BAD BULLS or BAD HAWKS treatment?

Oooh a shot!

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I didn't listen to the show, but I have no problem with Earl Bennett talk. I wondered throughout the year why Bennett couldn't crack the top 4 WR group, and was somewhat frustrated when there was never an answer given.

If it's true that Bennett couldn't learn the playbook, then I too wonder about the coaching and even the playing IQ of the player. And when you have Waddle on the show, he can give insight to learning and playing the position no one else on Chicago radio can offer. This topic is tailor made for Waddle.

And in the limited time I have to listen to the radio, when I listen to sports radio, I would like to hear sports talk, and not music, politics or movies.

Understand, enigma, but a show really narrows its potential audience when doing hardcore, Xs and Os. It just isn't that interesting to the masses. I like reggae music, but understand why there isn't station devoted to it. Gotta mix it up.

I can see where you are coming from. I actually like Xs and Os talk, and find it more interesting than player interviews (where most of the time they tell you nothing) or the standard this player/coach/GM sucks.

I'm with you enigma, I do like the Xs and Os... but I just don't think this story falls under that category.

My wife, who sits through every Bears game with her Dad and me, was interested in this story. A professional athlete not understanding the playbook on our NFL team is interesting on so many different levels, that I think even a casual fan can appreciate just how effed up this is.


But if it did get in to full blown Xs and Os, she would definitely lose interest. I just don't see that being an issue on Waddle and Silvy and that's not taking a shot at them at all.


I'll say this... ProFootballTalk.com is getting mad traffic this time of year. NFL fans, like MLB fans think about their teams all day every day. As stated before, I'll admit I am a meatball... but I think when you look at sports fans as a whole, the guilty outweigh the innocent.

When did the Bennett "story" actually break? That's why it was relevant to talk Bears.

If they were just rambling about who should be the #1 WR or whether Urlacher should still play the middle, then by all means, meatball away (yes, meatball is now a verb).

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This was the first time that I've actually heard an explaination for Bennett's absence last season. This actually provided closure for me, the meatball fan of the beloved. I can't tell you how many times I was screaming at the t.v. last season saying,"CAN WE FIND A FUCKING RECEIVER ON THIS TEAM???" It's okay, though, I also screamed that very thing at many inanimate objects, and then I got help, the Bears season ended early...

now, if the story was that Bennett only had one ass cheek, then this should definately get pub...

I think we agree. When I think of Xs and Os, it is more of a technical definition, not just game strategy.

Earl Bennett came out of Vanderbilt, where generally you have to have some smarts to go that school. Bennett came out as of the leading recieving in SEC history, a pretty significant mark.

He comes to the Bears, whose offense seems pretty basic. Not a lot of different formations or motion, and a playbook which is smaller than the Terry Shea playbook. So why can't Bennett get playing time in a very bad WR corps?

If I was Silvy, I would have picked Waddle's brain, what was Tom's most difficult part about making the transition from college to NFL. Is terminology an issue? Waddle went from playing under Ditka's offense to Turner's. how difficult was that?

Maybe Silvy did pick Waddle's brain, I didn't listen to the show. But this is what I would like to hear. I know that it probably would bore the masses, but thats just me.

You're right. Bennent doesn't seem like a dummy. Others, including Orton, have said they were slow to learn the playbook. I don't think it's a complex system given I and all the defenses of the other teams in the league have it figured out. It raises a lot of questions and points to a lot of deficiencies on the Bears.

Are the players stupid? Is Turner stupid? What the hell is wrong with the WR coach that one of his players went half way through a season without being helped along? It shows a lot of people at Halas Hall are not doing their jobs. Mini camp just started, it's a good time to talk about this.

My comment was tounge in cheek. He might not have been talking about the Bears yesterday but movies, 30 year old music, and Allen Brothers meat, yes. Mac will get another show but I'll be suprised if he starts talking Bulls and Hawks. This criticism was odd.

Well done young lady!

It wasn't meant as an insult.

So again, shut up sid.

It was true though.

WR is the second toughest position on the field to learn, behind QB. It doesn't surprise me that he struggled; most rookie WRs do, only a lot of them are forced into bad situations where they have to play.

As for the playbook; any NFL playbook is incredibly complex. I don't think the average fan realizes just how many things go into a single NFL plan. At the WR position, very rarely are you just responsible for the old pick-up game style "run ten yards, then hitch" routes. Your routes are dependent upon defenses, which is dependent upon reading the defense correctly pre-snap and post-snap, worry about audibles and hot reads, pick up options correctly, blocking, etc. Its a humbling experience trying to learn all that stuff. With Hester learning the position on the fly (and notice how incredible it is to have a guy make 60 or so catches while learning all that stuff for the first time before making "Devin Hester is stupid" jokes) the staff probably simply didn't want two inexperienced QBs, especially where misreads on the part of receivers were a huge issue even for the experienced guys like Davis.

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Fire Phil Emery

Im sorry but I dont want to hear Bears talk right now and it seems like alot of shows are focusing on the Bears and Jay Cutler(get over that shit already). I would rather listen to NCAA breakdown for four hours than listen to Bears talk. Hell talk Sox baseball if you have to but leave the Bears talk to another time. Not now with opening day around the corner and both of your winter teams trying to make their mark in the playoffs. It seems out of place now.

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Well you'll definitely get 4 hrs of NCAA talk and sheet of integrity from 5-9am tomorrow. Oh Boy!

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Still pisses me off the Bears keep having the same WR issues with guys never ready to play?

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