The good dominoes continue to fall. Today, second-round pick Matt Forte, the Bears’ new starting running back, signed a four-year deal with the Bears.

Excellent news. Only top pick Chris Williams, our starting left tackle, has yet to sign. And reports indicate he could be in the fold as early as next week.

Why did I let Brett Favre convince me he really retired? According to ESPN, Favre has contacted the Packers with “an itch to come out of retirement.”

It was a nice four months.

Besting yesterday’s prediction that third round pick Marcus Harrison would sign, the Bears actually signed three draft picks yesterday. Harrison and his third round counterpart Earl Bennett signed, along with fifth rounder Zack Bowman.

Only top two picks Chris Williams and Matt Forte remain unsigned.

Thanks to our avid reader and contributor Perno for the heads-up on this. Peter Schrager from Fox Sports thinks the Bears are the worst team in the NFL. Look at his burning question number 9. While I have many questions and doubts about the Bears-I do not think they’re worse than Miami, the Jets, Arizona, Buffalo. I don’t necessarily think they’re even worse than the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers. I’m serious about that. My opinion–which could certainly be wrong Packer fans when you insult me personally–is that the Rodgers lovers will be in hiding come October.

To quote Schrager directly:

“Now the Bears are being picked as the last place team in the NFC North by just about everyone.”

Who is everyone? The editors of the Green Bay Press Gazette and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel?

Clearly he hasn’t read the first NFL preview mags to hit the stands. Neither of them picked the Bears finishing last in anything.

Perhaps Mr. Schrager should at least talk to Sports Illustrated’s Dr. Z and ask him how it worked out for him when he called the Bears the worst team in football.

Thanks again Perno.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the Bears are close to signing third-round pick Marcus Harrison. When Harrison signs, four rookies (Chris Williams, Matt Forte, Earl Bennett and Zack Bowman) will be left to sign.

23 days to training camp. Wow.

I used to eagerly await the release of the offseason pro football preseason magazines from the likes of Athlon, Sporting News and Lindy’s.  Even as recently as five years ago, they still provided much more detail on the coming season than anything else one could find.  But in the 21st century era of the Internet, these mags are quickly becoming irrelevant.  (Example, references to Curtis Benson/Cedric Enis as the Bears’ starting running back in each of the publications).

But I still get them for my archive.  And this last weekend I picked up the Sporting News and Athlon.

Of course, no matter how hard I try not to, I always jump right to their predictions pages.  I was pleasantly surprised to read this sidebar in Sporting News Pro Football ‘08:

“Bear-ly noticeable: Looking for a surprise team this NFL season?  Show Chicago some Lovie”.  I would attach a link here to the story, but of course if Sporting News gave the article from the magazine away for free, you wouldn’t buy the magazine.  Basically, they predict that the Bears have every chance to bounce back and make the playoffs.  We will see.

However encouraging this is, of course Sporting News predicts that Green Bay will again reach the NFC Championship game.  The championship game two years in a row, led by Aaron Rodgers with a suspect interior offensive line and rapidly aging corners?  Dubious.

Athlon takes the safer and predictable route, picking the Bears to finish third in the division behind Green Bay and Minnesota, respectively.

Of course, every publication will be wrong about most everything as usual.  None of them predicted a New York Giant title last year, I guarantee that.

Although I’m dating myself, I’ll explain again that I became a Chicago Bears fan in 1979 when I was 8 years old.  I played organized baseball, not football, as a grade schooler, but football was always my first sport.

I did follow both the Cubs and the White Sox during the summers, in the early 80’s.  But probably because they were never in the postseason, I guess I just automatically switched baseball off by the time the Bears went to training camp.  My father and uncle would take us to at least one game at Wrigley each summer, solidifying my background as a Cub fan, although I never had a problem with the Sox or wanted them to lose.

Watching the Cubs and going to a couple games in 1984 was special, watching them tank from game 3 of the playoffs on that season was not.  So in 1985, coinciding with the greatest Bears season in history, I switched off baseball for 18 seasons.  This was not so much to punish the Cubs for perennially sucking, but simply that my life was getting busier.  Got swamped with high school, then college, then starting my career as the years moved on, and during those times I decided that if I couldn’t follow a team intensely, I couldn’t follow them.  I could not keep track of baseball for 162 games, so I abandoned it.

Same with being in Chicago through six Bulls world championships.  Not even to mention that basketball does absolutely nothing for me, I didn’t have time to follow a whole season of basketball.  “I’d love a 81-game football season, though,” I used to say.

In 2004, though, I was ready for a summer sport again, and for the last 4 1/2 years I have again become almost as big a Cub fan as a Bears fan.  (Actually, there’s no way I could ever become as much a fan of anything as I am a Bear fan, but still).  I rarely miss watching or listening to any of the 162 games, and I’ve found that it really is a summer enhancer.

And yes-I’ve followed every bit of the mostly disappointing 4 1/2 Cubs seasons since the 2003 near-miss.  From clamoring to find a bar in New York City that would show the first Nomar game in 2004 to thinking 2005 and 2006 were the years after seeing opening day victories, I’ve been there.  So in 2008 it’s been fantastic to be a Cubs fan.

I was excited watching the Cubs sweep the Sox this last weekend.  Cub fever has to be nearing its pitch.  But you know what I realized Sunday, weather is beautiful, Cubs winning?

I miss the Bears.

What is profound about this, being that this is really no big news, is that it had actually been, by my calculation, 261 days since I’ve given a crap about the Bears.  Of course I gave a crap about the Bears and attended every home game last year, but it was October 1, 2007 that I knew the season was over, and the rest of it would be like so many other Bears seasons, and less like the almost-magic of 2006.

The wins over Green Bay were nice, the overtime thriller over Denver OK, but I lost a lot of fever in 2007.  And frankly, I don’t know if we’re headed in the right direction in 2008 either, with the Benson debacle proving the Bears still don’t know how to draft and all.

But I miss the Bears, and I’m excited for some football, starting in a month.  Good to have that feeling back.

The Bears announced the signing of defensive tackle Tommie Harris to a four-year contract extension on Thursday, with a press conference set for today. The deal is reportedly worth $40 million in new money, with $17 million guaranteed. Harris becomes the highest paid interior lineman in the NFL with this deal.

According to Brad Biggs of the Sun-Times, the contract also assures Harris that the Bears will not use the franchise tag. Interesting.

I initially thought it was interesting that the deal was for only four years, when most extensions are for at least five, and sometimes six or seven years. But Harris will only be 30 when this contract expires, so he’ll have a shot at another final payday if he performs well. And signing away the right to use the franchise tag will limit the Bears following the 2011 season.

But let’s hope the fact that there may be new money on the table for Harris following this deal will remain motivating factor. But Harris, who has been the consummate Bear, shouldn’t need external motivation.

Now let’s hope the Bears can get something done with Devin Hester, and do something to satisfy Brian Urlacher, who isn’t satisfied with the $57 million he’s already entitled to.

Latest update at www.bearshistory.com, the 1994 Chicago Bears season.

In 1994, the Chicago Bears’ young head coach continued to imprint his deep stamp on the team. Native son of the same area as his predecessor, the legendary Mike Ditka, Dave Wannstedt wielded personnel control that Ditka could only dream of, and used it to mold his roster the way he saw fit. By the end of Wannstedt’s sophomore season, the young Bears team would have seen surprising highs, surprising lows, and a finish that was every bit as rewarding as it was frustrating.

Wannstedt’s eventual downfall in Chicago would ultimately be a result of his personnel decisions. But his poor personnel decisions seemed to focus more on draft choices than his free agent signings. February 1994 brought the second year of free agency in the NFL, and the Bears were poised to overhaul their offensive roster.

The 1993 Bears had finished near the top in NFL defensive rankings-and near the bottom in offense, so it was obvious where the Bears would focus the majority of their attention. Wannstedt and his personnel advisors publicly stated that they thought the team was a few years away from contending for a Super Bowl. The plan was to build from the core of the team out. No major free agent splashes on a player deemed to be the best as his position in the game (thus overpaid) would be made until a solid overall team was in place. Then, if the team determined that one player may make the difference, the team would spare no expense to sign that person.

Continue reading this article at www.bearshistory.com….

According to Head Coach Lovie Smith, the Bears are fine at running back and won’t be signing a veteran for the 2008 season to back up the new starter, rookie Matt Forte.

“We like the running backs we have now,” Smith said.

Hm.  To me, beginning a season with the Super Bowl window barely cracked and falling fast with a rookie at the critical left tackle and running back positions does not bode well for the Bears.  Whatever happened to the excuse countless other regimes have used that rookie running backs can’t play extensively because it takes a long time to pick up NFL protection schemes?

Unfortunately, I can’t forget that in 2002, the Bears were supposedly set with Bernard Robertson at left tackle and Leon Johnson as the backup running back.  In 2003, Quasim Mitchell and Rabih Abdullah were good enough.  We all know how the story usually ends here.

I’m a Bears fan as through and through as anyone, but I don’t have a good feeling about this.