I’m a big Chicago Bears fan, go figure. So big that in 1991 I deemed it necessary to seek out and become friends with a living, breathing, bonafide Grabowski. And I’ve been friends with this one ever since.

This Grabowski is passionate about his Chicago sports. With me, he’s even been written up in the USA Today. While I try to not let the frustrations of being a Chicago sports fan interfere with my day-to-day sanity, that can’t always be said for this one.

Why am I writing about this today? Several articles in this week’s Chicago Tribune have made me think of my passionate friend.

This friend of mine always gets indignant about the local paper writing glowing articles about rival teams. It used to be Don Pierson dripping loving accolades for Brett Favre on what seemed like a weekly basis. Then last year, it was baseball reporter Phil Rogers glowing about the Milwaukee Brewers, who failed to reach the 2007 playoffs.

Pierson retired in the last year following a distinguished career as a pro football writer. Seems though, to Grabowski’s chagrin, Pierson’s replacement Dan Pompei has stepped right into Pierson’s shoes in this respect. In one week, Pompei has gushed about how awesome Aaron Rodgers is (Brett who?), and now today about how much better off Bernard Berrian is with the world-beating Minnesota Vikings.

I’ll be checking later today to see how my friend Grabowski is doing with all this gushing rival talk.

David Haugh predicts the 53-man roster, due this weekend. What will happen with high draft picks Dan Bazuin and Michael Okwo, and with them Jerry Angelo’s career as a talent evaluator?

Jay Mariotti resigns after a 17-year career with the Chicago Sun-Times. He says sportswriters can’t compete with the Internet anymore.

The Bears finally cut Ricky Manning Jr., in my opinion a key piece of the 2006 defense. I still just don’t get what happened.

Couple of housekeeping items today…

A huge Bears fan from London has sold his home to finance a journey to every NFL city this fall. Check out his site to learn more.

The Millennium Garages are donating $1 per Bears parker to Bears Care charities. More information is available on their website.

Lovie says he likes his players, and they’ll play better when the real games begin.

Jerry Angelo went out of his way to call reporters together to refute a report from www.profootballtalk.com.

All is well in Lake Forest. Right.

Several quick thoughts on the Chicago Bears’ 37-30 preseason loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

One of my faithful readers that posts comments (please remind me which one you were…) noted that last year the Bears were 3-0 in the preseason, which had no bearing on the regular season.  So let’s hope this 0-3 start is not indicative of the 2008 season.  If only that were the case.

As Brian Urlacher told Pam Oliver, he is disgusted with the defense’s performance.  And he should be, they looked horrible.  Like they didn’t want to be there tuning up for the season.  Aside from some nice goal line stops and spirited play from Dusty Dvoracek…

Kyle Orton to Rashied Davis…wow.  2 touchdown passes, almost 3.  Good for them.  Why am I not confident in the offense?  At least the line did look better than last week.  And nice run by Kevin Jones.

Speaking of Pam Oliver, she asked Kyle Orton “what will it take for the Bears’ quarterback position to regain some of its luster?”  Pam?  Luster?  Hasn’t the luster of Sid Luckman, who last played in 1950 and was the last true Chicago Bears franchise quarterback, dulled a little by now?

Troy Aikman commented on Jimmy Johnson: “When Jimmy knew he blew a high draft pick, he admitted his mistake and moved on.”  So, what will Jerry Angelo do with Dan Bazuin, Michael Okwo and Mark Bradley?  It kills me to think of the three offensive linemen Angelo passed for those guys.

Couple quick notes from today’s Chicago Tribune.

Dusty is back! (And I’m not talking about Dusty Baker being in town with the Reds). Defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek will get his first game action tonight since the 2007 season opener, when he tore his ACL in the only game in which he’s played as a Chicago Bear. In the article, Vaughn McClure writes that Dvoracek’s game experience in two years with the Bears is one game. Not actually correct, he didn’t even last one game, but who’s splitting hairs.

The article recounts his injury history: foot kept him out the entire 2006 season, then the ACL, and this past offseason he broke a finger and pulled a leg muscle in light work. I like Dusty and he seems like a great disruptive force at tackle, but my over/under on games played for him is 5. Which may be another over/under I’m thinking about for the Bears 2008 season…more on that later.

Also in the article, Fox’s Troy Aikman (calling tonight’s preseason game) says the following: “I don’t think the question is so much whether [Kyle] Orton is the right choice for the Bears as much as how much does [Rex] Grossman not being the guy set the organization back. They expended a lot with the assumption that he was the future. The Bears are obviously not enamored with Orton either, or he would have been the guy a long time ago.”

An apt, and unfortunate, summary.

The Associated Press is reporting that Peyton Manning “may” be back from knee surgery to start the season opener against the Bears. Emphasis on “may.”

“My goal is to be back for the first [regular season] game,” Manning said. Head Coach Tony Dungy didn’t sound any more specific when he said “I don’t think we can guarantee he will play against the Bears.”

So wow, Bears fans. Without Manning, and potentially without some of their other defensive starters, the Colts could be beatable on opening day, right? And a win on opening day could provide a sorely needed confidence boost for the Bear offense, potentially launching an improbable run of victories to start the year, right?

I would think that. I really would think that way….if there were any hope for an offense on this squad. If both Bears tackles weren’t getting blown by in Seattle, if the team had any idea who was starting at left guard other than a second-year player that is 6′1″ in Josh Beekman.

There’s always hope. But I don’t know how much hope will be left in my tank on September 7th, after what I’ve been watching in the preseason.

The Chicago Bears’ starting lineup just got 100% more neck-bearded than it was entering the 2007 season, as Kyle Orton has been named the team’s starting quarterback.

Hallelujah, right? The Bears are good to go now that our quarterback of the future has been identified?

I wish Kyle the best, and of course I want the Bears to win 10 games this year and shock the world. But unfortunately to me, only a few things are clear with this. First, whether it’s Kyle Orton, Rex Grossman, Kyle Farnsworth, Calib Hanie, your neighbor’s pomeranian Rex, no matter who is behind the offensive line the Bears have fielded thus far in the preseason, they will not have the time to perform as a good quarterback.

And again, it’s another failed first-round pick at quarterback. Wait, we knew this when Grossman was benched in 2007, sorry.

Is this 1952, 1997 or 2008? We’re still saying the same thing….when is our franchise quarterback coming?

Not a very substantive headline, not a very substantive post. I am a Chicago Bears fan, looking forward to another season as usual. And I hope for the best. There is always hope when your team is 0-0.

I had hope in 1997, great hope in 2000, so much hope in other seasons that turned out abysmal. While I love the team and will enjoy watching Chicago Bears football, what I’m seeing from this offense indicates a season with far below a winning record.

An old friend just commented that this could be a worse offense than the one piloted by Jonathan Quinn. I can’t argue.

Neither can Rick Telander.

OK, shifting gears here. I really hate dorks that talk fantasy football, but it’s that time of year. Bears training camp has broken, so allow me to digress a little. I promise this kind of thing will be very infrequent.

I’ve been in the same fantasy league for three years, and every year I suck. All of my grand plans always land me in the bottom quarter of the league. I complained the first two years that I was always drawn for a low draft pick (second-to-last both years), and this had to be the main reason I suck, I thought.

Then this offseason, seeing that the person with the top pick in the draft never seems to win, I came to the conclusion that one may be better off with a lower pick then a high pick. In our league, the first to pick selects last in the second round, then first in the third, and so on. So with the last pick, the player gets the very next pick. And I think having 2 picks in the first 11 selections is more valuable than having the top pick.  The second pick is easy-just take whomever is left with no worries that you made the wrong decision.

So of course, once I decided I would never want the top pick overall, I just got drawn for the top pick overall. I read somewhere that the #2 pick is more valuable this year than #1, because the second player doesn’t have to make the ultimate decision: LaDanian Tomlinson or Adrian Peterson with the top pick.

LT, obviously, has been the consensus #1 pick for 4 years straight. And he’s performed every single year. But Peterson is tantalizing, with the potential to blast through 2,000 yards rushing, 2,700 yards overall and 20 touchdowns. He also has a track record of injuries, while LT has missed one game in his career.

So what the hell do I do? Help? Comments welcome.