Even with Chicago sports struggling right now, there’s still much to be grateful for on the landscape.
Opinions are like a–holes, everybody got one. Except for columnists, they got three.
— Unknown fact
As columnists, it seems like all we do or our only job when covering sports in the city is to 1) complain, criticize and oppose, never see a light at the end of anything, or 2) make everything in Chicago sports seem worse than what it is. In other words, tell the truth. But in this week of giving thanks, it seemed apropos to look past the darkness that has become the Bears, Bulls and White Sox; the subtle shade overcasting the Cubs, Sky and Blackhawks; the Northwestern drama and Illini struggles and find the light — that dim, fading light — that is our only source of lumination in this former sports mecca the world calls Chicago but we call home.
But there’s thankfulness inside our opinions. They’re just hard to find, hidden too deep between the lines we write. Even in this week of Thanksgiving, where the Bulls are 23rd (out of 30), the Hawks are 30th (out of 32) and the Bears are 28th (out of 32) in each league’s power rankings, there are many things we’re — like most of the people in the city — thankful for. Maybe more.
We’re thankful for high school basketball jumping off (and the top two teams in the state playing each other next week). Thankful for Loyola vs. Lincoln-Way East (Class 8A), Mount Carmel vs. Downers Grove North (7A) and Joliet Catholic vs. Nazareth (5A) in the state high school football finals, never mind the outcomes. Thankful for the message Ogden Park’s James Bell walks through life with that should be a message to all of us in the city and beyond.
