B (1:45)

You know what you're going to do? You're going to ride or die.

A (1:48)

Yeah, I am. I'm your ride or die. Your stone cold lock of the day.

B (1:51)

Die or die, right?

A (1:54)

Yes.

B (1:55)

So over the weekend we saw the initial drop and then the percolation of a report that came out by Tyler Dunn of Go Long. It is a substack published newsletter that, let's just say just skewered Caleb Williams using all sorts of anonymously sourced quotes. That is coming off like a lot of sour grapes from a fired coaching staff full of idiots.

C (2:24)

That.

B (2:25)

That's my view from 30,000ft on what this is. But there were some threads that I was reading from real journalists that were doing the hard work of forensically determining what mattered in this piece. This three part piece. I believe part one has already dropped and what doesn't matter, what a Bears fan should believe and the prism through which this should be viewed. And I want to go deeper right now with somebody qualified to do that, and that is our friend Jack Silverstein, Chicago sports historian and the author of the very well reviewed book about fandom called why We Root. And he is joining us here on Dan Bernstein Unfiltered. Jack, what's going on, man?

C (3:10)

Hi, guys. How are you both?

A (3:11)

Really good.

B (3:12)

Yes, thanks, Jack. Just excited for Bears football. And I feel like a little kid today. Because if you can't feel like a little kid today, what's the point? And you say, you know why we root. This is why. Nothing's happened yet. There's nothing horrible has happened yet. Nothing has fallen on my head. So I'm going to take the few hours I have left to enjoy it.

C (3:31)

Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly it. That's the buildup. And it was a long buildup waiting for the season. And then you feel just so antsy on a day where everyone's playing but you. But today we get to pay attention to our Bears.

B (3:47)

And now this story drops. And the more I'm reading through it and with every quote that I'm reading as the picture starts to form, initially I thought, oh boy, this is really bad. And then I started to believe maybe this doesn't really deserve the time my brain is giving it. What was your reaction? And then with the work that you did, we need sort of a basic journalism lesson on the extent to which this should matter.

C (4:20)

Absolutely. So Tyler Dunn has released, I think he's released all three parts, he's calling them parts, but they're really standalone stories that group together. I mean, the, the first one is about 8, 500 words. The second one's a little over 10,000. So when you're talking about pieces that are that long, you can really think of them as a reader, as story one, story two, story three. That anything that's in story one that's touched on should be addressed in that story because it's a, it's a major ask of a reader. I read story one, I read story two. I haven't done story three. Don't know if I will. But my overview is that this is both a very bad piece of journalism and an irresponsible piece of journalism. The irresponsible piece, the really reckless, outrageous stuff is, is allowing coaches and scouts and whoever Else he talked to to say that Caleb Williams has dyslexia and to say that Ryan Poles knows this and to say that Ryan Polls has lied about this to his own staff and doing all of these things without showing the reader how they know this and hence how you as the writer know this and presenting this all through unnamed sources. And that total piece is why it's irresponsible. But the unnamed sources part is why it's bad. Which is not to say that unnamed sources are bad. But this is where you have to understand a little bit as a reader how journalism works. Because, you know, we're sports fans, we are emotional creatures. We are also, we're logical and we're smart and we can diagram plays and not as well as coaches, but at our core, we are emotional creatures and we want to know is something worth our emotions. If I told you that this piece was 100% true, you would react one way. If I told you it was 100% false, you would react another way. A reader needs to be able to trust a journalist just the same way that you trust your lawyer, your doctor, your mechanic. But unlike the law and medicine, journalists can't be disbarred. We, we're not, we don't have a license. We're not bound to a singular ethical guide. It's all about how an individual journalist practices journalism and what they do each time out. So in that sense, you're more like a mechanic. And the way that a mechanic earns your trust is by doing good work every time out. And that's the mechanics calling card and the mechanics credibility. And just as a car owner needs to know a little bit about their car to know if, when they take it into the shop, the mechanic is telling them, you know, blowing smoke or if they're, if they're worthwhile. As a reader, you need to know a little bit about how journalism works in order to know what it is that you are reading and whether it's worth your attention and how much you should, how much stake you should give it. So there are loads of problems. And Tyler Dunn's piece. If I was a journalism instructor and I wanted to craft a piece to give to students and have them evaluate and find all the problems, I couldn't have done a better job than he did in crafting a bad piece of journalism. But there are two pieces that in particular stand out. One is how he sources the piece, and the other is the dyslexia material. And I'll break both of those down. Keep going.

B (7:49)

I believe too that, and I want to get into this, that there are at least four boxes that were checked regarding something larger at work here that people in this city and really every city should know extremely well. And I was talking to some people last night that have historical experience in this town with dealing with these things. And that has to do with his portrayal of Caleb Williams as lazy check, dumb check, distracted check, and arrogant check. And these things all fit a pattern and one that is reprehensible and ancient. And I want to make sure that we touch on that. So when we also talk about the larger scale of where this is coming from and why it's coming from there, there is, there's that vector and there is the fired coaches vector. The coaches, it's the players fault. And players will say it's the idiot coach's fault. Coaches say, well, our coaching was fine. It's the important players at stake. And I want to just make sure that we're mindful of, of these two sort of gulf streams that are pushing this piece when we talk about these two things that you're about to detail.

C (9:13)

What's interesting about that coaches piece is that in part one, in the same story where they're. Where he's blaming Caleb and he's allowing coaches to blame Caleb for not being coachable, he then says once the change was made from floors to Thomas Brown, that Thomas Brown was able to get through to Caleb, that, oh, Caleb won't talk back to Thomas Brown because he doesn't take it. So right there you're undermining your own argument because all right, if the coach was different, then the coaching would be different. So let's talk about anonymous sources, because anonymous sources are a critical tool for a journalist, but they should only be used in certain instances. And when you use an anonymous source, the reason you do that is if the information that you want to extract is of such high value that you are willing to grant anonymity to a source in exchange for that information, particularly if you can't get that information anywhere else.

B (10:15)

Like a government whistleblower for government whistleblower.

C (10:18)

Perfect, perfect example. And remember, the journalist has to grant the anonymity because if someone says, I'll talk to you, but I don't want to be on the record, then the journalist doesn't have to publish those statements. You've got a story here that opens with done saying he talked to 32 people. But in the first part, the story number one, there's only one named source. Will Hewlett, the private quarterback coach for Caleb Williams and everyone else is anonymous. And they're not saying things that are like, earth shattering, with the exception of the dyslexia. Let's put that in a separate box. The. The idea of, like a coach saying, this guy didn't work hard, this guy has bad habits, you know, this guy's a diva. That's not, like, earth shattering stuff. It's not something where you couldn't find one single coach to go on the record and put their name behind it. So as a reader, when you see that, when you see a story that is entirely anonymous sources, that's a huge red flag, because you should be able to find someone, remember? And I, I debated on Twitter about this with somebody and I said, look at the Harvey Weinstein story. If those New York Times journalists can get women to go on the record about being assaulted, then Tyler Dunn can get some head coach or some assistant coaches to go on the record about saying that a quarterback doesn't work hard. So that's a huge red flag that there are. There are no named sources. And then what that does is that as a reader, you don't know where the information is coming from because he makes another. He does another problematic thing, which he doesn't identify every coach. He doesn't say an offensive coach who, you know, a scout who. He does it sometimes, but not other times. He doesn't tie one quote to another. You could use it or not. You could use a fake name in order to ground the reader so that, you know, this offensive coach will call him Jim. And then every time you come back to that coach, you're saying, Jim this, Jim that. And then the reader at least knows you can read the piece. And you go, all right, Jim said this here, he said this here. I can piece these together. There's no way to do that, because a journalist's credibility depends on putting out solid, strong, what we call hard information, good information. And part of that is based on what people have told you. So if you don't tie that together for the reader, there's no way for the reader to know who anything is coming from. Here's one example. There are a number of instances where he says, one coach, one coach says, a coach says, if we don't know if that's an offensive coach or a defensive coach, we don't know how to evaluate that information.

B (13:04)

It could all be the same coach.

C (13:06)

It could all be the same coach. It's not that defensive coaches don't have an eye into what Caleb Williams is doing. It's that they don't spend as much time with Caleb Williams as an offensive coach, as someone who's in the quarterback room. So we don't know as a reader where this piece is coming from. Another. Another key that you should look for as a reader. He says that Caleb Williams rarely pulled up his. His team tablet away from the facility. And he says that, you know, coaches know how much time you spend there. That word rarely. You need to get a number. As a journalist, you need to get a number, and then you need to get a benchmark number. So if a coach came to me and said, well, one of the problems with Caleb Williams is he rarely opens his device, I would say, how do you know that? He'd say, oh, well, I assume. I can't tell exactly from the piece, but I would assume that this is because they have a dashboard and they can monitor who opens the devices, how much time they spend. Okay, thank you so much for that. How much time did Caleb Williams spend on the device? You get the number and then you say, how much time. You either say, ideally, how much time did Tyson Bagent spend? Or how much time do offensive leaders, DJ Moore, you know, Keenan Allen, who are both mentioned in the story. How much time did they spend? Or you get a benchmark. So how much time did Caleb Williams spend on his device outside of the facility? And how much time did the team average player spend on the device? And then you present both of those pieces of information to the reader. It's like the old Annie hall thing. If you've seen Annie hall, where they're both talking to their psychiatrist.

B (14:42)

How often? How many times? Sex. And he says, twice a week. Almost never. And she says, constantly, almost twice a week. Right.

C (14:52)

Okay, so if Caleb Williams. Caleb, William, I'm talking to the listeners. All right, so Caleb Williams, let's say he's on his device an hour a day outside the facility. And the coaches say he's rarely on his device. And he says, I'm constantly on my device. And they say he's rarely on it. He's only doing an hour a day. And he says, I'm constantly on it. I'm on an hour a day. Get that? As the journalist, that's your responsibility. That was Tyler Dunn's responsibility. Get that? Get a benchmark. And if you can't. If they can't tell you that, then you can. You can't use that. And if you do use that, that is a sign of shoddy practice from a journalist because there's, again, there's no ethical. There's no Singular ethical guideline that we all have to. I mean, I think it's the community of journalism ethics puts out a guide, but there's nothing that says we have to follow that every journalist is going to do what they're going to do. But as a reader, if you want to know, how much attention do I have to pay to this, that's a sign. If it says rarely and there's no number, that's a sign that the journalist didn't do their work or that the coach doesn't know.

B (16:08)

I also think that my response to this and the gut reaction that I get is affected by the tropes that are involved. And I should say too, I don't know how good Caleb Williams is going to be. And I don't want to be painted as like, well, this guy's defending poor little Caleb Williams from every. No, I'm, I'm not. And when we watch him play tonight and as we criticize his play and everything else and his dedication to his job based on what we actually know to be true, I'm going to be as fair and as critical as I can possibly be. I don't know how good he's going to be correct. And last year I thought they left a lot of meat on the bone when it came to quarterbacking. Those are all facts, so take that out of it. But every trope, every old trope, going back to whether it's James Harris or Willie Thrower or Vince Evans or anybody else, Warren Moon, Cam Newton, when you start talking about and call it what it is about racist tropes, about black quarterbacks, arrogant, lazy, dumb, distracted, leadership issues, not setting a good example, listens to people close to him, difficult to coach. It fits a pattern that it makes it easier for me to dismiss whatever the motivation may be.

C (17:33)

Yeah, definitely. And that one's a little trickier here because he is hugely complimentary of Jaden Daniels and he is very complimentary of, of Michael Pennix in Atlanta. So that one's a little trickier. Although it's definitely there. I was definitely like, whoa, one second. There's also the, the gay stuff he sacheted away from the line. Let's talk about what his fingernails mean. But again, that if I was. So I marked up, I, I copied the whole first story into a Google Doc and I marked it up. I didn't do like a line edit, but I did like intense comments like how I would take this back if this guy was my student. And there's so much in there that it's it's impossible to get to everything. I mean, you could do a semester on this, on this piece. I mean, that's how bad it is. But let's get to what's really irresponsible and that is the dyslexia material. And I want to read to you how he talks about dyslexia and Caleb and because this is what as a reader, you should be listening for, especially in a piece. So the piece has already conditioned you as a reader to take the word of the coach, the coaches, the scouts, and it's what they are observing. They are observing. Sachet is a judgment call. Intelligence, okay, is a judgment call. I mean, look. Look at this. I mean, this is another. This is another piece that is a problem the Bears made. This is. This is Taylor Tyler Dunn's writing. The Bears made their offense as basic as possible with easier formations, fewer motions, limited audibles. Smart centers typically take a mental load off of a rookie quarterback's pre snap plate. But those centers cannot always see what's brewing in the secondary. Is he saying that Coleman Sheldon is not a smart center? He's the only center for last year. There's too many questions like that. But let's get to the dyslexia piece. All right, here we go. This is me. I'm reading Tyler Dunn's work here. Multiple Bears sources tell Go Long they've seen evidence that Williams has dyslexia. They also believe that the gm, who has access to everything, was well aware of this condition before the Bears made the quarterback their first overall pick. All right, now this is a major, major problem for number a number of reasons. One, let's start with this. This is not a HIPAA violation. HIPAA does not apply to journalists. It applies to people. It applies to healthcare providers, hospitals, people with whom you as a patient have a specific contracted relationship.

B (20:06)

Yeah, people who have access to actual medical records and disclosing those records publicly without the imprimatur of the patient.

C (20:14)

Okay, so multiple Bears sources tell Golong they've seen evidence that Williams has dyslexia. Let's pause right there. What does that mean, seen evidence? We've got a piece here where Tyler Dunn is quoting coaches and scouts anonymously about what they've seen and how they interpret what they've seen. I've seen him act like this, and therefore I think he is like this. So are they saying that they have seen evidence of him visually and that they have then said he has dyslexia and that therefore Ryan Poles, who has access to a medical File must also know this. Or are they saying to Tyler Dunn, remember, he's talking to these people. Are they saying to Tyler Dunn, I have seen evidence in the sense of, I have seen a piece of paper that says he is dyslexic, that I have seen his medical record. Or are they saying, I have watched him and therefore he had. I. I'm seeing signs of his dyslexia. Let's say they are saying that. That they have watched him and seen signs. As a journalist, you go, okay, you might take them at their word for a moment and say, what are the signs? Let's catalog them. This, this, this, this, this. And then you share that with the reader. But the bigger question is, are any of these coaches or scouts qualified to diagnose dyslexia? And if so, how are you? Are you a doctor? Maybe. Maybe one of these coaches or scouts is dyslexic. Now, that would be something you would put in. You would say, well, one offensive coach I spoke with is dyslexic, and he saw from Caleb Williams these four traits that led him to believe that Caleb Williams is dyslexic.

B (22:02)

Or maybe.

C (22:04)

Right. Well, let him. Let him to believe. Led him to believe. And then as a reader, you start to say, okay, I see where this information is coming from. Now there's the other piece, the medical. The idea that Caleb. I'm sorry, the idea that Ryan P.S. knows about this, that he has the medical record. Now are they saying, I think he's dyslexic. I know that Ryan Poles has access to his medical file. Therefore, I think Ryan Poles is hiding this because I think he's dyslexic. And if he is dyslexic, Ryan Poles knows. Or are they saying, I know that Ryan Poles has his medical file, and I know that Ryan Poles knows that he is dyslexic, because I know that in that medical file it says that he is dyslexic. Let's say it's that. The, the, the complaint from the coaches is that for a long time they didn't know this, and then later they did know this. How did they learn it? Did Ryan polls finally say, guys, huddle up. Did Caleb Williams say to a coach, oh, the reason I'm having trouble with this is I'm dyslexic. And then they went to Ryan Poles and said, why didn't you tell us? There's a gap there. Even if you trust the assumptions of Tyler Dunn, which I do not trust his assumptions, but there's a gap in there about how did the coaches and the train and, and the, and the scouts get this information? And if they haven't gotten this information, how do they know? Now, as a journalist, someone comes to you, a coach. Let's say I'm Tyler Dunn. I'm not. I do a good job, but let's say I'm doing this story. A coach says to me, we think Caleb Williams is dyslexic. I go, how do you know? He says, well, we think that he has this. This and this. Oh, can. Are you, do you, do you, can you, can you diagnose this? No, I can't. Are you dyslexic? No, I'm not. Okay. Did Ryan polls tell you that this was in the file? Yes or no? All right. There's a name in this piece. Carla Suber, the director of wellness, the team clinician. There's no quotes from her. There's no sentence that says attempts to reach Kyla Suber were, were unsuccessful.

B (24:24)

Or how about attempts to reach Caleb Williams?

C (24:26)

Attempts to. Well, he says. So that is in the piece. It says the Bears would not make Ryan Poles and Caleb Williams available.

B (24:33)

But just because the Bears wouldn't make.

A (24:35)

Him available doesn't mean you can't try.

B (24:37)

Exactly.

C (24:37)

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Because journalism is also about effort. It's about uncovering every stone. I agree with you completely. But at the very least, we know that that is. Let's say we know that that's Tyler Dunn standard. Tyler Dunn's standard is I go to the Bears, I say, I want to talk to these people. And the Bears say no. And he says, well, that's all. I could do it. Carla Suber is not listed. She's still with the team. Why isn't she listed? Did you reach out to the team clinician to say, is Caleb Williams dyslexic? So it's not a HIPAA violation. It is a personal privacy violation. But it's okay if it's part of a broader story about Ryan polls. If Ryan Pauls has this information and he didn't share it with his staff, that is weird. But you should find that out. And here's the other red flag for a reader. Here's another major red flag where you're reading this because as a Bears fan, you're trying to decide, do I care about this story? Am I going to let this story affect me? Is this true? Is it not true? Here's another. Here's another major red flag, okay? And it's an old phrase called burying the Lead. And never have I seen a better example of burying the lead than after 5,000 words or whatever dropping in. Coaches think Caleb Williams has dyslexia. Even if for some reason you're going to save that for the, you know, back two thirds of your story, you tease it up top. And as soon as you hear that, he was probably reporting this story all summer because this is not to say that everything in the piece is not true. People are like, it's 100% fan fiction. It's probably not. Coaches probably told him these things. We have no way of knowing. We have to trust him. But let's give him the benefit of doubt. Coaches maybe told him these things. But as soon as you hear that, that becomes your. That's your story. That's an actual headline. And the only reason to put it that low in the piece is. I mean, the only reasons you would do that is if you didn't realize that was the story, which is a mark of a bad journalist, which should lead a reader to say, I don't know if I can trust anything else here. Or it's because he knows that he hasn't sourced this correctly. He, as an independent journalist who is running his own business. He's an independent business owner. He's running a substack. I run a substack. So I understand you're an independent business owner, but I also have a job, okay? This is his job. He is not beholden to editors. He's not be. Here's who he's beholden to. His. His personal sources, his subscribers, and himself. So if you put that. That low, it's because, you know, all right, I didn't source this correctly. I don't want to make this the headline, literally, because that could be the headline. The headline of the story could be report colon Polls covered up Williams dyslexia from his staff. All right, now, that's a story.

A (27:45)

That's a story, right?

B (27:46)

There's a blockbuster.

C (27:47)

You don't need 32 unnamed sources to get it. You get three or four. Why can't I do fingers? You do three or four specific pertinent people who can say, I have seen this medical chart. And so the way that you write this as a journalist, if you had. It was coaches began to suspect that Caleb Williams had a learning disability. They had knowledge that they had not seen his medicals. They went to, you know, two to three people who go long spoke with, said that they went to Ryan Polls about this and asked to see his medicals. And Ryan Poles wouldn't And somehow, I mean, again, somehow, how did they get it? But let's say they got it somehow and then they can report to you as the journalist and say, I have seen this medical record. He has dyslexia. That is how you would piece this together. And you wouldn't then spend any amount of time as a writer giving me another 18,000 words just in parts one and two alone on tablet usage and things like that. Because that would inform all of your other choices.

B (29:01)

You know the one guy in your group chat who hits a five leg parlay week one and doesn't shut up about it the rest of the season? Well, that could be you. You could be that guy. Because my bookie makes it crazy easy to get in on the action. With college ball, NFL super contest, and survivor pools. It's the player props, the spreads in game lines. Everything you want, it's right there under one roof. And if you're new to my bookie, use our code DBU for Dan Bernstein. Unfilter any bet you choose up to $500 is fully covered. Make your play. If it doesn't hit, you get it right back. You just have to opt in using the bet back bonus token with the code dbu. No better time to jump in. No better place to play. Football's back. Let's make some money with my bookie, Jack. The reaction and response from the Bears has been and will be telling to convene the PR and comms staff and say, all right, how do we deal with this? And the answer so far has been to not. And in my experience, I think that's probably at the moment the right way to deal with it. You figure, we got a game Monday night and that's gonna eat up all the oxygen immediately and let this just kind of pass. There isn't a point where this is not being taken seriously by the professionals in charge of it to come out and say this is not true. They're not. There's been no pushback so far, which I think is a sign that the people who the Bears pay to do exactly what you're doing in evaluating the meaning and the quality of this are coming to similar conclusions.

C (30:39)

Yeah, if I was the Bears, I wouldn't respond to it either right now because it's not a. I don't consider this to be a credible piece of journalism because journalism is not about writing down what people. Things that people tell you. It might be true that coaches said all of those things that Tyler Dunn published that might be true. They might have told him those Things, but that doesn't make the things that they told him true. And if you are going to publish this, you need to interrogate it as. As the journalist. The questions that I would ask Tyler Dunn, the ones that he needs to answer, and I ended up tweeting this to him, and a few people have asked him these questions, and he hasn't react. He's been like, oh, it's in the piece. And he's shown a section of the piece which doesn't address these. These are the questions that Tyler Dunn should answer. Okay, when he writes that his sources, quote, saw evidence that Caleb Williams is dyslexic, was that their own diagnosis from watching him, or have they seen the medical documentation and do they have proof that Ryan Poles knows. Knows that Caleb Williams is dyslexic? Those are the questions that Tyler Dunn should answer. And if there are people on the beat who want to pick up the string on that and say, Ryan Poles is Caleb Williams, I mean, that's uncomfortable. Because here's the thing.

B (32:08)

Could say I'm not allowed to answer it.

C (32:12)

It's none of your business. But here's the thing. Let's say everyone in the. Let's say he is. Let's say Caleb Williams is dyslexic, but let's say everyone in the organization knows and they're working with him, as Tyler Dunn wrote. Tyler Dunn has a paragraph of, like, people who are dyslexic who have done things, you know, have done great things, or people who have this. Listen, Jay Cutler was diabetic. I mean, this isn't like the first time that we've seen, you know, someone in Chicago sports who has some medical condition that they play through. So that's not the. The issue. The. The only question is whether Ryan Polls was hiding this from his coaching staff and whether they were then making coaching decisions that were wrong for this particular person without this. Yeah, yeah. But this then brings into question what Tyler Dunn is doing, because Tyler Dunn is also complaining in the piece through his sources, allowing his sources to complain that Caleb Williams is asking for special exceptions around, you know, calls at the line or how he's. How he's coached. Well, if he's dyslexic, that might be a perfectly good reason to ask for those things. And if the organization knows that, that would be a perfectly acceptable, acceptable reason. I shouldn't say that I don't know much about dyslexia, but, like, if I was reporting the story, those were the questions that I would ask. And that's what I would learn. So, again, red flags as a reader, as a Bears fan, red flags. If you've got all unnamed sources right off the bat, that's a red flag. Because as a reporter, you want to get people on the record. It would have been more valuable if. If he talked to Shane Waldron. I read this, and I'm like, he probably talked to Shane Waldron. That's probably one of the sources. He's got things that Waldron said, but they're not attributed to him. So he probably talked to Shane Walton. I once waited out Richard Astinas for a year. The. The. The book, you know, the. The gambler and golfer and businessman who wrote the big book about Michael Jordan's gambling in 1993. And I got in with Touch. Touch with Richard in 2019, and I earned his trust over the course of a year and got him to go on the Record and then do an interview in early 2020. That interview is more valuable than me talking to 32 people about this situation. You know, if Tyler Dunn had spent a year getting Shane Waldron to go on the Record and feel comfortable, that one interview would have been more valuable to Bears fans and to anyone else than this story, no matter how many words it is. 2000 words in 2028 of shot of Shane Waldron on the Record are more valuable than 20,000 words in 2025 of unnamed sources. So as a reader, you got all unnamed sources. Why is that? That's a. That's a red flag. The writer doesn't give you any way to connect the sources. Now, in some paragraphs, it's one coach says, another ads, another ads. We can assume that that's three people. But in all other instances, one coach, one source, one scout, that's a red flag if he's not giving you any way to determine for yourself the relevance of each speaker. If it's not one offensive coach who worked with Caleb Williams For 20 hours a week, if it's just one coach, there's no way for you to say, oh, this person knows what they're talking about, or they don't know what they're talking about. That's a red flag. And then the dyslexia piece is incredibly reckless and irresponsible. And that is. That's a. That's a major, major problem here. And that's really. Tyler Dunn's biggest failing here as a journalist is letting coaches and scouts and whoever else he talked to say Caleb Williams has dyslexia and Ryan Paul's nose and never presenting the proof to the reader.

A (36:14)

You know, I wasn't going to read it and I read it for, obviously for, for our podcast, for our show. I just, I didn't care. But here's, here's the biggest thing when reading, especially in just reading part one. The whole takeaway for me was that Caleb William was the, he was the blame for last season. That, that, that's what I walked away with. Caleb Williams is the blame for the 5 and 12 season. The thing that really pissed me off was when he wasn't the cause of the chaos, but he referred to himself as, as a, as a victim. He put the word victim in there. I've never heard Caleb Williams say, I was a victim of last season. I've never heard Caleb Williams say, you know what? I did everything perfect and everyone around me messed everything up and that's why our season sucked. I never heard him say I'm a victim of anything. Yeah. Did he contribute to a 5 and 12 season? Absolutely. And here's the bottom line, too, Jack. If the Bears don't care about what was written and they really want to shut it up, then win football games because that'll wash all of this away. But if he really did act that way towards a bunch of NFL coaches that didn't deserve to have the jobs they had, I don't care as a Bears fan, I don't care if he walked away from Thomas Brown. I don't. Because he's the first round pick, number one pick overall is going to be here and Thomas Brown wasn't going to be here in a week or two. I don't care as a Bears fan, what I want is, I want them to win football games. If he's Dick Slussic, if he, if he, if he is, if he has dyslexia, if he paints his fingernails, if he paints, if he sashays away or he storms away, I don't care. I want him to win football games, win tonight, and none of this article matters.

C (37:56)

I, I agree. And I want to point out one last, one last small thing that hasn't gotten any, any attention here. And it's a, it's another sign that Taylor Dunn is playing fast and loose with information. There is a paragraph in the second story. Let me read it to you. Now, this is a story where, unlike the first story, the first story only talks to people who are either in the. Well, we don't know. We can't tell if they're in the Bears organization now or if they were only in the Bears organization last year. But it only talks to people who were in the Bears organization in 2024. The second story gets into talking to GMS and assistant GMS on other teams. All right, here's. I'm reading Tyler Dunn's work. This is from the second story. Quote, quote meaning him writing. Those in Coaching, Scouting, Equipment, Marketing, Digital and the support staff insist this GM is terminally online. Okay, first of all, that's, that's good now. Now, instead of just saying all these sources, now he's just, he's telling you the, the departments in the team where they came from. So that's good journalism. That's a good piece. Let's keep going. He, as in Rheinpulse, he scrolls and scrolls to get a pulse for what narratives are building in the public sphere. Quote, this is Ryan Pollston. Quote, did you see this post on Twitter? End quote? He asks those close to him. Polls is, quote, infatuated. End quote. One vice president says with what the Bears own social media team is tweeting, not tweeting right down to who's featured in specific photographs. He carves out time in his schedule to pitch ideas to the team's media department. Optics, Rain, Sports, supreme, quote, I'm like, how about getting an idea for getting an effing first down? This source says. This source being from the last paragraph, one vice president. All right, let's pause right there. Did Tyler Dunn speak to someone in the Bears organization with VP in his or her title? There are 19 such people right now listed on the Bears front office sheet that have VP5 EVPs and 14 VPs. Two of those VPs are McCaskeys, another is a McCaskey hyphen. So we'll call that three McCaskeys. I'm going to assume that Tyler Dunn did not speak to McCaskeys about Ryan polls. But if you have a source in the building who's a VP badmouthing the gm, that's a headline. And you report that and you put that up at the top. Now there's, there's. He doesn't say that the VP is from the Bears and he's introduced GMs from other teams. But because he doesn't say, I have to assume that he is.

B (40:34)

And some GMs are VPs, some are not sure.

C (40:38)

But, but the VP here, you're, you're quoting a VP talking about Ryan Poles asking the media department and pitching ideas to the media department and what he looks like walking around house hall on his phone. That leads me as a reader, if I Give you the benefit of the doubt as a writer, that leads me to believe this is a VP on the Bears, because how else would they be able to observe those things? Those are observations. I've seen you in the hallways on your phone. I have talked to the media department, and he said at the top, he has talked to marketing, digital and support staff. So maybe one of his, maybe Dun's, One of Dunn's sources here is someone in that media department. And they maybe. Sure, sure, sure. A lot of maybes. But you've got. The point is, is that you've got a vice president here. You're saying that a vice president said something. And another key for a reader is the present or past tense of the attribution says or said said. When you see an anonymous source, one coach says or one coach recalls, the inference to the reader is that that is something that that person said to the writer. When you see, for example, Chris White, Chris White was in the Bayard scouting department. He's now in Washington. When you see Chris White said, or you see Ryan poll said, we're not to assume that he talked to Ryan polls. We know from the story that he didn't. So if you see Ryan Paul said, that is said to someone else who told me the writer. So if you see says, that means that the writer is saying that they talk to this person. What I'm saying is, is that Tyler Dunn is laying out that he talked to a vice president and he's letting us believe, or at least leading us to believe that the vice president is someone with the Bears. If you have as a journalist a source, a vice president on the hook, who is going to badmouth the GM to you, that paragraph is worth more than your other 10,000 words in the entire piece and your other 20, whatever,000 words in the three pieces combined. And any journalist who has his sourcing down correctly puts that at the top. So if I'm the Bears internally now, I'm like, whoa, did a vice president on our team talk to this person? And I'm having conversations with all of my VPs. There aren't that many. There's 19 between VP and EVP based on the website. And then maybe I come out and say, no one, no vice president in our organization said this quote, and I accused Tyler Dunn of lying. And Tyler Dunn then has to say, that's not true. This per. That's where it gets into. But you know, with. With a lot of this unnamed sources, there's no way to identify who's who. Well, one vice President says. Let me get it. Exactly. Yeah. One vice president Sundays, there's only 19 people with vice president in their title. If you include the five EVPs, that's a major, major piece of information. And as a journalist, you would lead with that. If I was this. If I was Tyler Dunn and I was reporting this story, and I had, number one, GM, lies about dyslexia diagnosis, and number two, vice president, talk smack about gm. Those are my headlines, and I'm not wasting time on anything else. And the fact that he didn't do that and that he put those so far down in two stories is another reason that I question what here is true and what kind of work he did.

B (44:30)

Our guest is Jack Silverstein, Chicago sports historian, author of the book why We Root. You can follow him on Twitter OR X and BlueSkyeadjack. And there it is, the COVID of why We Root.

C (44:45)

And it's good, too.

B (44:47)

So I heard this has been an absolute clinic.

A (44:51)

Yeah, it's great stuff.

B (44:52)

Really, really terrific, detailed stuff. And we appreciate you taking the time to do it.

C (44:57)

Thanks a lot, Dan. Matt. Thank you, everybody. Thank you guys for having me and Bears fans. Yeah, we got a quarterback. Listen, this is how I feel. There was. There was, by all accounts, there was a quarterback who everyone thought was number one. And I know he questions that in the piece, whatever. Collectively, there was a quarterback who people thought was number one, and we got him. Collectively, there was a coaching candidate who everyone thought was number one, and we got him. So I'm excited, and let's see what happens. Bear down.

A (45:27)

All right, Jack. Thanks, buddy. We'll talk to you soon.

C (45:29)

All right.

B (45:31)

If you need windows, Chicago Window guys, is where you're going to go because Russ Armstrong is the owner. And Russ will come to your house and give you the estimate. He did it for me. He came to the house and he looked around. He said, you got a lot of windows. I said, I know that's why you're here. And he goes, well, what kind of windows do you want? And I said, glass that you can see through. And then he rolled his eyes. He's like, I got it. Don't worry about it. And he had to go make the windows. I said, what do you mean? He goes, they custom make the windows. He just measured. And then his people come out and install them. No subcontracted labor. It's his crew. So the same people that installed my windows will install your windows. You'll say, well, I keep hearing about these price, these special deals, these buy one, get one free. It's all a gimmick. He's going to match any price. Don't even worry about any of that stuff. You get the best product, best price, guaranteed. 847-302-9171. Check out all of his five star reviews at ChicagoNowdownGuys.com the NFL is in full swing.

A (46:33)

Yes, it is. It was a glorious day.

B (46:35)

I don't know what more you want because we turn on the TV and first of all being able to turn off Tom Brady, they're like, oh, there's another game and I don't need Tom Brady. Boy, J.J. watts sounds like he's been doing this for years already.

A (46:47)

But if you turned off Tom Brady, you lost out an opportunity to gain knowledge. Yeah.

B (46:51)

And well, that's because their promos.

A (46:53)

Tell me again how many, how many broadcasters have ever had a commercial made for them telling you, the viewer, how knowledgeable they are.

B (47:01)

By the way, our analyst knows football.

A (47:03)

Tom Brady is very smart. And you'll get smarter by watching.

B (47:06)

That tells me that you are worth worried about how smart he might be.

A (47:09)

Yes, 100% I think.

B (47:12)

If you have to tell me he's smart, isn't it presumed the analyst is smart?

A (47:16)

Like was there ever a commercial for John Madden?

B (47:20)

Listen, John Madden, John knows football.

A (47:22)

You should watch.

B (47:23)

He's also very entertaining and fun.

A (47:25)

Like come on Fox, do better.

B (47:27)

When you spent 350 million and now you gotta shore it up with more money.

A (47:31)

That's a problem.

B (47:32)

But there now you had that crackling Jets Steelers game.

A (47:35)

That was a fun game.

B (47:36)

And culminating last night in like. Oh, just, I mean have a, have a little post coital smoke after that one if, if that's your habit. I don't know. I don't. Do people do that anymore? I don't, I don't mean have sex. I mean have the cigarette.

A (47:52)

Oh, have the cigarette after the sex. No.

B (47:54)

Yeah, I know it used to be a trope.

A (47:55)

I usually, I go into it with the cigarette.

B (47:58)

Have it hanging out of your mouth.

A (47:59)

Right.

B (47:59)

You're ashing.

A (48:00)

Yes, Right as I get in bed. You ready now? All right.

B (48:07)

Stretched out here. Okay.

A (48:10)

Hey, did you, did you see that Lamar Jackson shoved a fan after he threw.

B (48:16)

Did you, did you see that? I did, but the fan shoved him.

A (48:19)

Well, the fan slapped his helmet.

B (48:20)

Yeah.

A (48:21)

And he. So I get it. I completely get it. Do you think he should be in trouble somehow?

B (48:29)

I do think that there should be a minimum.

A (48:35)

Is it a fine?

B (48:35)

I think there should be some sort of public slap on the wrist.

A (48:40)

Okay.

B (48:41)

With the mitigation that he didn't. No matter what. Even in the heat of battle. I know it's not real battle because.

A (48:48)

But he. That's what he said. It was, you know, he was in the heat of the moment.

B (48:51)

Even in the heat of the moment, a player can't do that.

A (48:55)

Correct.

B (48:56)

You can't.

A (48:57)

Like, again, I 100% get it. Like, a guy slaps your helmet.

B (49:01)

Yes. He should face some form of that.

A (49:05)

Fan was ejected, taken out of the game.

B (49:08)

Symbolic discipline.

A (49:09)

Yeah, I agree. I agree 100%.

B (49:11)

There should. You just be. There should be, at a minimum, symbolic discipline to reinforce the fact that no matter what, no matter what they yell at you, even if they slap your helmet because there is high fiving, there is contact that goes on. There's no hard rule about contact. But you can't go after a fan. Yeah, you can.

A (49:32)

You can't do it. And if it's a, if it's a fine that the Ravens pick up and pay for him, great. You know, with. But, you know, they say it, it comes from him, fine. But some. Something needs to happen and it's unfortunate because don't do that. Don't go out and slap. Like, no, if you're going to high five a guy and he wants to high five you back, like you said, different story. And if you're, you know, I guess if you're a fan slapping his helmet like, hey, you know, great, great win, whatever, great play, it's different. He was clearly on the opposing, you know, fans team. Opposing team's fan and did that, then shoved him. So it's like you just can't do it. But wow, what a game. What an absolute game.

B (50:08)

And the one way you really know football is back. As a fan, Tom Brady. No, it's when you almost can't even abide the fact that there's also baseball going on and you're just like, it doesn't matter. Like, oh, previously, we're in the final 20 games of a wild card, checking the Cubs scores. I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, baseball, dude.

A (50:30)

I was like, oh, shit, the Cubs played.

B (50:33)

I know. Pulling up on my phone, what happened was I was running errands in between games because I, you know, because I knew that we were doing our live test last night. And by the way, if you missed last, yesterday morning, we did a live forward progress. So tonight after the game, we're going to do a forward progress today. And then after the game, immediately after the game, we are pressing go on YouTube and we are going to be live with reaction. So Abs make sure today, right now, you subscribe to the forward progress YouTube and then it'll alert you. However, you set up your alerts to say they're on, and then you can come join us.

A (51:14)

Yep. And we'll be live tonight following the game. Hey, be ready, because depending on the nature of the game, it could be earlier. You never know.

B (51:23)

Yep. Just make sure you subscribe and make sure you get those alerts. But I. So I'm out running errands and the Cubs are up. They're up three to one going into the ninth. Yep. And I kid you not, I go into CVS and I'm, you know, I kind of like walking around a little bit because the coupons expire on some days.

A (51:43)

Cigarettes?

B (51:44)

No, no. So I open up my. I always open up my app and I think, okay, these are the expiring deals that I've got. And, you know, might as well. I might need this. Might need that. This will get 30% off of this. And I love it. You know, it's like thrifting.

A (51:57)

So you. You buy things that you may not need just because it was discounted?

B (52:01)

No, I buy things I will definitely need.

A (52:03)

Okay. All right. That's different. That's fine.

B (52:05)

Right, If. I know we're gonna need Q tips or whatever the. Whatever staples.

A (52:10)

You're gonna save some money on it.

B (52:11)

Sure. You'll do it.

A (52:12)

Sure, yeah, I get it. I thought you were just buying because you had the coupon.

B (52:15)

No, I'm not.

A (52:16)

I'm never going to use these tampons. But they're, you know, they're discounted, so.

B (52:19)

I might as well buy on pantyhose. And look, you know, that's right by.

A (52:22)

My pantyhose you'll use.

B (52:24)

But that's where I buy my underpants. Is it cvs?

A (52:27)

Okay.

B (52:27)

Because they have the three pack of Hanes boxer briefs, so I always get deals on underpants there. Okay, you're judging me.

A (52:37)

I'm not.

B (52:38)

Don't pretend you're not judging me.

A (52:39)

I'm not.

B (52:39)

No. You can get undershirts, sometimes a pair of socks, whatever. There's enough to live your whole life in a seat.

A (52:45)

And a cane and a hat and sunglasses. I mean, okay, grandpa, are you good to go?

B (52:50)

A cane and a hat. You never know what I have to break into Putting on the Ritz. If you're blue and you don't know where to go. What happened? He just went to cvs. Oh, an actual, like.

A (53:01)

Yes. Oh, like one of the tornadoes with the four legs. Hurricanes or whatever they Call.

B (53:06)

Yeah. Oh, I thought you meant like a. No, not like a dancing, rakish, whimsical tap, tap, tap.

A (53:12)

Not what you, not what you wear with your, you know, your, your, your three piece suit, your kales and your top hat.

B (53:16)

I can't get a top hat at CVS anymore. What's this world coming to, by gum?

A (53:21)

All right, so you get your under cvs.

B (53:23)

And then I came out and the Cubs lost and Daniel Palency exploded and his arm fell off.

A (53:30)

So he's hurt now. So now they're, they're losing and hurt.

B (53:33)

All of a sudden. I'm just. Okay, well that was bad. And his arm fell off and he exploded and that was. But Cubs. You know what? Cubs are not good at baseball right now.

A (53:43)

Yeah, we'll get to that. Let's say an NFL because there was so much good stuff with that, that, that Ravens Bills game. I love when the division plays itself the first weekend. Like so we. You get to see the Lions and the packers all in one game. You're not watching multiple games to see the rivals you're playing, you know, the Vikings tonight. Jordan Love had a, at a, at a good game last night for, for or yesterday afternoon for the packers. And that 2713 win over the Lions, they don't look the same. That was. They were I think down what, 14 three at the half.

B (54:16)

Did you see that? It's the first time the Lions went without a touchdown in the first three quarters since before Ben Johnson was there.

A (54:28)

So that goes back four years. Goes back for. And Jared Goff was 31 of 39 for 225 yards.

B (54:36)

Yeah, he made some terrific throws.

A (54:37)

It's a nice throws, Made a lot of completions. But they know the packers held the lines of 46 rushing yards. Yeah. What else stood out for me? Oh, that, that the Steelers jets game was fun. Aaron Rodgers wins that one. 34, 32.

B (54:52)

Yeah, he was good. And a piss.

A (54:53)

22 of 32, 44, four touchdowns.

B (54:56)

Bad day for those of us rooting hard against Aaron Rogers. It really was a couple of sacks, but he made. And he made Rogers throws too. When everybody was spread out, I'm like, it's a slant. Yep, he's throwing that slant again. Or X glance.

A (55:09)

Yeah, he looked pretty good. Justin Fields was. Justin Fields 16 to 22, 218, one touchdown, 48 yards rushing. He looked, he looked good though. Like I saw him actually. He was moving around the pocket without running immediately and still looking downfield. Made a really nice first down throw. Was. It was a Third, third and eight. Could have run and with the possibility of getting it. But you know, he waited it out, looked downfield, found a target. So that was fun. I checked in on Raiders and Patriots. Raiders won that one 2013. Cause I wanted to see Geno Smith 3 for 362 yards and I wanted to see Genty only. Only rushed for 38.

B (55:43)

Got a touchdown, though.

A (55:44)

Yeah, but not, not a whole ton of yards. The other one I checked in on Colts and the Dolphins. Colts 33, 18 over Miami. Daniel Jones 22 of 29, 272 and a touchdown looked really good.

B (55:56)

McDaniels is fired, right?

A (55:58)

Again.

B (56:00)

He'S got to be. I think that might be it for him. I love him, but that's not going.

A (56:06)

Yeah, I mean he went from the analytical book nerd to the Miami cocaine dealer to. I mean his appearance just changed and looked. I mean, he looks crazy, but he's got to be gone, right?

B (56:18)

I think so. I think that would be your. If you were. I don't even have the odds in front of me. I could get the. My bookie odds on first coach fired, but I think it's probably really pretty good right now.

A (56:29)

My, my favorite thing though from the weekend is the Giants quarterback room. Russell Wilson was bad, 168 yards. Had nothing to show for it under pressure. He was 2 for 12. And now they're like, do we start dart? You know, do we go to Jameis Winston? I mean, after the first game, they're already like, who's your quarterback going to be for week two?

B (56:50)

It's going to be your guy Pavia. They're going to already thinking about the sweepstakes.

A (56:54)

Someone's got to get them, dude, I'm telling you, they want just joining us.

B (56:58)

And if you're new to this podcast, you're new to Dan Burst. Unfiltered executive producer Matt Abaticola has a. Has a crush big time on Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia.

A (57:10)

Dude, they won 44 to 20. They were down 20 to 10 at halftime, 34 to nothing in the second half. He was 12, 18, 193, two touchdowns rushed for 61. He's nothing but a winner.

B (57:20)

Can I give you my quarterback crush?

A (57:22)

Yes.

B (57:22)

Josh Matier on Oklahoma.

A (57:25)

You love him.

B (57:26)

He is a hoot. He is an amusement park. He does stuff. I don't know about NFL level or what, but my God, it's another one of these quarterbacks from this system that they. They've just given him the keys.

A (57:42)

Yeah, you were texting me that. But I was still watching Vanderbilt and I, yeah, I jumped into the Oklahoma game. Oklahoma Michigan is like two and a half to go. I was too busy watching, watching my Vanderbilt Commodores.

B (57:54)

I was watching another win. I was watching two lane play like absolute horseshit. And thankfully, thankfully there's somebody who follows that team who can write an angry column afterwards and give him what for about unacceptable play.

A (58:08)

Oh, and then my, my Broncos pick. Yeah, I was given nine. Yeah, they won 20 to 12, so I lost by a point. But I had the under 42 and a half, so I nailed that. But yeah, nine points just a bit too much for, for the Denver Broncos.

B (58:22)

All right, real quick. The Cubs are not good at baseball.

A (58:26)

Yeah.

B (58:27)

And I think this is a team that's going to get the chance to prove in the playoffs that they deserve to be in the playoffs. Does that make sense?

A (58:37)

It does. No. Absolutely.

B (58:39)

Because they're just. Every time you think something is better, something else gets worse. And maybe this is just sort of the wild magic of Craig Counsel that somehow it'll all weave together just in time for the postseason with people coming back and all of the rest period for pca, the rest for a half injured Kyle Tucker all comes together at just the right time. Crazier things have happened, but right. And right now you might be able to get a good number on the Cubs winning the World Series when they're at this particular Nadir with what, 20 games left, it's.

A (59:18)

There are 19 games, 19 games to go.

B (59:21)

When we start thinking about what, what this season is going to mean after the fact, they might end up right around where they expect. It was supposed to be a 90 win team and they'll looking right now probably be 89 to 90 wins, right?

A (59:37)

Yeah.

B (59:37)

If they go 500 right now, isn't that put them there right around 90, 91.

A (59:41)

Yeah. So they're at 81 and 62. So nine more wins get you there. And with 19 games to go, they can do that. Third best record in the National League. We started looking at this with 29 games to go was the final game of that Giant series where they got swept. We talked about this team winning, you know, 19 or 20 of those. Those last 29 games. They're five and five after 10 games. Dan, they start a series in Atlanta tonight. Show does on the mound against Bryce Elder and his last three starts, an ERA of 1.35, 10 hits, 15 strikeouts, four walks. So he's been on a roll his last three. We'll see if the Cubs offense can, can change that. And and actually get some runs on the board here early against the Braves.

B (60:24)

If you are waiting for Sunday to start betting, you are missing half the fun and half the money. College football's already cooking. That means upsets and blowouts and wild covers. My bookie lets you hit it all with player props, with game lines and more, everything you need before the pros even kick off. So when Sunday rolls around, you're sitting pretty, you're already up. My bookie has it all under one roof. You win big on the NFL super contest and survivor pools. And here's the big deal. If you're new to my bookie, we have a code for you. It's the initials of this podcast. Dan Bernstein. Unfiltered dbu. You can bet anything you want. Pick a bet up to $500 and it's fully covered. You make your play. If it doesn't hit, you get it right back. You got to opt in using the bet back bonus token. My bookie is where betters win together because bragging's good, but cashing in is better.

A (61:20)

And going into the weekend, we looked at the wild card race. The Cubs were four games up on the, on the, on. The Padres lost the game over the weekend. They because the Padres were in Colorado. So now they're 3 up on San Diego, 5 up on the Met. Still starting today, the Padres are hosting the Reds. The Mets are at Philly. So maybe there's some more space between the Cubs and the Mets. And we'll see what the what the Reds can do on the road at San Diego as the Padres are three games behind the Cubs.

B (61:49)

Now, Dan bursting unfiltered. Also brought to you by Chicago Window Guys. Russ Armstrong, the owner, makes windows locally here in Chicago with no subcontractor labor. Call 847-302-9171. They have a price match guarantee. Check out his five star reviews at ChicagoNowGuys.com Now, I saw this a while ago and I wanted to save this because as we were getting ready to start this podcast, I saw this news story and believed that this was a major concern. And I'm not sure how this is going to play out. So listen very, very closely because no greater an authority than our own government, the Food and Drug Administration, and the way things are going in our government right now, you know you can trust that they're relying on nothing but high quality science. They're warning you not to eat, sell or serve certain raw frozen shrimp sold at Walmart. These are called great value raw frozen shrimp and Really, I think they are a great value because you know what you get with them along with shrimp nourishment, you get nutrients, you get cesium 137, which is a radioactive isotope. Oh, so we have nuclear shrimp.

A (63:13)

Okay.

B (63:14)

They're telling you not to eat them because they're possibly contaminated with a radioactive isotope. U.S. customs and Border Protection alerted the FDA about the one guy possible Cesium 137 or CS 137, detected in shipping containers at four U.S. ports. Testing on frozen shrimp from the distributor, Indonesia's BMS Foods, also tested positive. Now, they say that no shrimp that's tested positive for cesium 137 has entered the US food supply. But. But they're still recommending a recall because.

A (63:49)

That one guy may have missed it.

B (63:51)

The one guy.

A (63:52)

That's the one guy. That's the border patrol, right?

B (63:54)

And if they thought a couple of the shrimp might be Mexican, they pulled them aside and then they threw him in a cage.

A (63:59)

They let the rest go in Florida.

B (64:01)

And they let the rest go. That's just. That's how they're operating. So I'm thinking here, look, it's probably fine. That's my feeling with most things. You know, it's like when your kid comes to you and says, my arm, it's probably fine. Yeah, it's probably nothing. However, if there is a superhero origin story to be had, we of course know that Peter Parker was bitten by the radioactive spider, became Spider Man. We know that scientist Bruce Banner was exposed to gamma radiation. So it's always. It can be due to the. The 1950s and 1960s and the fear of nuclear war and nuclear radiation created these great stories. Here we have it again. So can there be only one shrimp man? Or if everybody who eats this, this is my concern, like an army of shrimp men, right? How many people get to be. It's one thing if you just sort of morph into, like the shrimp, like the fly, whereas. Oh, well, I guess I'm becoming. I guess I'm becoming a shrimp.

A (65:03)

Right? Then you're cocktail.

B (65:04)

But then you're not shrimp man. Using the powers of shrimp for good and to fight evil.

A (65:11)

What are the powers of shrimp?

B (65:12)

Well, this is a great question. What happens to you? That is a fantastic question because from the best I can tell, the coolest shrimp, if we're doing shrimp rankings, is the mantis shrimp. And there are various subspecies of mantis shrimp, but you can look them up and they have an enormous kicking foot.

A (65:37)

Just one.

B (65:38)

Yeah, that's their Weapon. They can break the shells of snails and other shrimp and mollusks.

A (65:47)

So would strip man have one powerful. Oh, could that translate into the NFL?

B (65:53)

Well, no, you're getting way ahead of me here. But if there were like a mantis shrimp power that you could get, I don't know if it'd be your leg or maybe you're wang or just one foot or. Right. You could just knock things over and knock holes in things. But if. If everybody eats it and everybody becomes shrimp man or shrimp woman or shrimp gender fluid person. Yeah, there's all. And everybody is that it ceases to have any value.

A (66:21)

Correct.

B (66:21)

Right.

A (66:22)

You have to have one.

B (66:23)

It can be only one.

A (66:24)

Right.

B (66:25)

Highlander. In the land where all our shrimp man, the non shrimp man, is king. I'm just not quite sure how this plays out.

A (66:35)

So one person needs to eat the radioactive shrimp and then they need to get rid of all the other radioactive shrimp. Will you be that man though, Dan? That's the question. Will you be America's shrimp man?

B (66:47)

If somebody wants to find one of these for me, I think we would do it for the pod. Okay. Yeah, I think I need a potentially radioactive shrimp just. Just for the pod.

A (66:54)

I'd like to see you with a powerful foot. A powerful kicking foot.

B (66:58)

Did you see there's another Grammatica.

A (67:00)

No.

B (67:01)

Yes. Look him up. He's on a. There's another generation. There's another Grammatica. There was Martine, there was Bill.

A (67:12)

They're my favorite. Who's your favorite Grammatica?

B (67:15)

Light em up. I don't even know the kid's name. And I don't know, maybe this is something where there's a third Grammatica. Just like Archmanning isn't the son of Eli or Peyton.

A (67:26)

He's the son of Cooper.

B (67:27)

Right. He's Cooper, as they say. Cooper, Cooper, Cooper, Cooper. Manning's kid is arch. I didn't know if somehow it's like a Dickensian saga where there ends up being another family line that comes out written that's read in a codicil at.

A (67:44)

The reading of the will. Maybe he comes from the branch of the tree that doesn't kick or maybe.

B (67:50)

There a schism in the family and this is like the. The black sheep of the family, the shunned Grammatica, and it's the. It's irony that it created. And maybe he's shrimp man. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe the other kicking Grammatica came from.

A (68:04)

Maybe he already had the shrimp.

B (68:05)

Exactly. Yes, exactly.

A (68:06)

Woke up one day with A powerful kicking foot.

B (68:08)

You've brought it all the way around. All right, thank you. It is time now for DBU picks brought to you by my bookie. I'm three and. Oh, I told you that Illinois was going to roll Duke and they did.

C (68:23)

They.

B (68:23)

They only had to give three points and they won by like 30. So I gave you that. Maddie's 2 and 1.

A (68:29)

Yep.

B (68:30)

But you want to go first because I have a stone cold lock.

A (68:32)

Yeah. No. So we're looking at Monday Night Football tonight and our Chicago Bears. I am taking the point. So if you go to my bookie, create your account. If you haven't done so, please do that. And remember, use the code dbu taking the Bears and the points tonight, they're getting one and a half. And I'm also looking at a lot of points scored tonight, Dan. So I'm going to go on the over of 43 and a half.

B (68:59)

I thought this was a misprint. And again, there's maybe something that I don't quite understand here, but the DeAndre Swift receiving yards prop.

A (69:11)

Okay.

B (69:12)

If you were to set the over under on receiving yards for DeAndre Swift, where would you put it?

A (69:18)

I would put it higher, but based on the way you're asking the question, I'll say it's 18 yards.

B (69:25)

DeAndre Swift's total receiving yards on my bookie, including overtime over 15.5, is minus 133.

A (69:36)

Okay.

B (69:37)

Now, it's not. It's not huge odds, but that's one screen pass.

A (69:41)

Yeah, that's one good screen pass.

B (69:44)

Yeah, that's one well executed screen pass, which you think that they better have of. Of the six plays Ben Johnson probably has. We're going to talk a lot about this coming up.

A (69:54)

By the way, make sure you find.

B (69:55)

That out that he has six. Well, he almost said it.

A (69:57)

He went from 3,000 to six.

B (69:59)

He. He answered a question of ours that we're going to get to on forward progress. But that's. That is my number. Write that down. DeAndre Swift tonight, total receiving yards over 15.5. Lock in your picks now with my bookie. Bet on anything, anywhere, anytime. That is DBU for this Bears opening day Monday.

A (70:23)

Can't wait.

B (70:24)

It has been brought to you in partnership with my bookie. A reminder, make sure you are subscribed to our YouTube channel here for DBU and also that for forward progress, a Chicago Bears podcast where we will be live at slightly before or immediately following Tonight's game around 10:15, 10:30.

A (70:48)

We'll talk to you then. Dan Bernstein, unfiltered unfiltered.

B (70:52)

On three.

A (70:52)

One, two, sports.