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- [00:01]
Commercial Narrator
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- [00:48]
Dan Bernstein
Unfiltered Unfiltered on 312Sports.
- [00:54]
Matt Spiegel
Dan Bernstein Unfiltered is brought to you in partnership with my bookie and we thank Protein Bar and kitchen delivery. Delicious, nutritious and protein packed food and drink. Check out the menu atthe protein bar.com When I saw the news yesterday that the Bears were deciding that this, of all possible moments in the history of their franchise, was the time for a desperate stadium leverage play, I had a mix of disgust, of sadness and entertainment at just how brazenly silly this decision.
- [01:46]
Dan Bernstein
Is.
- [01:49]
Matt Spiegel
For Kevin Warren. And not just Kevin Warren, because Kevin Warren is an easy proxy for ownership. This does not happen without ownership wanting to do it. Kevin Warren has a lot of autonomy, but I'd be shocked if he had enough autonomy to hijack packers week like this for a political effort. This is ownership acting desperate in a way that is is is is sardonically as it's also sad and insulting. I can't believe this. The Bears penned an open letter explaining that now they are expanding their search of possible stadium sites to include Northwest Indiana. They're moving away from the state. And of course JB Pritzker snapped into action calling it what it is, which is a an insult. And Indiana's governor say, hey, come on down. Sure we'd welcome another NFL team here. Let's start talking. All right, I'll take you to St. Elmo Steakhouse and we'll grab ourselves a shrimp cocktail. They wanted to do the whole deal. Unbelievable to me, unbelievable to me that the Bears would decide on the Wednesday night heading in to a Saturday night game. Your 10 and 4 likely playoff bound team that is still in the midst of this tooth and nail fight to take the north has decided that now is the time. And they say, well it's not about leverage. And you could hear the noise of everyone's eyes rolling. Of course it's about leverage. And to decide to do this, the cynicism of this. And as somebody who has been known for years as the great thief of joy, the joy stealing, the decision to move in, the cynicism of this, to be like, hey, I'm telling you what we're going to do do. We're really going to plead our case. Everyone's going to get all excited about the Bears and the packers in a game that will likely decide the division with their, their coach who's taken the NFL world by storm, their quarterback, who everybody is, is learning to love. And instead we're going to make it about us and we're going to make it about how we're getting screwed over by the governor and by the city government of Arlington Heights and their school board for not letting us have tax certainty. This will be the time to do it because now all the attention will be on us. I would. How do you get out of that meeting? How do you get out of that meeting deciding it's a good idea? What is the end game in which this ends up being a good move by the Bears? By George McCaskey There is absolutely no.
- [05:11]
Dan Bernstein
End game where this is positive for the Bears.
- [05:13]
Matt Spiegel
There's none. If you say, well, you know, going to have this national broadcast and now they're going to talk about it, they're going to show Soldier Field, they're going to talk about it. How dare you, how dare you do this to your coach. The, the insult to the, to your organization and to the fans. And I don't want to get all populist here. It's not really a role in which I'm comfortable. But I don't think I'm overreaching when I, I at least can speak for myself. And if this resonates with you, as a Chicagoan, as a resident of Cook county, as a resident of the state of Illinois, and as a lifelong Bears fan, that's up to you. I can speak for myself. And I think this is gross. I think this is cheap and it's, it is nakedly desperate to decide to hijack packers week and the on field success of your team. And I'll tell you this. As much as we hear every year about how much packers week, how much the games against the packers mean to the McCaskey family, George himself spoke to the team, the players. George himself went into the meeting room to tell the players about the significance of the rivalry, about the history about what it has meant to the family. These players who are wearing the initials, the monogram of the recently deceased Virginia Hallis McCaskey on their uniforms and are brought in by her son. They're seated, and her son walks in and talks about how important the rivalry was to her and how important it remains. Don't ever tell me that again. Don't ever, ever, ever tell me as an organization how much the packers games mean to you. When you decide to make it more about your business deal than anything else. You're failing business deal and your desperate team president and CEO who you hired to take the heat off you. Kevin Warren, is doing his job and absorbing all the arrows here. It's very easy. But this does not happen. Kevin Warren doesn't do this without the blessing of ownership. You think that. You think that he would be allowed to walk out and say, watch this. I'm going to wait until this team is 10 and 4. The best season in recent memory, the best feeling about the Bears, let alone forget the record and all that. They. They took an absolute emotional high point of this organization, of this franchise in recent memory. I don't know how it's going to end up, but just judge where we are, what the feelings are about this team. You're at an emotional high watermark, and you decide that the best use of that political capital, that emotional political capital among your fans, is to make it about public money and your subsidies to build your building. That's going to make you even wealthier. It sucks. It sucks. As a fan, all we want to do and all we're talking about all week is counting down the hours until that ball is kicked off. And it's about football. And it's not about any of the other bad Bears history. Anything else that has been dealt with for the first time in forever, you got it here, man. You got it to this point where it's about a really dynamic, exciting, telegenic football team, and you. And you choose to make it about something else. This is a hijacking. It's a hijacking of our attention, of our feelings, of where you want the nation's attention to go, what you want to be talked about on this broadcast. It's cynical and it's cheap and it's desperate. There's a lot of ways to look at this, and we're going to. One is the economics of it and what it says to us economically about what the Bears are trying to do. And you. It's. It's not hard to see that if they really need public money this badly, then they don't have the money to build a stadium. That's what I think is happening here. If you had the money, it would be different. But this level of desperation, if you had another business, if you had something else forever ago, if the McCaskey family had invested in an S and P fund, some of the profits from the Bears at some point, something else other than just the Bears, and you had something going on the side. I'm not even talking one of these massive real estate empires that every other owner, maybe not the Rooneys and the Maras, but most other owners, have another business and they've got cash or they've got borrowing power. The Bears can't even borrow without giving away control of their franchise. Then sell. Then sell to somebody who can afford to. To kick in the money to build the stadium. That'll make them the. The ungodly money. The Bears can't seem to afford it. Sure, there's private equity. You can sell a certain percentage of your team right now, and that's. I don't even think that's enough. They would have to basically sell controlling ownership or sell entirely to be able to build a stadium. And they've painted themselves into this corner because they bought the land to build a stadium. They bought a parcel of land that has no other use than essentially building a stadium on it without negotiating with the municipality where the land is. And now you're pulling leverage games and saying it's not about leverage. Come on. We're not stupid. We're not stupid. And. And I just. It pisses me off that we're all excited about this game and you go and do this. The other thing that they're not understanding is there's two aspects. One, who cares where you play? I don't care. It's a tv. It's a television studio. You want to build a television studio and Gary. On a toxic waste dump? Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm not moving. Doesn't change me. I don't care.
- [12:24]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah. What's the capacity of Soldier Field right now? I know it's the smallest.
- [12:28]
Matt Spiegel
60, 000, whatever it is.
- [12:29]
Dan Bernstein
And then if they build something that's mega, what's the capacity? What are they at? 80, 85, 000.
- [12:35]
Matt Spiegel
That's. I don't. I don't care.
- [12:36]
Dan Bernstein
I know, but the whole point is, what's the percentage of. Of people that go to games that are Bears fans, that watch the games?
- [12:41]
Matt Spiegel
It does.
- [12:42]
Dan Bernstein
It doesn't matter where they play.
- [12:43]
Matt Spiegel
No, it does. It. You play wherever you want. Yeah, play wherever you want. There's. I don't know any Giants fans or jets fans that are terribly, horribly angry about.
- [12:53]
Dan Bernstein
They play in Jersey.
- [12:55]
Matt Spiegel
Come on, man. Or the. Yeah, the Giants are right. However that got done, nobody cares. Do. Do Dallas fans care that the. The. The Cowboys are in Irving, Texas? State borders, whatever. If you want to let Indiana give away the farm to a private business and quote all of these phony baloney numbers about economic impact, go ahead. You want to spend what it takes to clean up whatever poisoned land in Gary, Indiana that you want to build on. Are we doing this again? I covered Planet Park. I was. I was standing at Hallis hall with a microphone in 1995 when George McCaskey. It was. It was Michael. Excuse me. Michael McCaskey was going through his saying, this is Gary, Indiana, this is called Planet park, and this is where the Bears are going to build. It was bullshit then and it's bullshit now. And if you and Daley called him out on it at the time, the Bears then ended up moving Michael McCaskey out of the negotiating position, putting Ted Phillips into that position, because Daley wouldn't even deal with Michael McCaskey at that point. As they're all throwing barbs at each other in the. In public. And everybody. That press conference again, I covered the last time you said you were going to move to Gary and everyone laughed at you. People were actually standing there. We were covering our faces because it was. It was so hysterically funny. There was Mike Flannery from Channel 2 asking all of these important. He's like, well, he's there bigfooting all the sports people. He's like, this is a news story now. Get out of the way. This is about news. Big time news people are here. Move away all you little stupid sports people. All right, whatever, man. And it was this massive story. The Bears taken seriously. Are they going to move to get. No, they're going to move to Gary. If the Bears want to move, go ahead. Because then there's the, the last point here, and that is we live here. This is my money you're talking about. I'm in the city of Chicago. I'm in Cook County. I'm in the state of Illinois. You know where I want the tax money going rather than to the Bears. How about public transit? How about health care? How about that? How about the social safety net? It is because of what the federal government has been doing to strip away all these dollars. I credit Pritzker and Illinois for stepping in And Pritzker has. And the state and the city and the county, in large part, have had to fill in a lot of gaps to make sure people aren't sick or dying and to make sure they can get to work and make sure that there are still programs to help their kids, to make sure there's school lunches, everything else that that government actually exists to do to make sure a lot of our least fortunate have the bare minimum of an opportunity to live a productive life. And the Bears want to pull this now. And you want a chunk of that money? You want to. You want a chunk of my. Uh, no. Go ahead. Move to Gary. Take their money. Go ahead. Go ahead. But don't ruin the Bears excitement right now. You made the conscious decision as an organization that you're going to make this about your desperate extortion. How dare you. It. It betrays a frightening lack of understanding of what people think about how important where you play is in their everyday lives. Trying to use us, Trying to use me as. As a pawn in your leverage play. What do you think I'm going to do? What do you think a Bears fan is supposed to do here? The moment you say, well, we could go to northwest Indiana. What do you expect a Bears fan to do? Call. Call the Illinois State legislature and call Governor Pritzker and call their state representatives and argue on your behalf. You're trying to use us and use your power to leverage us, the taxpayers, just like, don't let them leave. Do whatever you have to do. Subsidize their stadium for them or what? Not my job. Not your job as a Bears fan, either. To. To make their. Make the Bears richer and to make everything less expensive for them. You want to build a stadium, which I eventually think you will, in Arlington Heights. I have no problem with the state building you some exits, building out some cloverleafs, some highway signs, some traffic controls. Ev. That's what a government is supposed to do. That's what my tax money can do. Right? That makes everybody's life easier once you. Once you build your stadium that you're going to own. But this is. This is unconscionable. Well, don't ever tell me again. Sorry, Matty. But don't you ever, as the McCaskey family and as Bears ownership, talk about how sacrosanct the packers games are and stand in front of the players and talk about how much it means to you. No, it doesn't. Because if it did, you wouldn't pull this shit.
- [19:03]
Dan Bernstein
Well, there's two big points about it. That the fact that The Bears are 10 and 4 and competing for division title and a playoff spot, the fact that they would do this now, it just shows how desperate and pathetic they are. This whole timeline has been a big clusterfuck. You go out and you buy the land, then you hire a guy who was involved is being the front man for another team building their stadium and didn't do any of the behind the scenes work, the actual work that got the stadium built. He was the front man for it. You bring him in and he knows he had no leverage. So then he says, oh, we should stay in Chicago. You're not going to stay in Chicago. You bought the land in Arlington Heights. Now this is just not going your way because they're doing it all wrong. Now you say this week we're going to go to Indiana.
- [19:46]
Matt Spiegel
Okay. Okay.
- [19:47]
Dan Bernstein
So first of all, it's. It's pathetic and it shows they have no idea what they're doing. But I mean, this could be the 49ers game, this could be the Lions game, it could be the Browns game, and it'd be pathetic and show that they have no idea what they're doing. But the fact that they do it during packers week, it just shows that not only do they have no idea what they're doing to get this stadium built, it just shows they have no idea how to run a sports franchise.
- [20:14]
Matt Spiegel
They just don't. They're trying to use us, the fans, as pawns and they want you, the lifelong Bears fan, to do their job for them because their lobbyists have failed. All of their attempts at actual politics have failed. So instead they're gonna use you as a shield and say, oh, well, we have no choice. Blame the governor, blame the state legislature, we're gonna have to move away to Indiana and. Or the pressure they're trying to put on Pritzker by saying, we're gonna take all of this out of. Okay, let's see how that goes for you.
- [20:55]
Dan Bernstein
Go ahead. If I'm Pritzker, that's great.
- [20:58]
Matt Spiegel
Yeah.
- [20:59]
Dan Bernstein
Enjoy. Good luck. And Gary, good luck in Hammond.
- [21:01]
Matt Spiegel
Good luck. And we will, we will find a far better way to use state resources to do things that are much more important. You tell me. Then you tell me why funding a private businesses money making scheme is more important to me as a taxpayer than public health, public transit, and everything else that my tax dollars can support. Explain that to me. Here I am, and I'm lifelong Bears fan, former season ticket holder. Explain it to me. Tell me why that's more important. Good Luck to you, because it's not. And if you think this, this 11th hour, desperate, cheap, insulting, sad decision to make this about your, oh, poor you, poor you and I, we got to go through that and then to eat. Who allowed the press release to say, this isn't about leverage? Who allowed that letter to actually include something as comical as the phrase, as laughable, uproarious as the phrase, this isn't about leverage? Who allowed that in there? How did that get through multiple edits?
- [22:27]
Dan Bernstein
Because they think we're stupid.
- [22:28]
Matt Spiegel
Come on, man. That's why. Come on.
- [22:30]
Dan Bernstein
They think we're dumb as Bears fans. That we're so fanatic and animalistic about our passion for the Chicago Bears that we'll do whatever it takes in the fall. For whatever it takes. But still, even so, to your point, what do they expect the fans to do? Like, do they expect the fans to call up the state legislature, J.B. pritzker and say, hey, I have an extra hundred dollars, can I donate that towards the Bears? I mean, do they think we're going to pull money out of our pocket or the taxpayers that live in Cook county and say, hey, we'll do whatever it takes financially to make this happen?
- [23:02]
Matt Spiegel
Yeah, do me a favor. Yeah. Stop with the upkeep of the roadways and the state parks. We don't want any of that. We want all this money to go right into the pockets of the McCaskey family and the Ryan family.
- [23:15]
Dan Bernstein
It's bullshit. Because you're the family that owns one of the top 10 most profitable or the top 10 most valuable franchises in all the NFL. And how difficult it is now for the average person to just live and get by day to day with electric bills and water bills, prices increasing, groceries more expensive than they ever have been, just the cost of living is higher for the average person. And you want us to sit here and listen to this and say, whoa, whoa is us. We're having such a hard time building a brand new football stadium.
- [23:47]
Matt Spiegel
But the. But to extort people when the team is this good. Yeah. That on top of it is.
- [23:54]
Dan Bernstein
That's the most pathetic aspect of that.
- [23:57]
Matt Spiegel
It's the timing. Like, here's what we'll do. We'll wait until we're 10 and four getting ready for one of the biggest games this team has had in decade, in years, and the level of positivity and excitement. And we are going to spend that on this cheap leverage play. And then we're going to say, it's not a leverage play. That'll get them like this is, this is an all timer.
- [24:20]
Dan Bernstein
It really is. Because it comes on the heels of these weekly symposiums they do where George McCaskey inserts himself because it's the packers.
- [24:27]
Matt Spiegel
Week and says how important it is.
- [24:30]
Dan Bernstein
And then you go out and you play that game. And then, and if that game is, is one or two drives more, the Bears win that game in a beautiful comeback, then you come out a bounce back game and kick the shit out of the Browns at Soldier Field. And you're getting ready for this, to set this up for this week after the packers just lost to Denver. And now it's, it's here again for you. And then Wednesday night they say, hey, we're going to move to Indiana, whatever. It's really pathetic. But you know what? I'm not surprised at all.
- [25:01]
Matt Spiegel
I'm not such, not at all. Such an own goal. It is such an own goal. It was needless, it's heedless, and it's so ill advised that it really does make me wonder whose individual decision it was to do this. And if it was Kevin Warren, it's a reason why that you, you've got to reimagine what your future is with him in charge. And if it is George McCaskey, it's immensely, immensely disappointing if this came directly from McCaskey ownership, from the board of directors to say, here we go. And watch this, Watch this. You think you'll love your team. Isn't this really exciting? Hey, be a shame if something happened to it. Yeah, nice. Nice franchise you got there. Nice up and coming coach you got there. Nice quarterback you got there. Be a shame if something happened to it and it moved to Indiana. Really? This is what you're doing?
- [26:02]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, Dan. And we have what you're doing. 13 days left in 2025 when Kevin Warren told us there'll be shovels in the ground before 2025 ends. Well, he's got 13 days to get it. Maybe he can drive across the border and, you know, throw a shovel into the dirt and.
- [26:15]
Matt Spiegel
Gary. All right, I'm, I'm. You know what? I'm rescinding his game ball.
- [26:21]
Dan Bernstein
Oh, yeah, don't. I thought of that last night. The fact that he even had a game ball was really pathetic.
- [26:26]
Matt Spiegel
Give it, Give us back your game ball.
- [26:27]
Dan Bernstein
Give it to a player. Give it to a guy who puts his body out there on the field instead of the president who hasn't done jack yet to the task that he was brought here to do, but yet finds himself in camera view every week in the Locker room behind Ben Johnson to high five and hug and celebrate like he's a part of the goddamn team. It's bullshit.
- [26:50]
Matt Spiegel
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- [28:57]
D'Joun Smith
I'm excited for it. I think everybody's excited for it. I think, you know, even Djek said it after, you know, the game is, you know, we feel as if we let them off the hook. You know, part of that was, you know, us starting slow. Part of that was explosive plays and, you know, and allowing something that we've. We've been pretty good at, you know, so far this year for all sides of the ball. And so, you know, we want to go out there and play our brand of football, and it gives us the best shot to go win the game. And that's starting fast, you know, playing physical, executing plays the way that we. We know we can. Offense, defense, special teams. And like I said, we're excited to go, you know, showcase that.
- [29:37]
Matt Spiegel
We let them off the hook.
- [29:40]
D'Joun Smith
We let.
- [29:40]
Matt Spiegel
Is what he said. Okay. And it wasn't D. Jack who said that. D. Jack said I got a bad taste in my mouth from last week. That's exactly what he said. I still got a bad taste of it. We left them off the hook. Where. Where have we heard that phrase before? I. I remember hearing that with a really disappointed NFL head coach feeling that he and had just lost a game they should have won.
- [30:15]
Dennis Green (clip)
The Bears are what we thought they were. What we thought they were. We played them in preseason. Who the hell takes a third game in a preseason like it's. We played them in the third game. Everybody played three quarters. The Bears are who we thought they were. That's why we took the damn field. Now, if you want to crowd them, then crown their ass. But they are who we thought they were, and we let them off the hook.
- [30:43]
Matt Spiegel
That's where it's from. I knew I heard that somewhere. Where the other phrases crown their ass are who we thought they were. Those got a lot more traction and have resonated a lot more than the way he finished that famous rant. Dennis Green, the late Dennis Green and Caleb Williams both said, we let them off the hook.
- [31:13]
D'Joun Smith
We let them off the hook.
- [31:18]
Dan Bernstein
I know where you're going with this.
- [31:19]
Matt Spiegel
Okay, Well, I don't know if you do.
- [31:21]
Dan Bernstein
I do. I know you're going.
- [31:22]
Matt Spiegel
There are certain people listening right now. You might know.
- [31:27]
Dan Bernstein
I do know, because you're in my life every day, and it's a topic of conversation at least once a day.
- [31:33]
Matt Spiegel
Well, part of it is. It's important to me, and part of it is we're at the time of year where I'm not doing much of it. But there are few things that sear into your brain more indelibly than letting an actual fish off the hook. I'm just saying, and I've said this before, the pain of losing a fish outweighs the joy of catching one. And that's part of the addiction. It's part of the whole. We say the tug is the drug when you're chasing. When you've lost one it's the worst feeling and it eats at you for the rest of your life. You never. I could tell you I could walk the north branch of the Chicago river right now and I couldn't tell you every big fish I caught, but I could tell you everyone I lost. Seriously, I tell you everyone I lost. Yeah, I could, I could. We could stand right now, we could, we could stand at the top of DuSable harbor and walk all the way around to the back of Adler Planetarium and I could tell you every fish that I lost, every good one, everyone that mattered, where you, where, where you know you got it like. And then you look and there is that bereft and sad plastic worm with nothing on the end. When you feel it go slack like that, it rips your heart out. And then you go through all the state. What did I do wrong? What can I do better? Was it my fault? And the thing about fishing is you're going to lose fish. And you know that. And you repeat it to yourself. You say, man, it's part of fishing. Fishermen lose fish, they shake their heads. Sometimes the hook is. Sometimes they bite short, sometimes they don't quite have it, Sometimes they just, it just happens. And you know it's not your fault. And you know you can't blame yourself all the time unless you can. Unless your drag set wrong, unless your, your rod tip was in the wrong position. Unless you, you, you, you didn't expect a run or you smacked it with the net. There are, there are really painful ways to lose fish. And you never, ever, ever forget it. Letting something off the hook, literally to let something off the hook is the worst. And here's why it matters from Dennis Green. I don't know if Caleb actually fishes. Dennis Green was a, an avid semi professional fisherman. He hosted a show for flw which was Fishing League Worldwide, eventually merged with, with Major League Fishing. His biggest joy in life was fishing, more so than football. So when he said we let him off the hook, that was coming from a real and deep place for Dennis Green. So I hope with everything else that's going on and you're saying, well, who cares, Bernstein? What does this all mean? No, it means something to me. I get it, Caleb. I get it. Whether you meant it or not, all you can do is wake up the next day and go get them again. That's all you can do. When you lose a fish, you have trouble falling asleep. You wake up, it's the first thing you think about the next day. And you cannot wait to get out there. You cannot Wait to get back there and go to that. Whether it's same spot or somewhere else. I always tend to think the fishing gods find a way to make it up to you if it's not your fault, if it really isn't your fault. And it happens in saltwater, they call it the tax man, that sometimes you got a big tuna on there and a bull shark comes and takes it. Nothing you can do. It sucks. But I like to think that they make it up to you. And I don't know if there are football gods that are going to make it up to the Bears, because the great thing about football, it is in your control. And you can go play harder and go hit somebody harder. But I hadn't until I heard Caleb say it. And then I went back and. And remembered what this all meant to Dennis Green. Now, see, now I'm even more ready for kickoff because I get it.
- [35:51]
Dan Bernstein
It's great. It's a really good analogy, too, even if you're not a fisherman or fisher person. Like the idea of the packers being the fish. And they were. They were just getting away, and then all of a sudden the Bears hooked them and they were slowly reeling them in as the third quarter ended, going into the fourth quarter, and they were right there, and they were at a point where Caleb could see the fish was like coming out of the water and they were.
- [36:15]
Matt Spiegel
They were right there when, you know.
- [36:17]
Dan Bernstein
When, you know, the. All of a sudden the line breaks because he throws that. The under. Throws that pass, the commit, and it gets intercepted and the game's over. It ends like that after being on that high of that comeback. And then all of a sudden he does. Wasn't like, you know, it was like a. It was a bad setup. It wasn't.
- [36:35]
Matt Spiegel
He had his drag. He had his drag set wrong. Yeah.
- [36:37]
Dan Bernstein
It wasn't just, you know, fishing gods. It was him.
- [36:40]
Matt Spiegel
Now, he let it. Or he let the line get slack and gave it just. Just enough. Enough slack to.
- [36:47]
Dan Bernstein
That's funny.
- [36:48]
Matt Spiegel
Rip it out like that. And it is. I just. I know that feel everybody there. So if I guarantee you that there are. There are people who fish who are listening to this and nodding, be like, yep, yep, yep. And I apologize because it's making you think about that one. When you were with your dad and you were 11 years old and you were up in Wisconsin, or whether it's the time that you and your grandfather were in the Gulf of Mexico. Doesn't matter where, it doesn't matter how deep. It doesn't matter what time of Year, you've got the one or the two or the three. And if it's the last day of the fishing trip and you're going home, you got to live with it for a year. That's happened to me, too. I've lost one on the last day of the Canadian trip. And you get out of the boat and you get on the float plane, you're sitting there in the Winnipeg airport, kicking yourself because you got to wait a whole calendar year to get back at it up there.
- [37:46]
Dan Bernstein
Well, Caleb's lucky because he only has to wait 13 days.
- [37:48]
Matt Spiegel
Exactly. So go get him, Caleb. Go get him, man. If you're still looking for.
- [37:57]
Dan Bernstein
It's funny, Dan, because when you, You. If you were to ask any Bears fan who was alive watching the Bears at that point, that. What did. What did Dennis Green say? Oh, crown their ass. We thought, no, no one, no one would bring up. We let him off the hook.
- [38:12]
Matt Spiegel
I get it. No one would. But see, to him, to him, that importance, that might have been the most telling aspect of it. Yeah. That might have been the best window into Dennis Green's sense of pain and loss and fear, failure and disappointment was for him, of all people. Yeah, that's pretty good to say. We let him off the hook like that. That tells me really what it meant to him. I get it, Dennis, you know, man, Dennis, you're long gone, but I'm, as of now, I, I feel you, man.
- [38:44]
Dan Bernstein
I feel you.
- [38:45]
Matt Spiegel
I, I, I, I get it. But it was the Bears, so, you know, whatever. Live with it or not. In this case, if you're still looking for a Christmas gift for somebody that matters to you and you want to personalize it, and you're like, okay, well, I could get, you know, monogrammed pajamas or something. You know what? How about a picture of you and your. Your. Your recipient experiencing something together? How about that time that you. You caught a big fish together, or you caught a big fish together, or it's. You're sending your own parents a picture of their grandkids, something like that. An aura frame is the way to do that. It's a digital picture frame that you can preload with photos and a message before it ships. It comes packaged in a premium gift box. There's no price tag on there. And they can open it up and Nana and Papa can have a picture of their grandkids with them, or it can just be, you know, all your college buds. When you got together for that bachelor party and you found that picture and you can send this to somebody that's what an Aura frame can do. And then it's it's unlimited photos and video that can be placed on there. When you have the Aura app, you connect it to WI Fi. You can keep adding from anywhere, anytime, straight from your phone all year long. For a limited time, you can save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off Aura's best selling Carver Matte Frame frames name number one by Wirecutter by using the promo code DBU at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code DBU for Dan Bernstein unfiltered DBU. This deal is exclusive to you for listening frames Sell out fast. Order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. You can mention us at checkout as well. So once Again, it is auraframes.com a u r a frames.com promo code D B U Great job by the Bulls last night. Sometimes it is darkest before the dawn, and I don't know if this, this is the dawn of something new, but it seemed like we had just finished up a couple days ago recording an organizations win championships episode where we were allowing ourselves the doom spiral again and say, hey, they've got a tank here. This just isn't working. And I still think that may hold true. But God, we got a glimpse last night of what the Bulls look like. We when they're doing it right, when they're doing what made them a winning team early in the season, all of a sudden, maybe having a few days to practice and a few days for this coaching staff to actually work with players a little bit. It looked a whole hell of a lot better. The Bulls had their biggest and best win of the year, 127 to 111 over the Cleveland Cavaliers. And they were competitive from the start. That's what happens when you move the ball and move your body without the ball. That's how you get 35 assists on 50 field goals. And it wasn't like they were ridiculous. From three, they made 14 threes out of 36. That's 39%. It wasn't just some insane shooting game. How about that zone defense they were using? That was brilliant. I saw it. I said, okay, well somebody's just going to shoot him out of it. And they didn't. They didn't shoot him out of it. The Bulls almost had, let's see how many guys in double figures in this game. Isaac Okoro, he was moving all over the place, 6 of 7 from the field, 12 points. Vuchovic with 20, White 25, Giddy 23. Zach Collins had 10 points, Kevin Herder 11 points, Trey Jones 11 points and 11 assists. And modest Bouzelis was nearly there. They nearly had eight guys in double figures. Bouzelis had nine points. Really strong play. And that's how they have to play. That is how they have to play every single game. They have to be aware and intelligent and communicative on defense, which they were. They were talking to each other. The spacing on offense allowed those cuts to matter because they gave them lanes to the basket. Everyone's head was up. I don't know how some nights they just don't do this, and then some nights they do and they have to remind themselves, what does it take to see how, how much you have to move without the ball? And there's a level of trust. There's trust defensively helping, knowing someone's going to find your guy. And trust offensively, knowing if you continue to cycle, you continue to move on the baseline, you continue to cut off the ball, you continue to screen hard away rather than just kind of sloughing into a screen or throwing a shoulder out there, set that screen, then roll off of that to open space, trusting that the ball will find you. That's, that's what it looks like.
- [44:04]
Dan Bernstein
I mean, that doesn't sound like, you know, like the Bear situation earlier in the year. They needed reps, they needed time together. This doesn't sound like learning something. This just sounds like effort.
- [44:14]
Matt Spiegel
No, it's more than effort.
- [44:15]
Dan Bernstein
Okay, more than. What is it then?
- [44:17]
Matt Spiegel
A lot of, a lot of it, a lot of it is knowing personnel. I mean, if you want to say effort in reading your scouting report, effort in understanding on whom you're closing out too often in their bad stretch, they were racing to close out on non shooters that they, they just didn't seem, especially with second unit guys out there, they didn't seem to know who was who and what people wanted to do. So some of it is just dedication. And if that's effort, if that is talking to each other and understanding, I think some of this was having a little bit of time to go practice. And I don't know if they got yelled at. I don't know if they, they had a, a team meeting out there or somebody just said, hey, we've, we've got to be better at these things. Getting injured players back helps too. We can say that. And maybe the, the use of Nicola Vucevic a little bit less and the use of Zach Collins a little bit more is Helping them with some of the drop defense or maybe having at least a hint of rim protection back there. But it's a start. Let's see it again. And now the test will come now as you got Cleveland again and they're. You can't spring that zone on them now. They'll be ready with a zone offense.
- [45:38]
Dan Bernstein
To adjust to it.
- [45:38]
Matt Spiegel
Yeah.
- [45:39]
Dan Bernstein
How does that process work then with. With a team and being able to understand the scouting and who will. The different functions of different opponents?
- [45:47]
Matt Spiegel
Is that.
- [45:48]
Dan Bernstein
Is that on a coaching thing? Is that just on the players being able to take the information in that they're given? I mean, is that.
- [45:55]
Matt Spiegel
Is that the effort? What's the point of it? Well, that reports that's there zapped to your tablet. It used to be printed out and set on your chair, but you should have a full, absolute full workup, full.
- [46:08]
Dan Bernstein
Digital workup of the whole thing.
- [46:09]
Matt Spiegel
Everybody on every. And you hit a button. Or maybe it's an app that they use now, a proprietary app where you've got. And you can go to the video guy and say. And a lot of players do and say, hey, this is the guy I'm going to be guarding for the next couple of nights. Can you show me every screen role that he's run on this side of the floor or every screen role that he's run against a certain kind of defense or with certain teammates? That's all. Then the click, click, click, click, click, boom. It's like the Matrix. It's like. It's like, I need to know how to fly a helicopter. I need to know kung Fu. That that's what an NBA video department could do for you right now. You can send one text message and say, I need you immediately to zap me every time that they've run a cross screen action for a quick post to this guy in fourth quarters. Any permutations they want. Click, click, click, and you've got it. To study it. And if that's effort, if that's just understanding, go ahead. But watch. Watch Okoro out there. He's not a great player, but he works. He works. And he's also. They didn't switch every screen for the first time. That's effort. Get over the screen, obviate the screen, ice it. Beat somebody there and trust that you've got the big man. Help. The Bulls have been really susceptible to what is called Spain pick and roll, which is made popular by the Spanish national team. And every team uses it now. It's. It's like pistol action. It's All NBA teams are running the same stuff. And the Spanish pick and roll involves a third guy. It isn't just ball handler and screener. It's. And there's any number of ways to use the third person in the action to, to then screen the screener sometimes and make sure that the, the secondary action is something you're choosing to do rather than just have four guys flat and, or have, or three guys flat and have everybody isolated that there's an actual second movement to a pick and roll. And that takes discipline and that takes understanding who's the third guy in pick and roll in that.
- [48:31]
Dan Bernstein
There's also like a large plate of paella that's on the floor that they have to get around so well.
- [48:37]
Matt Spiegel
Or, or if it's really. If you stop for more than three seconds, marcona almonds and olives appear in front of you and then just stop.
- [48:46]
Dan Bernstein
And eat them all.
- [48:47]
Matt Spiegel
Yes. And, and, and, and not worry about it. That's the other aspect. You don't have to worry about how long it takes. There's no shot clock. If you're really doing it like Spain, all of a sudden there, there's a little glass of Ribera del Duero and there's olives and there's marcona almonds and everything is happy in your world. And you're like, oh, what's up? We're down 27 and the game's almost over. I forgot I was enjoying. Yeah, happy. It's all good. I don't care. At this point, everyone's happy. You know what makes you happy? Having a meal, specifically this time of year. It makes you feel good, feel good psychologically, feel good physically. And the place to do that is protein bar and kitchen. And they're taking care of you in this time when we're looking out and trying to make good decisions around all of our bad decisions. Protein bar is a good one because they're, they've dropped their power players menu. It's all your favorite PBK classics, but now they're packing everything with even more protein. So especially if you're adjusting your workout schedule this time of year, as a lot of us do to maybe instead of 30 minutes of cardio, you do 40. And maybe instead of three sets of, of whatever exercise you're doing for, you're going to need more protein to replace, you know, some of that muscle that gets broken down and rebuilt up stronger. So how about the power cobb salad with 70 grams of protein? How about the power Black bean bowl, 56 grams. The power spinach and pesto. 53 grams of protein. And as a DBU listener, you get an exclusive 50% off when you order through the PBK app or at any of the digital kiosks in their Chicagoland locations. You want to get in the the holiday spirit. A better for you protein packed take on an eggnog shake, which is the almond milk, holiday nog, apples, maple syrup, vanilla whey protein, nutmeg and cinnamon. 240 calories, 15 grams of protein, 40 grams net carbs. 50% off. As a DBU listener, your next protein bar and kitchen Visit. Up to 25 off 1 use per person when ordering the app or a digital kiosk. The offer not valid on delivery or catering orders not available at airport locations. But man, that I love their Cobb salad. And now they power it up with a total of 70 grams of protein. That the high protein keeps you full longer. And it's better for you than just loading up on cheap carbs that you burn through faster. Those protein carbs give you a longer, healthier burn. So protein bar and kitchen is for you all day. Power. We had another coach lose his job. See this yesterday. I was so intrigued and actually I was, truth be told, I was getting distracted during the show.
- [51:39]
Dan Bernstein
Yes, you were.
- [51:40]
Matt Spiegel
When the news came up about Brian Smith. I'd never heard of Brian Smith. So Brian Smith was let go by Ohio University and the verbiage that they used, they said engaging in serious professional misconduct and participating in activities that reflect unfavorably on the university. And they didn't say anything. So I was refreshing and like, ooh, what did he. What this guy do? This is going to be fun for them to immediately say that we've got grounds for termination for cause. Engaging in serious professional misconduct. Oh. So my first thought was, you know where my mind's going? I'm like, sex dungeon underneath the football facility where he, he actually used like an ice auger and a sh. Shovel to dig underneath over many years. And he created some horrible sex dungeon where he was doing DNA experiments on his victims. This is going to be great. And then I thought, no, no, what else could he have done? Ah, he has a secret, I don't know, alpaca farm where he raises specially bred animals for deviant sexual purposes and he raises deviant sexual porpoises, which is. That's, that's at the seaside place that he's got. I mean, this has to be good. As far as we know. Do you know what it was?
- [53:30]
Dan Bernstein
Well, I do now, but you can, you can tell Our friends, they.
- [53:34]
Matt Spiegel
Okay, they fired this guy because he had a bottle of bourbon in a drawer in his desk in his office. And after a victory, he and his assistant coaches would have a celebratory nip. They would just do a little shot. He had a bottle of bourbon in his drawer in his desk. Do you know what we call that in my world? Coaching. Or, Or, I don't know, the end of a workday. And he and his lawyer said nobody was impaired. This is what we did. Do you have any idea what George Hallis used to do at halftime? Talk about a. I think it was. It was bourbon. It was a whiskey bottle. George Hallis didn't go anywhere. Doug Buffon told the story about the time somebody actually drank George Hallis's special Coca Cola. There'd be a bottle of Coca Cola in there for, I don't know, pregame, halftime, post game. You didn't mess with coaches. Coca Cola because it was half bourbon. Come on. How about. How about Jimmy Johnson? Jimmy Johnson, I heard 11 o' clock in the morning on a Friday, he'd call everybody into his office for chilled vodka shots. John Fox told me. John Fox in a. In a rare moment of candor when the cameras. He told me that Chuck Noel on that Steelers staff and look at that staff sometime. You want to talk about a cradle of coaches where they learn about the culture of coaching. The. Chuck Noel would have everybody do a shot. I don't even think they needed a win. I think they would, they would just sort of drown their sorrows after the game or they would celebrate. They need a reason. They're football coaches. What are we doing? You fired a guy for this and I'm just so disappointed. It wasn't juicier. I wanted. I, I'm telling you that, that a self, A self excavated sex dungeon, that's worth it.
- [55:54]
Dan Bernstein
Well, I'm glad for Brian Smith. It's not anything worse than that. And especially given the string of things we've heard and had to deal with and cover and talk about coaches in college football. And his attorney, Rex Elliott, said, we vigorously dispute Ohio University's grounds for the termination for cause of coach Brian Smith. He's shocked and dismayed by this turn of events. And we plan to fight this wrongful termination to protect his good name.
- [56:17]
Matt Spiegel
Okay. I mean, I know colleges have to be a bastion of morality, but you're not byu, you're not Liberty. Oh, God knows it goes on at Liberty.
- [56:27]
Dan Bernstein
I mean, but if he was having a drink after a game or after a practice, who Cares. I mean, is it, you know, if he. Is he showing up to practice hammered? Is he showing up to teams drunk? Is he berating kids and putting hands on kids because he's hammered and treating them like garbage? Sure, that's one thing. But to celebrate the end of a day, I mean, you know, hey, that's been known to happen in the youth circles of coaching. You have a 10 or 12 hour day and you go back to the clubhouse with a couple of guys and you sit down and you rehash the day and talk about your games and you might have a drink or God forbid, you go somewhere and you go to your local watering hole and you have a beer with a guy you coached with. After a game's over, you have one beer each.
- [57:07]
Matt Spiegel
And when you go home, it's coaching. Yeah, I know. I get. Isn't just that, it's work. There are other workplaces. Like, come on, why do you think that the. Especially if you're talking about, you know, third shift workers might get out of the factory and go find. That's what locals do.
- [57:27]
Dan Bernstein
We don't have to talk about like the advertising in 1950s given to us, you know, through Mad Men and Jon Hamm and his special unit. But I mean, like Miller time. What number of executive Dan have like, alcohol in their offices?
- [57:41]
Matt Spiegel
Yes, like display. But that's how beer. Like it's Miller time was the end of the workday. Yeah, I know.
- [57:47]
Dan Bernstein
I get it.
- [57:49]
Matt Spiegel
It's. It is. I don't know if they're just trying to fire him or. This school has very, very stringent rules, but unless the. The board of trustees of Ohio University is all members of the Taliban, this just really doesn't make sense to me. Oh, here's another one. Steve Spurrier, head coach of Duke football, has all the media in his office 10:30 in the morning, offers everybody a beer, including students. Who wants a beer? Who wants a beer? He's got a fridge behind him. There's a mini fridge at his desk behind him. Who wants a beer? Oh, okay. Who wants a beer? He says he's got an opener. He's handing out beers to the media. He offered. He offered me. I said, well, I'm. I'm only 20. And he kind of rolled his eyes. Right?
- [58:45]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, I just. I wonder if there's more.
- [58:47]
Matt Spiegel
I might have been a freshman. I might have been a freshman. I might have. I'm.
- [58:50]
Dan Bernstein
So you, you said no to the beer then?
- [58:52]
Matt Spiegel
Of course. Oh, I. Of course. Are you kidding? It would be. It'd be an Ethical violation.
- [58:57]
Dan Bernstein
Well, also illegal.
- [58:58]
Matt Spiegel
And it would be illegal, of course. Come on.
- [59:01]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah. So I wonder if there's more to this story because if, if this really is the story here and there's nothing below the tip of this iceberg. Come on, man. What are you doing? So all I know is obviously they're looking for a reason to fire this guy. I haven't even looked at the records or how they performed or what his coaching record or experience has been. Maybe there's more to it and they just wanted a reason to fire the guy.
- [59:22]
Matt Spiegel
Yeah. I don't know how, how legally this would work in Ohio, but if it ever had to do with a jury, the school's cooked. If these are actually the facts and it ever got in front of a jury, how are you going to convince them of the horrors of this crime? Right. Really? Are you going to say the jury? Have you ever been in a situation where after a tough day at work, you might have wanted a drink?
- [59:53]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah. You know, maybe Dan, maybe our friend Brian Smith here at Ohio University could have turned to our friends at Lucy and maybe he could have gone online to Lucy. You know, because lucy products are 100% pure nicotine, always tobacco free. Maybe he needed something to take the edge off after a very stressful day and he could have gone to Lucy Co and checked out what our friends have. Their products come in pouches, gum and breakers. Now the breakers are their pouches. They have a burstable flavor capsule inside. You crush any time for an instant burst of hydration and flavor. Brian Smith could have done that. The Lucy products are available in a great variety of flavors like mint, wintergreen, apple ice, mango, berry, citrus espresso, apple cider, cinnamon and pomegranate, There definitely would have been a flavor that he would have found a liking to. So if you're looking for a tobacco free product or you know, a coach that is maybe looking for one that delivers a kick of nicotine, you need for an extra boost in your day or something to take the edge off. Lucy products has exactly what you need. So let's level up your nicotine routine with Lucy. Go to Lucy co. DBU. Use the promo code DBU to receive 20% off your first order. You can even set yourself up with a subscription and have Lucy delivered straight to your door. And they do offer 30 day refund policy in case you change your mind. So don't wait. Order your Lucy today. Whether it's gum pouches or breakers. Use promo code DBU for 20 off your first order. Go to Lucy Co DBU right now. And here comes the fine print. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every order is age verified. Warning, this product contains nicotine, and nicotine is an addictive chemical. That's Lucy co dbu.
- [61:26]
Matt Spiegel
I have one last NFL note. I don't know if you've been following what has been going on with the league and the policing of touchdown celebrations and interception celebrations and all that. Apparently Aman Ross St. Brown, who has been. He's been told by the league he can't do the I'm picking my nose and flicking a booger celebration. He's not so weird. He's not allowed to do that. Okay.
- [61:52]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah.
- [61:52]
Matt Spiegel
I mean, you, you, you can. That doesn't bother me. However, the one that Puka Nakua says he's going to do tonight, I'd rather not see. And, and apparently a YouTuber has gotten a promise from Puka Nakua that if he scores in the game tonight, he said he was going to do the Covetous Jew celebration where he, he, he said something like this. I don't know if he's supposed to look like Shylock looking for his pound of flesh, but that's. Sometimes you get things that are close to the line, sometimes you get things that are clearly over the line, and I would advise him not to do that. I'm gonna ask. Please don't. Yeah, I, I think Puka, you got enough time between now and the game starting when you actually, you know, that it's referred to the celebration is mocking the stereotype of the, the covetous, money grubbing Jew. And that's going to be your celebration. I maybe talk to your team and the PR department or talk to the league. You might want to see if they're cool with that before you do it, because it's probably not. Okay, just a word to the wise on that for Puka Nakua.
- [63:12]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah, maybe if he doesn't want to do that one, maybe he can take. What is that, a jeweler's loop? And he could just pretend when he's in the end zone, he could just be examining diamonds.
- [63:21]
Matt Spiegel
Oh, add that to it. Like who? Or is there a dance for, like, the Elders of Zion?
- [63:28]
Dan Bernstein
You could do that.
- [63:29]
Matt Spiegel
Is there, is there a dance where he could be like, like, like, say, how do you, how do you express in interpretive dance the, the. The cabal that has international control of the media and banking?
- [63:44]
Dan Bernstein
Or maybe they just bring a chair out and do like, the wedding celebration.
- [63:48]
Matt Spiegel
And he's like, right. He does the covetous while they're raising him up and down on the chair.
- [63:53]
Dan Bernstein
Or a teammate comes over and opens, like, a fake satchel, and he does. Ooh. And then he gets on his loop and he's, like, looking at the diamonds.
- [63:59]
Matt Spiegel
And then they all celebrate. Maddie, you're a little too good at this. You're coming up with some really clever and vivid ideas here.
- [64:09]
Dan Bernstein
It's all my years of working with my friend, because that was the thing of our show. Who could we make fun of? Italians, blacks, hillbillies, and Jews?
- [64:17]
Matt Spiegel
We had everything. We had indemnification for everything, all of it. And seriously, this is. Well, what would your dance mean? Oh, it's criticism of the Jewish control of the international banking system. Well, that's interesting, Puka. Thanks.
- [64:41]
Dan Bernstein
Yeah.
- [64:42]
Matt Spiegel
Next week it's control of Hollywood.
- [64:44]
Dan Bernstein
Yes.
- [64:46]
Matt Spiegel
Come on, man.
- [64:48]
Dan Bernstein
I would probably don't do it.
- [64:49]
Matt Spiegel
Yeah, that might cause you a little bit of difficulty, maybe. Wow. Okay. That is going to do it for Dan Bernstein Unfiltered. And it has been brought to you in partnership with. With my bookie, Dan Bernstein. Unfiltered.
- [65:07]
Dan Bernstein
Unfiltered. On three. One, two, sports.