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Everybody talked about it since I first moved to Oregon.
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The big one. The earthquake that trashed the whole West Coast. Total destruction. Officially calling it the largest natural disaster in American history. I just didn't know what would help me next.
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So I took it all. Even the gun. It was time.
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Cielo American Afterlife presented by Pair of Thieves the number one fiction and drama podcast in America. Listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts available now. I mean if you're a Bears fan, you're thinking forward Progress. Come on.
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Forward Progress a Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and Matt abetic cola on 312Sports.
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As always, we give you forward progress here on 312Sports. A Chicago Bears podcast Bernste and Abaticola and first things first, there is some news today as we're trying to understand what all of this the over complicated political issues that are that are bubbling out of Springfield mean right now. And if you want to listen to some of the opening segments of Dan Bernstein Unfiltered which is already out that's going to give you a lot more details into the to put it simply, a communication issue. Political communication problems that are those of the Bears and from the Bears that need some sort if they get they have to figure out who's talking to whom, what's being represented and why and who's in charge of any of this and who is speaking on the Bears behalf and who is not. They need to get that ironed out. That's the short story.
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Yeah. And it's unfortunate that the Bears are required to say hey there are. There's one spot in Illinois that we want to build a stadium and it's at Arlington park and downtown in the city itself proper is not a viable option. Is not something they're considering talking about thinking about looking to do.
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No.
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But they have said that a second option is Hammond. Even though that's not a realistic option. That's of course all a leverage game. The only place the Bears want to build are going to build is in Arlington Heights.
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And yet everything has been confused and over complicated because the Bears have been sloppy in what they've communicated and when and this this appears to be an entirely self created issue during the end game of the pilot program that is being discussed in the Illinois State Senate. Yeah, it's just problem and I think
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when we talked about it yesterday a little bit about George McCaskey the
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that
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he the self awareness of not being involved in things that he thinks he shouldn't be or doesn't want to be has created a certain vacuum of space that is being sucked up by someone within the organization that probably shouldn't be doing it.
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Keep an eye on it. All the information is going to be there and I imagine I'm going to have more as more of this gets out. There are different news outlets that are beginning to put together a story and I think I did the interpolation slash informed speculation on dbu. If you want all of some of the gory details there.
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Yeah. So go take a listen to Dan Bernstein unfiltered here on 312Sports from earlier today. The Bears did sign a couple players though, so there are some signing news.
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Well I've got. I've got safety Anthony Johnson Jr. That's been reported by Jordan Schultz, a former seventh round pick of the packers as a rookie, 12 games four starts. He was released by the packers as part of final roster cuts the following off season after 2023 and then he went to the Giants where he was primarily a special teams player and looks like a depth piece behind their new starting safeties of Kobe Bryant and Dylan Thienaman and an opportunity to compete to be on the back end of the roster as adept at special teamer Anthony
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Johnson Jr. Yep and they also signed a running back Salvon Ahmed. He was a 2020 undrafted free agent from Washington.
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Okay.
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And played with a few teams practice squads, was been with a few different NFL teams. Suffered a gruesome ankle injury that almost cost him his career on a drop tackle. But apparently he's worked hard to get back and is going to be apparently from what I've read just someone to compete with maybe Roshan Johnson, Britain Brown behind Kyle menung guy and DeAndre Swift obviously. But a 27 year old undrafted free agent in 2020 out of Washington.
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There you have it. New names to consider on whichever depth chart you choose to to consider. I like the our lads depth chart whichever one you consult I guess to we can add names and move them around on there in a way that lines it up and makes it easy to understand who's where we have we're lucky here at 312Sports.
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Yes we are.
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We are lucky not only to to have this fabulous place to talk about Chicago sports and beyond in the way that we want. We also have listeners who are better at things than we are a lot of things. A lot of things who are willing for free to create and think and analyze for us. I love it when you analyze and a couple of guys have done this for us. I want to single out the work of Matt and Spencer who Individually, independently, have decided to take up the quest of figuring out if net rest matters. Because you started this, Maddie. You started it when you started putting together all of the. These, the. These analyses of the Bears being more rested than their opponents, whether it is their opponents not coming off a buy and the Bears coming off a buy, travel, etc. So does it matter? Is the question does it matter? So first, I want to start with what Matt sent in. And it goes without saying, thank you guys for doing this stuff. I. I know you have better things to do in your lives, but I don't know, some people just love this kind of thing. So Matt decided to dig in where he said, I wasn't sure if it made a difference. I ran the numbers I looked at every season since 1980, with the exception of strike years of 82 and 87. I threw out other weird results. Ties games without spreads, cancellations. The final data set was very robust. It consisted of over 10,000 games. So the first analysis I did was calculating each team's elo, which is not Electric Light, Orchestra and Jeff Lynn and Don't Bring me Down and Mr. Blue Sky. It's the, the Chess Quality Rating System. But he said, I created a rating of how good a given team is based on past results through each week of each season, modeling a home team's win probability based on its own ELO and the ELO of its opponent in a given week. The next item is to compare team season winning percentages with their overall cumulative net rest in that season, how much extra rest the team had in comparison to its opponents. And he attached the charts here. He's showing his work. He actually has a PDF with these charts. And he said that in the first analysis, a net rest advantage was a very slight detriment instead of an advantage, but it's not meaningful.
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I knew her a net rest.
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A net rest.
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Oh, you know, we forgot yesterday too was another player. Wade mode.
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Yes, Wade mode. Everybody, everybody says the. And apparently the cybertruck Wade mode is designed to help the truck navigate through low, through high standing water, not to drive into pumps, not to drive into a lake or the ocean. Don't do that real bad. So in the second analysis he said again, it shows essentially no difference. The third analysis I did was the effect of weekly net rest differential. The number of days since the home team last played minus the number of days since the away team last played on home teams winning percentages outright and with the spread when they're favorites and when underdogs the comparisons you will find on pages three to six of the attached charts, yet again, rest makes very little difference. The final analysis looked at cumulative net rest differential, the extra days each team had in comparison to all of its opponents to date, to account for the possibility that additional net rest earlier will pay dividends later. He said. Again, perhaps predictably, at this point, there seems to be little effect. If anything, a positive cumulative net rest differential makes home favorites more likely to win or cover and home underdogs less likely to win or cover, the opposite of a positive weekly net rest differential. Now, Matt says, admittedly, I became a lawyer because statistical analysis isn't my strong suit, but it's fair to say net rest means absolutely nothing. Of course, it won't stop the meatball in me from thinking it's a huge advantage for the Bears because it beats me worrying about the pass rush for the next three months.
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Yeah, no, I love it. It's great stuff. And like, we found with travel, even just going back one season, travel didn't impact the. The championship for last year for the Seattle Seahawks. I think traveled second or third most last year. The meatball in me is still going to believe that traveling less is better than traveling more.
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Okay, but we keep thinking that we're not even done yet. That's just. That's just the study from Matt. Yes, that's just one volunteer study. We didn't request it. We didn't commission it. You're doing this on your own time just because you want to help out forward progress.
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And I'm sure I. I could. I know how Matt was feeling, too, because you. You get into something and you're going through it, and, man, you get, you know, spreadsheets going, and you're like, oh, man, this is going to reveal some great information. I'm going to look like a hero. This is going to be great. I'm going to show some great results. Oh, it means nothing.
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But that's okay.
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That's okay. No, it showed. It showed. But it just. It was like. I'm sure he was feeling, like, really great. He's in the middle of it, and he's, like, skipping work that he wants to do, and there's some, like, case he should be studying or getting ready for a trial. He's like, no, no, no. I have more important meatball things. Right.
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He's got a client who is falsely imprisoned who's actually being walked to death
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row, and he calls the. And he's like, listen, I can't make that with the.
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With the governor's office. Yeah, I don't know I'm out today. I don't know. But yeah, send it to voicemail. Yeah, yeah, but they're strapping me into the electric chair right now. No, I'm I got bear stuff I got to do for forward progress so Spencer says, I'm here to run the numbers on a 312 sports rhetorical question you probably thought no idiot would be willing to waste their time trying to answer. And no, it's not, he said. No, it's not. Regarding the comedic merit of exploding taint, we don't need to waste my precious skills building a statistical model for that one. And he said, after all, There are roughly 6 billion adult humans on this planet. Given that I personally care about 100 of them, an exploding taint is roughly 99.9999-9983% of the time. Funny. 100. That's a lot. Yeah, thank you, he said. But no, these are distances that are different, he said. The Bears have a light travel schedule, one of the lightest in the league. Anecdotally, we know longer flights are difficult for teams. They're at a disadvantage from fatigue, so it turns out that this matters about as much as which team wants it more, he said. I looked at all 32 teams, 10 seasons win percentages, total round trip miles, the most traveled seasons, the least traveled seasons. The relationship between winning percentage and Travel bucketed into 20th percentiles. Five levels here, five parts of the chart, five bar graphs here. This might be hard to convey on audio, but it's five vertical bars of roughly the same height with nothing resembling an observable observable pattern or trend. I did the actual regression analysis. Total travel for a given season has absolutely zero effects on a team's winning percentage for that season. I tried looking at individual divisions, filtering out international travel, limiting to more recent years as the international schedule has grown. All of it tells the same story, despite our shared experience of how much getting to the airport, getting on a plane and sitting there sucks. Despite the conventional wisdom and anecdotal evidence that a team's performance suffers for all comes out in the wash. Yeah, there it is.
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I'm still going to believe though. I'm still going to believe that it makes a difference.
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You are undeterred Even now?
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Even now. I love the research. Thanks for the information. But I'm going to say that it has to make a difference, even though I know it doesn't.
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He did include another chart that says how funny fatal taint swelling is based on how well I know that person oh, boy. Okay. Yep. Complete stranger. Funny if I know them well, not funny if I know of them. Really funny. And if it happens to me, it's all negative. A red bar listed as tragedy.
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Good stuff.
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There you go. So that one I can.
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I can get into.
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Yeah, that one. That one I get. Yeah, I think that. I think that is a graphic way of explaining also the Mel Brooks theory of comedy versus tragedy. But thank you.
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I saw a funny. Not funny.
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Geez.
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I saw an interesting headline that caught My eye on NFL.com from Eric at home, and he. He wrote down from each team, the next three most likely hall of Fame inductees from each. Each organization. So I thought, well, that's really interesting. I mean, we're in a very dark time of. Of no information, no football beyond players, he included. Yeah, not just players, too. So he looked at each organization and the. The. Like, the most three. The next three likely hall of Fame inductees from each organization. So I just thought, all right, I'm gonna take a look at the Bears and see who he has for the Chicago Bears.
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Is it Tony Medlin?
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It is not.
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He has the best equipment manager.
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He says, I think at least at least one more member of the Lovey Smith 2000s Bears defense will get in after Brian Erlocker made it in 2018.
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Either Briggs. Peanut. That's really it. Briggs.
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Yeah. So he says it's possible Owen Crutch joins them from the offensive side one day. But he talks about Lance Briggs and Charles Tillman. He says Briggs might have a slightly stronger resume on paper than Tillman, and he's been eligible one more year than Tillman. But don't overlook the power of the peanut punch. Tillman lodged a stunning 44 fumbles in
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his career change the game.
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His trademark punch out is still referenced regularly in media and by fans. That reputation, which seemingly has only increased since retirement, could be enough to push Tillman through. He also says Virginia McCaskey, the second city's first lady for many decades, is a sleeper candidate to beat them all into the Hall. There is only one contributor finalist per cycle, making it tougher to forecast exactly when the late Bears matriarch, daughter of George Hallis, will make it. So I just thought that was interesting to see, because when I saw the headline, I thought, all right, Bears. I immediately thought Briggs. And Tillman wanted to see where he'd go with the third one, but I thought that that was an interesting piece. One other one that. That caught my attention was on ESPN from Bill Barnwell.
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Yeah. And he went through venerable Bill Barnwell
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went through the afc and he looked at each team and rated all of the deals they've made and gave the best deal each team made, the worst deal each team made in the off season. And he started with the afc. And so I was like, all right, this is interesting. Want to see it go through? And I come across the Buffalo Bills. He said, the worst deal the Buffalo Bills made. Everything that happened.
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Let me guess, go ahead. Was it. Did it involve a noted Chicago Bears wide receiver?
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Everything that happened with DJ Moore, he says, under the lens, making a significant move for a receiver made sense. I'm just not sure this was the right one. Moore is coming off what is comfortably as his worst season as a pro, one in which he seemingly fell out of favor with Ben Johnson. In the Chicago offense, the Bears had little leverage in dealing more given that they were about to be on the hook for 49 million over the next two seasons. For a guy who might have been their fourth option in the passing game heading into 2026, this should have essentially been a salary dump scenario for Ryan Poles. Instead, the Bill sent a second round pick to the Bears for Moore that was already a curious choice by Bean, the general manager. Even more inexplicably, the Bears, the Bills ate all of the salary that was already owed to Moore and then guaranteed their new wide out 13.5 million in 2028, committing money three years down the line to a player who had no leverage as part of this trade. If Moore had a no trade clause or was about to become a free agent, making that sort of move might have made sense.
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Well, there's a reason everybody here loved that deal.
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Yes.
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I didn't really hear a dissenting opinion on that deal. What? Oh, they got a second.
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Well, yeah, if you remember, I was shocked. They got a.
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Yes, yes.
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Yeah, absolutely shocked. But I mean, just seeing it written that way and talked about that way, because we were just like, all right, you're getting a second round pick for D.J. great, let's do it. We'll do it. But to have all those numbers there and to have all that put in place and then the fact that they've guaranteed money three years down the road for 20, 28.
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Yeah.
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Not quite sure what that was all about.
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While you're talking about the Bills, I want to note something here that caught me a little off guard today. Guess who turns 30 today?
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Josh Allen turned 30.
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Josh Allen is 30 today.
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Is he really?
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Yeah, that. I had the same reaction. Like, wait, I thought I had the wrong Allen I guess he is.
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Yeah.
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I mean, eight NFL seasons. Eight seasons already. He's second behind Patrick Mahomes in wins before the age of three, 30 by only one. Mahomes has 89. Allen has 88. Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson has a chance to pass both of them because he's tied for third at 80 with Ben Roethlisberger and Peyton Manning. Allen is fourth in career touchdown passes by 30 with 220. Patrick Mahomes leads with 247. Dan Marino is second, 245. Peyton Manning is 244.
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Wow. I didn't realize he was 30 years old already. But unfortunately, Lamar Jackson will not get that opportunity.
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Well, because.
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Yeah, I mean, if. If Skip Bayless and I have our way, he'll be the starter before.
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Are you hearing anything about his. His further progress?
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I haven't heard anything or seen anything.
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Which.
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Man makes me sad.
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No, he's.
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Or that could be good news, though, too.
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Yes. Because they don't want you to know.
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Yeah. He's a secret weapon.
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He's going into his special lab, and
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all I need is just one.
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One play.
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Just need one snap.
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That's it. One snap.
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Steak dinner. Boom. Did you see what Aaron Rodgers said? Some.
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He was on a podcast about this being his last year.
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Yes.
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And now you're. Because I wrote it down. I said, do you believe Aaron Rodgers is one of the questions I wanted to ask.
A
Okay, so it's funny.
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Funny because I literally wrote that.
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I heard it on the radio, and then I'm like, all right, I'm gonna find the podcast because I want to see him actually say it. I wanted to see his face. And. And then I heard it. I'm like, oh. And then the very first thing I. That came to my brain. I don't believe you. I don't believe you.
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Let me single somebody out here, too. Let me single somebody out because my old buddy Lisa Fielding, who anchors the afternoon drive WBBM News radio broadcast, you know, the. The doyen of radio news in this town and a living legend and a friend going back to the days in Rockford when we were sitting in the. The Rockford Royals press box and Rockford Cubbies press box. She was the. The first woman Pennsylvania announcer for an affiliated baseball team.
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When I was doing.
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Doing play by play, she. And she must hate Aaron Rodgers. There is not a lot of editorialization that goes on on WBBM News Radio.
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Not really allowed to.
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I know. But when she sends it to the sports cast and there's anything about Aaron Rodgers, you can hear her like saying, oh, yeah, that guy, whatever. And then even after whoever's doing the sports cast, whether it's, you know, Esposito or Staczynski or whoever, she'll be like, yeah, yeah, Aaron Rodgers guy, I'm sure.
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Yeah, he'll.
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He's done until he. He can't be done soon enough. There's always a bad word in there, or you can hear the I. I just love it. I love it. She cannot contain herself. I. I don't know exactly why. When I see her down here in the lobby or like in the parking garage, I'm going to ask. Or I should just text her, because
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you could just do that.
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Oh, my God.
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I've been.
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I've been laughing so hard at all of her unkind stuff for Aaron Rodgers because it's exactly what I'm thinking and it's just rare.
A
What did hear something about this.
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It was something like that he's declared it his final season. She's like, yeah,
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yeah, she has thoughts.
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I don't know why it only comes through regarding Aaron Rodgers, but it's great.
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Yeah, that's the, the.
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Yeah.
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The first thing I thought after I watched it, I was like, okay. They wanted to see it. I was like, yep. Sorry, Aaron, I don't believe you. There's no shot if he has anything resembling a good year or an offer. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Or an offer.
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But anything even resembling an offer.
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I just think if he plays well, there's no way his ego is going to say, oh, yeah, I'm done doing this. I can still do it. If he can still do it, he's gonna find an offer somewhere. And by the looks of the quarterback room, it could be Pittsburgh next year, too.
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We'll see. I mean, he was bad last year. He might be bad this year. I, I just somebody who is completely embodying my distaste for him and the. The understanding that there's no way his narcissism will allow him to go quietly. No way.
A
We'll see. We shall see, indeed.
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Oh, I want to remind you too, if you have not gone to our rewards page in a while, we have, what, about nine days left in the month? And that means at the end of the month, we are going to pick winners. For everything that is available to you in the 312 sports app, that's one place.
A
And that's when the state senate has to vote on the pilot bill as well, too.
B
Again, more on that on dbu. But we're giving away a lot of things when you go to the 312Sports app. After you grab it from the Apple App Store and Google Play, it's completely free. Register your account and then you're eligible to win great prizes. We've got dinner for two at Giordano's. I don't have to tell you much about Giordano's. That it's authentic Chicago deep dish pizza since 1974. The Capital Grill. Talk about steak dinner. Boom. Nationally renowned steakhouse known for dry aged steaks, extensive wine list and elegant setting. And antico Posto. Maybe if you're out west that would even be more convenient for you. The cozy Italian restaurant and wine bar tucked away in Oakbrook Center. So dinner for two available at those three restaurants and tickets to see Weezer the Gathering tour with special guests the Shins and Silver sun pickups on September 22nd at the United Center. To win, once your account is registered, enter the promo code Matt M A T T Matt. His name on any reward for your chance to win. And I also urge you to make sure you're outfitting yourself with 312 sports swag and things. Hats, coffee mugs, T shirts. There are, there are hoodies. We're going to have show specific stuff coming, but just go to the Pro Shop at 312sports.com or on the app. Everything's going to be in the pro shop. This is the very, very bare bones beginning. More products are going to be added. But outfit yourself. And then if I see you in the wild, wherever you are, you could be in the middle of a business meeting. You could be doing brain surgery on somebody. If I see you, I'm gonna hug you.
A
Run.
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I'm gonna hug you. I may stick my tongue in your ear too.
A
I, I see Bernstein coming near you. Run.
B
Yep, it just, it comes with the territory. If you're wearing three one, two stuff, you might be in the back of Mariano's, you know, prowling around trying to find that two dollar pecan pie like I found yesterday.
A
Oh, you know what I found yesterday? They Mariano sells the Panera Mac and cheese bowl.
B
Yeah, yeah, they do.
A
And I found though I saw one yesterday, it was the, the cheddar and broccoli Mac and cheese bowl from Panera and it was sell by today's date. So it was 2.37.
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Huge.
A
Oh, a huge deal.
B
Huge, great deal. And so many people are compelled now to send me pictures of their Mariano's victories or the, or wherever it may be Jewel or other place. I think somebody out in the, out, out in the Plains State sent me something from Schnucks. Like, look what I got. Look what I got. Even out here, I found it. It was like. It was like four pounds of ground beef they got for $8, I guess.
A
What a deal.
B
Yes. You got to act on these things.
A
I went down the soup aisle to yesterday just to check the cans of Campbell soups. So they're. They're. Originally it said 439 with a price cut to 419. Price cut? Yes. Okay. What? Yeah.
B
Oh, they're down to 419, so 419.
A
And you said normally, like a champ. A Campbell's chunky soup can is how much?
B
225.
A
Okay. Wow. I must not have bought soup in a long time then.
B
Yeah, I started buying Campbell's chunky soup. Only there's one specific dinner that I do with one specific Subway sub. I started doing this last year for some reason, and it just hit where I'd get my tuna sub at Subway, which is tuna and a half. So it's not double tuna, but it's. It's deluxe, which is half again. So it's six of the ice cream scoops instead of four.
A
Okay, so a foot long with six scoops of tuna.
B
Foot long Italian. Six scoops of tuna, lettuce, tomato, banana, pepper, olive, and salt and pepper.
A
Okay, nice.
B
Which is a great sandwich.
A
Okay, so you start there. That's what you get.
B
I get that. And then I will. But I will start the meal with a can of the right. Whatever the right chunky soup is for my mood.
A
Okay. And so what's. What's your. What's your normal. Go to's the.
B
The bean with bacon.
A
Okay. So I, I got a. I got a can of the old fashioned vegetable beef.
B
That works too. Like, I used. I used to like the sirloin burger until they. They changed it. They cheaped out on the sirloin burgers. Now. Now they're like.
A
I used to like that one too.
B
Oh, when it was an actual sirloin burger.
A
Yeah.
B
And they had the little stuff, the little grill marks.
A
I love the little grill marks. Yes, they sure did.
B
So cute. They had little elves in the back flipping them over. A little tiny grill. Yeah, a little teeny grill. And little elves with bells on their shoes making the sirloin burgers. These batches ready and they come running in. Oh, put them in the soup. I like that one. Yep. So I did that. And.
A
Or.
B
Or the, the new one. There's like a cheesy baked potato soup. Oh, I haven't It's a cream soup. It's like a cream cheesy baked potato chowder.
A
Okay. Yeah. Because again, I haven't bought canned soup in a long, long time. And so.
B
Yeah, I just felt the.
A
The need to go check the price and I grabbed one of those old fashioned vegetable beefs.
B
Good. Yeah.
A
Because they're very respectful, the old fashioned vegetables. You open the can. Hello, good sir.
B
They send you a handwritten thank you note afterward.
A
Thank you for eating us. Yes, sir.
B
Yes.
A
It's very, very. Yeah.
B
Very really very nice of them. Yes.
A
Yeah.
B
Always well behaved.
A
Well, yeah. Right next to them is the can of. It's the Gen X vegetables and beef. Yeah.
B
That can never pay attention long enough to. For you. For you to know what it's doing.
A
Yeah. It's just not as good.
B
It's just distracted and world weary.
A
Yes. Always on its phone.
B
Always. It always. Yeah. Always talking and laughing at some meme you don't understand.
A
Yeah. Or saying things I don't understand using different vocabulary. So.
B
Yeah. Anyhow.
A
All right. Yeah, I think that's about it.
B
I think that's about it too.
A
Oh, I got one other thing and I need to get this off my chest real quick, but I'll bring this back tomorrow. I've gotten a lot of emails and comments about Pete Crow Armstrong, but I have more. I have more emails. I can show you these two people typing P, C, K instead of pca. So either they don't know his name because if you look at the keyboard, A and K are nowhere near each other. They're across the middle road from each other.
B
PCK people.
A
I've seen PCK more than I have pca. And I don't know if it's people that don't support the team and just want to give me about Pete Car Armstrong, but man, oh man, there was two more that just came through while we're sitting here. Pck. Anyway. Okay.
B
Glad you got that off your chest. I know.
A
I'm saving it for. For off the Ivy, which is our Chicago Cubs podcast, by the way, here.
B
That's right. Which also confuses some people.
A
It sure does. Yeah.
B
Like the whole talk more hockey thing. It's just an interesting thing to send a Cubs podcast.
A
Yes.
B
But it's appreciated. The listenership, as always, is immensely appreciated and thank you for it.
A
Yeah. And that's forward progress for today here on 312 Sports.
B
Forward progress is stopped.
A
Forward progress. Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and Matt Abeticola on 312 Sports.
Podcast: Forward Progress – A Chicago Bears Podcast
Hosts: Dan Bernstein & Matt Abbatacola
Episode Date: May 21, 2026
Main Theme:
The hosts discuss whether increased rest results in more wins in the NFL, using fan-submitted statistical analyses. They also cover the Chicago Bears’ latest player signings, stadium relocation rumors, and touch on broader NFL news, including Hall of Fame debates and notable deals. Sprinkled throughout is the show’s signature balance of statistical geekery and "meatball" Bears fandom.
"The only place the Bears want to build are going to build is in Arlington Heights." (02:20)
"A 27 year old undrafted free agent in 2020 out of Washington. There you have it. New names to consider on whichever depth chart you choose..." (04:32–05:05)
Fan volunteers Matt and Spencer provided independent, robust statistical studies.
Matt’s Study:
Spencer’s Study:
Both hosts repeatedly admit they’ll still "believe" rest and travel matter, despite the evidence.
Humorous moment: A chart about how funny a "fatal taint swelling" is depending on relationship – comic relief after analytics.
"Rest makes very little difference." (09:10)
"The meatball in me is still going to believe that traveling less is better than traveling more." (10:17)
"Five vertical bars of roughly the same height with nothing resembling an observable pattern or trend." (13:00)
"His trademark punch out is still referenced regularly in media and by fans. That reputation could be enough to push Tillman through." (16:27)
DJ Moore Trade to Buffalo Bills (17:13-19:50)
Josh Allen Turns 30 (20:06-20:57)
"If you remember, I was shocked they got a [second round pick]..." (19:26)
"Wow. I didn’t realize he was 30 years old already." (20:57)
"There’s no way his narcissism will allow him to go quietly. No way." (24:53)
"Downtown in the city itself proper is not a viable option. Is not something they’re considering... that’s all a leverage game." (01:52)
"I’m sure he was feeling really great—in the middle of it, skipping work he wants to do, there’s some case he should be studying, but, no, he has more important meatball things." (11:08)
"An exploding taint is roughly 99.9999-9983% of the time funny." (11:48)
"You’re undeterred—even now?" (14:07)
"If he can still do it, he's gonna find an offer somewhere. By the looks of the quarterback room, it could be Pittsburgh next year, too." (24:20)
"If I see you in the wild, wherever you are... you could be doing brain surgery on somebody—I’m gonna hug you." (26:58)
"The old fashioned vegetables—very respectful. You open the can: Hello, good sir. They send you a handwritten thank you note afterward." (30:36–30:45)
The episode embodies the show’s iconoclastic, data-driven-yet-emotional fandom: rigorous statistical analysis is met with winking denial; current events are scrutinized, but offset with irreverent humor, inside jokes, and Chicago-flavored warmth.
For Bears fans and NFL aficionados, this episode is a unique blend of advanced analytics, roster breakdowns, local politicking, and everyday midwestern charm—a lively guide to what matters (and what only feels like it does) for the team and its fans.