So what is it going to take to make sure we see Super Bowl XLII? Well I'm no expert, but at this stage in the game, who cares. I'm a fan and I'm entitled to an opinion just like everyone else. So here is my list of what the off-season must bring for the Bears to be right back in it next season.

1. Get Lovie that contract! Pay him what he is worth. He took us to back-to-back NFC North titles, an NFC championship, and to the Super Bowl. Let this man finish the job by winning the title.
2. Resign players like Lance Briggs and Thomas Jones (although that might not happen). Keep that defensive line in tact as much as possible and lets develop a back-field with Jones and Benson much like Indy has Rhoades and Aidai.
3. Rex, Rex, Rex. Ok, buddy, I'm going to chalk up this season as truly your rookie year. The fact that you won that many games only proves to me that you are as good as Kyle Orton (who went 10-2 when you were hurt). You got that far because you had a good team backing you up. That's not to say that you can't do better. And that's exactly how you should see it. How can I do better next year? So from the arm-chair quarterback to you, here is your homework assignment for the off-season:
• Practice that Center/QB hand-off. There is NO reason why you continue to have issues with that in key games.
• Learn how to use the Shotgun offense. Your consistent 3-5 step drop just keeps you way to one-dimensional.
• Learn to roll out of the pocket naturally, not like you are running for your life.
• DON'T READ YOUR RECEIVER THE ENTIRE WAY. Why don't we just put a big red bulls eye on the intended target here. Every good linebacker can read your eyes and pick up who you are going to throw to. You need to learn how to read your other options, even if it is to fake out the other team. That is a classic rookie/college QB mistake.
• Continue to learn from each play. What does Peyton do that not many other QBs do after they get off the field, they head straight for the bench, get a set of printouts from the last set possession and analyze the defense and the run breakdown. Why? Because he can make adjustments and expose the weaknesses of his opponent. Learn from that!
• Make confident decisions, even if they are wrong. But don't make stupid mistakes, like throwing into double coverage when if you looked right you had a receiver wide open. Or run for a few yards yourself instead of always wanting to pass the ball.
4. Ron Turner, you need to work with Rex all off-season. Half of the reason why Rex was having difficulty is because you lack confidence in what he can do. The more you work with him on your playbook, the better he will be. Period. You only get one more season in my book too. And please, for the love of Pete, take that stupid screen pass out of the playbook if you can't execute it right. When you are 3rd and 7, don't throw a screen pass!!
5. The Defense needs to learn how to adjust the Tampa 2. What Peyton exposed on Sunday was that we can't adjust for when there is an arsenal on the field. Peyton had people to throw to, but we constantly played 10-15 yards off each receiver. I could have drove a tank through some of the holes you left for receivers to get the pass.

Overall, I've been very happy watching the Bears this last season and I look forward to next season as well. I think we have a real shot at making a great run for the next few seasons. We are a young team and have a lot of potential. That being said, here are some marching orders for Lovie, Ron Turner and Ron Riveria. Boys, its all about the "W". Do what ever it takes to get it. And in this case, loyalty to certain players can only go so far. Sticking by Rex all season was admirable, but in all honesty, if bad Rex was showing up, Brian Griese should have been thrown in to get the win. Period. Work on the mistakes in practice and let Rex try again. I know the adage of "working through the problems" but your season is only 16 weeks long. It is tough to work through the problems if the problems are bigger than a single bad game. The city of Chicago will have little patience for loyalty when it is clear that by making a line-up adjustment we can get a "W". Remember that.

So Bear Down and look out for next season. Peyton Manning already said he'll be back in Indy in March starting to work on next season. Rex, where will you be in March?

Many are rooting for the Saints and the Colts. Why? Well the Cinderella story of the Saints is not something to put aside. It would be historic. Then there is Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady. Brady has won three Super Bowls. Manning....none.

It will be a difficult day for both teams. Chicago is at home and the weather is cold and snowy. The new turf is slick and has proven to be a threat to both teams. Manning has a home field advantage. Brady will have to be on his "A" game to win in Indy.

Regardless, today is going to be a great day for football.

Update: SUPER BOWL BABY!! Look out Miami, the Bears are coming to town! WOO HOO! And just to remind you (thanks Marc for the reminder). What was the talk in week 3?? Yeah, I thought so. The are who we thought they were.

Backham has played for two of the most premiere clubs in Europe (Real Madrid and Manchester United) and according to the press release:

"I am proud to have played for two of the biggest clubs in football and I look forward to the new challenge of growing the world's most popular game in a country that is as passionate about its sport as my own."

The MLS and the LA Galaxy are banking some big bucks too on this.  Bechkham will score $250 Million over five years for his efforts.  For someone who played soccer growing up, I am excited to see this happen and I hope the efforts pay off.  I think the U.S. can get more behind soccer.  I look forward to a hopeful stop in Chicago this fall to see him play the Chicago Fire.   

Last weekend Cyndi and I went to Hog Days in Kewanee, IL. Our friend Shari is from this quaint small town and for the last 27 years they have had the Hog Days Festival over Labor Day weekend. All through college we talked about going. It only took us close to six years after college to make it there. Specifically we went to play mud volleyball. Somehow I was the cleanest of the bunch when it was all over. But that just meant that everyone else got to wipe their eyes of the mud on my shirt instead of theirs. I wanted to get dirty...really I did, but somehow my mad volleyball skills didn't require me to dive into the mud. It was a blast and look forward to doing again.

And speaking of that other league, we do our live draft tonight.  This league is run by my wife’s friends, in which we play as a team.  The biggest difference between this league and BUFL is that we have fewer teams, and more players per team.  This gives us more options for points each week and if someone goes down hurt in a game we are not hosed for the entire week.  We also don’t play head-to-head because it doesn’t make sense the small league. 

Overall, this season should be interesting with all the moves in the off-season.  Between the coaching and player moves to different teams nothing will be as we think.  I have a feeling that the old stand-by’s like Brett Farve and Daunte Culpepper will not be as effective this year. Even Payton Manning will have issues I think.

So let the smack talking start.  It is going to be a great season!

1. Entering my junior year at Bradley.
2. Building Web sites in tables with a hacked version of Dreamweaver not knowing at all what CSS was.
3. Dating my now wife.
4. Trying to figure out how to beat my roommate in Quake and Unreal Tournament.
5. Taking advantage of the Napster revolution (I’ve stopped since then).
6. Driving my first car, a 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix
7. Starting to wonder what I was going to do with my soon to be Marketing degree.

To give an update, here are 7 things I’m doing today:

1. Still unpacking from moving into my new house.
2. Building Web sites with CSS and Web Standards
3. Commuting 3 hours a day to and from work.
4. Driving my second car, a 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo z34
5. Married to my then girlfriend
6. Still learning a ton about the Web, business, marketing, and how they all work together.
7. Webmaster for the largest volunteer professional organization in the world.

I'm looking maybe at the new LG Chocolate...thoughts? 

Sorry for that interruption. You see, Uncle Joe was the one who provided me with the tickets for Friday night's show under the stipulation that I wouldn't brag about how great the seats were or the concert. While I won't do it to his face, I'm going to quickly write about it here.

So how was the concert? THE BEST! The entire night was THE BEST! Even with the rain that came in that afternoon, it was THE BEST! We got so lucky with our seats. We had two tickets in the 200 level on the east side of Soldier Field. Which meant we were in the Caddilac Club area. Nice carpeted area with bars and bar tops for food. Oh, and it was air conditioned which was great with the humidity that night. Very exclusive and a nice addition to the the stadium when it was redone about four/five years ago. Plus when we got out to our seats we were just within the overhang of the 300 level so we wouldn't get wet by the rain and still had a great view of the stage and screens. Outside of being in the front row/pit area, these were great seats to be in. (and we were dry too!)

The concert started a little late due to the weather. stellar ROAD kicked off the show and they rocked! I mean it was clear why they were the winner of the Have a Nice Gig contest. I said it in my last post about them getting some new fans out of this gig...and I'm sure they did. My wife said she heard them on the local news cast that morning, but it was just three guitars. I guess they did more accoustic set because her observation of "they sound a lot like Dave Matthews" did not hold true to what I heard. Great sound. Great energy. Great performance. stellar ROAD played for about 35 min, which was a great five song set. They have one album out from 2004 and one coming out soon. I definitely have a new band to check out and place on the iPod.

Next up was Nickelback. I was totally pumped to see them and after getting pumped up from stellar ROAD, the energy in the place grew exponentially when Nickelback hit the stage. They kicked off their set with Animal from their latest album. They had about 45 min. to play, it was pretty much a greatest hits set for them. They played "Photograph" and "Save Me" also from their latest album. They ended their set with "How You Remind Me" from Silver Side Up. Nickelback was cool because they interacted with the audience. Lead singer Todd Kroger had numerous occasoions where he was talking to the audience. They ended up shooting a bunch of Nickelback t-shirts into the crowd with air cannons (though they were admittedly pretty weak as nothing made it past the pit area). My only complaint about the Nickelback set was that the bass player had his volume turned a little too far up. Too much distortion was coming out the speakers. I'm sure the soundboard guy did what he could though (because JB and stellar ROAD sounded awesome).

Then the sun goes down, the rain stops and the night kicks into HIGH GEAR. The lights go off from inside the stadium for the set change and the "smirk" appears on the screens. Bon Jovi hits the stage and Jon Bon Jovi runs out on a ramp that leads into the audience to a mic center arc. From there they kick off their set with "Last Man Standing" that went into a great ending riff that led into "You Give Love a Bad Name" (which I coincidentally called). Here is the entire set list for the night.

LAST MAN STANDING
YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME
COMPLICATED
BORN TO BE MY BABY
STORY OF MY LIFE
CAPTAIN CRASH & THE BEAUTY QUEEN FROM MARS
I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD (with bits of "Dancing In The Streets" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" included)
RUNAWAY
THE RADIO SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT
IN THESE ARMS
ALWAYS (acoustic)
I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU (Electric Version with Richie Sambora taking lead vocals)
HAVE A NICE DAY
WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T GO HOME
RAISE YOUR HANDS
BAD MEDICINE / SHOUT
LIVIN' ON A PRAYER

Encores:
JUST OLDER
WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE
IT'S MY LIFE
BLOOD ON BLOOD
SOMEDAY I'LL BE SATURDAY NIGHT
TREAT HER RIGHT
KEEP THE FAITH

This set list rocked and they did a great job of interating with the audience as well. "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" was awesome how they brought in the two classics "Dancing in the Streets" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash". That song alone lasted about 10 minutes and then Jon went right into this dialogue about a song that was not from 2001, 2000, 1999, all they way down to 1983 and they busted right into "Runaway" which energized the crowd.

Once the main set ended, they came back out for their first of two encores! What was super cool was that Jon came out in a Chicago Rush jersey and congratulated the team on winning Arena Bowl 20 this year. (If you didn't know Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora are co-owners of the Philladelphia Soul) It was cool that they brought out the old tune "Blood on Blood". I've never heard that song live and it was cool to see the band jazzed to play it.

Overall it was a great concert. One of the very best I've ever seen. It was great to see the entire stadium packed with fans. The one thing I did notice this time that I've never seen before with Bon Jovi was the addition of a back-up guitarist. I don't know how hard of a time Richie is going through with his divorce, etc. (pure speculation here), but there were times where this other guy took solos that Richie would normally play. They introduced him at the end, but I missed his name. Of course the band will always acknowledge that Bon Jovi is really only four band members now and that Hugh McDonald is just a bass player that plays with them, so I guess this is no different (other than the fact that they never had a sixth member who played guitar). I just hope they don't get like the Stones someday where they continue to play and tour but they need a complete back-up band to make it sound good.

If you didn't get a chance to see Bon Jovi this time around it looks like your missed your opportunity. It looks like according to their tour schedule that their tour is ending soon. Try and catch them after their next album (when that is I have no idea). They are worth seeing.

Hey! Man! I'm alive,
Taking each day a night at a time,
I'm down, but I know I'll get by,

Hey! Man! Gonna live my life
Like I ain't got nothin' but this roll of the dice,
I'm feelin' like a Monday But someday I'll be FRIDAY NIGHT!"

Tonight my wife and I are headed to Soldiers Field to see Bon Jovi, Nickelback and Stella Road. It is going to be a great night for a concert and this line-up is one for the record books. Bon Jovi will headline with NickelBack opening for them. Then Bon Jovi working with Saturn did a local contest called Have a Nice Gig where a local band was selected to open the entire night. Stella Road, a south side band, won last weekend to open tonight.

I've been reading on the Bon Jovi Web site the set lists from the last couple of nights, and it should be a rockin' time. They've been playing a great combination of old stuff with new stuff and a dash of cover tunes. I've seen Bon Jovi a couple times now, but this will be my first time seeing Nickelback and I can't wait! The boys from Canada, I've heard, put on a great show. Their rocking tunes should bode for a great stage show as well. Hopefully they won't disappoint.

Stella Road is the unknown here for me. I just recently heard about them. From what I hear, they are a great band as well. They play on the south side a lot, so I'll have to check them out after tonight if they are as good as everyone says. If they do well they will definitely get a few new fans out of this gig. Very cool of Bon Jovi to support the local music scene (note: they have done this for almost every market they have and are going to on this leg of their tour).

Looking forward to a great show and a long night!

1. Get a collapsible umbrella. 
2. Get some waterproof shoes.  I have some nice Timberland’s that do the trick on rainy days.
3. Get a waterproof bag/brief case/backpack.  Seriously, if you are worried about getting your stuff wet, it can be solved pretty easily.