telander
Rick Telander biography
Rick Telander has been the lead sports columnist at the Sun-Times since April, 1995. He previously was a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and ESPN, …
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After lots of coaching failures, Bulls got right guy in Tom Thibodeau
He’ll stand there, arms folded, collar a wee bit too tight, clearly uncomfortable with that damned snake around his neck — a business tie is all it is — and stare right through you. Well, not you, but a Bulls player. Or a ref. Or …Read More
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No piece of information is too small to be disseminated at Super Bowl
INDIANAPOLIS — Thoughts on a rainy Saturday afternoon in central Indiana: ◆ THERE ARE 433 collections of Super Bowl notes laid out on the rows of tables here in the media room at the JW Marriott. No. 433 tells us, among other things, that Patriots linebacker …Read More
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Bulls should save the core and not deal for Dwight Howard
Why are we all so nervous about the Bulls? They’re in a tight battle for the top spot in the Eastern Conference standings and for the best record in the NBA. But the desperation talk about the Bulls needing to break everything up and deal …Read More
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It’s often easier to focus on superstars’ failures than on their successes
MIAMI — It’s tough being ‘‘King James.’’ Why, some days you even have to ride your bike to the gym to play a team such as the Bulls. ‘‘Forty minutes,’’ LeBron James said after the Miami Heat had edged the Bulls in a 97-93 thriller …
Halfhearted renovation of Soldier Field likely cost Chicago a Super Bowl
I’ve got thoughts. Wonder if you agree. ◆ WITH THE PROLIFERATION of Super Bowls in cold-weather sites — Indianapolis next Sunday, Minnesota, Detroit (twice) and even an open-air game scheduled for 2014 in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. — I find it sad that Chicago …
Jay Cutler is missing the extra ‘something’ best QBs have
Guess who’s in the Super Bowl? Tom Brady and Eli Manning. Any surprises there? Hardly. The quarterbacks for the New England Patriots and New York Giants, respectively, will be making their seventh combined Super Bowl appearances (five for Brady, two for Manning), with four victories …
Joe Paterno a martyr, but for what?
RICK TELANDER: Angry worshippers already have said it was the Penn State trustees, who unceremoniously fired Paterno two months ago via a tacky phone call, who killed him. Technically, the culprit was lung cancer. But a broken heart indeed might have been a contributor.
RICK TELANDER: B.J. Armstrong helping lead renovation of 100 courts in Chicago
Do you love hoops? Do you love the culture of basketball, the beauty of the game, the freedom that comes with playing pick-up ball on sweet outdoor courts? Yes? Then Chicago is your city. In fact, unless some other place (New York, you’ve been asleep …
Bears' executives failing the course on managing change at Halas Hall
RICK TELANDER: First off, at this moment, the Bears have no general manager, offensive line coach or quarterbacks coach.
Medical study gives athletes all the rationale they need to smoke marijuana
Here’s some terrific scientific news for you pro athletes. According to a study released Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association, smoking a marijuana cigarette (joint, blunt, bud, spliff, reefer, dope, herb, Li’l Weezy’s Best Friend) about once a week doesn’t hurt your …
Tebow vs. Brady: For God’s sake, let’s leave religion out of it
RICK TELANDER: Pardon me . . . There, I just Tebowed at my desk. Thirty seconds worth. I didn’t ask the Lord or Allah or Buddha or even Joel Osteen for help.
A mother’s pain: Annette Clark’s caring uplifts the soul
RICK TELANDER: You try to do it, but you can’t. How could anybody? And then, for the briefest of moments, after Annette Clark has left you alone in her son’s bedroom while she greets well-wishers in the front room, it comes.
College football players need to go on strike, demand piece of lucrative pie
Players, revolt! If you don’t, there never will be fair, reasonable change in NCAA Division I football. History shows this. History knows this. The powers that be will never cede anything except crumbs of fairness, just enough to keep the feds away and enough to …
A brief evaluation of Tim Tebow
RICK TELANDER: Tim Tebow was praised as a miracle worker. Yeah, he did a nice job. But the Lord works in mysterious ways.
Bulls prepared if Derrick Rose goes down — unlike Bears were when Jay Cutler got hurt
RICK TELANDER: What if Derrick Rose went down? Would the Bulls become the Bears of basketball, a reeling ship with the captain/quarterback overboard and a conscripted nobody such as, say, Caleb Hanie at the wheel?
Carlos Zambrano’s off to land of Oz
Buh-bye, Big Z! Don’t let the Cubbie door hit you on the rump on the way out! Yes, Carlos Zambrano, the talented, troubled, 30-year-old right-handed Venezuelan pitcher — an employee in the Cubs organization since he was a lad of 17 — has finally been …
Mike Martz isn’t the Bears’ problem
Will Mike Martz soon be the Bears’ sacrificial lamb? It seems as if the offensive coordinator has a good-to-excellent chance of being swiftly heaved over the Halas Fortress wall for angry Bears fans to gnaw upon. You gotta give the mob something after a disappointing …
Brian Urlacher injury isn’t the end, but the end is near
MINNEAPOLIS — In a brutal sport, it was a rare show of respect. Or maybe it was different from simple respect. More like a jolting awareness, mixed with respect and gratitude. With just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter Sunday, Bears middle linebacker …
Derrick Rose can learn from LeBron James about what not to grow into
I don’t like LeBron James. I once did and might again, but right now the Miami Heat superstar reminds me of all the semi-delusional, self-aggrandizing, fan-tailed peacocks I have seen in my sportswriting career, crownless gods strutting in their mighty youth, mirrors held before them …
Telander: Buckeyes join elite group of punished programs, but they’ll bounce back
Say this for NCAA president Mark Emmert: He likes to crack the whip. And when the NCAA has more rules than the Bible — and thus more rules violators than humans — the ol’ whip gets a bloody good workout. Emmert’s lash came down on …Read More
