It’s not officially baseball season until I mack a wacky, half-brained fantasy trade that I immediately regret. Because in the wake of my first loss of the season, I felt the desire to shake up my roster by trading away Kyle Hendricks — who immediately threw 8.2 innings of shutout baseball and put up a 30-point night. Meanwhile, my team, as a whole, scored 25 points. Whoopsiedoodle.
• Just when you think you’ll be done with seeing Tom Brady on your television sets, FOX Sports drops a bombshell:
Excited, but a lot of unfinished business on the field with the @Buccaneers #LFG https://t.co/FwKlQp02Hi
— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) May 10, 2022
• Brady is joining the NFL on FOX squad as soon as his career ends. This could presumably be as easy as this year or two. Or in the year 2042. Who’s to say with Brady? We were thinking his career was over this past winter, only to see him re-emerge in spring after un-retiring just before the start of the new league year.
• BRUH:
NEWS: Tom Brady's deal with Fox will likely be the richest in sports broadcasting history - at over $20 million per year.
Both Tony Romo and Troy Aikman earn $18M annually.
"It could go up to $25 million," one source told @MMcCarthyREV »
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) May 10, 2022
• FWIW: FOX has two of the next three Super Bowls, which is neat because it has me looking forward to Tom Brady’s analysis of Justin Fields’ meteoric rise in both of those games.
• As if Brady wasn’t an already omnipresent force in our lives, it turns out his return to football absolutely wrecked the NFL’s scheduling plans. Because of course it was. PFT’s Mike Florio has the deets:
“When Tom Brady retired, we were concerned about the strength of the NFC package because there were so many terrific Tampa Bay games we were looking at,” NFL broadcasting chief Howard Katz told Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times, via JoeBucsFan.com. “Then a month later he unretires and we sort of started all over again.”
• Just another late-in-the-game Brady comeback that changes everything. 🙄🙄🙄
• The league is trickling out dates here and there, but we’ll get the full-boat release on Thursday. And whaddya know, Bears single-game tickets will be on sale at 8:30 p.m. CT on Thursday — shortly after the schedule release. What great timing!
• While the football media world is top of mind, let’s welcome a new presence to our online space:
More personal news: Stoked to announce today is my first day as the Bears insider for @NBCSChicago Grateful to @mikedyce for giving me the opportunity.
My dad would always tell me to "keep going forward," so I'm doing that covering his favorite team. Fired up to get going! https://t.co/6hwiYODn2R
— Josh Schrock (@Schrock_And_Awe) May 9, 2022
• Josh Schrock is the newest member of the NBC Sports Chicago family, taking over the Bears beat from Adam Hoge — who recently left for CHGO. It is always fun to have new voices and perspectives on the scene, so I’m looking forward to seeing what Schrock brings to the table.
• Here’s hoping Schrock (and the rest of us) get to discuss someone who is as electric as Devin Hester:
No argument here. pic.twitter.com/ielqA2VNXZ https://t.co/wPIqMILA8U
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) May 9, 2022
• In the meantime, here’s a rookie minicamp hype video to get you through the day:
https://twitter.com/ChicagoBears/status/1523703176486129664
• No one, and I mean no one, does rookie minicamp hype videos better than the Bears. Got me wanting to go through a wall for guys who haven’t even taken professional snaps yet.
• The Giants cut cornerback James Bradberry, who would’ve made a lot of sense for the Bears had they not addressed their cornerback needs by taking Kyler Gordon with their first of two second-round selections. Nevertheless, the Bradberry cut is one that sparks a thought in my brain. The post-draft veteran cuts are coming. In other words, another wave of free agents will soon be hitting the market. I doubt there will be any franchise-changers making their way to free agency at this stage of the game. But it could be a place where the Bears snag some useful depth and perhaps a starter at the right position if the price is right. In any case, let’s keep our eyes on what develops here.
• Bleacher Report’s Ian Wharton comes through with a list of players who could fit the bill as potential future cuts. Among the names Wharton lists is Bears pass-rusher Jeremiah Attaochu, whose presence on the Bears roster surprises me. Attaochu is a pass-rushing outside linebacker by trade and doesn’t necessarily fit the mold of what this defensive scheme wants from its edge defenders (because the 40 front uses traditional defensive ends). Moreover, cutting Attaochu would clear some cap space. Then again, cutting him after June 1 would create $2.45 million in cap room that comes with a $650,000 dead cap hit. That would be financially more sensible than doing so before June 1, which would clear $1.65 million, but come with a $1.45 million deal money hit.
• As things currently stand, the Bears have $52,848,763 in dead money that they’re paying to players no longer on their roster. Yikes. But if it’s any consolation, that number takes a nose dive to $8,243,750 next year. Conveniently enough, the Bears project to have $111,291,748 in cap space in 2023. That would represent the most in football. Giggity.
• This is so touching:
After suffering a stroke, 21-year-old Javier Bolanos spent over a month in the @advocatehealth ICU.
Now on the road to recovery, the lifelong Bears fan got a special surprise from his favorite player, @RoquanSmith1. pic.twitter.com/BpDSPLmiUG
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) May 9, 2022
• Last night’s Sox-Guardians game was seven shades of ridonkulous:
An Error So Bad That It Literally Made the Broadcaster Swear on the Air – https://t.co/XePsxzEc8s pic.twitter.com/i0UsXYlQaY
— Baseball is Fun (@flippingbats) May 10, 2022
• Ayo!
Ayo Dosunmu's First Season in Chicago Was a Clear and Obvious Successhttps://t.co/eECUh5bmU4 pic.twitter.com/7XTgYdJSPv
— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) May 9, 2022
• Barry Trotz’s teams had some battles with the Blackhawks over the years. He would make an intriguing hire for this new regime if it came to it:
The Islanders Just Fired Head Coach Barry Trotz … So the Blackhawks Need to Pick Up the Phonehttps://t.co/esuN3fDLfQ pic.twitter.com/OKeMZbGya3
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) May 9, 2022