A veteran of the Chicago beat reporting scene, David Schuster regularly writes about the sights and sounds of Chicago sports from the press box and locker room for MOUTHPIECE Blog.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Sun-Times‘ never ending coverage of Brian Urlacher’s off-field activities is having an effect on how Bears players interact with the paper’s reporters. It’s of no fault of the paper’s beat guys; they’re just being avoided while trying to do their job.

The Sun-Times, a long time ago, made a calculation that covering the Urlacher-Tyna Robertson custody case in great detail would sell some extra papers. It likely has. But it also has caused friction in the Bears’ locker room as many of Urlacher’s teammates have rallied around him and shunned the paper’s reporters.

Urlacher has gone one step further and not only doesn’t talk to the Sun-Times, but goes out of his way to make himself available to the city’s other major daily, theTribune. In fact, while going through his offseason contract dispute, Urlacher allowed the Tribune’s beat reporter to come out to Arizona and tag along with him while writing a long story.

This is not to say that the Sun-Times is wrong to print the news, especially if it comes out of court issued reports. But, they’ve sacrificed one section of the paper for another, and put their football writers in a tough predicament. Fortunately these football writers are damn good at what they do and have been able to overcome most of the road blocks put up by some players.

This is something they don’t teach you in journalism classes. This is on the job training and necessitates a real skill of being both a reporter and a negotiator.

A veteran of the Chicago beat reporting scene, David Schuster regularly writes about the sights and sounds of Chicago sports from the press box and locker room for MOUTHPIECE Blog.

Thank heavens for Mike Brown. If not for Brown, we would have come out of the Bears locker room Sunday with the usual dribble and nonsense.

The Bears played their worst game of the season in getting humiliated up in Green Bay. Afterwards, we were subjected to Lovie Smith’s weekly humdrum. The man’s temperature never changes. No anger, no outward emotion and certainly no raised voice. Not even a mention that the performance was unacceptable. Is it any wonder that the fans are tired of this monotone style?

A few players bemoaned their play but most said that it was only one game and time to move on. What? One game? Hardly. This was another in a season long line of poor defensive efforts. That’s where Brown comes in. Immediately, without prompting, the Bears captain stated that the defense is no longer what it was from the recent past. In fact, he called it one of the worst in the league and deserving of all the criticism it has been getting. He went on to say that the team embarrassed itself and “got destroyed and that’s the bottom line.”

Well here’s the bottom line from a reporter’s standpoint. We appreciate athletes who will bare their thoughts and feelings as opposed to the ones that will hide from the media. Kudos to Mike Brown who takes his captain’s responsibilities seriously.

A veteran of the Chicago beat reporting scene, David Schuster regularly writes about the sights and sounds of Chicago sports from the press box and locker room for MOUTHPIECE Blog.

It’s getting increasingly harder to get straight answers to easy questions from professional coaches. Monday was another example with Vinny Del Negro and Lovie Smith.

A simple question to Del Negro on whether or not he’s contemplating more changes to the Bulls starting lineup  was met with an icy glare. Because of injuries and ineffectiveness, Del Negro has found the need to alter his starting five. And, with Joe Johnson and the Atlanta Hawks in town tonight, it was a logical question to ask if he might change the lineup again. There wasn’t any second guessing going on here. But rather a question of how you would defend a 6″8″ scoring machine with a pair of smaller guards in Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon.

Oh well, strike one on that inquiry. Strike two came a couple of hours later at the Bears facility courtesy of Smith.

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A veteran of the Chicago beat reporting scene, David Schuster regularly writes about the sights and sounds of Chicago sports from the press box and locker room for MOUTHPIECE Blog.

You’re not the only one getting frustrated with how the Bears are playing defense. Sunday, after the Bears’ 21-14 loss to the Titans, the Chicago defense was agitated and came close to naming names.

Week in and week out, the Bears are making ordinary opposing quarterbacks look like Johnny Unitas. Kerry Collins was the latest signal caller to have a field day as he sat in the lonely pocket and played pitch and catch with his receivers. There was little aggression by the Bears defense against him on the field. But afterwards was a different story. More then one lineman barked out the problem is not just up front, but also in the secondary. As for the cornerbacks, they threw the ball right back and said they can’t cover receivers if there’s no pass rush. Sounds like a civil war in the making.

But the front lineman and the defensive secondary were united in throwing another element under the bus. Both said the philosophy might have to change — which is a direct shot against the coaches.

We only get about 15 minutes with the players after the games, so they really didn’t go into much detail. But it sure looks like there are cracks in the foundation of that defense, in more ways then one.

A veteran of the Chicago beat reporting scene, David Schuster regularly writes about the sights and sounds of Chicago sports from the press box and locker room for MOUTHPIECE Blog.

A pecking order was on full display at Halas Hall on Wednesday.

It’s on Wednesdays that the Bears bring their starting quarterback to the media room for a short Q and A session with reporters. On this particular day, we all waited to see who would come in knowing that Kyle Orton, though feeling better from his ankle sprain, likely will be rested this Sunday. Rex Grossman would come in and answer our questions, right? Wrong. In walked Orton, who proceeded to say he hopes to be ready for the Titans contest, but nothing is guaranteed.

What is seemingly guaranteed is that even if Orton does sit Sunday, he will be at the top of the totem pole as far as the quarterbacks go on this team. Grossman may fill in for a week or two, but Orton is their man.

Grossman eventually spoke with the media masses, but it came in the locker room as he was not afforded the normal status of being the No. 1 quarterback.

Some reporters felt that the Bears were, once again, trying to throw off their opponent from knowing who will start on Sunday. That probably is true too. But more then anything, Wednesday was a clear sign of who is, and who will be in the organization’s plans as their starting signal caller for years to come.

A veteran of the Chicago beat reporting scene, David Schuster regularly writes about the sights and sounds of Chicago sports from the press box and locker room for MOUTHPIECE Blog.

When you’re a new coach in the NBA I guess you’ll try almost anything to rally and motivate your team. That’s what Vinny Del Negro is doing so far with the Bulls. He’s trotted out one motivational speaker after another to try and light a fire under his troops.

Del Negro’s latest attempt was bringing in former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz to speak to the players after a practice down in Orlando. Some of the Bulls players probably had no idea who Holtz was. And what possibly could he say that would make them better? Would his words make them play the pick and roll better? Would his jokes make them play defense harder? Or would his mannerisms and lisp confuse those players to the point where they would actually ask, what is that dude saying?

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A veteran of the Chicago beat reporting scene, David Schuster regularly writes about the sights and sounds of Chicago sports from the press box and locker room for MOUTHPIECE Blog.

So far, Derrick Rose has received the red carpet treatment from everybody. The organization has bent over backwards, the fans have gone gaga and even his teammates have treated him like a king. But soon that will come to an end.

No matter how accomplished or acclaimed a player is, everyone has to begin as a rookie. And there is a time-cherished ritual of making sure rookies earn their stripes.

Shaquille O’Neal had to do it. So did Kobe Byrant and LeBron James. Heck, even the greatest of them all, Michael Jordan went through the good-natured rookie hazing. Look for Rose on the upcoming west coast road trip to start playing porter. There won’t be any bags he won’t be asked to tote. And, if his teammates have a craving for a certain food, drink or maybe a video, guess who will be asked to make the run?

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