Half the country woke up upset this morning. The other half is ecstatic.
Not because the Bears signed undrafted free agent Caden Barnett out of Wyoming Saturday evening.
No… they are fired up over something a whole lot louder.
A California Teacher of the Year, Cole Thomas Allen, tried to shoot the current President of the United States last night. That is the kind of headline that splits a country clean in two before the coffee even hits the cup.
The Morning Chalkboard doesn’t get into politics, unless Father Bobby from the South Side is catching potshots.
What matters here is football. I am more interested in a six-foot-four, versatile lineman out of Laramie who just got his shot to become a Chicago Bear.
They call him the Vanilla Gorilla. He wore 72 for the Pokes. If things break right, he might be the best Bear to wear that number since another lineman with a nickname, William “The Fridge” Perry.
When I got in trouble as a kid, my Oldman used to tell me I got Conrad Doblered. That meant somebody baited me into the penalty and I was the one who got caught.
Conrad Dobler played for the St. Louis Cardinals. Mean, nasty, and proud of it. He was famous for nudging his nemesis into retaliation, just in time for the referee to see. I liked Dobler just to get under my dad’s skin.
Dobler was also a Wyoming offensive lineman. So maybe this Barnett kid means life is coming full circle.
This Bears draft might end up being the best class since 1983. The year they brought in the backbone of a team that went on to win Super Bowl XX.
The other day my brother-in-law out in Laramie called, asking if the Shepkids needed to freshen up their Wyoming gear. I will be calling him back Monday morning to tell him to grab a Barnett jersey for me. Because right now, my new favorite Chicago Bear is the Vanilla Gorilla.
It looks like a dreary Sunday morning and next week looks more like mid March than late April.
But the shadows are getting shorter and the afternoons are getting longer.
Today is a good day to pick up the phone. Call ten people…. friends, colleagues, classmates.
Check in and let them know you were thinking about them.
That is the kind of thing that still matters in the world. Getting an unexpected telephone call from an old voice.
Gusto and astonishment are out there Chalkheads…. Find it!
