January 8, 2010

Bears fans, first and foremost thanks for all of your support this season. In a losing season on the field, you proved why you're the best fans in the league and that Chicago is always passionate about Bears Football. Hopefully that exciting Vikings win on Monday Night can give you hope for next year. It was fun to put on a show for you guys, especially on National TV. And I got in the Endzone too!

I saw Anthony gave you a recap of his always "exciting" road trips...college football and room service, I love AA but he's gotta get out and see the world!

I have what I like to call my COG's...my Congregation of Gentlemen. The members can change from week to week on the road but my man Nick Roach is my VP. I of course am the President of the COGs. The COGs like to check out the best of each city, find a nice, local restaurant and relax before a big game. I always want to eat as well as possible to make sure I'm ready for Sunday. The membership of the COGs consist of the aforementioned Nick, plus other guys who rotate in are Alex Brown, Josh Beekman, Matt Toeaina among others I find it's a great way to get to know guys on the team, regardless of offense, defense etc.

We typically get into a town on a Saturday late afternoon. However my restaurant research starts a lot earlier than that. I'm googling and yahooing good local spots all week long. I usually read reviews on the plane and then when I land I have 2-3 spots in my head. I take those to the concierge and get their feedback. I've found you have to talk to locals, they'll give you the true dirt on a place. Places can rise and fall in just a few months so the local hotel staff is always a big help.

This year the winner for best city is undoubtedly San Francisco. A few guy from the front office, Jim & Mike joined me and we had a great meal. Seattle is great too. A few years ago Muhsin Muhammad had one of favorite meals of all-time, sushi in Seattle it was great.

As for the bad ones...I hate to say it but Detroit, you're on the list. We walked around and around and the best place we could find was Fuddruckers. Now there's nothing wrong with Fuddruckers but come on...Green Bay is a little rough too. Which stinks because we go to Detroit and Green Bay every year. Probably my biggest disappointment on the road was a few years ago before a pre-season game in New England. I had Clam Chowder on my mind and we stayed out in the middle of nowhere at a Holiday Inn with no room service! That's when I really started to plan ahead.

Well that's it folks, thanks for cheering us on, for watching me on Chicago Huddle and for checking me out at http://2009bears.blogspot.com/

Have a good off season, see you in September!

December 14, 2009

Hey Bears fans...Happy Holidays. Since it is the Holidays and it's a time that we all reflect on our year and helping others I wanted to share something that's really important to me...I'm finally ready to push a very personal initiative that I have been working on for the past few months. Let me catch you up to speed first. I started a non profit organization about 20 months ago. The name of it is 88 Wayz Youth Organization. What 88 Wayz is all about in short is helping kids reach their full potential by offering an in school mentor/leadership program. The name of this program is TALKS mentoring which is an acronym for Transferring a Little Knowledge Systematically. Beyond that we have after school programs, tutoring, monthly seminars that address crucial subjects in our kids lives. Also, 88 Wayz do a free of charge football camp yearly for the whole community. We have SAT/ACT prep courses, college field trips, college admission assistance. These are just a few of the things we are doing. Other things that we would like to do is secure our own small building so we can house our operations as well as provide more services to our youth outside of the school, we would also like to sponsor field trips to local, state and national government sites. We would also like to expand our staff so we can work more effeciently, therefore providing a better service to the community. These are some of the things we are doing and looking to do in the future. If you would like to know in full detail you can go to www.88wayz.com.

Now to the part where I need your help. The organization has organized what we are calling the 88 Wayz Million Dollar March. We are asking for 50,000 individuals to donate $20. I know by sending out this one blog its not going to happen. Maybe we will get a great deal of you that read this to go out and donate and I would be very appreciative if that was to happen. But I need you to go a step further also and tell 10 of your friends or family about this and ask them to do the same.

As many of you know that the world is swallowing a lot of our kids up because of a lot of the bad influences that they encounter. I believe that if we get more involved and give them more positive options a lot of our kids will make the right choices. Right now we have 90 kids in the program and that number will double the next school year. We need your help to keep a good thing going and making it bigger.

If you feel compelled to help please go to www.88wayz.com and make a $20 donation and get the word out. I have set up an email that you can write to me personally with any ideas, comments, or questions you may have. Send them to 88wayzmilliondollarmarch@gmail.com. I would love to talk to you more about it. By the way, if you want to get involved and give go to the email address here and let me know that you're in.

I thank you for helping me do something that is truly dear to my heart, helping kids reach their highest potential.

November 23, 2009

Bear Fans,

What’s up Bears fans? Thanks for checking out the blog? What have you guys been up to? With the Holidays approaching that means were starting to get some big time movies hitting the theaters. I saw GI Joe most recently and I have to say it was just ok. Average to good, at best. I give it a 3 out of 5 on the “DC Movie Meter”. I also saw Pelham 1-2-3. That was a 3.5. My main issues with that were I didn't like the ending and they never seemed to tell you why John Travolta’s character wanted to steal the train. But it was still a little bit better than G.I. Joe.

I know I wrote about this before but I can't tell you all enough how much I liked Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol. Just an awesome book. Still looking for another good book to read…any advice?

With the Thursday game in San Fran we ended up with an unusually long break during the season. I didn't do anything exciting though because of my neck. Just stayed home & rested.

Are you all looking forward to Thanksgiving? I can't wait. It's a work day for us getting ready for the Vikings but when were done it's home for a nice big meal My wife & Alex Brown’s wife are doing the doing cooking. I can't wait for my wife's Stuffing & Mac n Cheese.

Hope you guys all have a great Thanksgiving. Thanks for supporting the team and for watching Chicago Huddle. Until next time, check me out at http://www.2009bears.blogspot.com.

Go Bears!

November 4, 2009

Bear Fans,

Hope you all have been well since I was last on the show. We have some big games coming up the next couple of weeks that will be important for us to get W's in. But enough about football. Recently I've been getting into a great book called, The Lost Symbol. Its written by Dan Brown and is tied into the Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons novels. I'll be interested to see the movie as well when it comes out, but if the previous two books and movies are any precedent, The Lost Symbol book will beat the movie anytime.

It's an interesting time of year for sports fans as you have every major sport in season right now. Is baseball season really still going on? Talk about a long season for baseball fans. I'm excited to see what the Bulls can do this year. I really like the pieces they've put together. Derrick Rose is a great talent and I like their draft picks, especially James Johnson from Wake Forest, my alma mater. Looking forward to following them this year when I can.

Thanks for all the support so far this season and catch ya next time!

October 5, 2009

After 2 straight wins, looks like we're starting to find our groove here in Chicago. It was difficult missing both games due to injury, especially since I hadn't missed a game since 2004. Those 2 weeks felt like months. I thought I was going to play last week in Seattle but ended up getting an extra week of rest. However, I am excited to get back out there and get another big win before we head to the bye week.

Everyone asks if I do anything or go anywhere special during the bye week and the answer is not really. I like to stick around town and stay close to home. Some guys like to go down south or head back to their hometown, but I like to stay home, relax and stay focused on football. I like keeping everything as normal as possible during the season. I even do the same thing every time I run out onto the field. If you watch, I'll always run out of the tunnel and head over to the sideline where I'll spray my socks so they stick to my leg all game. I hate going through a game where my socks keep falling down, so that's why I do that. After that, all the tight ends come together and get a little ammonia out to wake us up and get us pumped up for the game. Well that's it for this week, check back here in a few weeks for a update or check out 2009bears.blogspot.com for more.

September 30, 2009

Bear Fans,

Hope the off season treated you as good as it did me. I got a chance to recharge and get ready what I know will be a big year for the Bears. This past off season I got a chance to visit Puerto Rico with my Dad and step-mom. It was beautiful there, especially the San Cristobal Fort in San Juan. I also held my annual golf outing and football camp to support my 88 Wayz Foundation that Greg Olson, Jason McKie and other teammates & friends attended.

I'm excited about my 3rd season as senior host of Chicago Huddle. I plan on being around a long time (I've been here just as long as Chiaverini!). I told Ryan I'm grandfathered in, I'll always be here.

I'm even more excited about this upcoming football season. The addition of Jay Cutler has been huge for our offense. He's a great quarterback and he's getting better everyday. When you think about how good he already is, that's pretty scary. Bear fans can expect big things from this years team. When folks ask me what my prediction for this year is, its easy. I'm thinking what you are should be thinking, Super Bowl! I'm happy there is still some non-believers out there, so we can prove them wrong and make them believers!

Dez