Le-Fevour Pitch

As the entire football fan base of Chicago collectively holds their breath awaiting the matchup with Matt "Can you put bacon on that?" Stafford and the rest of the improving Detroit Lions on Sunday, the Bears are once again making some shady moves in the front office. During their final cuts, they put two Chicagoland heroes on blast as they made former NIU Heisman candidate Garrett Wolfe sweat out seeing a red tag in his locker like he was Rick Vaughn in Major League, and then cut former Benet Academy QB and the pride of Downers Grove,Dan LeFevour. Thankfully, Wolfe made the cut and survived. But Dan, on the other hand, had to ride the unemployment line for about 20 minutes until the Bengals realized how brainless Bears management is, and scooped him off waivers like an infant off the Eisenhower Expressway. Like most fans, I was palpably amp'd up when the Bears picked up LeFevour off the board in the 6th round of last years NFL Draft. Dan LeFevour was an absolute MAN in college for Central Michigan and put himself into legitimate Heisman contention while he was playing in the MAC conference, not necessarily a glowing spotlight. Listen to this guy's numbers from last year--150.26 QB rating, 28 TD's, 70% completion, 3500 yards, 7 picks. I don't care if you're playing football in an entirely Asian league, those are some serious stats. Not to mention he guided the Chippewas to the GMAC Bowl and won the game and the MVP award, and was the North Team MVP in the Senior Bowl. How did this dude ever slip to 181st overall in the Draft in the first place? Did he haphazardly run into Mel Kiper at a draft camp and knock a strand of hair out of place in his helmet-like, mousse masterpiece? Did he hit on Todd McShay's wife at a neighborhood Bennigans? This was an absolute steal for the Bears in round 6, and they CUT him?

Maybe I'm biased that LeFevour should have made the Bears roster instead of Todd Collins, whose name just happens to sound like a gin and sparkling lemonade cocktail (shout out Matt Demars). Why wouldn't I be? Todd Collins is 38 years old and was a freshman at Michigan doing gargoyles out of kegs when I was taking my first steps around my parents living room in 1990. If I had to guess, it makes most sense that Lovie Smith cut LeFevour because he didn't understand Reaganomics--hell, he wasn't even alive. LeFevour would have been the perfect backup guy for Cutler. He was someone who could motivate him to play at his best or else 'Frank from Lisle' would be calling into ESPN1000 demanding that LeFevour replace Cutler after the first half of week 1. Perhaps Cutler needed a hometown hero to jolt him into being a competitor. At this point, all we can wonder is what if? What if Cutler breaks his leg in week 3? Even worse, what if Ndamukong Suh decapitates #6 in week 1 and nothing is left of him besides his fleshy, plump body rolling around on the Soldier Field turf? Then, we must turn to a 38 year old dinosaur to run Mike Martz's offense...is Jon Kitna still a free agent?

A lot of people will wonder about Lovie's rationale in cutting LeFevour and when asked, coach will melodramatically whisper through a press conference that "Dan just didn't have what we were looking for this year and we had to do what was best for him." Then why did you draft him? He has a completely different skill set than Cutler. He's a tough, hard-nosed, competitor who was a proven winner in college--not some butterball, flop-cut loser who is more interested in making the Pro Bowl than the Super Bowl. I know LeFevour wasn't exactly Joe Montana in the preseason, but he wasn't that bad (15-32, 160 yds, 1 TD/1 INT). You need to give a 23 year old,rookie quarterback some time to grow. Let him learn the system. At least let him learn the playbook! Instead, the next time we're gonna see Dan LeFevour is wearing a Cincinatti uniform learning behind a true signal caller like Carson Palmer. That is, unless we see Dan as a guest on Ochocinco's:The Ultimate catch VH1 show, doing sit-ups in his driveway with T.O., or, completely inebriated trying to operate a boat with Cedric Benson.

As for pick of the day, The Pulse Man had a pretty admirable weekend for the first Saturday of the college football season. As a proud alumnus of Eastern Illinois, he watched his beloved Panthers and special teams mastermind Bob Spoo cover the spread at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, went 1/2 on his parlays (5 for 6 in overall game picks--Cincy just didn't show up for him) and won his "Big Ticket" pick of the day as BYU held on against Jake Locker and the Washington Huskies. For tonight, he likes Tim Lincecum (and his hair) to bounce back from a slumping month of August and take care of the D-backs on the road at (-130). Also, don't forget to like/follow/whatever the internet asks you to do Chicago Sports Noise facebook page.

Pick of the Day: Giants @ Diamondbacks- GIANTS- moneyline (-130)

Record:(16-11-0)