Rebuilding Years

I'd consider myself a fan of most sports. That said, my teams are the Rams, Bulls, and Illini. And I'd consider myself a peripheral Blackhawks, Cubs, and Bears fan. Not a whole lot to be excited about right now.

Rams
I haven't gotten the chance to watch any of their games, but I think I'm probably better off that way. Seriously, we're not just losing. We're getting demolished to the tune of 24-108 over four weeks. In years past we could at least put up some points. Not so much anymore. I just glanced over the schedule and there's no game that made me think "Yeah, we should win that one." Maybe the Lions, but they're actually decent this year. Maybe we'll tie their record and put up an oh-for season too.

Illini football
I have watched most of their games. It's just straight up frustrating to watch their games. Aside from the Illinois State game, it's been a clinic in how to get in your own way. Big play? Well done, let's make sure it was run in an illegal formation. Or that somebody got caught for tripping. Or if we do gain momentum, let's kill the drive by throwing a pick or racking up penalties. Much like the Rams, the offense was the stronger unit of the two. You would think that after three years of Juice and Benn and a year with Dufrene that we'd have a pretty good offense. Apparently not so much.

Bulls
I'm actually excited about their season to start. Last year's series with the Celtic was a damn good one and isn't a bad thing to build from. I'm one of those that was happy to see BenGo leave. Yes, it's a huge scoring void and yes, we lost some "clutch shooting." Regarding the latter though, if you jack up enough shots on your own whenever the hell you want, you're going to hit some of them. Double-pump fadeaways from the corner shouldn't be a go to move.

Illini basketball
Like the Bulls, I'm pretty excited about this season. The first round exit to Western Kentucky was pretty disappointing, but apparently we couldn't stop Mendez-Valdez. Either way, I'm actually a fan of McCamey - hopefully he's more consistent this year and doesn't disappear for stretches in (or of) games. Our freshman class is pretty highly regarded too with Richardson, Bertrand, and Paul. That said our team is pretty young, having lost Brock and Meacham and with McCamey and Tisdale being juniors. Regardless, I have pretty high hopes for the season.

Chicago Olympic Bid
Ousted in the first round and it wasn't even close, since we were supposed to be one of the frontrunners. We got 18 votes in the first round, Tokyo 22, Rio 26, and Madrid 28. It was fun while it lasted. I think it would've been pretty cool to have the Olympics in Chicago. It also would've forced a pretty massive infrastructure upgrade and infused a lot of cash into the city. That said, Daley eventually signed over the city to be responsible for cost overruns. Overruns which would have happened and may have run into the billions. (In contrast to other cities being backed by their governments.) But I see that as the price of being able to get federal and state funding for infrastructure including the CTA, Metra, and highways while also fast-tracking said projects. The Olympics would've also stimulated the development of economically depressed parts of the city: around certain venues and especially in the proposed Olympic village area.

As for the sports that are happening now, the Illini and Rams are a combined 1-7. At least my fantasy team is at 2-2. Yay.