Do you blame somebody for doing a job too well? Do you care who or what it is that does the job, what the entity's motivation or philosophy is or what its long-range goals or idiosyncrasies might be as long as you get the service you want?
Rick Telander: This, my friends, is why God invented metaphors. The 37-3 thing that occurred Sunday at Lambeau Field was a festering hunk of road kill. It was a light bulb in a trash compactor.
Maybe I'm easily flummoxed, but I just can't fathom the voting of Lou Piniella as the 2008 National League Manager of the Year.
Istill have the Sports Illustrated cover from the spring of 2004, and I take it out and ponder it every now and then.
Here's the thing: If the Bulls continue to fade away and the slumping Bears don't make the playoffs, winter belongs to the Blackhawks.
Rick Telander: Like water seeking its proper level, the Bears are receding after a brief surge. They were 1-1 after two games, 2-2 after four, 3-3 after six. Then abruptly they were 5-3 and looking at really big things. Now, nine games into the season, they are just a loss from being .500 once more, after losing 21-14 to the Tennessee Titans in a Soldier Field snore-fest.
Everybody knows Jeff Fisher is a terrific coach. The former Bears defensive back has a .554 winning percentage in his 14 years as the Titans' coach.
The president of the United States is our leader, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy ''and of the Militia of the several States,'' as declared by the Constitution. He is our boss.
Rick Telander: If the Bears didn't have a quarterback problem, they wouldn't know what to do. If the world gives them lemonade at that position, they will find a way to make lemons.
With the presidential election coming momentarily, here's the first -- and last -- political Stew.
The World Series was so weird, so curious, so oddly irrelevant that I don't know where to start.
It's a fresh season for the Bulls, and the motto seems to be out with the old and in with the more-or-less new.
Shall we start with drunkenness? Remember, you're getting this not from a scientist, a teetotaler or even a fellow who hasn't rounded the alcohol bend himself a few times. You're getting it from an observer of human behavior.
Back in the spring of 1989, I wrote a cover story for Sports Illustrated on Tony Mandarich, the 6-5, 315-pound offensive tackle from Michigan State who was about to be taken as the second pick in the NFL draft, just behind Troy Aikman and ahead of Barry Sanders.