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Bears’ Image Takes Hit by Adding McDonald

March 25, 2015 @ No Comments

The Chicago Bears agreed to a one-year deal with free-agent defensive lineman Ray McDonald. He has a reputation for being a hard hitter. Oh, wait; that’s away from the field and against women.

Video below of model Mala Bryan. It's swimsuit weather, right?

Video below of model Mala Bryan. It’s swimsuit weather, right?

Despite his history of domestic violence allegations, the Bears added the former San Francisco 49er. Because. Because chairman George McCaskey — who initially was against the idea of adding McDonald — received approval from his mother, Virginia McCaskey. Because general manager Ryan Pace talked with defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and defensive backs coach Ed Donatell, who held the same jobs with San Francisco the last four seasons.

“I think honestly the knowledge of Vic and Ed helped a lot,” Pace told reporters Tuesday at the NFL owners meeting in Arizona.

To make things interesting, here’s hoping all involved in the McDonald deal put their jobs on the line while reassuring everyone McDonald will fit in nicely with all the Bears stand for (whatever that might be).

Now that the Bears have shown that domestic violence is not a major concern, maybe they can go after Baltimore’s Ray Rice. The main difference seemingly being there was no video to back up charges against McDonald.

Maybe the Bears can go after Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson while they’re at it.

Abusing women or children or anyone no longer seems to be a problem for NFL teams. As if it ever was a problem for them. And it never will be a problem until the league takes a firm stand. And, yes, that’s not going to happen. So it’s up to the owners to do something. As if that’s ever going to happen.

If the Bears thought any backlash would impact the team’s bottom line significantly, there would be no deal. The Bears have sent a message that essentially says: “We don’t care.”

The Bears had a chance to improve defensively. They theoretically did.

The Bears had a chance to take a stand against alleged perpetrators of domestic violence. They definitely did not.

That’s the team’s choice. If McDonald is successful on the field, fans (OK, not all) will embrace him. If he has any problem off the field, the Bears will be shocked. Oh, and embarrassed, too. An embarrassment that could have been avoided by maintaining some sense of human decency.

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* Kris Bryant hit a home run as the Cubs lost to Oakland 14-2. He has nine Cactus League homers. And, no. he still won’t be on the team’s roster to open the regular season. Maybe the Cubs will get lucky and their first dozen or so games will be postponed by weather so Bryant can be on the team for the entire season.

* Speaking of being on the roster, manager Joe Maddon reportedly will have Javier Baez for the start of the season. Because. Just because. I mean because Maddon likes his defense at second base. Baez is batting .128 with 14 strikeouts in 39 at-bats. If it’s any consolation to Cubs fans (and the guess here is that it is not), Baez is batting better than first baseman Anthony Rizzo (.118, 4-for-34).

* Speaking of spring training stats, Jose Abreu hit his first home run in a 7-6 White Sox loss to Colorado. He is batting .459 (17-for-37).

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