Dan McNeil

I'm going to leave it to Joel Quenneville and his players to remind you "it's still early" in this NHL season. It's true the Blackhawks aren't going to win the Stanley Cup this month. And they didn't get any closer to a title with their 3-2 overtime...

How many times have you returned from Las Vegas with more money than when you left? I didn't think so. It seems so un-American to head home with "house money" in your pocket. On the heels of the elusive prosperous season of NFL investing, I'm in a go-...

Marc Trestman was a smash at his introductory news conference Thursday in Lake Forest. The Bears new head coach definitively answered "yes" to the qualities Phil Emery suggested were requisite for the job when the Bears general manager outlined his...

In less than three weeks, there will be answers to all the questions being debated around water coolers from Milwaukee to Merrillville. Many words have been devoted to Lovie Smith's future and the power structure in Lake Forest since the Bears tumbled...

Be it positive or negative — and I expect more of the latter — there will be a handful of over-the-top reactions to Phil Emery's choice as the Bears new head coach once the GM finally pulls the trigger. I'm going to do my best to avoid the...

With each New Year there arrives the chance to clear the slate and begin anew. I was delighted the Bears did that Monday when they showed Lovie Smith the door. It made for a more celebratory Rockin' Bears New Year's Eve than the Fog Bowl victory over the...

In the early 1970s, the older kids in my neighborhood wore Dick Butkus "51" jerseys. I had to go to NFL Films to learn what all the fuss was about. The only Butkus I saw was the broken-down linebacker in his final two years. History repeats itself. It...

The prospect of a winter without pucks draws closer to reality as each day concludes without movement in the NHL's labor dispute. Enthusiasts of the most electric spectator sport in the world gradually have moved away from disgust and anger to a feeling...

The big-picture stuff going on in Lake Forest is juicier than it has been in years. To my delight, that's not going to change for many weeks. Who coaches the Bears in 2013 is a much more meaningful, more layered conversation than if Lovie Smith's...

When the ribbon was cut on this NFL season in early September, nobody gave a second thought to the Bears' Week 12 assignment, Leslie Frazier's Vikings. No, you don't dismiss any divisional opponent, especially one that possesses the threat of Adrian...

Barring some miraculous turn of events this weekend, these are our final chances to reflect on the improbable 2012 White Sox. Much of the audience already has headed for the exits, so I'm going to roll closing credits now and avoid an empty theater next...

As we continue to peel away the calendar pages — only 12 days left — until the Bears arrive in Bourbonnais, the assignment is determining the 10 most important players in 2012. Let's first establish the criteria for "important." To me, it...