Ricky Proehl

If this eventually will be viewed as a statement game, then the man who had to speak through a fractured jaw made a loud one whose impact was surpassed only by the Bears' performance. "We responded," right tackle Fred Miller said. Good teams make...

The new era of Ravens football looked painfully similar to the old one. Quarterback Scott Mitchell was as ineffective as Jim Harbaugh. The offensive line was inept, but yesterday there was no Wally Williams or Orlando Brown to blame. An inexperienced...

Among the 18 or 20 NFL teams at or near the top of a 31-team league after the first half of the season, there is a balance of either mutual mediocrity or mutual excellence. If you agree with me, it's a balance of excellence. Pro football players all...

NFL defenses have become so complex this season that you can't possibly outguess them. So the St. Louis Rams say. So, they don't even try. They don't even think about it. "Our quarterback never calls an audible," Mike Martz, the club's offensive...

The Tennessee Titans, than whom few football teams are more conservative, have always preferred runs to passes. But their famous old runner, Eddie George, who is averaging a bleak 2.9 yards this season, can't move them now. Neither can any other Titan...

Here we go again. Another Monday night experience for the Bears. Players always say Monday Night Football is a chance to prove something to your peers, a chance for the entire country to watch you play. This Bears team is out to prove they're not one...

For a while, the Bears stayed close. Then, for the eighth straight week, it didn't matter. The Bears once again proved unable to make a play at a decisive moment to take control of a game, losing 21-16 to the St. Louis Rams on Monday night and tying a...

The Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908 and, in that time, it's become a common exercise to inspect teams playing in the World Series for their relative ex-Cubness. As the theory goes, the more ex-Cubs, the worse a team's chance to win. Since the...

First Quarter: When in doubt, run punter Injured defensive tackle Ted Washington was in the Bears' locker room before Monday night's game, offering encouragement. The Bears could have used the 365-pound Washington on the field in the opening quarter,...

On a bad day turned horribly worse, the Bears lost a football game, then were stunned by the news late Sunday that running back Curtis Enis is out for the season with a torn left anterior cruciate ligament. The news was particularly shocking because Enis...

Oddsmakers think the Tennessee Titans have a better chance of making it to Super Bowl XXXV than the Dolphins. In odds released over the weekend by Las Vegas Sports Consultants, the Titans are listed at 15-to-1 to return to the Super Bowl next season. The...

As of the 2004 NFL season, fullbacks are passé. One-back football is here. And Clinton Portis will be the back on one of the NFL's new one-back teams, the Washington Redskins, in their attack on the New York Giants Sunday in Giants Stadium. Portis,...