Pointless Exercise - A Desipio Podcast

The long, illustrious list of teams the Bears have beaten in the Super Bowl begins and ends with the mighty New England Patriots. But there's so much more to know about them. For instance, why did Matt Millen punch out their general manager on the field after a playoff game? How did the Sullivan family go bankrupt just a year after Super Bowl XX? They sold the team to a guy who sold it in disgrace...

Lodged in between a game against the Commanders last week and a Patriots game that's not until Monday the guys do the obvious thing and talk about Strother Martin for a while on the Bears podcast. The look back at the mind-numbing loss to Washington and at how hard the Bears had to work to not accidentally win the game. They take opposite sides on how much the Bears GM and coach are really investe...

The Washington NFL franchise has been in existence nearly as long as the Bears but they've won more Super Bowls (though fewer total championships) and been much more racist. Their first owner was forced to integrate his team or be denied access to his new stadium, and they had a coach who likely was only pretending to be Native American (no, not Joe Gibbs). The guys look back at the glory days of...

The Bears rallied to make Sunday's loss to the Vikings fun and if Ihmir Smith-Marsette didn't do a reverse Marion Barber III they might have actually won. The guys discuss the Bears sudden more aggressive approach and if it will endure, how well Justin Fields played, and they rank Darnell Mooney's one handed catch among the many, many great catches in Bears history. Well, that's kind of a short li...

The first round of the 2022 playoffs is in the books and the home team lost three of the four "series." The second round is upon us and Andy and David take a look at what happened in the best two of threes over the weekend and ahead to three underwhelming divison rematches plus Guardians-Yankees. Is Oliver Marmol still standing motionless in the Cardinals' dugout watching his closer throw balls at...

The baseball playoffs start on Friday, and apparently the Cubs aren't in them, but there's still fun stuff to talk about. The guys have some fun with the top 20 home run seasons in the history of both leagues. They ponder how many teams that actually tried to make the playoffs this year didn't. (It's not many.) They look at the playoff brackets and identify the division champion who might get boun...

The Bears went to New Jersey and muddled around for a few hours and came home no longer tied for first place in the NFC North. Was this a blow to their Super Bowl hopes? The guys discuss that, and how you can fall for the same play over and over and over. Did Justin Fields play better or did everybody else just play worse? Why did the Giants have a hobbled quarterback lining up at wide receiver la...

It's hard to express just how hyped the season opener for the Bears was in 1987. It was on Monday Night Football, it was against the defending Super Bowl Champion Giants, both teams had been 14-2 in the 1986, they had met in the 1985 NFC Championship Game and the Bears dominated them...and, Mike Tomczak was playing QB for the Bears! OK, maybe that part wasn't all that hyped. So join us as we break...

The first place, 2-1 Bears are doing it the old fashioned way with an opportunistic defense, a rugged running game and a passing game that looks like came straight out of the 1920s. Is it too early to give up on Justin Fields? Yes. Is it too early to worry about him? Maybe? The guys discuss what's wrong with the passing game, why the Bears are running the ball so well, how nice it was to see ...

David Brown is back to talk baseball and the guys talk about whether anyone can have a good enough season to be more valuable than Shohei Ohtani. They talk about Aaron Judge's run at the American League triple crown (and he homers right in the middle of the podcast) and about whether Paul Goldschmidt has a chance to get a triple crown in the NL. Thankfully, no. Andy compares a current fill-in shor...

For some reason the NFL insists on foisting the Bears and Packers in Lambeau at night, on national TV on us. They should know better. The Bears were overmatched, again, and while they kept the score superficially close, the outcome was really never in doubt. The Bears ran the ball well at the beginning and near the end, but did nothing in between. The guys try to figure out what what any of it mea...

It is probably the most infuriating season in Cubs history (and that's saying something with this bunch). The Cubs patched almost all of their holes from the year before when they gagged away a pennant, and the fans were manic from the first game on. Greggie came home, the Cubs stole Derrek Lee, added Todd Walker for some reason and traded for the dumbest catcher they could find. Mark Prior and Ke...

Was the Bears win over the Niners a sign that they're better than people thought, or just that they're good mudders? What were the good signs to take away from game one and the bad ones that invariably get washed away in the glow of victory? Did the Bears really have the advantage in the rain, or is it a good sign that a 49ers team built to dominate games on the ground couldn't score more than one...

The Bears had put the NFL on notice with a big win over the (then) Redskins a couple of weeks prior, but they had a big score to settle when they went to San Francisco in week six in a rematch of the 1984 NFC Championship game. The Bears punched the Niners in the face early and often, Jim McMahon made some great throws (and one absolutely horrible one) and when it was time to finish things off, th...

The Bears podcast is back and so is Mike Pusateri for his third season. They take a look at the roster and try to figure out who the hell these guys are. What are reasonable expectations for the Bears with a first year head coach, a second year quarterback and the greatest kicker in football history? If the Bears improved their secondary so much why is Kindle Vildor still in it? Is it a bad sign t...

The Cubs had two Hall of Famers on their pitching staff, they literally got to write in any salary they wanted to pay another Hall of Famer to join their outfield, and they won 75 games. The year was 1987, Wrigley Field's last without lights, Harry Caray had suffered a stroke and a raft of "celebrities" filled in for the first couple of months on the TV broadcasts. Gene Michael was the manager for...

David Brown is back from vacation (and he wasn't robbed) and the guys take the bold stance that darnit, the Cubs SHOULD find a way to trade for Shohei Ohtani. They really went out there on a limb for that one. The talk about how much a team will have to give up to get Shohei and how much they'll have to pay him. They also discuss how long it would take Cubs players to realize that Willie Harris wa...

The Dusty Baker era ended with a big wet thud as a promising start ended abruptly when Rafael Furcal careened into Derrek Lee and broke his wrist. Mark Prior pitched his final games for the Cubs. Kerry Wood's career as a starting pitcher ended. Phil Nevin traded himself. Greg Maddux got Scott Boras to trade him. Michael Barrett punched AJ Pierzynski in the face. Key relievers on the division champ...

Longtime baseball beat writer Mark Gonzales stops by the podcast to talk about the Cubs (and a little White Sox--mostly so Andy can make fun of Eloy trying to catch a flyball). They discuss the Franmil Reyes era, what the Cubs should do with shortstop next season, why they didn't trade Willson Contreras or Ian Happ and if they'll trade Happ this offseason. Why did Frank Schwindel get to hang aroun...

The 1993 Cubs did something rare at the time, they had a winning record. Even more rare for the Cubs they had a winning record and didn't make the playoffs. Oh, and they rewarded their manager by firing him. Probably because they were tired of trying to remember how to spell Lefebvre. They let Greag Maddux go and acted like it was a genius move to use his money to sign four guys...only one of whom...

The Cubs are headed to the Field of Dreams Game and Frank Schwindel will not be going with. Unless he can hurry up and drive some nails into his car tires again. Frank's been replaced on the roster by the very large Franmil Reyes, and David Brown has high hopes for Franmil. The guys discuss a lot of interesting things like what Cubs player is strangely referenced on Hulu's "The Bear," what Sayid f...

Before the Cubs and Reds can ruin your memory of the film, we give Field of Dreams the full Movie Deep Dive treatment. We settle the really important questions like, "How much money would plowing under farmland to build a baseball field cost a farmer in 1988?" or "Is it have a catch or play catch?" How did they convince Kevin Costner to make a second baseball movie in two years? Who had a better 1...

The Cubs followed up a division title in 1989 by hosting the worst Home Run Derby of all time, and a rain delayed, mostly boring All-Star Game. Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson had good years, Mark Grace was pretty good and that was about it. They didn't sign any free agents, the only veteran they added was Dave Clark and amazingly just running back the same team from a year before didn't quite work...

As David Brown and I wrapped up our discussion of this year's trade deadline and the winners and losers (mostly the Cubs), we found out that Vin Scully died. So the podcast actually starts with a few minutes of us remembering Vin, including his great open to game one of the the 1989 NLCS. Then we get to the deadline talk and try to figure out just what the hell the Cubs were doing, how it makes an...

The Cubs had a new manager, a new (very old) closer, a new GM who used to be an old manager, six All-Stars and they could play home games after sunset for once! It's time to Remember This Crap about the 1988 Cubs. Greg Maddux was great for a half, Mark Grace debuted in an unfamiliar number and should have been the Rookie of the Year, Andre Dawson followed up his MVP season with a less than MVP sea...