Rubbing Salt in the Bears’ Wounds

I never get tired of finding ways to add to the misery of Bears fans, and even though the Packers’ scout team was playing the Lions yesterday, my mind turned to how Matt Flynn’s ridiculous performance compares to the continuing futility of the Bears’ organization’s quest for a quarterback (this is the type of thing my mind fixates on instead of more valuable skills like managing my finances and knowing how to change the oil in my car…OK, knowing anything about my car).

Yesterday’s ridiculous game by Flynn illustrated once again how the Packers can’t seem to find a bad quarterback to put under center, while the Bears can’s stumble upon a capable, healthy starter no matter how many warm bodies they trot onto the turf of Soldier Field. Guys like Flynn and Anthony Dilweg have had amazing games filling in for Packers starters over the last 20 years, and many of the guys the Packers have used as clipboard holders have gone on to ridiculous careers elsewhere.

The Bears have tried to pluck QBs from the ranks of their rival’s bench, but they screw up what seems to be impossible to screw up (they signed Henry Burris in 2002, apparently the only Packers backup without talent over the last two decades – at least Doug Pederson was a good holder).

Take four Packers backups who couldn’t get much more than a cup of coffee at Lambeau: Mark Brunell, Aaron Brooks, Kurt Warner, and Matt Hasselbeck. Between them, the foursome has made 10 Pro Bowls, thrown for 709 touchdowns, and passed for 117,827 yards. They’ve appeared in three Super Bowls, winning one.

All four of them would qualify as the Bears all-time leader in passing yards. And Warner, Hasselbeck and Brunell would be the team’s all-time leading touchdown passer by several seasons. Even Brooks, who eventually washed out famously with the Raiders, would rank second.

I don’t know which is more impressive, the Packers’ ability to find and groom hidden gems, or the Bears’ inability to strike gold or ability to polish diamonds into gravel.