Epstein Media Roundup

I encourage all our listeners to listen/watch some of the interviews done by Epstein recently. He really has laid out a solid plan for the Cubs. It's hard not to come away impressed.

Press Conference at Wrigley (audio)
Theo Epstein Press Conference - WGN Radio

NBC Chicago's Paula Faris: One-on-One with Epstein

Pardon the Interruption: Five Good Minutes


Chicago Tribune Live


WGN Morning News
Theo Epstein talks with the WGN Morning News - WGN

Mully and Hanley 670 the Score
Theo Epstein on the Score

Waddles and Silvy ESPN 1000
Theo Epstein - ESPN

Greg Jarrett on WGN Radio 720
Meet the Cubs' new President of Baseball Operations, Theo Epstein - WGN Radio

Epstein Officially Cubs President

In a move that everyone knew was coming Theo Epstein, former Red Sox general manger, has taken the position of "President of baseball operations" with the Chicago Cubs. It has been reported that a deal is in place with San Diego that will bring Jed Hoyer as general manager, and Jason McLeod as assistant general manager.

Both teams released a joint statement last night:

CHICAGO - The Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs jointly announce this evening that, effective immediately, Theo Epstein has resigned from the Red Sox in order to become the new President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs. The Clubs also have reached an agreement regarding a process by which appropriate compensation will be determined for the Red Sox and that issue will be resolved in the near term.

Both the Red Sox and the Cubs intend to hold press events on Tuesday, October 25 during which the Cubs intend to announce Mr. Epstein, and the Red Sox intend to announce his successor as General Manager.

Out of respect for the World Series, both clubs have agreed to forego further comment until Tuesday, the next scheduled non-game day. Further information on each club's media availability for Tuesday will be distributed on Monday.

Join Ryan and I as we talk about this huge news this Tuesday on Sports Town Chicago!

Are you ready for some football?!?!

Tomorrow night begins the 2011 regular season with an epic tilt, as the New Orleans Saints square off with the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. I'm personally hoping that the Saints blow the doors off the defending champion Packers. Championship teams rarely come to play in the first game after winning a championship, so let's hope that's the case tomorrow. Some of my spite for Green Bay has to do with just my pure disgust for the Packers (beating my Bears in the NFC championship game, ending the Bears season on their home turf didn't help) but has more to do with my love of Drew Brees and his incredible journey in the NFL. I should also mention that half of my fantasy team's success rests on Saints players and my arise to the top of the standings purely hinges or their success. With all that trepidation comes a ton of excitement for what takes place tomorrow. Simply said, the beginning of the NFL season, which looked so bleak just a few short weeks ago.

NFL kicks off this week

Well ladies and gentlemen the day we so worried about not happening is finally here, the NFL kicks off this Thursday. With a great match up, as the Saints visit the Packers in Green Bay to kick off the season in style. What a relief, the season did not get canceled but the Bears are still looking to answer some questions. Is Roy Williams a legit Number 1? Will Lance Briggs ever be happy? And can Jay Cutler bounce back from the wave of criticism he faced at the end of last season? All things that have not really been answered so far at training camp. So not the best start to this season coming off a NFC championship loss last season to your division rival. So a lot to talk about in regards to the NFL so tune in. We pretty much can bury the baseball teams. After getting swept by the Tigers over the weekend, the Sox have started making winter vacation plans. And the Cubs don't even have a GM, so they have some work to do this off season as well. So to hear all our opinions on everything Chicago, tune in to Withers & Finnerty tonight starting at 5:00 on www.sportstownchicago.com.

Tune in today at 5:00

The Withers & Finnerty show will be resuming at it's normal time today from 5:00-7:00pm. So tune in to hear us recap the Bears win over the Bills 10-3, on Saturday night at Solider Field. There were some good things that happened and so not so good things. So tune in to hear us break down the game and discuss what we thought of the Bears 1st preseason game. Also the most up to date news on the Cubs and the Carlos Zambrano feud, it will be interesting to see how the Cubs handle that. Plus the White Sox are finally back to .500 on the season, let's see if they can finally break through on to the winning side for once against Ubaldo Jimenez and the Cleveland Indians tonight. Lots of good stuff so tune in on www.sportstownchicago.com to The Withers & Finnerty Show tonight.

NFL Rule Changes & Points of Emphasis

Every season there are various NFL rule changes and points of emphasis. We've already seen one change this pre-season. The kickoff has been moved from the 30 to the 35 to increase touchbacks for player safety. We even had our very own Bears ignore this rule in their first pre-season game. Sadly defensive end Corey Wootton, who was having a great camp, suffered a knee injury on the game's opening kickoff. He's expect to miss about 4 weeks.

Anytime there are rule changes the NFL needs a quick and easy way to explain this to player, coaches, and officials. So they produce a video every year and all teams watch this. Well this year's video is on NFL.com and I urge NFL fans to watch this.

The NFL doesn't allow you to embed video so you will have to go to their site to watch it:

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/09000d5d8216a10b/2011-NFL-rule-changes-and-points-of-emphasis

Quarterback Footwork

Early in training camp Mike Martz praised the footwork of Jay Cutler

Martz described it as "amazing" on Tuesday.

"I was kind of stunned," Martz said. "He has done an awful lot of work on his own in the offseason.

"I was kind of giddy to be honest with you because watching him drop right now is textbook, and I didn't know how we were going to get him there, but he got there himself before he came to work and we couldn't be more happy with that."

When Cutler was later asked about his progress, he replied

"It's hard, but this system kind of requires it. If you can't do that, if you can't do what he wants, it's hard to be effective in this system. You just have to think about and look at yourself, and kind of break it down step by step. We threw a lot this offseason, with the guys, and they did a great job. And I came back in pretty good shape, and it's paying off for me."

It is very true that footwork is huge for this system. The reason I'm bringing this up is because any Bears' fan should watch this video. Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer break down the Bears QB's footwork. There's a lot of great footage. Link to it at the website: http://www.chicagobears.com/multimedia/multimediapopup.asp?mm_file_id=2433&play_clip=Y&rn=8

Or just watch is below