🎱 The Chicago Bears Are Cursed, Here’s How They Can Fix It

Legendary filmmaker Ken Burns once said, “Baseball is a mirror of our country,” and not to get too idealistic this early in the morning, but truer words have never been spoken.

Just think about it: FDR wrote “The Green Letter,” encouraging MLB to keep playing during World War II to keep morale high; Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, a full year before Truman desegregated the military. Hell, even Bush throwing out that first pitch in New York days after 9/11 — at every turn, baseball has been a direct reflection of the state of the country.

And now, we have a few rich owners spending more money than 95% of the league to hoard all the best players… seems about right.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: The Solution to MLB’s Biggest Problem

📉 Biggest Loser: The Chicago Bears Are Cursed, Here’s How They Can Fix It

🏆 Winner’s Circle: The Tragic Story of Rio Foster

🗞 The Big Story

What the hell is going on with Major League Baseball right now? Because after the Dodgers signed another superstar to a deal worth more than 11 different teams’ payrolls, fans, owners, and even some players all finally seem to agree that something needs to change; luckily, the solution is actually a lot simpler than you might think.

The Debate: It’s no secret that the biggest debate in baseball for the next two years is going to be over a potential salary cap, but after researching what that would even look like, I don’t think most players and fans actually know what they’re even arguing about.

Now, don’t get me wrong, not having a salary cap is great for guys like Kyle Tucker and Juan Soto, but for the other 90% of players, they’re actually getting screwed, and I can prove it.

Hypothetically Speaking: Let’s just assume that starting this year, MLB will use the same “soft cap” system as the NBA. As Chris Halicke points out on Twitter, under those rules, 9 teams would be heavily penalized for going over the luxury tax threshold, while 50% of the league would fall below the salary floor.

And this is where the real problem lies.

Because, sure, not having a salary cap is great for the top 10% of players who earn 72% of all the money, but for the other 90%, owners can willingly underpay them without a penalty.

Money on the Table: And unlike the NFL, NBA and NHL, where a salary cap and floor ensures that players get a guaranteed split between 48.5-51% of all league revenue, in the MLB that number is basically just left up to how much the owners are willing to pay the players, which is why in 2024, even though league revenue hit an all-time high, players were left with just 42% of it, meaning they collectivley left billions of dollars on the table.

But if that’s true, then why aren’t more players calling for a salary cap?

Well, my guess is that most players incorrectly think that one day they’ll be in the top 10% of highest-paid players, so they don’t want to potentially limit their future earning potential by advocating for a salary cap now.

However, in reality, it’s this kind of thinking that’s allowing owners to get away with these ridiculously low payrolls, all while keeping 58% of the revenue.

📉 Biggest Loser

The real reason the Chicago Bears lost in the playoffs this year is because of one of the oldest curses in sports that no one seems to know anything about. Let me explain.

Chicago Honey Bears: In 1976, George Halas, the team’s founder and owner, decided to join the league-wide trend of hiring cheerleaders to perform on the sideline of every Bears’ home game. And it didn’t take long for these women, who were known as the Chicago Honey Bears, to become wildly popular across the city. 

In fact, they were so well-liked that Halas himself even said that for “as long as I’m alive, we will have dancing girls on the sidelines.” Which turned out to be true, just not in the way he probably expected.

That’s because, in the season immediately following his death in 1983, the team’s new owner, Halas’ daughter Virginia McCaskey, attempted to put an end to the Honey Bears, with reports claiming that she found the cheerleading squad “embarrassing and sexist.”

However, because of a contract her father had signed, the Honey Bears were allowed to remain on the sidelines through the end of the 1985 season.

And this is where things get interesting.

Honey Bears Curse: Because during the Honey Bears’ final year of existence, the Chicago Bears had one of the greatest seasons in NFL history, going a remarkable 15-1 and winning the franchise's first-ever Super Bowl, 46-10.

But then, in 1986, against the wishes of the team’s dead founder, the Honey Bears were disbanded, and the Chicago Bears haven’t a Super Bowl since.

Luckily, according to one former cheerleader, she believes that all the team has to do to reverse the “Curse of the Honey Bears” and win another championship is to bring the cheerleading squad “back in some form.”

But in my opinion, the Bears might have used up all of their magic already.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

The Los Angeles Angels finally caved on a decision they should have made four months ago, but unfortunately, this tragic story might still not have a happy ending.

Background: Meet Rio Foster, a 22-year-old outfield prospect who was drafted in the 16th round by the Los Angeles Angels in 2023. Now, the fact that Foster was drafted at all is impressive enough, since he needed a scholarship just to play Little League baseball and spent his only year of college at a small technical school in South Carolina.

However, after hitting .386 with 53 RBIs during his freshman season, the 6’4” outfielder earned himself a spot in the Angels’ organization, where he rose to become a top 30 prospect in their minor league system.

But then, last September, on the same day he was named High-A Player of the Month, Foster was flung from a car in a drunk driving accident, and even today, four months later, he’s still unable to walk, eat on his own, or hold a conversation.

Faltering Support: Now, when Foster was first hospitalized back in September, the Angels organization paid for Foster’s mom, Iris Cleveland, to visit her son in Washington. But as time went on, Cleveland’s communication with team officials lessened to the point that at the beginning of January, she wasn’t sure if her son would keep his team-issued insurance and be able pay for his mounting medical and rehab bills. When asked for comment by the Athletic regarding the situation a few weeks ago, an Angels’ spokesman said that “they’d prefer to keep those conversations private.”

Fortunately, Cleveland set up a GoFundMe that has raised over $85,000 to date, with donations from fellow Angels players. Still, she wasn’t sure if even that would be enough to cover her son’s expenses when his insurance ran out in February.

Luckily, after the Athletic published their first piece about Foster’s condition on January 14th, within two days the team had reached out to Cleveland to let her know that they’d be covering her son’s insurance through 2026, as well as paying his roughly $28,000 annually salary.

Road to Recovery: However, even though this is a win for Foster, who is now four months post-accident, doctors are unsure what his recovery process will actually be like, or if it will even successfully progress beyond his current state.

But at least, for now, he’ll hopefully be getting the care he needs.

⏱️ In Other News

• Inside Wilson’s $15M ‘Football Factory’

• A peek behind the Bill’s $2.2B modern masterpiece

• The most valuable trophy in sports

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

If you were ever curious about how NFL footballs get made, boy, do I have the Friday afternoon binge watch for you: