Briggs Backs Down

Sports analysts agog after Denver Broncos' latest victory

(NEWSER) - After a stunning performance in yesterday's last-minute 13-10 victory against the Chicago Bears, sports commentators are wondering if Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow really is capable of miracles.

• Declaring Tebow his "personal quarterback and savior," Jeff Neuman at RealClearSports catalogs five miracles made in last night's game. "Zero points on his team's first 11 possessions—and then three scores on their last three, aided by a coach's weird strategy, thin air, a fumble, and a total brain cramp by a veteran running back. Truly, Tim Tebow works in mysterious ways."
• Writing for the Montreal Gazette , Ed Willes also drops the M-word, wondering if "we've ever seen a run like this in the last 50 years of sports: an athlete who's at once both divisive and irresistibly charismatic; an athlete who's in the miracle business every week; an athlete who transcends everything around him."

Challenger disaster prevented initial celebration

(NEWSER) - Two and a half decades later, the legendary 1985 Chicago Bears team is finally getting its White House ceremony. The original one was canceled because of the Challenger disaster; now, President Obama is inviting the team back on Oct 7. Though two of the team’s central players, Walter Payton and Dave Duerson, have since died, most of the team is likely to show up, Bleacher Report notes—with the possible exception of those now coaching. More»

Tampa, Chicago will play league's fifth regular-season game at Wembley

(AP) - With the lockout over, the NFL will return to London for a fifth straight year. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play the Chicago Bears at Wembley Stadium on Oct. 23 in the fifth regular-season game in the British capital. The game had been under threat because of negotiations over a new labor agreement between the league and its locked-out players. The two sides announced a 10-year labor deal yesterday to end the dispute. More»

Chicago car salesman John Stone not out of work for long

(NEWSER) - Score one for a worker's right to choose his own tie: a Chicago car salesman fired for wearing a Green Bay Packers tie to work has a new job at a rival Chevrolet dealership. John Stone says his former boss offered him his old job back after his firing made the news, but he declined, the AP reports. Stone's new employer says he's already received phone calls from Packers fans who want to buy a car from its new hire. More»

Boss sends John Stone packing, cites Bears-related advertising

(NEWSER) - A Chicago man who wore a Green Bay Packers tie to work yesterday was sacked for it, the Tribune reports. John Stone, a salesman at a Chevrolet dealership, says he donned the tie in honor of his grandmother, a Packers fan who was buried on Friday. His boss told him if he didn’t remove it, he’d lose his job; Stone took it as a joke, he says. More»