The 2006 Chicago Bears were undefeated going into their Week 6 match-up against the lowly, one-win Arizona Cardinals. The usual pre-game hype led by unimaginative hacks at ESPN and the network sports divisions built the game up to be a fait accompli with the Bears running away with the game in Arizona by a multi-touchdown spread.
Indeed, Vegas had the Bears favored by 14 points, a remarkable spread for an NFL team playing on the road. Why would the Cardinals even bother showing up?
Well, they showed up alright, and they jumped out to an astonishing 20-0 lead at halftime.
If it weren't for a 73-yeard touchdown return that was over-ruled by an official revue, the Cardinals would have won the game. Instead, the Bears mounted one of the biggest comebacks in NFL history and escaped with a one-point, 24-23 victory.
However, the game is most remembered for the Cardinals' Head Coach Denny Green's post-game remarks. A reporter noted that the Cardinals' defense had shut down the Bears, yet they still lost. Green went a little ballistic.
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"The Bears are what we thought they were. They're what we thought they were. We played them in preseason—who the hell takes a third game of the preseason like it's bullshit? Bullshit! We played them in the third game—everybody played three quarters—the Bears are who we thought they were! That's why we took the damn field. Now, if you want to crown them, then crown their ass! But they are who we thought they were! And we let 'em off the hook!"
Green's rant is now more famous than the game itself. It's even a meme used when people in any category of public life expose themselves to not live up to the hype layered upon them by fans and delusional media.
This brings us to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the legion of Ivy League experts, the "adults" who are now destroying everything they inherited from the Trump Administration.
"They are who we thought they were."
Joe Biden, we were told, was a foreign policy expert with decades of experience on the world stage. He would command the world's attention and respect, leading our foreign policy with a steady, reliable hand.
He has now, single-handedly, negated two decades of effort, planning, expense, and ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan. He has signaled to our allies that we are disorganized and inept. He has signaled to nations who rely on our protection that they cannot.
Further, he has snubbed our most stalwart allies, who have gone along with our foreign interventions even if against their own best interests. Recent reports show that Biden went over 36 hours without returning an urgent call from the Prime Minister of England, leaving Boris Johnson and the rest of our NATO allies in the dark.
But those of us who saw Joe Biden for who he really was knew better. We would quote former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who correctly observed that Biden has "been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."
We would observe that Biden has no discernable moral compass, and over his 50 years in public office as a senator and then vice president, he had no overriding morals or principles that guided his career or informed his votes at any given time, other than his own, personal political ambitions.
This last characteristic was exemplified by his infamous plagiarism in the 1988 presidential campaign. He was caught lifting speeches, word-for-word, from British Labour leader Neil Kinnock. The plagiarized speeches even included re-worded references to his (Kinnock and then Biden's) wives. Merely the names of the spouses were changed to accommodate Biden.
The plagiarism scandal was not merely an example of Biden's craven political ambitions and lack of ethics. No, it was also an insight into the man's lack of conviction.
Why does a politician steal another man's speeches? Because he can't come up with his own thoughts and passions to craft stirring words to reflect his inner drive and energy. A politician steals another man's speech to inspire a crowd because he is incapable of drawing within himself to find those words to stir his followers on his own.
They are who we thought they were.
Joe Biden, we were told, was a leader with empathy and kindness. This particular lie was repeated ad nauseam, not as some sort of compliment to Biden, but as an attack on Donald Trump.
Trump was mean, we were told. He lacked empathy, we were assured.
Trump was a sociopath who would allow innocent people to be left on the tarmac of an airport to die at the hands of bloodthirsty, ruthless terrorists... oh, wait, that's the guy with empathy we're talking about now.
When George Stephanopolous referred to the horrific video of Afghans desperately clinging to an Air Force jet as it took off from Hamid Karzai International airport only to eventually fall to their death rather than stay and be subjected to the wrath of the Taliban, Biden's response was chilling.
"We've all seen the pictures. We've seen those hundreds of people packed into a C-17. We've seen Afghans falling..." Stephanopoulos said.
Biden tersely interrupted and said: "That was four days ago, five days ago."
Pres. Biden rejects responsibility for Afghans falling to their deaths from American C-17s. "That was four days ago!" pic.twitter.com/IAu8jRkng7
— CPAC 2021 (@CPAC) August 19, 2021
Maybe it's just me, but the tone in his voice doesn't necessarily project empathy and concern for the Afghans who fell to their grisly death.
Further, it wasn't four or five days before this interview took place. It was two days before.
Finally... who the hell cares if it was two days ago, five days ago, or five weeks ago? These deaths are a direct result of this man's horrific and negligent execution of his misguided plans. His cold and callous deflection does not project any sort of empathy or compassion. It projects a typical DC cover-your-ass-at-all-costs attitude that Biden has been known for over the past 50 years.
They are who we thought they were.
One of the most frustrating parts of witnessing the events of the past week unfold is the umpteen members of the political intelligentsia express shock and outrage that this man, his vice president and the team of beltway hacks he has assembled in this administration are not the exemplary, competent, patriotic, international whizkids they were so sure they'd be once they got the mean orange man out of the way.
The fact is, Biden, Harris and the entire team are the incompetent, duplicitous, craven, uncaring hacks we knew they were and we warned they were. Biden, himself, has shown exactly what kind of miserable DC creature he is since 1972. Was his behavior in the Bork and Thomas hearings not enough for you?
And, oh, by the way, he hates the press too. That's right! The media in DC fawned and gushed over him, and they swooned when he put on his aviators, and they giggled when he ate ice cream. But the fact is, he holds the media in more contempt than his predecessor. Oh, he's affable to them when it serves him. He'll slap them on the back and deliver an insincere apology when his temper is revealed, but in fact, he sees the media as the useful idiots they are.
Maybe they are starting to figure that out as he now literally turns his back on them and refuses to answer any questions unless delivered by a party operative disguised as a journalist like Stephanopolous.
They are who we thought they were.
The Bears went on to lose in the Super Bowl that year and then went on to mediocrity, hardly the dynasty-in-the-making the media tried to sell on us. In retrospect, they performed well in a weak NFC, but ultimately, Rex Grossman will always be Rex Grossman. No amount of hype will ever change that.
Dennis Green was right, and with the right game plan, he was able to reveal the 2006 Bears as the mediocrities they were.
If only the GOP had a Dennis Green who could put together a game plan today.
