(670 The Score) Like so many, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot often turns to sports for comfort.
That much was again clear Thursday morning, when Lightfoot joined the Mully & Haugh Show on 670 The Score to detail how she's guiding the city through the coronavirus pandemic while again imploring residents to stay home to help slow the spread of the outbreak. After a good 15 minutes of discussing the pandemic, Lightfoot was ready to share some Bears opinions -- specifically about the team's upcoming quarterback competition between Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles, whom Chicago recently acquired from Jacksonville in a trade.
"It's a competition trade and not a starter trade," Lightfoot said of the Bears acquiring Foles. "Obviously, people are all over the place about it. We paid $18 million to Mike Glennon, which has got to be top-five worst all-time (signings). My God, put me out there.
"I would've preferred that they traded for a starter. Teddy Bridgewater, I had some hopes about that. But we're not willing to give up on Mitch yet. We're going to have competition in training camp. Look, Foles has caught lightning in a bottle a couple of times.
"We got to solve the quarterback problem. We can't keep having our defense on the field three quarters of the game, getting gassed. I mean, obviously the numbers were down last year on the D overall, but not a surprise. They basically had to carry every damn game. It's too much."
It remains unclear when sports may return. Models for the coronavirus outbreak illustrate hope that the spread will peak in mid-to-late April in Chicago and decline from there, Lightfoot said, but there will be concern for months moving forward.
The NFL intends to open training camp as scheduled in July and plans to conduct the regular season in full with stadiums full, a top league executive said earlier this week.
Lightfoot is looking forward to the return of normalcy and sports -- and whatever this Bears season holds.
"I'm a passionate fan like everybody who fills those stadiums on home Sundays," Lightfoot said. "It's hard to go from the highs of two seasons ago to see what happened last year. Give both quarterbacks adequate reps in the preseason. Don't hold them back. I thought that was just a mistake.
"We got to be better on the offensive line. And our defense is still very solid. But the offense has got to do its part. We need something more than just an occasional game manager."
