👋 Good morning!
And good riddance.
Our long regional nightmare is almost over…maybe.
Former Packers quarterback and Chicago Bears owner Aaron Rodgers told Pat McAfee on Tuesday that he’s “pretty sure” 2025 will be his last season in the NFL.
He also told McAfee that he doesn’t care for the spotlight. Sure, buddy.
I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see. At least Rodgers and the Steelers visit Chicago in November this year.
One last hurrah, and one last opportunity for fans to see their greatest foe go out in a way so rare, you can still count the instances on one hand: with a loss to the Bears.
25-5, including that devastating NFC Championship Game. Yeesh.
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Duncan Keith: Hall of Famer
Former Blackhawks defenseman and three-time Stanley Cup champion Duncan Keith was officially elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility on Tuesday afternoon!
Keith, 41, played 16 seasons with the Blackhawks from 2005 until 2021 before retiring after one season with the Edmonton Oilers. In Chicago, Keith won the Norris Trophy, given to the league’s best defenseman, twice: first in 2010 and again in 2014.
In 2015, Keith won the Conn Smythe Trophy for his iron-man excellence in the postseason en route to the Blackhawks’ third Cup in six seasons. In 135 career playoff games with the Blackhawks, he averaged a whopping 28 minutes of time on ice per game.
Keith landed at 15th in our rankings of the greatest athletes in Chicago sports history two years ago. In 2017, Keith was named one of the NHL’s 100 greatest players in the first 100 years of the league.Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz on Keith: “Duncan defined the modern archetype for a complete defenseman. His opponents feared his shutdown defense as much as they respected his offensive prowess. He played with grit and heart, giving his all every second he was on the ice.
“While Blackhawks fans have long understood Duncan’s profound impact on the game, we’re thrilled to see his legacy now celebrated on hockey’s biggest stage as he takes his well-deserved place among the game's all-time greats.”
Keith’s statement: “I was lucky to play on some really good teams with some great players. It's been a journey with many ups and downs, and I want to thank the people who helped me get to this point in my life.”
A legendary player in a legendary era of Blackhawks hockey. I can’t believe it’s been a decade since the last Cup run. I can’t believe he’s already the second player from that dynasty voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame (Marian Hossa was enshrined with the 2020 class).
Duncan Keith, whether he was paired with Brent Seabrook or Michal Rozsival, gave the game everything he had on a nightly basis.
The perfect amount of chipiness, even when it resulted in the occasional suspension, a slap shot hesitation that always drove me insane despite somehow almost always working out, and reliably excellent defense — nobody’s done it like No. 2 in my lifetime.
⚾️ Summertime Sweepstakes ⚾️
Rate & CHGO are giving away a pair of tickets to the Rate Club for Cubs-Sox at Rate Field on July 26th.
All you have to do to enter? Download the Rate app and enter at:
No purchase necessary—just good vibes & great seats!
DRAFT NIGHT! Woohoo! We made it! The first round of the NBA Draft begins tonight. Will Nikola Vucevic, Lonzo Ball, and Coby White still be Bulls by the end of the night? Is the front office locked into taking a big man with the No. 12 overall pick?
Will Gottlieb and PHLY’s Derek Bodner’s final mock draft went live yesterday morning. Take a look for an idea of what to expect tonight HERE.
LOW RISK, HIGH REWARD: The White Sox are taking a flyer on ex-Mets, Angels, and Guardians pitcher Noah Syndergaard, signing the veteran to a minor-league contract. Syndergaard, 32, hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since being DFA’d by Cleveland in August 2023.
The former flamethrower was never quite the same after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2020. Before the surgery, Syndergaard owned a 3.31 ERA in 716.0 innings pitched, with 9.74 strikeouts per nine innings. After the surgery? A 4.99 ERA in 225.1 IP, striking out just 6.11 batters per nine innings.
But the Sox have had relatively decent success with reclamation pitchers in 2025. Adrian Houser, who was cut from the Rangers’ system in May, is still pitching lights-out baseball for the White Sox through six starts, rocking a 2.27 ERA.
BURY THE TAPE: Last night was just one of those nights you want to forget for Pete Crow-Armstrong. Two instances of the star center fielder’s head not quite being in the game played a significant role in the Cubs’ fifth loss in six games:
With one out in the fourth inning, and with the Cubs trailing 7-5, Cardinals RF Alec Burleson hit a ball to deep center, which Crow-Armstrong routinely caught. However, PCA seemingly forgot how many outs were in the inning momentarily, allowing Cardinals SS Masyn Winn to tag and score from second base.
In the seventh, down 8-7 with runners on the corners and one out, Crow-Armstrong opted to lay a bunt down, but the ball trickled right back to the pitcher, who held Kyle Tucker at third before throwing out PCA at first.
Crow-Armstrong said after the game that he was attempting to bunt for a hit.
Just an odd night. Cubs manager Craig Counsell said after the game: “He just made a mistake. Obviously lost track of the outs. Just a mistake.”
PCA was a bit harder on himself: “I didn’t do a good job of playing the game of baseball today.”
CALLED UP, SENT DOWN: The Cubs activated RHP Porter Hodge from the 15-day IL on Tuesday afternoon. Hodge hasn’t pitched since May 17 when he suffered an oblique strain.
In a corresponding move, the Cubs sent struggling RHP Ben Brown to Triple-A Iowa. Brown’s inconsistencies came to a head on Monday night when the 25-year-old starter allowed eight runs on four home runs in five innings of work. The abysmal outing ballooned his 2025 ERA to an eye-opening—and more-than-concerning—6.13.
Should PCA have been benched after his mental lapse in CF?
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