What do Chicagoans get for our $1.9 billion? A look inside the numbers of public safety and policing

“Our current state of affairs is the direct consequence of a wholesale failure of competant leadership and public safety.”

— Paul Vallas’s “Public Safety” section on paulvallas2023.com

“This campaign has been laser-focused on making sure voters understand that crime and their safety is Paul Vallas’ top priority.” 

— Joe Trippi, Vallas’s chief strategist, Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 24, 2023

“We are not a city and will never be a city that bows to those arguing for de-funding. That’s not who we are. And that’s not what our residents want.”

— Mayor Lori Lightfoot, October 2021

***

Today is Election Day, our second straight wide open mayoral election, and one question looms larger for me than any other.

What do we get for our $1.9 billion?

That’s the portion of Chicago’s public safety budget that goes to the police department, 64.3% to be exact. For all of the attention on public safety heading into the election, all of the attention on violent crime, and most of the mayoral candidates — led by Mayor Lightfoot and Paul Vallas — pushing increased policing as the solution, no one can say how we judge the success or failure of that spending. 

My Unfinished Inglourious Basterds Essay: 10,000 words, 12 years, one unfinished draft (ANALYSIS)

The cast of Inglourious Basterds, with writer-director Quentin Tarantino (seated, second from right)

On March 9, 2010, I started an essay on Inglourious Basterds.

I wrote it on and off until May of 2011, and then stopped, with no further progress.

Now, in June 2022, I am declaring it officially unfinished for reasons I will explain here. To read my annotated draft of this essay — 10,000+ words, with screenshots from the movie — click here. If you’re a fellow writer and you want to talk shop, you should be able to drop comments directly in the Google Doc. If not, hit me in the comment section here, or on Twitter, or at readjack6@gmail.com.

Now then… what happened?

The complete history of Black NFL starting quarterbacks — ranked by franchise

***February 5, 2023 NOTE***

In light of the upcoming Super Bowl LVII becoming the first Super Bowl with two starting Black quarterbacks, I have updated the numbers for the entire 2022 season, with Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts updated through the conference championship games. Super Bowl LVII will give the Eagles 378 games (regular season and playoffs) started by a Black quarterback, and Kansas City 95 games.

IMPORTANT: This is a living document that is now going on three years old. As such, it’s not meant to be read straight through, and there are elements that are outdated, typically labeled as “2021 update,” “2022 update,” etc. I’ll update more this offseason but I wanted to get the numbers up for the Super Bowl. If you see something that looks off, it just might not be updated yet.

What IS updated is the list below (marked “The List”) through the 2022 conference championship weekend. All team sections are updated by numbers of starts but not percentages or other things like that. If you are a journalist or other member of the media and you have a question for me about the numbers, DM me @readjack or email at readjack6@gmail.com.

***September 7, 2022 NOTE***

This article is about the numbers. Strip away the thousands of words below, and as I lay out in the introduction, the reason I started researching this in 2019 and published it in 2020 was to see the numbers — the team-by-team data around Black starting quarterbacks in the NFL. If you want to just explore the numbers, my spreadsheet is here, and I’ve added the list of teams in order, placed above the team-by-team writeups.

The spreadsheet is now updated with starts data through the 2021 season. As I noted a year ago, I suspect that the spreadsheet still has small errors here and there. I’m a team of one on this, manually pulling information into my spreadsheet from Pro Football Reference and checking it against newspaper reporting and other sources here and there.

I won’t be updating data through the season on any consistent schedule, so as always, if you want to use this piece as a source at any point in the 2022 season and need updated figures, please reach out to me at readjack6@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter. Thank you!

I started this project in 2019 to put numbers to the feeling that many Bears fans had that the franchise did not want a Black franchise quarterback. But over the course of this project, the Bears have actually been one of the NFL’s more progressive franchises with regards to race. Toward the end of that list are the Dolphins, Broncos and Giants, the named defendants in coach Brian Flores’s historic 2022 discrimination lawsuit. 

Flores’s suit is the latest puncture to the myth that just because talent is winning out for Black QBs on the field does not necessarily mean that NFL owners have turned a collective corner with regards to a century-worth of racist policies and personnel decisions. The Flores suit shined a light on racism in NFL coaching while, at the same time, more information and legal fallout around the NFL’s use of “race-norming” in its concussion settlement continued to build.

To me, those events — along with continued problematic scouting, as summarized by Bill Polian’s claim that Lamar Jackson should switch positions to wide receiver — are the reason why simply studying the basic data around Black quarterbacks remains important in 2022 even though on the surface, Black QBs today don’t appear to face the same levels of prejudice and restrictions as did their predecessors. This article is the continued, evolving study of these questions.

Lastly, rest in peace to Marlin Briscoe and Dwayne Haskins.

Best,

Jack

6 Rings: the true story of the Chicago Bulls dynasty

 

Twenty years ago, the dynasty ended.

The Chicago Bulls of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson won six championships in eight seasons and reshaped the NBA forever.

My latest story celebrates their final game together, Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, and completes (for now, I guess) an ongoing series of pieces that I have written over the past 13 years on what was easily my favorite era as a sports fan.

Here, all together, are those pieces about “YOUR World Champion Chicago Bulls!”

I will never get tired of hearing that.

A Look Back At Michael Jordan’s Flu Game 20 Years Later

An unknown stat makes that legendary game even more impressive and helps explain why fans get angry when stars rest.

(Originally published June 8, 2017, at the now defunct 16WinsARing.com)

If you want to fully understand Michael Jordan’s “Flu Game,” you first have to understand one of Michael Jordan’s greatest statistics: 357.

It’s a stat that is rarely discussed. The number most associated with MJ, besides 23, is 6. As in “6 rings.” Once upon a time, MJ’s career was defined by a melange of numbers. People thought about 63 and 69. They pictured him in 9 and 45. They were astounded by 7, and later 10, for his scoring titles. They grimaced at .202 and glowed with pride over 72–10.

Now, it’s 6. The only number of consequence. The one MJ chased more than any other. The one to which he drunkenly crooned after reaching it in 1998. He started counting after the first championship, flashing victorious fingers. Two in 1992. Three in ’93. Four in ’96. Five in ’97. Six in ‘98.

No number in NBA history serves as more of a mic drop in current hoops debates than MJ’s 6. The figure may be augmented in different ways, like “6–0” (his Finals record) or “6 for 6” (his Finals MVPs). But, unquestionably, 6 is the number. He likes it like that.

I like it too. I also like 357.

Lovie Smith’s final lesson

Lovie Smith had a different relationship with players than with media and fans. The way it should be. (photo: AP)

Lovie Smith’s final lesson: reflections on a Bears head coach

by Jack M Silverstein (@readjack)

I didn’t know how beloved Lovie Smith was until he was gone.

On Dec. 31, 2012, the day after the final Bears game of 2012, the day Lovie Smith was fired, emotion flowed from the locker room at Halas Hall. Charles Tillman told the Sun-Times he was “shocked” to hear that Lovie was gone. Brian Urlacher told ESPN 1000 that “We’re all mad right now. We just lost our head coach.”

Devin Hester memorably stood at his locker that day and told reporters that he was considering retirement. Though he tweeted the next day that Lovie’s firing did not cause his retirement talk, Hester’s locker room comments made it clear how he felt about the only NFL head coach he’d ever played for.

Jan. 14, 2011: Imagine me and you, I do…

From November 2010 to May 2011, I wrote for a site called “The Sports Blog Network,” a sports website launched by Chris Reed. The site folded, as websites do, and at some point in the past year (maybe longer?) the content was removed.

I loved the work I did there and appreciated the opportunity Chris gave me (thanks man!) so I am reposting all of those stories on ReadJack.

***

Imagine me and you, I do…

Originally published on Sports Blog Network January 14, 2011

Rivals don’t shake hands. Rivals gotta hug! (pause) Oh wait, rivals shake hands.

“Yeah but, just imagine it,” Ricky said in the second quarter of the Packers-Eagles wild card game. “Bears. Packers. NFC Championship.” The Packers had just scored their second touchdown of the game, and possessed a stout 14-0 lead over Philadelphia, the two and a half point home favorite and employer of the NFL’s hottest commodity of 2010, Michael Vick.

“No. Let’s not start revving ourselves up for that,” I said. “Two quarters and two games to go. Lots can happen.”

But he’s right: an NFC championship game at Soldier Field between the Bears and the Packers, regardless of outcome, immediately becomes the greatest Bears-Packers game of my life, and of my father’s life, and probably of all-time, because who really goes around talking about the 1941 NFL divisional tiebreaker anymore?

Dec. 31, 2010: I’m bringing chicken back

From November 2010 to May 2011, I wrote for a site called “The Sports Blog Network,” a sports website launched by Chris Reed. The site folded, as websites do, and at some point in the past year (maybe longer?) the content was removed.

I loved the work I did there and appreciated the opportunity Chris gave me (thanks man!) so I am reposting all of those stories on ReadJack.

***

I’m bringing chicken back

Originally published on Sports Blog Network December 31, 2010

Johnny Knox, the comet.

Christmas 2010 will live in my mind for a few reasons, only one of them upsetting. First the good: It was my first proper Christmas, the first time I woke in a home on Christmas morning with Christmas presents beneath a tree – a Christmas tree – surrounded by a family that gathers in the living room to exchange gifts, to tell stories, to laugh and love and hug. I have attended Christmas parties before, even on Christmas, but never gone wire-to-wire with Christmas celebration, wiping sleep from my eyes and closing my eyes to sleep.

I also indulged my first taste of homemade fried chicken, another highlight of the weekend. I was in Indianapolis, spending the holiday with my girlfriend’s family, and I am happy to report that they are a lovely and delightful bunch, that we got along splendid, and that I was the only celebrant of the season other than Mr. Sawyer to eat chicken back.

Exavier Pope’s story continues

Exavier Pope of the Pope Law Firm tells his DWB police abuse story in support of St. Louis boy Mike Brown, shot and killed by police. (Ben Speckman for Chicago Daily Law Bulletin)

If you follow my work at the Law Bulletin, you probably read about Exavier Pope, the sports and entertainment lawyer whose harrowing & uplifting backstory was our front page story for Law Day 2014.

Ex and I spent a day together — it started with him talking to students at Hyde Park Academy High School and continued as we visited his childhood home where he lived with his foster mother, toured parks where he played ball, was attacked by gangs and later slept, went to the projects where he nearly sold crack and finally to one of his two law offices, this one at Lacuna Lofts.

While the story was packed with episodes from Exavier’s life — it included a sidebar strictly on his Twitter game — there were a few anecdotes from later in Exavier’s life that we had to leave out of the story. One of them was the story of how Exavier and friends were pulled over in Kentucky when they were in college, leading to Ex spending nearly two weeks in prison for a traffic stop.

In light of the Mike Brown murder, Ex decided to share that story on Twitter. Here it is, tweet by tweet:

“A fun listen!” — a proud mom reviews 7 Sins by The Nocturnals

The Nocturnals – 7 Sins

My buddies the Nocturnals have released “7 Sins,” their third album following 2010’s “Next Time It’s Personal” and 2011’s “To Be Continued.” Like those two, this record fuses the duo’s personalities into a playlist of weird bravado.

To celebrate the album, The Nocturnals are playing a FREE SHOW this Saturday night at Weeds (1555 N. Dayton, a few skips from the North/Clybourn/Halsted area and the Red Line.

Here is the event info.

Thank you to everyone who is spreading the word about the album, especially Tibs at GoWhereHipHop and Tumelo at Chicago Slam Works. More to come…