On his NFC North Blog on ESPN today, Kevin Seifert is asked the question, "Who will reach the playoffs first, the Detroit Lions or the Chicago Bears?" At first you might scoff at the question, but in reality only three wins separate these two teams, and if like me you believe that the Lions will beat the Bears in the final week of the season, then the question becomes even more juicy.

Seifert has this to say in response to DJ from Chicago,

"...when you amble over to ESPN.com's Week 16 Power Rankings, you see only five spots separate Chicago (25) and the Lions (30). You could make an argument that the Bears' talent base has shrunk dramatically in recent years, requiring an overhaul similar to what the Lions are undertaking. And it's only fair to point out the Lions have more firepower in the 2010 draft -- namely, their choices in the first and second rounds -- to continue filling those holes.

The Lions could have two of the top 35 picks in the draft. Barring a trade, the Bears won't pick until the beginning of the third round, probably around No. 70 overall."

Ok, so round one goes to the Lions. What about position by position?

I laughed most of the Bears game. This team is now funny bad. How can you not smile when Jay Cutler is throwing interceptions 23, 24 and 25? How you can you not laugh when you see turnovers 4, 5, and 6 of the game, the last of which comes during a Caleb Hanie sighting?

For me the laughing started pre-game. It started when I heard the Jerry Angelo press conference and heard some the comments he made to the media. Comments like this (from chicagobears.com):

Do you feel strongly that this roster is better than the team's record shows?

"I like our roster. Your record is your record. This is who we are. So I'm not going to get into that game. We didn't play well as a team this year. We were inconsistent. We just seemed to never get the offense and defense playing well on the same Sunday. That's very hard to do and win if that's not happening. So I like the roster, we have a good nucleus of young players. So pretty much our roster will be intact next year. But I look at that as a positive, not a negative."

Wow. So Angelo likes the roster. He thinks they have a "good nucleus of young players." Who? Is there something I'm missing here? What I see is an old offensive line that is absolutely destroying the offense. I see an old defensive line that can't put any pressure on opposing quarterbacks, as evidenced by a career day from Joe Flacco whose four touchdowns and 135+ QB Rating were both career highs for the second year signal caller.

I see some young defensive backs, and most of the time I am watching them chasing opposing receivers all over the field as they give up third down conversion after third down conversion. I see a running back who has averaged under four yards per carry for two straight years, yet somehow gets a pass because of his "magical" 2008 season, which still confuses me. I'm still waiting for this guy to break a tackle, even an arm tackle, any tackle.

I see a group of young "receivers" who are clueless. Fast, but clueless. Jerry sees this differently,

You mentioned young receivers. Do you regret not getting an established NFL receiver for Jay Cutler?

"Do you think the receiver position has been our problem?"

Do you think that could have helped?

"I don't think it could have helped. I thought our receiver position played pretty well. There are other things that maybe we didn't do as well, but I felt that turned out to be a pretty good position of strength. I want to see it continue, in these next three weeks because we have a lot of young guys."

Jerry. You can't possibly believe that.

Finally, I see a young quarterback that looks more damaged as every game comes to an end, and that should be the scariest part of the 2009 season.

But sure Jerry, let's keep this intact.

I know that you can't grab tone from the words on a piece of paper, or that of a website, but when I came across this article: 2010 AL MVP: Milton Bradley, Seattle Mariners, I clicked the link and what I thought I might read was far different from what I actually read.

When the news came across the wire that the Cubs had traded Milton, a smile crossed my face. I didn't even care to hear who the other parties were in the deal. I was satisfied enough knowing that he was gone and the Cubs could move forward with their off-season plans, no matter the direction.

I know many Cubs fans feel the same, and I am fairly confident in writing that I believe that many Cubs players took the news quite the same as I did. Remember these comments from Ryan Dempster, "Sometimes you just have to look in the mirror and realize that maybe the biggest part of the problem is yourself." Or the moment when, "after Hendry finally pulled the plug in St. Louis and told the team he was sending Bradley home, several players applauded."

David Chalk from Bugs and Cranks sees things a bit differently. He writes,

"The Cubs totally mishandled Bradley last year, but he still gave them a decent year and a .378 OBP. Obviously, the Cubs expected more based on his superb 2008 when he lead the AL in OBP, OPS, OPS+, OPP and tons of other fancy offensive stats."

I think we have different opinions on a decent year. If you only look at the OBP then you might be able to make a case for that, but this situation goes far deeper than the numbers. For arguments sake though let's take a gander at that "decent year."

In 2009 Bradley hit .257 with 12 home runs and 40 RBI. Under no circumstances would that be considered a "decent year" even if he wasn't making $10 million per. His .378 OBP would have put him among the top 20 in the NL, except for the fact that he didn't have enough at bats to qualify due to his numerous injuries, incidents and flat out poor play throughout the season.

Chalk goes on,

"...the only reason the Cubs wanted to dump him, and the only reason why anyone would think Bradley's not worth risking $3 million a year for two years, is the slugger's reputation. And really what he has ever done that's so terrible?"

Milton is not a murderer. Milton is not a criminal. What Milton is, however, is a cancerous organism that enters Major League club houses and eats away at them from the inside. There is a reason why he is headed to his eighth team in 11 seasons. Cubs fans may have denied it when he was acquired by Hendry prior to 2009, but there is little doubt of the damage he can do now.

For arguments sake though, let's take a look at the Milton Bradley timeline:

For a team that was 4-4 at one point this season, with the arrow pointing down, it's hard to imagine that just five games later we could be looking at one of the more dangerous Wild Card teams in the NFC in the Green Bay Packers. They've turned it around with better offensive line play, an improved running game, a MVP-type season from their quarterback, an improved game plan, and possibly the best defense in the NFL.

The man who is leading that defense is Charles Woodson, and in his 12th season he is at the top of his game. Through 13 games this season he already tied his career high in interceptions with eight, and touchdowns with two. He has also caused four fumbles and recorded two sacks. He is among his team's leaders in tackles and tackles for loss, just one behind LB Nick Barnett and those eight interceptions are good for second in the entire NFL.

Woodson is consistently matched up against the opposition's best receiving threat, whether it is a wide out or a tight end. But beyond his shut-down capabilities, Charles is doing all the little things like forcing fumbles and making tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

The Cowboys game just a couple of weeks ago was the crowning moment of the season for Woodson. He forced two fumbles, one which came after a long catch by Roy Williams and the other was on a sack of Tony Romo. He also intercepted Romo at the Green Bay one yard line to deny the Cowboys the chance to get back in to the game.

Woodson seems to be at his best at the age of 33, and with CB partner Al Harris out for the remainder of the season the pressure has been magnified and he has responded. If the Packers can continue this run they are on and even make a run come playoff time, it will be hard to not seriously consider Charles for the Defensive MVP of the 2009 season.