NOT HIS KIND OF TOWN

Maybe former Chicago Bear wide receiver and newly suspected drug distribution kingpin Sam Hurd's biggest mistake was coming to Chicago. After all, this is the home of the most infamous illegal substance kingpin of all time, Al Capone, who prowled Chicago streets and headlines for nearly eleven years in the 1920's and 30's, spreading happiness around in the form of Prohibition booze. Capone enjoyed fabulous wealth, power and adulation as a rags to illegal riches hero till the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the Great Depression, and some incriminating accounting ledgers landed him in the Federal pokey on Alcatraz.

Unlike Capone, who arrived in Chicago as a poor, low level thug in 1920, Hurd arrived here in 2011, a revered multimillionaire from his five years as a Dallas Cowboy and his newly minted 5.5 million dollar contract from the Halas family. Apparently, wealth and fame and status as a Chicago Bear was not satisfying enough. It never is to many, all too human, humans, who want more and more and more. Also unlike Capone, Hurd's alleged illegal career lasted only `bout eleven weeks instead of eleven years.

Unless Hurd's high powered mouthpiece can toss a Hail Mary, Hurd faces up to forty years in a 21st century version of Alcatraz. And we know now from Rod Blagojevich's Federal sentencing, he will have to complete 85% of it before his release. If he gets the max, Hurd could be a broken old man of 60 before he can attend his next Bear game.

Wouldn't it be ironic if Rod and Sam shared a cell. They would have a seeming eternity to discuss their version of Blago's brilliant campaign theme used against Judy Barr Topinka: "What were we thinking"?