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2011 has certainly been a rough year for Chicago sports fans.

The Bears, Blackhawks and Bulls all made the playoffs which is clearly a good thing, but the way they went out wasn’t pretty.

The Cubs are Chicago sports fans only hope now to win a championship. It’s been 103 years since they brought home a World Series title, so not a lot of hope is instilled in them.

Bears: 11-5, NFC North Division Champions

Lets start with the Bears, since this is a Bears blog. They finished the 2010-11 season with an 11-5 record. They clinched the NFC North crown in Week 15 in a win over the Vikings, where Devin Hester broke the all-time kick return touchdown record.

The Bears defense was back ranking ninth in the NFL, second at stopping the run and 20th at stopping the pass. The offense started the year struggling, but finished strong with the help of Jay Cutler and Matt Forte.

They took down the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Divisional round 35-24. But fell to their biggest rival, Green Bay the next week in the NFC Championship.

The Bears had their chances. They failed to beat the Packers in the Week 17 at Lambeau. If the Bears came away with the win, the Packers wouldn’t have made the playoffs.

The NFC Championship was a home game for the Bears at Soldier Field, but the Packers came away with the 21-14 victory. It was tough for a lot of Bears to fathom considering how great the team played all season, but a knee injury to QB Jay Cutler ended almost any possibility of a victory.

Third-string quarterback Caleb Hanie replaced the ineffective veteran Todd Collins, who came in for Cutler after he went to the bench. Hanie looked solid at times, but couldn’t take the Bears to the promise land. You can’t blame the young Hanie, but the Bears were in that game even with him until the end.

The Bears are not pleased by the way the season ended especially since they fell to their divisional rival in such a big game, but they will be back this upcoming season focused and ready.

The loss to the Packers may go down as the most painful in Chicago Bears history ranking on the same level as the Super Bowl XLI loss to the Colts and the 1988 NFC Championship loss to the 49ers.

Blackhawks: 44-29-9, 8th seed

Moving on to the Blackhawks of the NHL. This was the easiest to get over because they barely even made it into the playoffs. The defending Stanley Cup Champions hung around the Western Conference as the eighth seed because the Dallas Stars fell to the Minnesota Wild on the final day of the season.

The Blackhawks moved on to the playoffs, as a way different team as last year and found themselves in a similar spot, playing against the Vancouver Canucks. They quickly found out that the Canucks were much more physical and they fell down three to nothing in the series.

But they Hawks came firing back tying the series up at three apiece and forcing a game seven in Vancouver. They fought hard and sent the game to overtime. They even had a power play early in the overtime, but Patrick Sharp failed to cash in on a prime opportunity.

Minutes later defenseman Chris Campoli turned the puck over in the Hawks zone and the Canucks finished them for good. The series was tough for any die hard fan of Chicago sports, but the Hawks were lucky to make the playoffs, so forcing a game seven after being down three games to zero in the series was pretty impressive.

The Blackhawks will be a good team next season, they re-signed rookie goalie Corey Crawford to a three-year deal and may have found a gem in rookie forward Ben Smith. Plus most of them star players are intact.

Too many changes after a championship season doesn’t usually translate in another championship the following year and the Blackhawks saw that happen to them.

Bulls: 62-20, 1st seed in Eastern Conference

Maybe the toughest of them all for Chicago fans was the Bulls. The Bulls series ended last night as the Miami Heat won four games to one. The Bulls finished the season with 62 wins, an MVP in Derrick Rose and a coach of the year in Tom Thibodeau.

They beat the under .500 Indiana Pacers in the first round and the athletic Atlanta Hawks in the second round of the playoffs. They then hosted the Miami Heat, a team that they swept during the regular season.

Miami, who we all know has “the big three” in Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh came in beating Philadelphia and Boston in the first two rounds. The Bulls started the series looking real good by beating the Heat 103-82, but quickly fell apart. They dropped the next three games and it marked the first time all season that occurred.

They were controlling last night’s game holding a 77-63 lead with about three minutes left, but suffered a collapse, one that may carry over to the summer and beyond. It also marked the first time all season that the Bulls lost a game after winning by 10 or more points in the fourth quarter.

Derrick Rose was contained by the Heat and not many other Bulls players stepped up to help the MVP. Carlos Boozer struggled at times, Joakim Noah was consistently in foul trouble and Kyle Korver was just plain bad.

The Bulls need a shooter other than Derrick Rose, Luol Deng is a good player, but he would be even better as the third option. The Bulls have a young solid bench, who will only get better with time, but this team will never win without another star next to Rose.

It’s a shame to see the Heat move on considering how LeBron handled himself on national television with the “Decision” before the season. Also because LeBron controls outcomes of games with his flopping and complaining. I’m not going to say the referees controled all of the five games, but at times they made some flat out bad calls.

The last shot of the game by Rose, a three-pointer was an airball, it looked like it was blocked by LeBron, but I think Udonis Haslem hit Rose in the hand before the shot.

It’s too late to look back at all of the mistakes the referees or the Bulls players made. It’s simple they fell apart after surprisingly winning 62 games.

Overall, 2011 was a good year in Chicago sports, but it was a rough year the way the teams fell in the playoffs. The Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks should all be strong once again next season, but they will likely never forget the way they got bounced from their respective playoffs.

Next year could be the year or was this the year? That remains to be seen, maybe the anger and determination they went through will help all these teams reach the promise land.

The Cubs always have a chance, right?

For more news on Twitter, follow @Bearsbacker.

For more news on Twitter, follow @Bearsbacker.

The highest a tight end has ever been drafted is with the 5th pick in the NFL Draft.

This happened in 1961 when the Chicago Bears chose Mike Ditka out of the University of Pittsburgh.

Mike Ditka played 12 seasons in the NFL, six with the Bears. He played in 84 games in his six seasons in Chicago.

He made 316 catches for 4503 yards and 34 touchdowns. He averaged 53.6 ypg. He was voted to five straight Pro Bowls from (1961-1965).

He went on to win two Super Bowls in four years with the Dallas Cowboys. He spent his last two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles appearing in 20 games.

Ditka had great success as a player and soon there after coached pretty darn well too. Ditka was an assisted coach with the Dallas Cowboys from 1973-1981.

He was hired by the Bears as the head coach in 1982 and stayed there until 1992. Ditka finished his coaching career with the Bears posting a 106-62 record and .631 win percentage.

He led the Bears to seven post season appearances in his 11 seasons as head coach. He coached the Bears to a Super Bowl XX win in 1985 and two other NFC Championships in which the Bears fell to the San Fransisco 49ers.

He went on to coach the New Orleans Saints for three years (1997-1999) and didn’t have great success, going 15-33 with .313 winning percentage. He often refers to those three years as the worst years of his life.

He now is a legend in Chicago owning three of his own steakhouses called Ditka’s, two in Illinois and one in Pennsylvania.

He works for ESPN appearing on NFL Sunday Countdown and ESPN 1000 in Chicago regularly.

For more news on Twitter, follow @Bearsbacker.

For more news on Twitter, follow @Bearsbacker.

For more news on Twitter, follow @Bearsbacker.

Quick Hits:

Bears free-agent running back Garrett Wolfe got into some trouble over the weekend in Miami, sixth-round pick J.T. Thomas did a nice thing for a lucky fan and the latest NFL lockout news.

Here are some of those links to look at:

RB Garrett Wolfe busted in South Beach, likely done with the Bears, http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/breaking/cbsports-exbears-running-back-wolfe-arrested-in-miami-20110522,0,2495439.story

Bears sixth-round pick J.T. Thomas makes a fan’s dream come true with his kindness, http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears/post/_/id/4670527/bears-thomas-making-fans-dream-come-true

John “Moon” Mullin of CSNChicago.com puts together his list of the three best Bears QB’s ever, http://www.csnchicago.com/05/19/11/View-from-the-Moon-Best-Bears-ever—QBs/landing_moon_v3.html?blockID=525718&feedID=626

NFL owners to convene today for spring meeting, not in a courtroom, http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/05/23/nfl-owners-convene-monday-for-spring-meeting/

NBC’s Chris Collinsworth goes over his list of former NFC North players who deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, http://footballpros.com/content.php/957-Best-Players-From-the-NFC-North-NOT-in-the-Hall-of-Fame?s=7849a272ac2a1fd95e8d35d08c72a083&

For more news on Twitter, follow @Bearsbacker.

Greg Olsen became the first Bears tight end to gain more than 100 yards in a postseason game in the NFC Divisional game against the Seattle Seahawks last season.

Olsen caught three passes for 133 yards and one touchdown in the 35-24 win over the Seahawks. Olsen had 41 catches, 404 yards and five touchdowns all season.

He wasn’t really used to his full potential because of poor play from the offensive line, but the offensive line improved over the second half of the season and Olsen played much better.

Olsen has been working out with Matt Forte for a good part of the off-season and it has been reported that the Bears offense got together yesterday for a practice led by QB Jay Cutler.

Look for Olsen to have a better season because he is looking for a big contract once his rookie one ends this season.

For more news on Twitter, follow @Bearsbacker.

For more news on Twitter, follow @Bearsbacker.

Chicago Bulls forward puts up a monster jam over Dwayne Wade in Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals at the United Center.

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