casino games download CHICAGO — It took 32 seconds of national embarrassment for George McCaskey, Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles to finally concede what everyone else already knew. And even when the Chicago Bears brain trust decided they no longer could justify keeping Matt Eberflus as head coach of their team, they still waited until he conducted one more news conference — telling us everything was fine and he was preparing for next week’s game against the San Francisco 49ers — before they actually pulled the trigger. Remember, this is an operation worth an estimated $6.4 billion, not a local hardware business trying to decide whether a store clerk should be let go for putting the wingnuts and screws in the wrong aisle. Fittingly, the Bears were the Bears until the last drop. “It’s been a normal operation,” Eberflus said Friday morning on a Zoom call with reporters before being Zoomed out of the NFL. The sad part is the Bears truly believe they are a normal operation when it’s quite obvious they’re the laughingstock of football. Who else would let Eberflus continue to fail time and time again after he repeatedly proved he wasn’t fit for the job. His .304 winning percentage was third-worst in Bears history, ahead of only John Fox (.292) and Abe Gibron (.274). And at least Abe had Melody to help take our minds off all the losing. (Google it, kids.) Eberflus’ days had been numbered since the Hail Mary loss to the Washington Commanders. The 19-3 loss to the lowly New England Patriots on Nov. 10, in which he and his team were booed off the field, would’ve been a perfect time to say sayonara. The Bears had eight games remaining to try to salvage the season, and at 4-5 there was still some hope it could be done. But, no, the McCaskeys don’t fire head coaches in season, we’ve been told a thousand times. Instead they got rid of the sacrificial goat, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who was replaced by Thomas Brown. Fans would have to suffer through three more brutal endings before George McCaskey finally got it into his head that this marriage was not going to work. The Thanksgiving Day clock blunder will be remembered as the fatal blow, of course, because we all watched in a collective stupor as the clock ticked down and Caleb Williams kept barking out signals, seemingly oblivious to the fact the game was about to end. Even your Aunt Martha, who doesn’t know a football from a drumstick, was yelling: “What is he doing, for crying out loud?” It made for an unforgettable Thanksgiving, with everyone in the living room calling for Eberflus’ head. Then came the “everything is fine” news conference Friday morning that made it appear as though the Bears were actually trying to gaslight their fans. I’m not sure what made McCaskey agree to change the long-standing policy — whether it was Jimmy Johnson’s rant or a tweet by The Wieners Circle — but whoever it was should get a medal of valor for saving the city from a mass mental breakdown. We all saw this coming, except perhaps the Three Amigos: McCaskey, Warren and Poles. That still doesn’t make it any more palatable. The Thanksgiving hangover firing bookends the most famous “hiring” in Bears history, when Mike McCaskey told the media Dave McGinnis would be the head coach before actually informing McGinnis, thus losing both the coach and the rest of his own dwindling credibility. That embarrassing moment would be the lowlight of Mike McCaskey’s career, just as this will be remembered as George’s unshining moment. How will Eberflus be remembered? Was he a poor man’s Pedro Grifol or a poorer man’s Jim Boylen? Until Thursday’s debacle, perhaps the moment that best epitomized the Eberflus era was, during a lopsided loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in October 2023, when he threw the red challenge flag after the Bears scored a meaningless touchdown late in the game. He meant to throw it before the play, but Eberflus was never one to react quickly to any situation. And because there wasn’t any video replay of the actual touchdown, it was no harm, no foul. What comes next for Bears fans is the hard part. Do they trust these executives to hire the right replacement? Almost as much as they trust Mayor Brandon Johnson to manage the city budget. The easiest solution is to throw money at Bill Belichick and see if he bites. If Williams is truly a game-changing quarterback then it makes sense to give the keys to the guy who coached the greatest quarterback of his generation. But making sense is not really the Bears’ thing, so expect them to go for someone they don’t have to give any real power to and will be blander than their last five coaches combined. Someone disposable by 2027. It’s just normal operating procedure at Halas Hall. ©2024 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has caused uproar after backing Germany’s far-right party in a major newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections in the Western European country, leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor in protest. Germany is to vote in an early election on February 23 after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party governing coalition collapsed last month in a dispute over how to revitalise the country’s stagnant economy. Mr Musk’s guest opinion piece for Welt am Sonntag – a sister publication of Politico owned by the Axel Springer Group – published in German over the weekend, was the second time this month that he has supported the Alternative for Germany, or AfD. “The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country,” he wrote in his translated commentary. He went on to say that the far-right party “can lead the country into a future where economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation are not just wishes, but reality”. The Tesla Motors chief executive also wrote that his investment in Germany gives him the right to comment on the country’s condition. The AfD is polling strongly, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidel, has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor because other parties refuse to work with the far-right party. Billionaire Mr Musk, an ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, challenged in his opinion piece the party’s public image. “The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!” Mr Musk’s commentary has led to a debate in German media over the boundaries of free speech, with the paper’s own opinion editor announcing her resignation, pointedly on Mr Musk’s social media platform, X. Eva Marie Kogel wrote: “I always enjoyed leading the opinion section of WELT and WAMS. Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I handed in my resignation yesterday after it went to print.” A critical article by the future editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Jan Philipp Burgard, accompanied Mr Musk’s opinion piece. “Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong,” he wrote. Responding to a request for comment from the German Press Agency, dpa, the current editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Ulf Poschardt, and Mr Burgard – who is due to take over on January 1 – said in a joint statement that the discussion over Mr Musk’s piece was “very insightful. Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression.” “This will continue to determine the compass of the ‘world’ in the future. We will develop ‘Die Welt’ even more decisively as a forum for such debates,” they wrote to dpa. Associated PressCAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom and MONTREAL and VANCOUVER, British Columbia and BASEL, Switzerland, Dec. 19, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Epitopea, a transatlantic cancer immunotherapeutics company developing accessible off-the-shelf RNA-based immunotherapies, and Genevant Sciences, a leading nucleic acid delivery company with world-class platforms and a robust and expansive lipid nanoparticle (LNP) patent portfolio, today announced that they have entered into a collaboration and nonexclusive license agreement to develop novel mRNA-LNP immunotherapies targeting Epitopea’s proprietary aberrantly-expressed tumor specific antigens (aeTSAs), called Cryptigens , for an undisclosed oncology indication. “At Epitopea we continue to accelerate our near-term clinical development plans for our next generation, tumor selective, off-the-shelf, RNA-based immunotherapies that we believe have the potential to extend the durability of clinical responses in patients. Access to world-class LNP delivery technology in support of our vision is critical. Genevant is a longstanding leader in the LNP space, and we are excited about the translational path forward,” said Alan Rigby, Chief Executive Officer of Epitopea. “Our clinically validated LNP technology and decades of experience in the space make us a partner of choice for innovative RNA-based immunotherapy companies,” said James Heyes, Chief Scientific Officer of Genevant Sciences. “We are delighted to be collaborating with the Epitopea team and supporting its mission to extend the durability of clinical response in cancer patients.” Under the terms of the agreement, Genevant granted to Epitopea a nonexclusive worldwide license to certain Genevant LNP technology to develop RNA-based immunotherapies targeting Epitopea’s CryptigenTM TSAs in an undisclosed oncology indication. Genevant is eligible to receive up to $123.5 million in upfront and contingent milestone payments per product and tiered royalties ranging from the mid to high single digits on future product sales. Dr. Alan C. Rigby – CEO Katja Stout +44 7789 435990 Daniel Gooch +44 7747 875479 Epitopea is a transatlantic cancer immunotherapeutics company developing accessible off-the-shelf RNA-based immunotherapies for use in hard-to-treat cancers by targeting a new class of untapped tumor-specific antigens, which are known as CryptigenTM TSAs, that are broadly shared across multiple patients with the same tumor type. Epitopea has created an extensive library of novel CryptigenTM TSAs, discovered by its proprietary CryptoMapTM platform that leverages immunopeptidomics, genomics, and a bioinformatics pipeline, allowing the identification of aberrantly expressed, tumor-specific antigens (aeTSAs) that are hidden within cancer’s ’junk’ DNA. These hidden CryptigenTM TSAs were first discovered through research led by Drs. Claude Perreault and Pierre Thibault at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer at the Université de Montréal. Epitopea is backed by leading life science investors including Advent Life Sciences, CTI Life Sciences, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Le Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, Investissement Québec, adMare BioInnovations, Jonathan Milner, the Harrington Discovery Institute, IRICoR and Novateur Ventures. Epitopea was founded in 2021 and consists of sister companies based in Cambridge, UK and in Montreal, Canada. For additional information, please visit and follow Epitopea on . Genevant Sciences is a leading nucleic acid delivery company with world-class platforms, a robust and expansive lipid nanoparticle (LNP) patent portfolio, and decades of experience and expertise in nucleic acid drug delivery and development. Genevant’s scientists have pioneered LNP delivery of nucleic acids for over 20 years, and Genevant’s LNP platform, which has been studied across more than a dozen discrete product candidates and is the delivery technology behind the first and only approved systemic RNA-LNP product (patisiran), enables a wide array of RNA-based applications, including vaccines, therapeutic protein production, and gene editing. For more information, please visit .

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Dow Rebounds, Ending 10-Day Losing Streak4 Best Cryptos with Long-Term Value to Buy with a $700 Budget and Attain $10,000,000 By 2028STANFORD, Calif. — Andrew Luck is returning to Stanford in hopes of turning around a struggling football program that he once helped become a national power. Athletic director Bernard Muir announced Saturday that Luck has been hired as the general manager of the Stanford football team, tasked with overseeing all aspects of the program that just finished a 3-9 season under coach Troy Taylor. “I am a product of this university, of Nerd Nation; I love this place,” Luck said. “I believe deeply in Stanford’s unique approach to athletics and academics and the opportunity to help drive our program back to the top. Coach Taylor has the team pointed in the right direction, and I cannot wait to work with him, the staff, and the best, brightest, and toughest football players in the world.” Luck has kept a low profile since his surprise retirement from the NFL at age 29 when he announced in August 2019 that he was leaving the Indianapolis Colts and pro football. Cardinal alum Andrew Luck, left, watches a Feb. 2 game between Stanford and Southern California on Feb. 2 in Stanford, Calif. In his new role, Luck will work with Taylor on recruiting and roster management, and with athletic department and university leadership on fundraising, alumni relations, sponsorships, student-athlete support and stadium experience. “Andrew’s credentials as a student-athlete speak for themselves, and in addition to his legacy of excellence, he also brings a deep understanding of the college football landscape and community, and an unparalleled passion for Stanford football,” Muir said. “I could not think of a person better qualified to guide our football program through a continuously evolving landscape, and I am thrilled that Andrew has agreed to join our team. This change represents a very different way of operating our program and competing in an evolving college football landscape.” Luck was one of the players who helped elevate Stanford into a West Coast powerhouse for several years. He helped end a seven-year bowl drought in his first season as starting quarterback in 2009 under coach Jim Harbaugh and led the Cardinal to back-to-back BCS bowl berths his final two seasons, when he was the Heisman Trophy runner-up both seasons. Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck throws a pass during the first quarter of a Nov. 27, 2010 game against Oregon State in Stanford, Calif. That was part of a seven-year stretch in which Stanford posted the fourth-best record in the nation at 76-18 and qualified for five BCS bowl berths under Harbaugh and David Shaw. But the Cardinal have struggled for success in recent years and haven't won more than four games in a season since 2018. Stanford just finished its fourth straight 3-9 campaign in Taylor's second season since replacing Shaw. The Cardinal are the only power conference team to lose at least nine games in each of the past four seasons. Luck graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in architectural design and returned after retiring from the NFL to get his master’s degree in education in 2023. He was picked No. 1 overall by Indianapolis in the 2012 draft and made four Pro Bowls and was AP Comeback Player of the Year in 2018 in his brief but successful NFL career. Before the 2023 National Football League season started, it seemed inevitable that Bill Belichick would end his career as the winningest head coach in league history. He had won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and 298 regular-season games, plus 31 playoff games, across his career. Then the 2023 season happened. Belichick's Patriots finished 4-13, the franchise's worst record since 1992. At the end of the year, Belichick and New England owner Robert Kraft agreed to part ways. And now, during the 2024 season, Belichick is on the sideline. He's 26 wins from the #1 spot, a mark he'd reach in little more than two seasons if he maintained his .647 career winning percentage. Will he ascend the summit? It's hard to tell. Belichick would be 73 if he graced the sidelines next season—meaning he'd need to coach until at least 75 to break the all-time mark. Only one other NFL coach has ever helmed a team at age 73: Romeo Crennel in 2020 for the Houston Texans. With Belichick's pursuit of history stalled, it's worth glancing at the legends who have reached the pinnacle of coaching success. Who else stands among the 10 winningest coaches in NFL history? Stacker ranked the coaches with the most all-time regular-season wins using data from Pro Football Reference . These coaches have combined for 36 league championships, which represents 31.6% of all championships won throughout the history of pro football. To learn who made the list, keep reading. You may also like: Ranking the biggest NFL Draft busts of the last 30 years - Seasons coached: 23 - Years active: 1981-2003 - Record: 190-165-2 - Winning percentage: .535 - Championships: 0 Dan Reeves reached the Super Bowl four times—thrice with the Denver Broncos and once with the Atlanta Falcons—but never won the NFL's crown jewel. Still, he racked up nearly 200 wins across his 23-year career, including a stint in charge of the New York Giants, with whom he won Coach of the Year in 1993. In all his tenures, he quickly built contenders—the three clubs he coached were a combined 17-31 the year before Reeves joined and 28-20 in his first year. However, his career ended on a sour note as he was fired from a 3-10 Falcons team after Week 14 in 2003. - Seasons coached: 23 - Years active: 1969-91 - Record: 193-148-1 - Winning percentage: .566 - Championships: 4 Chuck Noll's Pittsburgh Steelers were synonymous with success in the 1970s. Behind his defense, known as the Steel Curtain, and offensive stars, including Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, and Lynn Swann, Noll led the squad to four Super Bowl victories from 1974 to 1979. Noll's Steelers remain the lone team to win four Super Bowls in six years, though Andy Reid and Kansas City could equal that mark if they win the Lombardi Trophy this season. Noll was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993, two years after retiring. His legacy of coaching success has carried on in Pittsburgh—the club has had only two coaches (Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin) since Noll retired. - Seasons coached: 21 - Years active: 1984-98, 2001-06 - Record: 200-126-1 - Winning percentage: .613 - Championships: 0 As head coach of Cleveland, Kansas City, Washington, and San Diego, Marty Schottenheimer proved a successful leader during the regular season. Notably, he was named Coach of the Year after turning around his 4-12 Chargers team to a 12-4 record in 2004. His teams, however, struggled during the playoffs. Schottheimer went 5-13 in the postseason, and he never made it past the conference championship round. As such, the Pennsylvania-born skipper is the winningest NFL coach never to win a league championship. - Seasons coached: 25 - Years active: 1946-62, '68-75 - Record: 213-104-9 - Winning percentage: .672 - Championships: 7 The only coach on this list to pilot a college team, Paul Brown, reached the pro ranks after a three-year stint at Ohio State and two years with the Navy during World War II. He guided the Cleveland Browns—named after Brown, their first coach—to four straight titles in the fledgling All-America Football Conference. After the league folded, the ballclub moved to the NFL in 1950, and Cleveland continued its winning ways, with Brown leading the team to championships in '50, '54, and '55. He was fired in 1963 but returned in 1968 as the co-founder and coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. His other notable accomplishments include helping to invent the face mask and breaking pro football's color barrier . - Seasons coached: 33 - Years active: 1921-53 - Record: 226-132-22 - Winning percentage: .631 - Championships: 6 An early stalwart of the NFL, Curly Lambeau spent 29 years helming the Green Bay Packers before wrapping up his coaching career with two-year stints with the Chicago Cardinals and Washington. His Packers won titles across three decades, including the league's first three-peat from 1929-31. Notably, he experienced only one losing season during his first 27 years with Green Bay, cementing his legacy of consistent success. Born in Green Bay, Lambeau co-founded the Packers and played halfback on the team from 1919-29. He was elected to the Hall of Fame as a coach and owner in 1963, two years before his death. You may also like: Countries with the most active NFL players - Seasons coached: 26 - Years active: 1999-present - Record: 267-145-1 - Winning percentage: .648 - Championships: 3 The only active coach in the top 10, Andy Reid has posted successful runs with both the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City. After reaching the Super Bowl once in 14 years with the Eagles, Reid ratcheted things up with K.C., winning three titles since 2019. As back-to-back defending champions, Reid and Co. are looking this season to become the first franchise to three-peat in the Super Bowl era and the third to do so in NFL history after the Packers of 1929-31 and '65-67. Time will tell if Reid and his offensive wizardry can lead Kansas City to that feat. - Seasons coached: 29 - Years active: 1991-95, 2000-23 - Record: 302-165 - Winning percentage: .647 - Championships: 6 The most successful head coach of the 21st century, Bill Belichick first coached the Cleveland Browns before taking over the New England Patriots in 2000. With the Pats, Belichick combined with quarterback Tom Brady to win six Super Bowls in 18 years. Belichick and New England split after last season when the Patriots went 4-13—the worst record of Belichick's career. His name has swirled around potential coaching openings , but nothing has come of it. Belichick has remained in the media spotlight with his regular slot on the "Monday Night Football" ManningCast. - Seasons coached: 40 - Years active: 1920-29, '33-42, '46-55, '58-67 - Record: 318-148-31 - Winning percentage: .682 - Championships: 6 George Halas was the founder and longtime owner of the Chicago Bears and coached the team across four separate stints. Nicknamed "Papa Bear," he built the ballclub into one of the NFL's premier franchises behind players such as Bronko Nagurski and Sid Luckman. Halas also played for the team, competing as a player-coach in the 1920s. The first coach to study opponents via game film, he was once a baseball player and even made 12 appearances as a member of the New York Yankees in 1919. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1963 as both a coach and owner. - Seasons coached: 33 - Years active: 1963-95 - Record: 328-156-6 - Winning percentage: .677 - Championships: 2 The winningest head coach in NFL history is Don Shula, who first coached the Baltimore Colts (losing Super Bowl III to Joe Namath and the New York Jets) for seven years before leading the Miami Dolphins for 26 seasons. With the Fins, Shula won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1972 and 1973, a run that included a 17-0 season—the only perfect campaign in NFL history. He also coached quarterback great Dan Marino in the 1980s and '90s, but the pair made it to a Super Bowl just once. Shula was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997. Story editing by Mike Taylor. Copy editing by Robert Wickwire. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick. You may also like: The 5 biggest upsets of the 2023-24 NFL regular season - Seasons coached: 29 - Years active: 1960-88 - Record: 250-162-6 - Winning percentage: .607 - Championships: 2 The first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Landry held the position for his entire 29-year tenure as an NFL coach. The Cowboys were especially dominant in the 1970s when they made five Super Bowls and won the big game twice. Landry was known for coaching strong all-around squads and a unit that earned the nickname the "Doomsday Defense." Between 1966 and 1985, Landry and his Cowboys enjoyed 20 straight seasons with a winning record. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1990. Get local news delivered to your inbox!