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O'Donnell: Palatine's Mayor Schwantz hoping his multi-tasking includes a Bears Super Bowl

JIM SCHWANTZ HAS AMPLE REASON to wish there were 48 hours in each day.

Consider the man's public resume:

Mayor of Palatine;

Super Bowl champ;

Moving company executive;

Former NFL Pro Bowler; and,

Wraparound contributor to WBBM-AM (780)'s Bourbonnais-to-final reckoning game-day coverage of the Bears.

"Crazy, but somehow it all works," said Schwantz, 49, who lived la vida football from Fremd High in Palatine to Purdue to a seven-year run with the Bears, the Cowboys and the Forty-Niners.

He will begin his 18th season broadcasting Bears football alongside Jay Hilgenberg and Ron Gleason Thursday night after results are in from the preseason opener vs. Carolina.

The triumvirate works postgames only until the tides of September hit.

Then, Schwantz, Hilgenberg and Gleason will once again add the first hour of a vast three-hour pregame that includes Tom Thayer, Jeff Joniak and Mark Grote.

"I'm a salesman for Von Sydow's Moving and Storage and that takes up the lion's share of my time during the week," Schwantz said.

"My responsibilities as mayor vary a lot depending on the week.

"Game prep is done mostly in the evening, but it helps that I love football. So just paying close attention during the season is helpful."

Much of pro football was paying close attention to Schwantz and the Cowboys during his golden years in Dallas (1994-96).

Playing for Barry Switzer alongside such Ring of Honor types as Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith, Schwantz won his own lasting band when the Cowboys and improbable MVP Larry Brown - a cornerback - held off Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XXX, 27-17.

One season later, in 1996, Schwantz nailed a record 32 special-teams tackles and was named to the Pro Bowl.

Right now, he senses that same sort of charmed journey ahead for Khalil Mack and the Bears:

"This team is absolutely in the mix for a title this year.

"It will, as it always does, come down to execution in any elimination game.

"Last year, we all remember 'The Kick.' But they were unable to execute when it counted most, on both sides of the ball, and it cost them."

Winners frame history.

Now if only Jim Schwantz could extend that daily clock.

THERE WAS A PREDICTABLE BACKLASH after the mere mention of Jay Mariotti in a recent column about the station-defining free fall of Jim Pastor and ESPN AM-1000.

Mariotti was the controversial downtown sports columnist who was fired from AM-1000 under odd circumstance in 2004.

He later suddenly resigned from the Sun-Times at the start of a new three-year contract cycle in 2008 and was separated from ESPN's "Around The Horn" after 1,549 appearances in 2011. That came following an alleged incident involving a former companion in southern California.

So, it's easy to pile on Mariotti.

But here are some other considerations:

No Chicago sports writer of the past 25 years sold more newspapers.

No Chicago sports writer of the past 25 years energized teammates who wanted to be energized as much as Mariotti.

While not always a warm and fuzzy table mate, as a sports media competitor, Mariotti was Michael Jordan.

CHICAGO THOROUGHBRED RACING lost a most memorable one with the passing of the supremely connected Richard Hazelton, 88.

He won 17 consecutive training titles (1971-87) at Sportsman's nefarious old spring meet and was a career leader at Arlington Park.

Of his bullring youth, Hazelton once said (for publication): "You could say it was good-lookin' women, drinkin' and horses. Then (late wife) Nanci come along."

Son Scott Hazelton has taken the legacy down a different path as one of the nation's most astute racing analysts on TVG.

STREET-BEATIN': One week into training camp, Matt Nagy and the Bears have already been knocked down to a 3-point favorite - after opening at 4 - over visiting Carolina Thursday (Fox-32, 7 p.m.). But glorified scrimmages are so hard to chase, like singer Sam Smith's social media tempests. … Strange days indeed at penny-pinching NBCSCH: Challenged chief Kevin Cross - who is losing the Cubs this winter - will be airing "The Daily Line," a four-hour afternoon bloc of simulcast NBC Sports Radio video that features gambling neophytes Michael Jenkins, Tim Murray and Sara Perlman. (Apparently Cross is low on reruns of "Beer Money."). … Theo Epstein sounded like he was in mile 10 of a treadmill jog during a patty-cake interview on WSCR-AM (670)'s morning show Friday. Quote of intrigue from the grand word dancer about the deadline acquisition of Nick Castellanos: "Tom Ricketts really stepped up, incredibly supportive, allowed us in those last couple minutes to get a deal done." ("Allowed" - yet another hint Theo gone?). … ESPN had the markedly insightful David Ross perfectly positioned in the middle chair of its coverage of Game 2 of the recent Cubs-St. Louis series. And then bookending chatterboxes Eduardo Perez and Jon Sciambi kicked in, drowning Ross in a shower of babble. (Dead air on an ESPN/MLB telecast is evidently about as feared as Legionnaires' disease.). … Jason Benetti will be paired with Rod Gilmore on ESPN/ABC college football telecasts this fall. (Gilmore is a Stanford grid notable who was as confused as the trombone section during "The Play" vs. Cal all those years ago; YouTube, please.) … Young Jim Martin (Prospect High, Class of '19) is off to begin his college football career as a QB at Northern Michigan. … A frightening culinary thought while accidentally watching 45 minutes of NFL training camp updates: At least three generations of Americans may actually think Domino's is pizza. … And the enduring Ron Rapoport, flashing back to George Halas's beloved "dancing girls": "A favorite memory of the Honey Bears is Jack Pardee's wife Phyllis calling them 'The Honey Buns.' "

• Jim O'Donnell's Sports & Media column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com.

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