Athletes should give 'all the glory to God' in private

I'm a 76-year-old graduate of Indiana University. I've been watching their football program since 1970. I vividly recall the decades of futility, and I couldn't be happier for their recent success. I hope it continues in the championship game.

Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza deserves all his accolades and may rightfully be the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. He also seems to be a genuinely good person and student. He and his mom are very close, and that is to be greatly admired.

That said, when he, as well as other athletes, publicly "give all the glory to God" after a victory, it diminishes the accomplishment. After all, if you and your team had supernatural assistance from the invisible, then your team's efforts are virtually meaningless, and your opponent was doomed before kickoff.

Here's my suggestion: If you choose to pray for metaphysical help before the game, do it in private. If you win, keep your spiritual gratitude to yourself. It has no place in a sports arena. Give credit where it's due. Thank your family for all their sacrifices, your coaches for believing in you, and your fans for supporting you during all those losing campaigns, and leave it at that.

If you choose to thank your "creator" or "savior" later, when alone, by all means do so. Just as football isn't played in a house of worship, religion shouldn't be displayed on the gridiron. GO IU!

Wes Dickson, Orland Park

Judy Baar Topinka deserved better treatment

As Judy Baar Topinka’s only child and the executor of her estate, I remain her sole advocate. I write to respond to statements and implications in the Dec. 22 article, “These two crooks can still convert millions from their campaign funds into personal use if they want.” I was not interviewed for the article, despite my contact information being publicly available.

The article’s layout prominently features a photograph of my mother taken from the Judy Baar Topinka Foundation’s website. In print, her photo appears above that of a retired alderman; online, it is displayed more prominently than those of Michael Madigan and Edward Burke, whom the article labels the “two crooks.” Nothing in Judy Baar Topinka’s legacy — or in the work of the Judy Baar Topinka Foundation — has any connection, direct or indirect, to those individuals. The visual association is misleading and unfair.

The article further states that “nearly $500,000” in campaign funds may be “converted to personal use by their estates.” My late mother’s active campaign fund is not controlled by her estate and never was (this was reported by the Sun-Times in 2019). The campaign fund was taken over by my late mother’s former top aide without my prior knowledge.

If the authors are correct that such funds may be converted by estates, one obvious question remains unanswered: Why did I have to engage in litigation simply to seek control of my mother’s campaign committee, only to be told by Illinois courts that I lacked standing? That ruling came despite my role as executor and my extensive involvement in my mother’s past campaigns.

Before entering public office, Judy Baar Topinka was a journalist who covered municipal corruption in the Chicago suburbs. Were she alive today, I suspect she would urge reporters to look more closely and ask harder questions. The bones of corruption are not hard to find, but they deserve careful, accurate reporting.

Joseph Baar Topinka, New Braunfels, Texas

Caleb Williams is the new Comeback Kid

Is it too early to take the title of Comeback Kid from Joe Montana and give it to Caleb Williams? I left the room with 10 minutes left in Saturday's game, too depressed to watch and put on the 10 p.m. news. Then they announced the Bears were winning with seconds left, and I was able to see them win. Maybe it should be Ben Johnson and the Comeback Kids.

Linda Padgurskis, Clearing

Bears are Cardiac Kids

It's not a hard and fast rule, but for as far back as I can remember, the great athletic teams often seemed to be tied to a snappy nickname. Pro or amateur, whatever the sport, either for the team as a whole or a prominent segment of it, there might be one around somewhere.

In light of the 2025 NFL season's ongoing pattern, I'd like to nominate this edition of the Bears be dubbed the Cardiac Kids. Time and again, they've clawed their way back (excuse the pun) from almost certain defeat to pull out a win. The fact that the Saturday night effort involved turning the lights out on their archrival Packers' season made that latest episode even sweeter.

May it continue. Although for the next month, if they were to reprise a dominance unseen since the Super Bowl Shuffle squad and actually blow somebody out, I wouldn't be against it.

Tom Gregg, Niles

We aren’t ‘one nation under God’

In his letter to the editor Monday, Christopher Berbeka posed the question: "Aren't we supposed to be one nation under God?" Actually, we are not.

The founders of our nation established the bedrock principle of the separation of church and state. The insertion of the words "under God" into the Pledge during the Red Scare years of the 1950s was a direct contradiction of this founding principle.

All of human history up to the present day has taught us that very little divides people more completely and more violently than religion. Inserting the words "under God" into the Pledge immediately following the phrase "one nation" logically contradicts that principle of national unity and renders it moot. Perhaps this is one of the many reasons why our beloved country is so disunified today.

Chet Alexander, Alsip

Is U.S. taking authoritarian turn?

After watching numerous videos and conflicting narrative accounts of last week’s horrific tragedy in Minneapolis, where Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent, we must wonder: Are ICE agents deployed by President Trump and Homeland Security Department Director Kristi Noem to America’s streets analogous to Hitler’s Brown Shirts (officially the Sturmabteilung or SA)?

What happened last week is what happens in authoritarian societies, not the U.S.

When agents wear masks and refuse to disclose who they are, they strip people of the basic ability to understand who is detaining them, under what authority, and for what reason. It is an intimidation tactic — and it creates the conditions for violence, abuse and wrongful arrests.

In short, regardless of what eventual investigations reveal, the comparison to Hitler’s Brown Shirts must be considered.

Richard Cherwitz, Ph.D., professor emeritus, University of Texas at Austin