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So this was a busy week in Chicago sports. The Bears in jolly ole England, the Cubs and Boston finally agree, and an assistant on the South side might be leaving.

The lead story of the week was the Bears in England, not because it was a huge game, or playing against a division rival, it's because the continued marketing of the NFL. The NFL has done Fantastic job of marketing the game inside the US, and most consider football the most popular sport in the states. While the popularity of football is unmatched stateside, it hasn't exactly caught on as much worldwide. Sure the game has an international following, and if you watched today's game there was no problem filling historic Wembly Stadium, but as any large corporation you must find ways to grow your brand and Europe is a way for the NFL.

The NFL I the only major sport (baseball, basketball, and hockey) played professionally here that does not have many other professional leagues across the globe. In fact the ability for baseball to become a worldwide sport has created a situation in which America's national pastime is possibly played better in multiple other countries. The NFL wants to mirror that popularity. It is a goal of the NFL to have international teams fairly soon.

Time will tell if the NFL can reproduce the popularity it has in the states overseas, but it sure does seem to be in the NFL plans.

The Cubs and Boston finally agreed to agree on Theo Epstein coming to Chicago, although the continue to agree to disagree on proper compensation. I'm glad that the two teams agree they would continue to work the compensation part out so Theo and the Cubs can upgrade the way things are done on Addison and Clark before the start of free agency.

Theo is a huge believer in the "Moneyball" way of building a team. This is a scheme that has been famously written about in Michael Lewis' boom Moneyball. This requires that a team build itself on the numbers inside the numbers. Instead of always going after that .300 avg 30 HR guy, opt for the one with a large on-base percentage. Find those guys that have the intangibles that don't show up on the scorecard.

Part of doing this will be transforming the Cubs front office. Get rid of the type- writers and haul in the big super computers. Theo had "Carmine" in Boston, a computer which Theo never made a move without consulting. The Cubs scouts, and staff still do things of of how a guy looked, and why he's done in the past. This might be a culture shock for the Cubs, but a welcome addition which should produce guys similar to Johnny Damon, or Jacoby Elsbury.

We also learned last week that Theo will take a position of President of Baseball Operations (or something with similar impressiveness). Once Theo is in place Jud Hoyer will leave San Diego and become the team's General Manager. This would be another great move since it will bring along another "Moneyball" guy, who is also someone who has worked with Theo. It also helps bring in more guys familiar with the way things will be run going forward. Great move, and if we can bring another guy or two from either San Diego or Boston the shift in organizational thought should be an easier one.

The White Sox Assistant GM, Rick Hahn, was given permission to interview with the LA Angels. It appears that the team did like him, however it sounds like they may hire baseball's first female GM. Kim Ng, who has had a very good reputation around baseball circles, has gotten a sign of approval from Joe Torre. Joe, a MLB executive now, gave his thumbs up for her while saying she is ready for the job. Joe worked with her in both New York and LA as well as in the commissioner's office said "it would be a terrible loss for us. But I think she is ready to take that step."

I would say the Sox shouldn't want Hahn to leave just yet. The Sox current GM should be under fire this year, and if the Robin Ventura experiment goes wrong, Hahn should be the first guy to interview for their job. I personally don't know much about him, but I do know his name is tossed around every opening in the league over the last 2 seasons. Someone that highly regarded should be a great insurance policy once Kenny is let go.

Hopefully there are more stories this week, I know I'm last on the Pay Forte bandwagon. It's not because I don't think he should be paid, it's just because I had other things to write about. I think I will tackle that subject this week.