This Sunday, bitter rivals collide, as the Monsters of the Midway, host Aaron Rodgers and the Pack in a showdown so monumentally epic that the UFO that landed on Soldier Field a few years back may just collapse from the weight of the hype alone, leaving only the faint aroma of beer, grilled meats, and charred foam cheese-heads. Oh it's gonna be big. Some are calling it the greatest football game ever to be played in Chicago. I'm sure the scalpers who are trying to charge thousands of dollars for tickets want you to believe this at least. My prediction Bearssss by 200 as William "The Refrigerator" Perry comes out of retirement to not only run for two touchdowns, but also throw two touchdown passes, one to an also un-retired Mike Ditka! Epic, I tell you. Epic.
Seriously, though, we here in Chicago have our divisive baseball rivalries, and yeah, we've managed to rediscover hockey and continue to love the Bulls, but there's something about the Chicago Bears. They have a certain gravitational pull, that after awhile, you just can't ignore. Okay, maybe you can ignore it if you're transplanted here from Minnesota or Michigan, or the dreaded land to the North where we Illinoisans are referred to as "flatlanders" (guys, it ain't exactly the Alps up there, I hate to inform you), water fountains are called "bubblers", and it's somehow acceptable to wear dairy products on your head. I can't speak to why anyone would decide to like any other team in the NFL, but I can tell you how I started a Bears fan, drifted away, and was pulled back again.
Let's take a ride back in the Delorean of the mind, shall we, to that magical year of 1985. Ronald Reagan is sworn in on January 20 (my 8th birthday, incidentally) into his second term as president. "We are the World" is recorded by USA for Africa. "Amadeus" wins Best Picture at the Oscars. "New Coke" is released, making us forever forget about "Old Coke". Lily Allen, Frankie Muniz, and Dwight Howard are born, while Orson Welles, Roger Maris, and Ricky Nelson die. Earlier in the year, the Lakers win the NBA finals and the Kansas City Royals win the World Series. But in the fall of 1985, led by Iron Mike Ditka and possibly the greatest defense of all-time, the Bears Shufflin' Crew are mowing down opponant after opponant, capturing the hearts of fans everywhere, on their way to a nearly perfect season and an eventual Super Bowl victory in January of '86.
Just how good were the '85 Bears? Absolutely dominant. Not only did you have the aforementioned, fear-inducing defense, on the other side of the ball you had the Punkie QB known as McMahon, a receiving core led by Willie Gault and Dennis McKinnon, and of course, the incomperable #34, Walter Payton running the ball. And maybe the "Super Bowl Shuffle" had something to do with it, but because of this team, I became, not only fully aware of football for the first time, but I became transfixed by the Chicago Bears. I must've watched the "Super Bowl Shuffle" on VHS over a hundred times. And I watched with delight as the Bears plowed past the New England Patriots to win Super Bowl XX.
But what happens next is a bit of a mystery to me. Maybe the Bears were a little TOO popular for my liking. Maybe as I became a boy of nine, I decided it was time to assert some independence. Maybe it was because, in the small West-Central Illinois town of Wataga, I lived far enough away from Chicago that I didn't feel its full gravitational pull. I honestly don't remember why. For whatever reason, for the 1986 NFL season, I decided I needed a new team.
How does one go about finding a new team? I suppose one could study depth charts, assess the character of the coaches and players. Maybe a study of appealing US cities would be in order. Or maybe at nine years old, I just liked horses. Yes, I decided that my new favorite team was either going to be the Indianapolis Colts or the Denver Broncos because of my youthful obsession with horsies. I was nine, okay. Cut me some slack. I never admitted this, of course, to anyone except my family. That would spell certain doom. But there you have it.
I started out a Colts fan as it seemed most logical to pick the team that was more local. At the time, I do believe a former University of Illinois quarterback was the starter for Indy, so it just seemed to come together. But unfortunately, as hard as it is to believe today with the perennial success of the Peyton Manning led Colts, the Colts of the mid-to-late '80s were not only awful, but boring. I was coming from being a fan of the '85 Bears, how could I possibly have believed that sort of switch to work?
So naturally, I switched up to the Broncos. Led by rocket-armed John Elway, a band of speedy receivers, and a defense known as "The Orange Crush", THIS was a suitable replacement. The Denver Broncos fit all the pre-requisites for 9-year-old me: horse mascot, exciting, and good. We have a winner.
Over time, believe it or not, it became more about the football and less about the equine mascot. Elway was spectacular. And a strange thing happened after they lost not one, not two, but three Super Bowl games in the late 1980s/early 1990s, loyalty was built. Yes, I was the loneliest kid in Wataga, IL, weeping quietly into his Orange Crush, which he drank for good luck, watching his team get a beat down from the Giants, Redskins, and 49ers. But as a Cubs fan I knew losing, yet I also understood loyalty. The Broncos needed me.
And so I remained loyal to the Broncos, despite it being a mostly solitary pursuit, living in the midwest and all. For my loyalty, though, I was rewarded with not one, but two Super Bowl victories during my college years. One which was the celebrated upset over Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers, which I watched with two Packers fans in my dorm room. How sweet that was! They left in disgust before the end.
Elway would retire before I got a chance to see him play in person, but I did get a chance to see the Broncos in Denver. I feel like I fulfilled all I could fulfill with being a Broncos fan.
I moved to Chicago in the summer of 2000 and saw that game in Denver in 2003, I believe. Over time, I tried to keep up with the Broncos, but becoming a Chicagoan changed something. There's only one NFL team in the city, so there's no split rivalries. If you're a football fan in Chicago, you're a Bears fan. I'd find myself now not only looking to see if the Broncos were on TV here, but I'd also check up on how the Bears were doing. Gradually, the pull became stronger. I came to declare the Bears my favorite NFC team, but still regarded the Broncos as my favorite overall. But three things happened to change that.
I hated Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall. I felt like he tarnished the good name of the team. Bad attitude, always getting in trouble, etc. Talented yes, but it was counter to what my vision of the team had been growing up watching Elway and Co. And yeah, maybe it's silly to think this way, considering that every team in pro sports usually ends up with one or two guys who aren't the best characters in the world, but still, I hated the way the team chose talent over repeated transgressions.
Two. It was apparent that Mike Shanahan was on the way out. I was always a fan of his and he was the coach who brought two championships to the organization. But fans wanted him out, press wanted him out, and eventually the organization would fire Shanahan.
Three. The Broncos drafted another rocket-armed quarterback that was destined to carry on the legacy that John Elway left behind. In fact, Elway himself branded this QB as the future superstar of the organization. He went to the Pro Bowl early on, but never quite fit in. He was traded, much to the dismay of Elway. Jay Cutler became a Chicago Bear.
And now in 2011, I've been here for over a decade. The Broncos were the team of my youth, but as an adult, I've only known Chicago. I still try to keep an eye on how the Broncos are doing, being my favorite AFC team and all, but it's come full circle and I've found my way into Bears fandom once again. It was gradual, really. Pulled ever so closer every year until one day you realize, "Oh, I'm watching this team every week, passionately cheering them on, revelling in actually having people around me who are doing the same...I'm a Chicagoan, so it only makes sense, I'm a Bears fan too."
My real prediction for this weekend's game: Bears 14 Packers 10. Bears vs. Jets in the Super Bowl. Bears win, of course. They aren't the dominant force they were back in '85, but they're my hometown team, and underdogs to boot. They need me. The Second City will be second to no one after the East Coast/ESPN darlings are brought down in February. Go Bears!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment