Scene: A basement in an old recreation center. The walls are covered in dingy, yellow ceramic-coated bricks from decades of neglect and cigarette smoke (when it was allowed), and the floor is old, green, and dirty linoleum that is most likely filled with asbestos. The few fluorescent lights that work are flickering in their death throes. There is a circle created by twelve old, dented, metal folding chairs. The chairs are filled with twelve worn-down, beat-up meeting participants. One stands to declare his addiction.
“My name is B.B., and I‘m a Bears fan.”
Yes, I have been addicted to the Chicago Bears for close to 70 years now. It started in the late 1950s when the NFL played only 12 games, and Chicago Cubs announcer Jack Brickhouse called the games on the radio with nationally known gossip columnist Irv Kupcinent providing the color commentary (Kupcinent at one time was a football player and sports reporter but earned his fame dishing dirt on celebs). Home games were never on television because of very strict blackout rules. Even the 1963 Championship Game played at Wrigley Field, where the Bears topped the NY Giants to win another NFL title, was blacked out because it was a home game. I still remember Brickhouse describing the Richie Pettibone interception in the end zone off a Y.A. Tittle pass that secured the Bears the title. This was so long ago, Papa Bear, George Halas, was still coaching the team. Thank goodness they don’t let owners coach their teams today. Can you imagine Mark Davis, owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, coaching the team? Not with that bowl cut of a haircut (if you don’t understand that one, look it up on Google).
There have been many ups and downs during my long addiction to the Monsters of the Midway. The ’63 championship was the high point for over 23 years. Another was when Halas drafted two legendary players, Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers, in the first round. Then the Dark Ages began. Losing season after season and a long string of drafting the next franchise quarterback, only to get one disaster after another. Who remembers Bobby Douglas? He finished his football career as a relief pitcher for the White Sox. Who thought he could throw a strike after watching him throw a football? Fans in the stands had to have their head on a swivel just in case one of his passes, usually traveling at the speed of sound, ended up in the stands and possibly killing someone. He started a great restaurant chain called “Lettuce Entertain You,” so he wasn’t all bad.
Because of these two superstars from the ’65 draft, who didn’t need a few seasons to mature, the Bears were immediately competitive in 1965 but fell short to their hated rivals, the Green Bay Packers, and just missed the playoffs. Sounds familiar to the Bears’ fans.
The one bright spot after that was drafting Walter Payton. Maybe the greatest football player of all time. Try to prove me wrong, and I’ll be happy to debate you.
Things changed when Papa Bear decided to hire Mike Ditka, a former Bears star, to run the team. Da Coach, as he was known, made the team competitive and respectable again. It only took a couple of years to build a team that didn’t just make it to the Super Bowl, but made it look like Sherman’s march to the sea. The 1985 Bears are considered, by many experts, to be the greatest NFL team of all time. Even though they were competitive for seasons to come, they never replicated the 1985 season. Eventually, Ditka was fired as the team slipped back into darkness.
I will not bore you with the mundane details of the years of frustration for Bears’ fans. The team became a black hole for quarterbacks, again. They drafted many, and none of them panned out. Lovie Smith made the team competitive again on defense, took the team to its second Super Bowl, but was fired after a 10-6 season because…it wasn’t enough? The McCaskey family continued to dismantle a long respected franchise and I’ll never understand why.
New coaches were hired, quarterbacks were drafted, but nothing helped. The Bears were still bad, and worst of all, they became a punching bag for their hated rival, the Green Bay Packers. Many fans were saying, “Ok, we’re a bad team, but at least beat the Cheese Heads.”
Ditka said that when Halas hired him, the most important thing was to beat the Packers.
This past season, the cloud of doom was surprisingly lifted. The Bears hired Ben Johnson away from division rival Detroit Lions, paired him with their second-year, number-one draft choice, Caleb Williams, and delivered a surprising, but very exciting season. Did I say exciting? I meant a 17-game heart attack that delivered the City of Chicago 11 wins and the Black and Blue division title.
I am sitting here watching Championship Sunday, where the final four teams are battling for a place in the Super Bowl. Unfortunately for Bears fans, after another last-second comeback to tie the Rams last week, the magic ran out in overtime, and our season ended.
Usually, I wonder how the Bears will screw up their annual high pick at the NFL Draft in April. No more. Our first pick will be near the bottom of the first round due to the Bears’ success, and hopefully it will be a defensive lineman (please).
There is only one Bear’s issue that bothers me, move the team to Indiana…really? What numbskull thought of that lame idea. I prefer the lake front in Chicago but I could live with the Arlington Race Track sight (I have relatives who live near by and might be able to provide parking for a game. Just saying). Not Indiana. The McCaskey’s just can’t stop torturing us.
I have gone back to what I usually did way back in October, start thinking about baseball. While I am still interested in who will win the Super Bowl, the most prominent thought going through my mind is about baseball. As I sit here, I can tell you there are 21 days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training. Doesn’t that warm up that below-zero day a lot of you are enduring across the nation? My 64 degrees out here in SoCal feels like 80 today. Is that too much?
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