It's been 21 years & 9 days since the Bears put this item on their fingers:
Which one of these are going to need updating after next Sunday?
Posted on 01/28/2007 5:36:34 AM PST by Chi-townChief
It has become one of the great American sports traditions, the political bet. A major game gets people all worked up and happy at the same time, not worrying about snow removal, potholes or taxes. And that makes it safe for a governor or mayor to get in on it. So rival politicians bet something that screams out the identity of their hometowns. Two weeks ago the Bears beat the Seattle Seahawks, and Mayor Daley took Seattle Mayor Greg Nickles for beer, coffee and salmon. (Too bad that when the stuff arrived, the beer bottles had broken and drenched the coffee-flavored chocolates.) Last week the Bears beat the New Orleans Saints, and Mayor Daley won beignets.
But with the Bears about to play the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl, we have a problem:
What could Indiana possibly have to bet that we would want?
I mean, Chicago can offer Indiana pizza, ribs, beef sandwiches and dental work. But do we really need ballcaps with farm company names on them?
Rumor has it Indianapolis Gov. Mitch Daniels wants to offer up Gary.
I don't often admit this, but I have some friends in Indiana. I called them to ask what they could bet.
''How about corn?''
We have corn.
''Soy?''
Another Indiana friend said they love their pork-tenderloin sandwiches, and that did sound good.
''Pork tenderloin and a carton of cigarettes,'' he said.
Someone else suggested tickets to the Indy 500, but there are two problems with that: One, they just drive around in circles all day. Two, we have to go to Indiana to see it.
Indiana has a serious image problem in Chicago. To us, it seems like a big truck stop between cities.
A few years ago, my brother-in-law started dating a woman from Fort Wayne. Before meeting her, I had to keep reminding myself to talk slowly and not stare at her tooth.
Channeling Royko Indiana has Notre Dame, but that always seemed like a Chicago school filled with Chicago kids. They had a great movie, ''Hoosiers.'' But the story of Illinois' tiny Hebron was just as good. Their greatest sports hero is a guy who wore red sweaters, threw chairs across a basketball court and choked his own players. Eventually, they kicked him out.
''Eli Lilly is based in Indianapolis,'' a friend said.
Yes, but why would we need Prozac if the Bears win?
''They also make Cialis.''
Here's a thought: If the Bears win, then Indiana gives back Eric Gordon. He's the high school basketball phenom from Indianapolis who had committed to the Illini until new Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson got him to change his mind.
I do have a thing against Indiana. It is ingrained in all Chicagoans. And then confirmed through experience.
For Chicagoans, these feelings came to a head in 1982 with Mike Royko's columns in the Sun-Times. And part of the fun was watching Indiana people get so uppity about it.
''For most males in Indiana, a real good time consists of putting on bib overalls and a cap bearing the name of a farm equipment company and sauntering to a gas station to sit around and gossip about how Elmer couldn't get his pickup truck started that morning,'' he wrote.
And this: ''Its only large cities are Indianapolis and Gary, which give you the choice of dying of boredom or of multiple gunshot wounds.''
God, he would have loved this Bears-Colts week.
One time in Indianapolis, I went to grab some dinner just after 10 p.m., and everything was closed. I ended up having to go to a White Castle, where I stood in line for 20 minutes behind a hooker and a pimp. I wrote about that once, and several people from Indiana asked why I wanted to eat that late in the first place.
Once after a basketball game, I went to a nearby bar in downtown Indianapolis. The place was packed with everyone having fun, and they were playing retro music from the 1970s. It was a nice community thing, how everyone had bought into the whole theme and dressed in 1970s clothes and hair.
Turned out, that wasn't a theme.
Do they know what a Hoosier is? These people excitedly call themselves Hoosiers, without knowing what it means. There all sorts of theories. In the old days, Indiana people were so rough that they always would fight in bars. By the end of the night, someone would see a piece of something on the floor and ask, ''Whose ear?'' Eventually, that morphed into Hoosier.
But on indiana.edu, Jeffrey Graf of the reference department of the Indiana University Libraries says that Southerners used to use the term Hoosier ''to denote a rustic, a bumpkin, a countryman, a roughneck, a hick or an awkward, uncouth or unskilled fellow.''
He described the ''cousins'' of the word Hoosier to be ''cracker'' and ''redneck.''
So here's the deal: If the Colts win, Indiana promises to keep its stuff.
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No. Is that were Indiana boys go for action when the sheep aren't available?
DO what ??? English please.
Really? And how many interceptions does Manning have during the last three games? What's his quarterback rating vs. Grossman during the playoffs this year? I think you'll see at least 5 Indianapolis turnovers, three time-consuming Chicago drives, and Indianapolis slinking home with it's tail between it's legs after losing 24 to 10.
All this talk by the pundits reminds me of Super Bowl 35. Nobody gave Baltimore a chance, all defense and no offense isn't supposed to win anything. The Giants had Kerry Collins and Tiki Barber and were supposed to run roughshod over the Ravens. Well, 5 turnovers and 4 sacks later with Dilfer playing unexciting but mistake-free football, the Giants went home wondering what happened. Colts fans would do well to study history.
Which would make Indianapolis what? Big Gary?
Very nice. Well done.
Go Colts!
We've got the Kansas Speedway not too far from my home. The popular title for it is The Mecca of Red Neckka.
Folks, this is exactly what they would say!
Something didn't ring true to me in your description of SB XXXV.So, I went and looked as anyone here is welcome to do.Any number of sources indicate the Ravens were 3-point favorites entering that game.So, I studied my history for this morning.
Want some recent history to explain those statistics?
Manning played against the #1, #2, #11, and #5 defenses since Christmas...
Grossman faced the #13 Saints, #19 Seahawks, and the #26 Packers. In fact, Rex hasn't faced a Top Twelve defense since November (adding the #29 Lions, #21 Buccaneers, #27 Rams, and the #14 Vikings)
Indy'd defense was ranked #22 for the regular season, but clearly their D has stepped up since the return of Bob Sanders, and with DT McFarland getting acclimated to his new team. They lost both starting DT's early this year to non-football injuries, and were playing our FIFTH string option, a rookie CB, at safety. Now that those huge gaps have been plugged, they're averaging 16 pts per playoff game, whch would put them at #4 in the NFL in the regular season. Going back to the MNF game vs Cincy, the D is averaging 19 ppg, which puts them at #8 in the NFL. Clearly, this isn't a 22nd ranked unit.
By the way, the Colts and Bears played 5 common opponents this year... with the Colts going 6-0 (beating the Patriots twice), and the Bears 3-2. (The Bears lost at Foxboro, and at home to the Dolphins. The Colts won with those settings.)
As I said, I am not getting into this. If you live in Chicago, I hope you enjoy it. I like to visit there in the summer.
You forgot another,the Cubs.:)~ Which reminds me of a joke.
Whats the difference between Bush stadium and Wriggly Field?
They sell hotdogs in Bush Stadium in October!
"Indy has nothing we'd want"
How about a big dose of "COMMON SENSE", Indiana seems to have a lot of it lately and Chicago has NONE
That's funny right there.
The Giants were 8 and 1/2 point dogs against the Ravens. No one expected them to run roughshod over this defense. I am a season ticket holder for Baltimore since 2000 and this years defense was only slightly not as good as the 2000 Ravens SB Championship team.
This years Bears team is good but they play in the NFC which is now the weaker conference. That's where you will see the difference.
1. Can they win on grass? Their last 3 games on the natural stuff were losses, all to division opponents during the stretch run to the playoffs. Miami has grass.
2. Can they play special teams? Ellis Hobbs made them look like college kids... and the Bears' Devin Hester has set two NFL records for returns so far... and he's a rookie.
3. Can the Colts stop the Bears if they refuse to punt past mid-field? The Pats went 4-for-4 on 4th down against the Colts in two games this year... needing 11 yds, they got 77 yds. For the year, the Colts converted ZERO 4th downs... and gave up 14-of-18 4th down conversions (78%).
4. Can they stop Grossman? Of course, which is why Lovie Smith will stick with the ground game... until it's time to unleash Grossman's true talent - the 40-yd laser. (Rex's main problem is that he can't throw that pass every down!) Look for two bombs on 3rd-and-short... especially since the Colts tend to play conservatively and get back to basics when the game gets grinding. They are very susceptible to trick plays. (In fact, in 2004, Jeff Fisher's Titans converted THREE onsides kicks (in one half!!) and three long TD passes to Drew Bennett on short yardage downs. They still lost, but it showed a real weakness.)
5. If the Bears play like the Texans, rather than the Patriots, they have a great shot. In their last game vs the Colts, Houston had a take-away on the Colts' first drive (and the Bears are turn-over experts... and every Colt ball-handler has either had a hand injury or a fumble in the playoffs... inlcuding Manning, Harrison, Wayne, Rhodes, Wilkins, Utecht and even lineman Charlie Johnson - on a kick reurn - last week). After that, they ran, and ran, and ran. The Colts only had 5 more possessions for the game, and scored on four of them (80%), with 3 for TD's... and it wasn't enough. The Patriots had SIX running plays in the last 37:30. They put the ball in Bradys hands, instead of playing keeep-away-from-Manning.
Lovie Smith will NOT do that to Rex Grossman. If they can convert like the Texans did (10-of-14, plus 1-for-1 on fourth down), then the Colts must score on every drive to overcome the likely field position advantage that Hester and the opportunistic Bears defense will give them.
It should be a great Super Bowl!!!
Hilarious that anyone from Chicago would talk about people dying of multiple gunshot wounds in any other city.
The Bart Peterson/Julia Carson/Frank Anderson troika is doing a fine job in making Indy look more like other urban cesspools.
Lugar's brilliant idea of Unigov kept this town Republican a lot longer than most, but eventually the Repubs headed to the surrounding counties and the Rats are now firmly (and sadly) in control.
" ... Gary, which give you the choice of dying of boredom or of multiple gunshot wounds.''
AND I think we can all agree that Gary is definitely in Chicago's "sphere of influence".
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