Oh, I Think So

Y'all!  It's still the pre-season! The Bears LOST against the NY Giants last Monday at the Meadowlands. The Bears LOST against the Tennessee Titans last night, Saturday, in Nashville.  Here is the thing that amazes me about yesterday's game:  I'd no idea they were going to be playing last night.  Oops.  Some fan I am. Yesterday was a busy day.  In the morning, I went to an archery class and shot off many arrows at a target.  I got all the arrows onto the target sheet but I am pretty much the same kind of archer that I am a bowler, i.e. not consistent but with archery getting a slight edge. After archery, I went over and fetched my pal so we could have a nice cheap hot-dog-and-soda lunch at Costco and gossip about things that interest only us.   I deposited him and drove out to the Westin by the airport to donate blood. The Blackhawks sponsor regular blood drives and they give out stuff like tickets to the Blackhawks family fan day (...

As Bears training camp draws to a close, Lovie Smith, Supreme Coach of All Bearness, on Friday stated that he thinks this is a really good team.  Well, seriously, what else is he going to say?  "Wow, there is some running and tackling stankiness going on out there and I just know they're going to tank all season long."  He won't say that.  I will, however, agree that this might be a really good team.  They won their first pre-season game last week which, frankly, bodes well, even though last year they sort of stank up the general rosters of football in the pre-season but did pretty well for themselves in regular season play.  Of course, next week the inner naysayer could emerge and there would be general complaining and misery anew. The Bears play a Monday-night game tomorrow against the New York Giants at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.  Let's have a stroll down Memory Lane.  Last year, in regular season play, the Giants decimated the Bears and ...

It was pre-season game #1 against the Buffalo Bills and the Bears WON!  Yes, WON!  The offensive line = lackluster (is anyone at all surprised?) but the defensive team looked good (again, I am sure none are surprised).  I watched exactly ten seconds of this game, for the score in the first, second, and third quarters.  I was doing some thrilling stuff instead. Family members treated me to a 5:15pm showing of "Attack the Block," a sci-fi import from the UK about a 15-year-old gang leader who saves London from an alien invasion.  It is horrifying, gross, touching, and funny all at once.  Race to see it! Then we went to their home where I was treated to a terrific meal of fresh sausage, made by a real butcher in his shop on Milwaukee Avenue and not by a machine in a factory in a different state.  There were beans with carrots, there was cabbage with apricots.  If you got this meal in a restaurant, you'd be bragging to your friends about the tasti...

Bears Family Night is an annual tradition.  Fans buy tickets and go to Soldier Field to watch the Bears practice in the mothership, at Football Ground Zero, on a summer evening in Chicago.  A breeze can blow in off Lake Michigan and the evening ends with a fireworks display.   Fans were excited to be attending on Friday, August 5. Except that is not how it played out. The playing field was in such bad shape that it would have been dangerous for the practice to take place.  See that word?  Dangerous.  The sod has all shrunk up and there were gaps in the grassy playing surface.  Running players -- or even someone who was not looking down -- could trip in the gaps, fall and twist something or break something or worse.  Dangerous. Attending an event of this nature is not cheap.  There is the cost of parking (roughly $20) or public transportation.  There is the admission ticket.  Food has to be purchased for each member. ...