About fifteen minutes before kickoff of the Bears versus Patriots debacle in the amazing setting that was a snowy Soldier Field, the Lions beat the Green Bay Packers and handed our Wisconsin rivals their second loss in the NFC North.  As I walked over to to meet Shady and Noah at our seats in Section 120 I heard not one but several fans utter the same phrase.  “That makes this game meaningless now.”  To a certain extent, that sentiment was true and the Chicago Bears certainly played like it.  (Side note: Shady did the bloggers quite proud yesterday.  A good, good dude.)

I left.

Journalists around town are describing tomorrow’s showdown with the Patriots in a variety of ways.  Some are calling it a potential Super Bowl preview.  Some are calling it a litmus test for the Bears – qualifying their potential for a lengthy postseason run.  Some are calling it a game to be survived in the harshest conditions imaginable.  Some are calling it a somewhat irrelevant non-conference game, holding little weight in the tiebreaker scenario.  (The third tiebreaker for a division title is common opponents so this game will actually mean more for the NFC North race than the Bears loss to the Seahawks.)

Site Note: The Picks Contest is located one post below.  I’m leaving this one up top because I like it.  Go down and drop in your picks for this week.  Only four weeks remaining and a wide-open race to get into the Fantasy Playoffs.

One of the things I’ve deeply enjoyed about the success of this silly little blog is that it has made me exponentially more interesting to the day-to-day folks I meet in and around Chicago on my visits each year.  (I should add, to be fair, saying you work for the Tribune is not always met with enthusiastic applause.)  To prove the point, last night a lovely couple named Bob & Carol (& Ted & Alice) took time out from their Pizano’s pizza (the best I’ve had in the city) and told me in rich detail their story of attending Ron Santo’s wake.  They told me of the hundreds lined up on a frigid, snowy evening.  They told me of tears in the eyes of folks who never met the man.  They told me of the kind of dedication and passion that has caused me over the years to adopt Chicago as not only my beloved sports city but my second home. 

But then the conversation changed.  
“I had a stroke recently,” Bob said as I noticed Carol deliberately turn her head away from the conversation.  Bob had told me he was seventy-two years old and couples that age tend to refrain from revealing too much to complete strangers.  I guess it took an hour for me to cross the stranger threshold into the land of the now-interesting dinner companion.  Carol would speak quite loudly to me throughout the night but would lean in to Bob and whisper things like “Don’t have another whiskey.  Have a beer” and “I’m worried you’re eating so much cheese.”  Carol was a sweet woman, concerned for the health of the man she adored, but she was a terrible whisperer.  Everyone in the joint could hear what she was saying.

“I’m sorry to hear that.  My grandfather had a stroke a few years ago.”  This was a lie.  A stupid, unnecessary lie.  I guess I wanted this guy to realize I was comfortable with his voice.  Comfortable with his situation.  Comfortable with him.  I’m glad he didn’t ask a follow up to my lie because I had no interest in inventing anything else.

“But I have to say, ” he continued.  “when I couldn’t speak for months, I don’t know what I would have done without sports.  When I woke up I read the sports writers and every night I watched the Cubs and I was talking in my head to both of them.  I’m glad to see someone your age will keep things going.”  Any one of the thousands of young folks who have taken the craft of sportswriting to the internet could have been sitting on that stool.  Any one of the thousands of us who believe sports are more than gossip-mongering and pop culture references.  But it was me sitting next to Bob.  And I sure was glad.

I finished my Old Style, asked the bartender to wrap up my last slab of Rudy’s Special (no mushrooms) and started the half-hour process of wrapping the extra long scarf around my neck.  Carol handed me a bar napkin and a pen and asked if I would write down my name for her.  “Would you like me email?”

“We don’t have a computer.  Well we did but it broke.”

I smiled.  A big, old smile.  I’d be nothing without computers but sometimes it makes me happy when people don’t have one.  I wrote down my name and my email anyway.  Then I wrote down the name of a hot dog place in Clifton, NJ called Rutt’s Hut – the greatest on the planet – and told Bob and Carol to send their kids there.  I shook hands with them both and turned to leave.  “Wow.  This was some night,” Bob said.  He meant it.  And in that second I realized he was right.   It was some night. 

I canceled my plan to head up State to Rossi’s and went back to my hotel.  It would be unfair to pressure a bar to try and top that.  Why would I want to?  I walked the blisteringly cold block and a half, only one thought in my mind.  How can you beat Chicago?   

Bears Make Roster Moves

One more win may not guarantee the Bears their first postseason berth in four years, but it will all but guarantee that coach Lovie Smith will return next season, according to league sources.

Lovie Smith, and more importantly the the rest of the coaching staff, will almost assuredly return for the 2011 season.  How can anyone argue with the work Marinelli has done on the defensive side and Martz on the offensive side?  You can’t.  So if we have to deal with a couple errant challenges and poorly used timeouts, we’ll deal with it.

The 10-2 Patriots visit the 9-3 Bears in an inter-conference showdown. Can the Bears extend their five-game winning streak, knocking off the team considered by most to be the best in the league?  Will the Pats, on a short week, be able to battle the conditions and win their eleventh game?  I think…

When the Bears acquired Jay Cutler last off-season, it was one of the most exhilarating acquisitions in the history of the organization.  It filled the 2009 balloon with hyped-up air that we all watched deflate in a storm of turnovers, injuries and defensive meltdowns.  Still I defended Cutler, arguing that he is a special talent and would thrive once the organization installed the kind of system that would maximize his ability.  Watching him beat a superior Minnesota Vikings team on a cold December night on the strength of him arm alone confirmed this for me.  Lovie Smith hired Mike Martz.  And after seven up-and-down weeks, rife with attacking pass rushers and errant throws, Cutler has finally found his place as the quarterback of the Chicago Bears.