That's what the ESPN commentators called the Bears win over the Arizona Cardinals tonight. They had a point. Chicago was down 0-20 at halftime. They made no offensive touchdowns. They still managed to win the game 24-23. I don't know who was named MVP for the game, but I nominate Brian Urlacher.
I'm a bit of a Bears fan, for anyone who hasn't noticed yet. I lived in Chicago in 1985-86. If you don't follow football, that was the Super Bowl season. The Super Bowl Shuffle. Walter Payton. Jim McMahon. Refrigerator Perry. Mike Ditka. Really, you couldn't get away from it that year.
The next year, and every year since, they haven't been so good. For me, I probably wouldn't have given much notice as the buzz died down and the Bears fell from "miraculous" to merely average. But the year after the Bears won the Super Bowl, my family moved to New York. At times, I felt like I'd been dropped on another planet. I was in junior high, just beginning to strike out on my own (pun totally intended). I wasn't like everyone else, so I did my best to be different on purpose. More so than the year before, I became a Bears fan. It was something I could identify with. I had a group, they all just lived 800 miles away.
So I wore a Bears jersey. Bears earrings. For Spanish class we made piñatas. Mine was the 'Fridge, wearing his blue jersey #72. The gas station near our house began giving away juice tumblers with a fill up. The first few we got were, of course, the Giants and the Jets. My dad talked to the owner of the station. He got me a whole case of Bears glasses. I still have a couple of them.
I haven't needed my identity as a Bears fan in a while. I've grown and matured and found people who love me for who I am. And I married a man who thinks "football" is played with a round spotted ball. He's not much of an American football fan. We watched a couple of World Cup games though. On Univision. In Spanish. And it was fuzzy. I was not impressed.
Not that I have anything against soccer, as such. I'm just not as familiar with the sport as I am football. And football is easier to find when you don't have cable.
I'm enjoying the opportunity to be a Bears fan again. Not because I need it, but because I want to. And starting the season 6-0 is a pretty good place to be.
Hi Amy
ReplyDeleteFrom one MK/PK to another, it is interesting to read your comments on football and being part of something. I remember buying a Sheffield Wednesday patch when we had recently moved to London from Thailand because I liked the patch; but it wasn't the right thing to do in that part of the world!
Now had it been Man U, would that have been a better choice?
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who is a Man City fan and when I was in London the first time I kept looking for stuff for him, but EVERYTHING was Man U! So I hought him a sweatshirt off the internet instead.
Amy