An Aside: Bear Down, Chicago Bears ...

Ex-Lobo Urlacher with George Halas trophy

Make every play clear the way to victory....You could hear the fans singing this song many times during the Bears victory over the New Orleans Saints yesterday for the NFC Championship and the (Papa Bear) trophy (named for the cantankerously historic Bears owner and coach). I have sung the old-fashioned song many times myself over the decades of masochistic pains and pleasures that constitute the loyal Bear fan's experience. So bear with me on this long, nonpolitical post.

This time, for the first time in 21 years, we could sing the song again during the playoffs with some hopeful joy. With the snow whipsawing into Soldier Field off the lakefront, the players' breath puffing out in steamy clouds, the turf torn, lumpy and slick, the uniforms dirty, the Windy City's skyline muffled by fog and eddies of snow. With victory pivoting on a Monsters of the Midway defense, a strong running game, a circus somersaulting catch into the end zone, a best of the best middle linebacker (Brian Urlacher this time, of Lovington, NM and UNM Lobo fame), romping with the ghosts of linebackers past like Bill George, Dick Butkus and Mike Singletary. With another fourth rate quarterback completing only 11 out of 26 passes for 144 yards. What other NFL team do you know of that could win its conference with a quarterback like Rex Grossman? It was classic Bears football at its quirky best. They stole the ball 4 times, totaled 196 yards running, experienced zero sacks, commited zero fumbles, threw zero interceptions and were penalized only once.

And what a truly righteous thing to have someone named Lovie Smith as head coach for the win, the very first African-American to accomplish that. How 'bout Dem Bears? And all those visions of our only Superbowl past, in 1986, when Jim McMahon, Coach Ditka, Mike Singletary, Wilbur Marshall, Walter Payton, The Refrigerator William Perry, Richard Dent, Dan Hampton, Willie Gault, Steve McMichael and Otis Wilson taking the honors and the Superbowl Shuffle playing in the background, big, dark Blues Brothers sunglasses all around:

Super Bowl Shuffle - video powered by Metacafe

I have to admit I'm not much of a football fan anymore. It's been almost 27 years since I lived in Chicago, where I grew up and lived until 1980, a decade past my college days. But when the Bears are in the playoffs, I can't help but watch. And sing that silly song. I spent a fair amount of time in my younger days in Wrigley Field and later Soldier Field, freezing in wet or arctic air and watching the Bears lose most of the time. My dad often got tickets through people he met via his job, mostly in the end zone and at the 50-yard line, about 25 rows up. Thrilling spots for a kid to watch the game. The end zone seats were an especially exciting location, in the days before nets to catch the extra points and field goals. People used to stand on the metal box seat dividers and dive to catch the balls zooming into the stands. The closest I ever got was a field goal that almost took my finger tips off, snapping and stinging in the cold.

We had to endure many losses, but were also treated to some of the most elegant, speedy and talented runners in the history of the game, including Willie Galimore, Gayle Sayers and Sweetness himself, Walter Payton. I got to see each of them run live, many times, with crowd noises exploding all around me. And we got to see some of the best defenses and linebackers ever, all big shouldered and blue collar tough, like Chicago was and sometimes still is if you look hard enough past the gentrification.

When I experience the rarity of a Bears playoff victory like yesterday's, I can't help but think of my long deceased father and how he must be rolling around happily in his grave singing Bear Down, Chicago Bears once more. After all, this was a man who grew up in the poor but proud, factory packed, immigrant neighborhoods near downtown Chicago. He had been at Wrigley Field on that incredibly frigid day (9 degrees) in 1963, long before Super Bowls existed, when the Bears beat the New York Giants for the NFL Championship, 14-10. This was not long after Kennedy was assassinated, when Mike Ditka still played tight end and when there were only 14 teams in the entire league. Bear fans were the same then as they are now. Long suffering, with a handful of joyous miracles to savor among the disappointments and defeats. But most of all, ever loyal.

The Chicago Tribune has voluminous coverage on the Bears and yesterday's game, including a set of videos documenting Football in Chicago. Even Barak Obama has Bear fever this year. Maybe it will be his year too. You never know what can happen when someone bears down ...