There isn’t a greater feeling in the world when your team is playing in a big game. With the added Bears-Packers rivalry and a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, I haven’t felt more anxious and uneasy about a Bears game in my lifetime. When the clock hit double-zeros in the 4th quarter of the Bears-Seahawks game, the epic matchup was set and my Facebook news feed turned from innocent profile pictures and pointless status updates to photos of their favorite players and ruthless smack talking.
In the eyes of every fan, this was the Super Bowl or at least bragging rights for the next 8 months until the Bears-Packers meet again. Chicago sports radio was all Bears-Packers 24 hours a day; it was like the Bulls had left town and they didn’t have a MVP candidate in Derrick Rose.
And with the average ticket to the game going for over $800, the question became where was the next best place to watch the game? I drove 10 minutes to the Wisconsin-Illinois border to a small town called Genoa City. A place familiar to me and with some of the biggest die-hard Bears fans I’ve ever met.
I arrived two hours before kickoff and the house had a feeling like history was about to be made. It had everything you wanted; a buffet of delicious food, a week’s worth of alcohol, a bookie taking bets on the game and 20-some enthusiastic fans talking strategy.
But at 2:10 pm after the National Anthem had finished, it was all business. Everyone was on the edge of their seats. Cheering on every play, no matter what the outcome. Even after the Packers stormed down the field on their first possession scoring on an Aaron Rodgers naked bootleg for a touchdown, there was still hope and a feeling like “we still got this”.
At halftime though, being down 14-0, the mood in the room had changed. Heads hung low and it seemed like we had already lost the game. And as the 3rd quarter started and Jay Culter was replaced by Todd Collins, people already started making excuses. But then something happened.
After two miserable possessions with Collins under center, the Bears went with third string quarterback, Calib Hanie. It was like Peyton Manning just ran out of the tunnel and put on a Bears uniform. There was hope again.
The Bears scored, cutting the deficit to 14-7. Even after the freak pick-6 by BJ Raji pushing the lead back to 14 points, no one thought the game was over. Hanie was the going to get it done. He brushed off the interception and quickly threw a 35 yard touchdown to Earl Bennett.
Hanie had a chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter, but another interception by Sam Shields sealed their fate and the Packers were Super Bowl bound. The room was silent as the only Packer fan celebrated in the other room.
I can’t say that I’m happy with the outcome of the game. But I’m glad the Bears didn’t roll over after Culter tore his MCL in the 2nd quarter. We made a game of it. We made adjustments at halftime. We slowed down the high-power Packers offense and were able to drive the ball down the field on Clay Matthews and the Packers D.
The most puzzling thing to me was how some of the Green Bay Packers’ fans handled winning on the biggest games in team history. The one Packer fan who attended the party decided to throw his AJ Hawk jersey into the fire. Facebook is still full of Bears hate and one fan even decided to post the drinking of his own urine on YouTube. What are these people going to do if they win the Super Bowl?
My hat is off to the Packers, they are a good team and beat us fair and square. It will probably take me the next couple of weeks and the final point spread to decide if I will be rooting for them in the Super Bowl, but for now I can just sit here and wait till next year.