WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT CODY PARKEY'S DOUBEDOINK TO SEND THE BEARS HOME ?

[mraynrand]

You must have been fun to be with at work.

Oh, I was perfectly evil. All Monday long I commiserated with my co-workers on how unjust the call was, how unfair! The Bears were being targeted by the NFL for all the McMahon antics, all the bravado, the dances, the anti-Pete Rozelle headbands, etc. etc. I agreed to it all! Secretly I reveled in their agony, but openly, loudly, I proclaimed the opposite all day! The NFL is corrupt, the officials were paid off, Dan Fouts was a pawn of ACME conglomerates! I maintained this fiction to the last second of the day, when, upon entering the elevator, as the doors closed, I said "No matter what you believe, no matter what actually happened, this game will ALWAYS and forever, until the end of time itself, count as a WIN for GREEN BAY and LOSS for Chicago." People claimed they could hear me laughing 8 floors away.

[Bossman641]

Absolutely loved it. Spent my entire life in IL before moving to TX 4 years ago. The 2010 SB run...beating the bears in week 17 to get in the playoffs and then in Chicago in the NFCCG was about the best month of my life.

[hoosier]

Hard to say as I was much younger when I lived in both areas. As Rand points out, they are close (2 hour drive basically) and the fan bases overlap quite a bit. And I bet many Steel Curtain fans probably paid a lot of attention to the Browns just for entertainment sake while the Steelers were terrible prior to 1972. The Bills being close kinda limit that though.

So from my perspective, Browns Steelers is like Packers Bears from 1984 to 1992. One sided with one front running the other and not caring. The weirder comparison is that Steeler fans from before Noll were resigned to always being second rate, I have read some sports coverage in the Pittsburgh Press Gazette from the late 1960s. There was no Super Bowl shuffle to endlessly recall. The Browns were the bullies and the Steelers were always the little sisters of the poor. Think about the Packers 2 decade drought without Lombardi or Lambeau. Hard to imagine the team being there. I don't know if I have ever seen that despair in coverage of the Bears.

You can easily draw comparisons from Green Bay to Cleveland and the Steelers. But the Bears are in too big of a city to imagine them not surviving without one or two characters in their history. They are closer to the Giants though unlike Giants fans, they don't know how to front run. Steelers fans approach Bears fans in annoyance only because of your certainty that they will eventually be proven right and be good again.

Yeah, the 80s comparison makes sense. Maybe the unmitigated contempt is really only visible to those who live it, because I just can't fathom what it would take to muster up true disdain for the Steelers and their fans. They may be annoying but they're not borderline subhuman. My impressions, however, are based on driving through rural Pennsylvania and one too many viewings of The Deer Hunter, so maybe my perspective is skewed.

[mraynrand]

Absolutely loved it. Spent my entire life in IL before moving to TX 4 years ago. The 2010 SB run...beating the bears in week 17 to get in the playoffs and then in Chicago in the NFCCG was about the best month of my life.

I'd since moved away, but I still see that NFCC game as one of, if not the most important win in Packer history. I'm old school - that was the only time Green Bay and Chicago played in what was essentially the NFL championship. Packers had to have that game.

[mraynrand]

Yeah, the 80s comparison makes sense. Maybe the unmitigated contempt is really only visible to those who live it, because I just can't fathom what it would take to muster up true disdain for the Steelers and their fans. They may be annoying but they're not borderline subhuman. My impressions, however, are based on driving through rural Pennsylvania and one too many viewings of The Deer Hunter, so maybe my perspective is skewed.

I know a lot of them. They are good people. Some of the fans at the bar were subhuman, to be sure.

[Fritz]

There is no humiliation like being a Lions fan.

Those poor bastards.

NOT!

[pbmax]

Yeah, the 80s comparison makes sense. Maybe the unmitigated contempt is really only visible to those who live it, because I just can't fathom what it would take to muster up true disdain for the Steelers and their fans. They may be annoying but they're not borderline subhuman. My impressions, however, are based on driving through rural Pennsylvania and one too many viewings of The Deer Hunter, so maybe my perspective is skewed.

The rural areas are still there but Pittsburgh isn’t steel manfacturing anymore. It’s one giant beautiful suburb with gorgeous hills. It’s really a neat city.

It’s easy to develop contempt for their fans but it’s oddly not reciprocated in the same way. They expect such good things they are always more mad at the team. A group of them at the bar won’t bother you like a Bear fan would but they will be louder in unison.

The one thing you could latch onto is maybe the player blaming. I have no doubt that Bell and Brown are turncoats who are letting Ben down.

[mraynrand]

Steeler fan hates NE far more than Cleveland rn. That will change in short order.

[gbgary]

i was hoping for a miss. LOL at first but then, for a second, felt sorry for the guy. then learned it was partially blocked. LOL again.

[George Cumby]

I seem to be in the minority in that I hate the Vikings much more than the Bears.

[mraynrand]

I seem to be in the minority in that I hate the Vikings much more than the Bears.

Former Chief Inspector Dreyfus, when asked "How much do you hate Clouseau?" answered "How high is up? I hate every molecule in his body." That's how I feel about Chicago. But that doesn't mean I can't feel the same way about the Vikings. That's what makes sports fun!

[texaspackerbacker]

I can't believe, I'm the only one who "couldn't care less"? I didn't mean to imply a lack of hate for the Bears, just that the Bears aren't really "down" - after having their best season in quite a while and having some good young talent. Anyway, they'll always suck and usually find a way to lose.

[mraynrand]

I can't believe, I'm the only one who "couldn't care less"? I didn't mean to imply a lack of hate for the Bears, just that the Bears aren't really "down" - after having their best season in quite a while and having some good young talent. Anyway, they'll always suck and usually find a way to lose.

I hope your Cowboys lose by sixty touchdowns

[pbmax]

I hope your Cowboys lose by sixty touchdowns

It takes an odd combination of factors (usually starting with trying to hurt the Steelers) for me to root for the Cowboys. And that was before i rooted for GB.

[texaspackerbacker]

I didn't start to like the Cowboys because I moved (thanks to the army) to Texas. It goes back to the war (or damn near) between the AFL and NFL. The showcase - Lamar Hunt-owned - AFL team was the Dallas Texans, and the NFL had put their brand new franchise, the Cowboys, in Dallas also. I don't remember the details, but I think the NFL might have been a little more generous, talent-wise to the Cowboys than most expansion teams. Anyway, being a teenager in Wisconsin, I HATED the AFL, so I rooted for the Cowboys to annihilate the Dallas Texans. They, of course, did - exiling them to Kansas City where they became the Chiefs.