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Just this preseason, the Bears played against the 49er's here in Chicago, and a buddy of mine had three free tickets. He called me up from work and asked if I was interested in going to watch "this year's Superbowl Champion get a little practice in". I thought, sure, I haven't seen the new stadium yet, what the hell, it's a free ticket. He then said he wasn't sure who else he should invite to go with us. We chose Dave. Not one of our closer friends, but a HUGE Bears fan. We knew how excited he'd be, this would be all of our first trip to the new stadium. OK. Done deal, I'm going to watch two teams I despise with two Bears fans IN Chicago. What have I done?
As I'm pontificating as to whether or not I've just made a huge error in judgement, I made the decision that if I was going I was bringing armour. So, I called my buddy who had the tickets and said, "Here's the deal, I'll go with you, but I'm wearing my Favre jersey." He just chuckled and said "Whatever", I'll pick you up around 5:30." So, I got "dressed" for the game, and waited for my buddies to show up. It's the same ol' routine. We go in my buddies' 2005 four door Dodge Ram pick up because it's the coolest of all our vehicles, my buddy with the tickets will drive, it's his truck, I get shotgun, that's just the way it is, and any other tagalongs better hope I like 'em or they ain't getting any leg room behind me. I hear the honk-diddy-honk-honk that signals the night is about to begin, and I walk out the front door. This is where the evening turns bad. Both my "buddies" went apenuts on me, got out of the truck and demanded I change out of my jersey, cuz they ain't going to Soldier Field with me in that. I told them in "man-language" it wasn't gonna happen. Before I knew it, suddenly we were on our way to the game, and I was dizzied still wondering why they were talking amongst themselves as if I didn't even exist, and I WAS IN THE BACKSEAT!!!
So, after a long uncomfortable ride to the stadium, we paid our $40.00 to get stadium parking, which pissed me off, because when I go to Lambeau I pay $15.00 and enjoy a nice walk to the stadium in the most cherished city in the world. Then we get out and start heading toward the field, and my buddies refuse to even walk with me, so I'm lagging five steps behind them, literally feeling all alone as the only Packers fan at Soldiers Field. I'm getting heckled literally every ten steps, and starting to understand why my friends had suddenly become my enemies. They knew me enough to know that for every heckle, I would say something back with my head held high, I mean, I do have a Favre jersey on, and Favre has OWNED the Bears, and beat them in the last game of the season, so I had quite a bit of firepower.
We take our seats, and I buy us all a beer just to try to kiss their asses a little and get them to at least acknowledge my existence, and that worked quite well. We were enjoying the game from that point on as the Bears tore the 49er's a new one, dominating them completely.
This is where it turned ugly, I was so pissed off at watching the Bears beat this pathetic team, that after Alex Smith threw another 3 and out pass, I stood up on my chair and cupped my hands to my mouth and yelled as loud as I could "Hey, coach, I guess you should've went with Aaron Rodgers, huh? Alex Smith, you suck!!" The stadium was much more quiet at that moment than I had expected, and may have been heard by all the players and coaches on both sides of the field, I've got some pretty good lungs. As I sat back down HUNDREDS of angry fans in the area I was sitting at were looking at me. I had a sudden chill go down my spine as I immediately regretted my actions. Obviously, my buddies didn't speak a word to me the rest of the game, and I didn't walk with them on our way out of the stadium either. They were pissed at me. I still don't get it, I'm a friggin' Packers fan, so what, deal with it.
So, the trip back to the truck was TEN times worse than the entry, because, many of those walking next to me had sat near me, and heard my cry. Not to mention the alcohol consumption. I thought I was going to get into a fight with these three guys who wouldn't shutup, and were giving me hell "You got balls coming in here wearing that" as I replied "yep, steel, baby, steel", and on and on it went, until I FINALLY reached the truck and someone yells out "Favre and the Packers suck" to which I replied, "We were good enough to kick you guys' ass last year right here at this stadium!!" They then said, "That's because Grossman was too busy thinking about the Superbowl". My final reply before getting into the truck was "He obviously didn't think about it enough". The ride home was even longer and much quieter. My gut says I won't be going to Soldier Field with my buddy again. BTW, they don't talk much about football with me these days, the last two years have been tough, but not anymore, not even when Illionois beat Wisconsin.
It's great living in the Chicagoland area again.
As I'm pontificating as to whether or not I've just made a huge error in judgement, I made the decision that if I was going I was bringing armour. So, I called my buddy who had the tickets and said, "Here's the deal, I'll go with you, but I'm wearing my Favre jersey." He just chuckled and said "Whatever", I'll pick you up around 5:30." So, I got "dressed" for the game, and waited for my buddies to show up. It's the same ol' routine. We go in my buddies' 2005 four door Dodge Ram pick up because it's the coolest of all our vehicles, my buddy with the tickets will drive, it's his truck, I get shotgun, that's just the way it is, and any other tagalongs better hope I like 'em or they ain't getting any leg room behind me. I hear the honk-diddy-honk-honk that signals the night is about to begin, and I walk out the front door. This is where the evening turns bad. Both my "buddies" went apenuts on me, got out of the truck and demanded I change out of my jersey, cuz they ain't going to Soldier Field with me in that. I told them in "man-language" it wasn't gonna happen. Before I knew it, suddenly we were on our way to the game, and I was dizzied still wondering why they were talking amongst themselves as if I didn't even exist, and I WAS IN THE BACKSEAT!!!
So, after a long uncomfortable ride to the stadium, we paid our $40.00 to get stadium parking, which pissed me off, because when I go to Lambeau I pay $15.00 and enjoy a nice walk to the stadium in the most cherished city in the world. Then we get out and start heading toward the field, and my buddies refuse to even walk with me, so I'm lagging five steps behind them, literally feeling all alone as the only Packers fan at Soldiers Field. I'm getting heckled literally every ten steps, and starting to understand why my friends had suddenly become my enemies. They knew me enough to know that for every heckle, I would say something back with my head held high, I mean, I do have a Favre jersey on, and Favre has OWNED the Bears, and beat them in the last game of the season, so I had quite a bit of firepower.
We take our seats, and I buy us all a beer just to try to kiss their asses a little and get them to at least acknowledge my existence, and that worked quite well. We were enjoying the game from that point on as the Bears tore the 49er's a new one, dominating them completely.
This is where it turned ugly, I was so pissed off at watching the Bears beat this pathetic team, that after Alex Smith threw another 3 and out pass, I stood up on my chair and cupped my hands to my mouth and yelled as loud as I could "Hey, coach, I guess you should've went with Aaron Rodgers, huh? Alex Smith, you suck!!" The stadium was much more quiet at that moment than I had expected, and may have been heard by all the players and coaches on both sides of the field, I've got some pretty good lungs. As I sat back down HUNDREDS of angry fans in the area I was sitting at were looking at me. I had a sudden chill go down my spine as I immediately regretted my actions. Obviously, my buddies didn't speak a word to me the rest of the game, and I didn't walk with them on our way out of the stadium either. They were pissed at me. I still don't get it, I'm a friggin' Packers fan, so what, deal with it.
So, the trip back to the truck was TEN times worse than the entry, because, many of those walking next to me had sat near me, and heard my cry. Not to mention the alcohol consumption. I thought I was going to get into a fight with these three guys who wouldn't shutup, and were giving me hell "You got balls coming in here wearing that" as I replied "yep, steel, baby, steel", and on and on it went, until I FINALLY reached the truck and someone yells out "Favre and the Packers suck" to which I replied, "We were good enough to kick you guys' ass last year right here at this stadium!!" They then said, "That's because Grossman was too busy thinking about the Superbowl". My final reply before getting into the truck was "He obviously didn't think about it enough". The ride home was even longer and much quieter. My gut says I won't be going to Soldier Field with my buddy again. BTW, they don't talk much about football with me these days, the last two years have been tough, but not anymore, not even when Illionois beat Wisconsin.
It's great living in the Chicagoland area again.
there talking about the White Sox. Its like football is done . Even when the bears went through 5 seasons without playoffs. At this time of year there still talking bears. The Lions took there hearts out in that game last week. 
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