This week’s column from The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …
If no Bears, what’s the reason for the season?
The WISCH LIST
May 7, 2011
This past weekend at Soldier Field, people were sipping beers, scarfing down hot dogs and snapping more photographs than paparazzi at the annual Bears Expo. But this year, the Bears’ big offseason event featured a brand-new twist.
No Bears.
“It’s still cool being here,” 35-year-old Ruben Ledesema, of Lawrenceburg, Ind., said on Saturday as he relaxed in a 100-level seat at Soldier Field and watched kids – both little and adult-sized – run around stadium’s sun-splashed turf conducting football drills.
“But,” Ledesema continued, with a bit of a pained look, “this is the first time not seeing any of the current players here. This lockout is a bummer.”
Millions of pro football fans across the country – perhaps, including yourself – no doubt muttered the same thing this morning when they rolled out of bed knowing that the NFL’s labor drama is about to spill over into yet another week, with no clear end in sight.
The latest news this week was that a federal appeals court has agreed to a speeded-up schedule to hear the NFL’s appeal of the order that lifted the lockout last week. But that “speeded-up” schedule won’t even take a next step until June 3.
The speed of the legal system isn’t exactly like Devin Hester’s.
And as more and more weeks tumble off the calendar this spring and summer, the likelihood of a 2011 NFL season this fall becomes less and less certain.
So, last Saturday, with that distasteful prospect in mind, I took a trek down to Bears Expo, which did feature Bears legends such as Richard Dent and Dan Hampton and perhaps a future one in first-round pick Gabe Carimi, but showcased no current Monsters of the Midway.
My mission was to quiz Bears fans about what they’ll do to pass the time in the event of a pigskin Armageddon this fall. And what I discovered is that when it comes to the lockout, ignorance – much like a win over Green Bay – appears to be bliss.
“I honestly try not to pay attention to that stuff,” said Matt Swacina, 32, of Grand Rapids, Mich., who was dressed like a 1980s-era Mike Ditka, complete with the mustache, aviator sunglasses and blue-and-orange Bears sweater. “So, I really don’t know what’s going on with (the lockout). There’s just no sense in worrying about it.”
Although, I think my questions made “Da Coach” start doing just that.
“But there better be a season,” Swacina said. “I don’t even want to think about that not happening. If it did, I would probably spend a lot more time watching European soccer.”
Now, that’s no Bears fan’s goal, including Ledesema – such a big Chicago sports fan that he named his children Payton and Jordan – who also hadn’t done much thinking about how he’d pass the time if the NFL season is canceled. But he shuddered once did.
“I would probably work more,” Ledesema said with a laugh. “I’m the general manager at a Best Buy, but I have my Sundays off so I can watch football. I guess, though, I’d go into work instead.
“But it’s just un-American. You have baseball and you have football on Sundays. I might have to start following rugby.”
Meanwhile, Chicagoan Julie Hatmacher, who attended Saturday’s Bears Expo with her cousin, Kate, said the fall would simply be far less festive without pro football.
“We’d have less of a reason to drink,” she said, chuckling. “Really, it’s something I haven’t thought much about. But, wow, if there was no NFL season?
“Wisconsin and Illinois might actually have to get along.”