Allow me to discuss sports, now that both teams I care about are out of the running (one only freshly out of it, and one probably out before last season started).
Say what you will about the Chicago sports fan, but they are passionate. Last Sunday's game, for example:
Someone from a certain other NFC North city would take a look at the Bears, the fact that their offensive line can't stop a three man rush, the fact that their quarterback spent the year getting sacked and sacked again, the fact that the defense is very old and their wide receivers are very young, and think "My God, it's amazing they got so far on so little!"
Yet as I drove home following the game (viewed in the suburbs with the greatest baseball girlfriend ever and her family), local talk radio had already declared this a "failed season." Playing in the NFC championship game at home, with a chance to tie in the fourth quarter with a third-string quarterback, and they're calling this a failed season.
Never mind the fact that nobody thought this team would make past third place in the division, let alone to win the division, let alone make it to the NFC championship.
This city demands excellence from their football team. And when excellence is not obtained, questions must be answered. Why didn't Jay Cutler play through the game on his injured knee? No, he wasn't playing well up to that point, and no they had yet to score a point while he was in, but if this city is going down with the ship then the quarterback is coming with us, grade II MCL sprain or no.
And this city demands excellence from it's fans, to the point where some guy got fired from his job as a car salesman for wearing a Green Bay Packers tie on Monday.
Man.
I like football as much as the next guy, but maybe I'm just so used to losing by now that this kind of thing seems bizarre to me.
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