"Boo Yah!!!!"

NFL FACT:

Some people believe that the 2007 Super Bowl in Miami will go down in the books as a very historic event however, for all the wrong reasons. The fact that two black NFL coaches will be facing one another at the start of Black History Month means absolutely nothing. What is historic is that The Bears' "Tank" Johnson will be the first NFL player to play the game wearing a tracking device!

"Gloria Estefan tickets are hard to get but there's always Ricky Martin!"

Some random thoughts about this past weekend. . .

• For those of us folks who live in Indiana or Illinois, there was nothing but good news and reason to celebrate with both the NFC win of THE BEARS and the AFC win of The Colts. Both teams now have two weeks to get their game on before heading to Miami, Fl. for the 41st Annual Super Bowl. This got me to thinking about the odd bets that are thrown together at the last minute by the Mayors of competing cities. Chicago traditionally puts together a gift basket filled with Gino's East deep dish pizza, Eli's famous cheesecake, and a big Italian beef sandwich with hot and mild peppers from Mr. Beef. What would Indianapolis give to Chicago? They aren't known for anything. Let me tell you, after visiting that place a few times, there's a lot of familiar "chain" restaurants like Applebee's and Pizza Hut and that's about it. The last time I swung by old Indy I dined at a Lone Star Steakhouse. On that particular weekend night, Indiana Pacers very own Reggie Miller was trying to eat his dinner while signing autographs and posing for pictures between bites. That told me right there that it may be a nice place to visit but, I wouldn't want to call it home. All Chicago may get is a couple ears of corn and some horse shoes and maybe some "shoo-fly" pie from the area Amish folks.
• It's nice to kick up your heels with a keg of beer and a 5th of Jack Daniels but, did you see how many people in Chicago started partying like this twelve hours before kickoff in ten degree temps outside? By the time the game had gotten started, half of the people were passed out and the other half were being rushed to the hospitals for either hypothermia or frostbite. It's always fun to stand out in front of Soldier Field drunk in the middle of the night holding a 12 pack with your shirt off and making lots of noise with the 100's behind you doing the same thing. Why? Because channels 2,5,7,9,32, and ESPN, CNN, and Fox News are there to capture all this with their reporters and Hi-Def cameras. I hope all these people went to work today proud...that is, if they made it.
• Q&A time. Well, actually rhetorical question time. 1) The sporting goods business makes the most money during the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals among others. They have a lot of items already made up and ready to hit the shelves no matter who wins. In the end, what happens to all the stuff leftover from the losing team that never made it out of the box? Destroyed? Given away? 2) Say you're in Chicago at night and glance up at the John Hancock building where one side appears dark except for the office lights left on that spell out "Go Bears". How do they do that? If you live on one of these floors that aren't included in the display, must you sit in the dark all night long so you don't screw things up for people below who are looking up? What if you tell the manager of the building that you work until 11 pm and come home to relax and read the paper? You can't read in the dark. Oh my, SO many questions and more to come!