By my unofficial count,
the Tribune sports’ section has included stories on our beloved Chicago Bears
for nine days running, and probably more.
Today, you might think things would be different with Loyola finding out
where it’s going in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament (Answer: the South
Regional), but no. There on page two was
a story on free agents by position, any and all who could help those 5-11
Munsters of the Midway.
Think about that record
for a second, 5-11. In baseball, we’d be
talking about a 51-111 team, which happens to be the exact record of the Mets
in their second year of existence. If
the White Sox won 51 games on the season, they’d get a quick post mortem
followed by a news’ blackout; the Cubs might merit two post mortems, along with
the same cold shoulder from the media until spring training. What makes the Bears so different?
I think the middle-aged
fan base helps. You have a bunch of guys—with
female enablers—with a man-cave mentality.
They go to games, they buy the stuff advertised on games; middle-aged
sportswriters, anchors and editors all work to give them their football fix. But the fan base will get old in the
not-too-distant future and start keeling over from all that beer and buffalo
wings they use for fuel, and their media-enablers will retire. Then what?
The boys and girls of Gen X don’t look to be interested in taking their
dads’ place in the stands or on the couch.
It shouldn’t be long
before we start to find out.
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