I confess. I totally jumped on the Chicago Blackhawks bandwagon when they made it to the playoffs. I jumped on the Chicago White Sox bandwagon when they ultimately won the World Series in 2005. I’ve never been a true hockey or baseball fan. It is exciting for any of my hometown teams to get to the playoffs and have a real shot at winning it all. That’s why I jump. I may not be a die-hard fan of the sports or the teams themselves but I love seeing Chicago win. We do have a long history of not winning.

Going back a bit I jumped on the Chicago Bulls bandwagon when Michael Jordan joined the team. He was an exciting player and I got into it. In fact, I don’t think I missed a game during the entire time he was with the Bulls. When I jumped on that bandwagon I had no idea they would ever make it to the playoffs let alone become the unbeatable dynasty they became.

Going back even further I jumped on the Chicago Bears bandwagon after watching the 1985 Super Bowl at a neighbor’s house. I was 15 years old. My parents weren’t football fans. Our neighbor just had a Super Bowl party and we went. It was exciting. I’ve been a Bears fan ever since.

So, my question is, at what point does a person move from the undesirable and looked down upon status of bandwagon jumper to the ultimate status of “true fan”? In my case I consider myself to be a true Bears fan. I follow them every year and they have only made it to the Super Bowl once since 1985 (and that was a sad experience). I haven’t given up and love watching the games. In fact, I love the sport itself. I get it. I know all the rules. I love football and I love Da Bears. Does this make me a true fan or am I still a  bandwagon jumper because it all started with them winning the 1985 Super Bowl?

As for the Bulls, I admit, I lost interest in basketball after Jordan retired. I guess you could say that I was a Jordan fan, not a basketball fan or even really a Bulls fan. Although if the Bulls do make it to the playoffs I’ll jump right back on that bandwagon too. Because they’re a Chicago team. But for all those years he was on the team, even before they started winning championships, I was a “true fan”. I was in a bar on Division Street when they won in 1992. I saw the rioting up close and personal and had to quickly get out of the way as one of the two taxis that were turned over started to flip.

Whenever a team wins their respective top honor you hear all this crap about true fans vs. bandwagon jumpers. The true fans will generally talk about how long they’ve been following the team, how many games they’ve been to, the lengths they’ve gone to in obtaining tickets, etc. They express contempt for bandwagon jumpers. They feel superior to them and even seem to think they have no right to be watching the games or to be happy that the team has won.

I really don’t understand this mentality, especially after what I’ve experienced during the Blackhawk’s playoffs. One of my closest friends who I’ve known since we were 10 years old is the ultimate true Blackhawks fan. I would even go so far as to say that during her teens and early twenties she was a groupie. She knows many players personally. I met Jeremy Roenick at her house a hundred years ago before he was a legend. She has referred to the Blackhawk’s win as her lifelong dream. She’s hardcore. When we were growing up together I went along with her and her family to many a game but just never got into it. I don’t know why. To this day I don’t understand the rules. But she hosted parties at her house throughout the playoffs at which my family and I were almost always in attendance. It was a blast going over there several times a week, watching the games with a big group and seeing my friend’s lifelong dream coming closer and closer to actually coming true. I loved every minute of it, as did hubby and our sons.

At no point did my friend or any of the others at these parties become upset with us for not being lifelong fans. I don’t even know how many of them were true fans and how many were bandwagon jumpers. We all just had a great time and the celebration and tears and hugs and cheering and champagne popping and fireworks that we experienced last night after they won the Stanley Cup will be one of my most cherished memories. I got to see a Chicago team win it all and I got to see my friend’s dream realized with her.

So tell me, at what point do I become a true fan, and more importantly, does it really matter?

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Have you read about the rape accusation and subsequent guilty verdict and six year prison sentence of up and coming soccer star Eric Frimpong?

This is not a new story but it is new to me.  By every account I have read,  (Here,  Here, Here and Here) this “case” appears to be…and this is a major understatement….an utter joke of an investigation and trial, with no compelling evidence and a complete travesty of justice.  It’s not only a heartbreaking story about an apparently innocent man being sentenced to prison in the prime of his life but also an embarrassing reminder of the flaws in the American criminal justice system.  How a non-existent police investigation and one inept attorney combined with a judge that can either only be “phoning it in” or downright corrupt, can ruin the life of a promising young man with virtually no evidence is beyond comprehension.

I have never experienced rape.  I can only guess at the physical and emotional scars left by such a traumatizing event.  When an actual rape has occurred, I believe the perpetrator deserves severe punishment.  That is not what this post is about.

This post is about how this woman accused this man of rape even though she was too drunk to remember any details.  This post is about how the defendant’s DNA was nowhere to be found on the victim.  This post is about how her jealous ex-boyfriend’s DNA was found on the victim but he was never even investigated.  This post is about how the accused had no scars, scratches or marks despite the victim’s claims that she fought back hard.

This all concerns me for two reasons.  The first one is the overall failures that seem to occur more and more frequently in both our criminal and civil court systems.  The second one is much more personal.  I have two boys who will (hopefully) someday be in college and attending parties along with inebriated women with jealous ex-boyfriends.  This could happen to them.  This could happen to anyone.  In America.  Unbelievable.

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“Al Gore announced he is finishing up a new book about global warming and the environment. Yeah, the first chapter talks about how you shouldn’t chop down trees to make a book that no one will read.” –Conan O’Brien

Last fall I had some hope that global warming was actually happening.  I attended a Bears vs. Packers game in Lambeau Field on October 7th.  The temperature that day?  85 degrees, in Green Bay Wisconsin.  That was unseasonably warm for either Wisconsin or Illinois and it was GREAT.  It was a good game, Lambeau Field is an awesome place, and we were comfortably wearing shorts.  For the record, the Bears won…just had to throw that in there.

Today, the HIGH temperature here in Chicagoland?  One.  That’s right, one degree was the HIGH.  With the wind chill it was TWENTY-ONE BELOW ZERO.  This is completely unacceptable.  This is the type of weather in which you actually consider leaving your car running while you put gas in it because it seems completely rational that you think a major explosion (which would be VERY warm) is preferable to the horrendous wind cutting through all the layers you are wearing and giving you frostbite during the 30 seconds you are standing out in it.  This is the type of weather in which the weather report is always followed up with some dire warning such as, “Human skin, exposed at these temperatures will become frostbitten within 3.5 seconds.  If you are outside any longer than that, your right ear will fall off.  The good news is,  you won’t feel a thing.  Have a great day!”.  In this type of weather, you will happily drive around a parking lot in your toasty warm car for 20 minutes waiting for the closest parking space to the entrance of a store.  It’s inhumane.  I was forced out in it today and I’m sure that by tomorrow I will have full-blown pneumonia.

Another disturbing weather related fact for this area is that this summer was not particularly hot.  Normally, our summers are hot and humid and all the crazy people that enjoy watching their extremities fall off during the winter complain and whine about it for the entire 2.5 months (that’s how long summer lasts here, winter is 9.5 months).

So…global warming…I’m just not buying it.  Sorry Al.  I mean, It’s only December.  That means at this rate by January and February, we will literally be frozen in place while trying to walk to our cars after work.  It’s actually getting COLDER here, in summer and winter. 

My hubby, true Bears fan that he is, is actually going to the Bears vs. Green Bay game tomorrow night.  The forecast?  Two.  Two degrees, is the forecasted high temperature.  That doesn’t include the wind chill or the fact that Soldier Field is so close to Lake Michigan.  I am sad because I really don’t expect him to return and I’m going to miss him.  What the hell are he and his friend thinking??!!  Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Bears game, as long as it’s 85 degrees OR I’m ensconsed in my sweatshirt on the couch under a cozy blanket in my heated home.  But to intentionally go sit out there for at least three hours??  Not this girl. 

I hope I’m wrong.  I hope he does make it home, with no important parts frozen off.  I also hope I’m wrong about global warming.  I’m off to go spray an aerosal can…just doing my part.

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“I learned that if you want to make it bad enough, no matter how bad it is, you can make it.”-Gayle Sayers

HALFTIME UPDATE:  UP 7-3, PLENTY OF TIME LEFT IN THE FIRST HALF, STOPPED AT THE GOAL LINE ON 2ND & 3RD DOWN…NO BRAINER, GO FOR THE FIELD GOAL RIGHT?!  ‘FRAID NOT.  NOT IN CHICAGO.  I HOPE GAYLE SAYERS WAS RIGHT.

Just a silly little poll today.  Why, you ask?  Because I figured out how to insert polls…duh! 

[polldaddy poll=1112667]

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UPDATE: 3:54PM….OH WELL, THERE’S ALWAYS NEXT WEEK, RIGHT?! 

“Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.”
— Don Schula

So, the Bears have been plauged by quarterback problems for…..well, for long as I can remember.  It’s only the first quarter, and they are playing an undefeated team, but as in all Chicago sports, I have hope, even when the deck is stacked against them.  And so far, so good!  GO BEARS!