City of Love & Hate

“Bobby Douglass, Throw the DAMN Ball!”

This was my father, watching a small black and white TV, yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs. I was 7 or 8 years old, and you have to understand that my father NEVER yelled about anything. He was very consistent, very calm, and generally in complete control. To hear him losing his mind over something on the TV could only mean that whatever it was, it was important.

This was the beginning of my education about football. Love and hate mixed up into one emotion. I sat cross-legged on the floor, trying to figure out who was who, and slowly, over time, with him leaning down to explain a rule or a penalty, I began to understand the game.

I don’t think I’ll ever truly understand how he taught me to love a team he hated so much! LOL!

I am that crazy father now. I have 3 sons who sneak cautiously into the basement when the game is on, and cheer like crazy when they win, and growl at the tv (with their old man) when they screw up or lose.

I am not a sportscaster. I am not a professional blogger (are there professional bloggers?). I am probably not more knowledgeable on the Bears than any of you. But I am probably just as passionate, just as hopeful that this season (please let it be this season) is the one where they make the playoffs and maybe the Super Bowl. But, after decades of futility, don’t think for a second that I allow myself to be deceived into believing the hype or illusion of training camp.

The brain has a very thin gap between the section for love and the section for hate. Here’s hoping that my blog posts fit somewhere in between!

Just to show you that my sons love the game; here’s a very special video of my son as a running back on his little league team. (He has to love this game to put up with what is about to happen to him!). And yes I note the irony of the fact that the team he’s playing against wears Chicago Bears replica uniforms!

City