Friday, January 26, 2007

Friday's "Off-The Wall" Blog: NFC Champion Chicago Bears Edition!

First of all, Happy Friday! Now, to the blog. Call me a homer, call me what you'd like, but when your team wins their first championship in your life time when all of your other friends teams win championships then you can post a blog in dedication to your team. And yes, I'll stick with the whole "four topics" and of course the well-reviewed "Friday Five" songs will be there. Actually, since there's been so much newsworthy material this week, I'm tempted to do a part two on sometime next week with news not concerning the NFC Champs. But be warned, next Friday's OTW blog will be a Super Bowl XLI preview. So let's get to crackin', shall we?
  • I'll start off with this story from ESPN and their "experts," all of whom chose the New Orleans Saints to beat the Bears. All of them, each and every "expert" analyst chose against the team with the best record in the NFC, home field advantage, the advantage of playing a domed team outdoors in poor weather conditions. Shame on all of them. Specifically, Sean Salisbury who does a radio show on ESPN-1000 in Chicago who has no basis to stand on to be an expert at anything. Salisbury makes John Kerry look like he never flip flopped. Salisbury's "teams to beat in the NFC" included (but weren't limited to) Carolina, Seattle, the New York Giants, Dallas, New Orleans and Philadelphia. Never the Bears, despite the fact that they beat Seattle and New York. The Bears have played the underdog card very well, hope they play it to a Super Bowl win against the Colts who are an early 7 point favorite in Las Vegas.
  • Of all of the "experts" only Gene W. (I don't feel like spelling his last name) who came out with his own "mea culpa" admitting he was wrong and on top of that he was called out by Lovie Smith at the post game press conference who knew that Gene W. was one of the many who picked against his Bears. The article's pretty well written, a must read for Bears fans.
  • Even though "America's Team II," the New Orleans Saints are out of the picture, CBS still has several really good story lines for the Super Bowl. I'm sure they wanted a Colts-Saints match up pitting Manning versus Daddy's Team. But it's not like the Bears didn't have any available story lines. A Bears-Patriots game would've given a rematch of this years thriller in Foxboro and a rematch of Super Bowl XX. A Saints-Pats game would've given a whole "American Pride" storyline out there with America's Team II against the team America rallied around after 9/11.
  • When playing a game of Madden earlier this semester, my rooommate noticed that I (playing as the Bears) had put up 100 points against the Packers and asked why I was punishing the Pack like that? Well, besides me taking out my frustrations on Brett Favre (and eventually Aaron Rodgers) I have my own video game theory. Somewhere out there is a fan of another team pounding the crap out of the Bears in Madden. Might as well have my own payback and even the score, right? Well folks, Super Bowl XLI has already been played, check out this article from the Chicago Sun-Times.
THE FRIDAY FIVE. Five songs in heavy rotation in my I-Pod this week.
  1. You (Remix)** by Lloyd featuring Andre 3000 (of Outkast) and Nas
  2. Promise by Ciara
  3. Love and Memories by O.A.R.
  4. Heaven (Remix) by John Legend featuring Pusha T (of Clipse)
  5. Diamonds In My Damn Chain by Fabolous featuring Lil' Wayne
  6. Super Bowl Shuffle*
  7. Bear Down Chicago Bears*
THE FRIDAY FIVE. Old School Edition.
  1. Set Adrift on Memory Bliss** by PM Dawn
  2. Party All The Time by Eddie Murphy
  3. Lovefool by The Cardigans
  4. Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley
  5. Children's Story by Slick Rick
*Denotes bonus tracks. GO BEARS!
**Denotes a sample. Last week, I mentioned that Jibbs and Melody Thornton (of PCD) sampled Janet Jackson's 80s abstinence theme Let's Wait Awhile in Jibbs' track Go To Far. This week, the remix of Lloyd's You featuring hot verses from Nas and a resurgent Andre 3000 of Outkast samples the early '90s hit Set Adrift on Memory Bliss by PM Dawn, who sampled Spandau Ballet's True which is a song you hear in every 80s teen movie! Just thought I'd drop a bit of musical insight!

Have a Happy Friday everyone!

Sunday, January 21, 2007

The Obligatory "Da Bears Are Going To Da Super Bowl" Blog


These are the type of notes/blogs that are generally reserved for my guy Steven Schucker, but I couldn't help but do one myself for once. Conference Championship Sunday is now over folks and your Chicago Bears are going to the Super Bowl. I'll admit that I really do wish I was in Chicago for this, because one can only fully appreciate this if they were in The Greatest City In The World, celebrating the Best Team In The NFC. And to think, I didn't go absolutely crazy like I thought I would. I didn't jump around and scream like crazy, though I did do a lot of that during the game. I sat on the couch of our apartment and said "The Bears are going to the Super Bowl...WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE F'ING SUPER BOWL!!!" I got plenty of phone calls, text messages, voice mails, etc. about the Bears and it was just so sweet, knowing that for once in my lifetime, the Chicago Bears are the best team in the NFC and have the George S. Halas trophy to prove it!

As for the game, the defense did what it did during the first half of the year. They played solidly, forcing turnovers, scoring off of turnovers, it was nice. Then New Orleans made that comeback, peaking with the Reggie Bush 88-yard TD reception. And as he taunted Brian Urlacher on his way to his hot dog roll into the end zone, I said it then that Bush would pay for that. Not only did Bush pay for it, the rest of NOLA did with the stomping the Bears put on them after that. Grossman played excellent. No turnovers, nothing even close to a turnover, and for the icing on the cake, a super sweet touchdown pitch by Grossman and an even sweeter grab by Bernard Berrian who rolled into the end zone untouched.

As for Super Bowl XLI, the Bears will be opposing another high powered offense with Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts who got past "The Hoodie" and the New England Patriots in an exhilarating night cap of NFL football. Looks to be one of those "Best Offense versus Best Defense" type games. And I'm looking forward to this.

And of course, you know I have to put in the little Cub angle here. The game will be played in Dolphin Stadium, which I will always know as Joe Robbie Stadium, in Miami, Florida. In 2003, I believe it was still Pro Player Stadium when the Cubs played their last road playoff game which was game 5, their first chance to to go to the World Series (a game they lost 4-0 to Josh Beckett in a day I'll never forgive my mother for having her wedding during a Cubs playoff game.) But yeah, anyways, back on task. Chicago has some unfinished business in that stadium and I'm hoping that the Bears will exact my revenge on the Miami-area with a Super Bowl win. *Sighs* a championship clinching win in Miami would justify a lot on my sports world.

That's all for tonight. Let's all rejoice Bears fans, we've earned it!