This is a weird game for me to watch, because I really dislike both teams, albeit for different reasons. I dislike the Colts because Peyton Manning is really, really annoying. I hate the Bears for the same reason that I hate all other Chicago sports teams: I hate Chicago sports fans.
Prior to 1998, I had no particular problem with Chicago fans, because I had never really met any. But then I trekked off to the state of Illinois for college, at a school where I was one of the few people not to hail from the greater Chicago-land area. And it wasn't long before I started to get annoyed by Chicago fans. That annoyance developed into dislike, and within six months, full on hate.
As a result, I began to hate the teams they rooted for, out of 100% pure spite. Immature? Sure. But seeing a Chicago team (particularly the Bears and Cubs) lose, and the resulting dismay of my Chicago-native friends and acquaintances always made me happy. Schadenfreude of the highest order.
But I don't think that my hatred of Chicago sports fans was a coincidence. Stated differently, I don't think I was destined to hate whatever fan base I happened to attend college with. There is something unique about Chicago fans that drew my ire, but for a long time I couldn't put my finger on it. They're assholes, but so are lots of fans (see, e.g., Philadelphia or Pittsburgh). They bitch and moan a lot, but so do other fan bases (I'm looking at you, Boston.) No, the problem with Chicago fans is that they have a sense of entitlement, but nothing to show for it. You can at least excuse Yankee fans for feeling entitled, because they've actually won something. A lot of somethings, in fact. But all of the Chicago fans I have known feel like the sport's world is their oyster, only they have nothing to back it up with. Case and point: I once went to a bar in Chicago where they played Super Bowl XX (when the Bears won) on a continuous loop every day, from open to close. Even worse, no one else I was with (all Chicago fans) would concede that this was even a little bit pathetic. They hold the '85 Bears, their one triumph in the face of so many underachievements, so sacredly that it borders on obsession. That cemented my disdain for all things Chicago-sports.
Ironically, I love the city of Chicago. I have considered living there, and hell, I still might some day. But my feelings towards their teams are firmly entrenched. Not even a "We Are Marshall" type of incident could get me to like the Cubs or Bears. But my youngest sister, she's a different story. She isn't a sports fan like I am. She just kind of goes with the flow, which is fine. Except that after she graduated from college last May, she did what 78% of college grads from the Midwest do - moved to Chicago. It was my greatest fear that she would become one of those Cubs-hat wearing, Old Style-drinking, baseball fan-pretending girls that sits in the bleachers at Wrigley and giggles and yells when everyone else does in hopes of meeting a guy.
This past summer, she sent me a text message and told me she was going to a Cubs game at Wrigley versus our hometown and my favorite team, the Cincinnati Reds. I quickly mobilized and called her, fully ready to disown her if she told me she was rooting for the Cubs. I called her, and as soon as she answered the phone I posed her the question. "Who are you rooting for today?" I asked with a sense of urgency.
"The Reds", she replied cheerily.
One of her friends, a Cubs fan, overheard this and posed a challenge. "Name one player on the Reds."
My sister paused, and then said, with a mix of confidence and defiance, "Carson Palmer!"
Gotta love her, her heart is in the right place.
Anyway, I am rambling now, so long story short, Go Colts. I'd rather live in a world where Peyton Manning won the biggest game of his life than endure a Bears Super Bowl win.
