Bears Essential
Report: Adrian Phillips IT’S ONLY WHEN Americans and Brits try having a conversation about “football”, that the so-called shared language of English reveals its massive difference. “Soccer”, as our friends across The Pond call it, is a wholly different game from American football, although the passions run equally deep. But this October, for the first time in the game’s history, there will be an official [...]
Report: Adrian Phillips
alt="Simple Guide to American Football" class="picright">
ONLY WHEN
Americans and Brits try having
a conversation about “football”, that the so-called
shared language of English reveals its massive
difference. “Soccer”, as our friends across The Pond
call it, is a wholly different game from American
football, although the passions run equally deep. But
this October, for the first time in the game’s history,
there will be an official NFL fixture in London, when
the Miami Dolphins clash with the New York Giants
at Wembley Stadium. Tickets are like gold dust,
though, and only a lucky few will get the chance
to witness this spectacle. The much easier option
is to take in a Bears game (and a taste of sporting
razzmatazz) during a city break to Chicago itself.
For some fans, it all started with the man
nicknamed “The Fridge”, a defensive linesman called
William Perry (right), who played for the Chicago
Bears during the 1980s. A gap-toothed mountain
of a man who weighed 26 stones (370lb) in his
considerable underpants, he got his nickname from
his sheer size. He once observed that “even when
he was little, he was big”. The Fridge on the hoof
was a formidable sight, and the inspiration behind
many people’s childhood devotion to the game.
alt="Simple Guide to American Football" class="picright"> Earlier
this year, the Bears made it to
Super Bowl
XLI, that end-of-season climax in which the winner
of the National Football Conference (NFC) plays the
winner of the American Football Conference (AFC)
to determine the overall champion of the National
Football League (NFL). As it happens, the Bears lost
to the Indianapolis Colts in pouring rain. But the
event isn’t just about the four-hour match itself.
Just as well. On that occasion, the fireworks were
spectacular and Prince crooned to perfection.
In the US, the match is just one act of the
show. Super Bowl 2004 isn’t remembered for the
contest, but as the one at which Janet Jackson
had a “wardrobe malfunction” as she performed
a duet on the pitch with Justin Timberlake. The
players themselves also straddle this blurred line
between sport and showmanship. The Fridge recorded
rap songs, was immortalised in plastic as a GI Joe
action figure, and in 1986 the same year that the
Bears won the Super Bowl took part in a televised
wrestling match alongside other NFL stars.
alt="Simple Guide to American Football" class="picright">The
American football jamboree began nearly
a century ago. In 1919, the AE Staley company in
Illinois founded a team as a way of raising the morale
of its employees. The team name the Decatur
Staleys lacked sexiness and it wasn’t long before
the Staleys became the Chicago Bears, a deliberate
nod towards the Chicago Cubs baseball club, whose
stadium they shared. Their shaping force was George
“Papa Bear” Halas, a man whose fingers were in every
part of the team pie from playing and scouting to
choosing the club colours of navy blue and orange.
Indeed, Halas’ influence extended to the very sport
itself as he ushered in the attitude of modern
professionalism. After signing Harold “Red” Grange on
an unprecedented salary of $100,000 (a sum 50 times
that paid to players a couple of years before), he took
the team on a gruelling mid-1920s publicity tour in
which they played 16 games in nine weeks. Halas and
his Bears were courting the masses.
The next 20 years proved a prosperous period for
the Bears, who won titles for fun. They continued
to have a significant impact on the game, most
notably in the 1940s, when they devised the T-shaped
attacking formation that remains the staple today.
Even though the Bears of the 1950s to 1970s were
famed for having tough players, aside from the 1963
NflChampionship trophy, the cabinet remained bare.
But in the 1980s they rose once more under head
coach Mike Ditka. During his playing days Ditka had
been a bull-necked player with a ferocious reputation.
“I just try to hit the other guy before he hits me,” he
once said. “And if I hit hard enough, maybe he won’t
want to hit me back.” He had some supremely gifted
players at his disposal including Walter Payton, who
was, in Ditka’s view, “the greatest Bear of them all”.
alt="Simple Guide to American Football" class="picright">Payton
was as athletic as they come one of
his
party pieces was to leap over the head of a man
measuring 6′ 4″ and his silky running style earned
him the nickname “Sweetness”. Allied to this talent
was a burning desire to win; his mantra was: “If you
are going to die, you should die hard never die
easily.” The result was a player who smashed records;
between 1975 and 1987, Payton rushed almost 4,000
times for 16,726 yards and 110 touchdowns. He is one
of just 13 players in the Bears’ history to have his shirt
number (34) “retired” as a mark of respect. While the
Bears only won a single championship (in 1986), for
the five-year period between 1984 and 1988 they
enjoyed the best record of any team in history. Even
the rap song they released The Super Bowl Shuffle
received a Grammy nomination.
alt="Simple Guide to American Football" class="picright">So
to the 21st century and the arrival in 2004
of coach Lovie Smith, who made several ambitious
promises when he joined and delivered on them
the following year when clean-sweeping the mighty
Green Bay Packers and winning the NFC North
division title. He went on to take the Bears to the
Super Bowl for the first time in 20 years, becoming
the first African American head coach to do so (an
honour shared with his opposite number on the
day, Tony Dungy). Next year he’s determined to go
one better.
Can Rex Grossman, the much-maligned
quarterback, have a consistent and injury-free
season? Can Devin Hester a thrilling and game-
changing runner who exploded on to the scene as
a rookie in 2006 repeat his record-breaking feats?
If it all comes together, you wouldn’t bet against
the Bears roaring once more, so this is the ideal
time to go and see them in action.
Situated along a lakefront, Soldier Field which
was originally constructed as a memorial to the
men who fell in World War I has been the home
of the Chicago Bears since 1971. Rebuilt in 2003
in just 20 months the shortest time ever for a
modern stadium it’s now a state-of-the-art arena
with a capacity of 62,000.
If you have a ticket
to a match, get there early if you want to enjoy
the “tailgating” festivities: the pre-game ritual
whereby fans gather in designated car parks to eat,
drink and soak up the atmosphere. Then the home
team enters the field through a giant bear’s head.
WHAT’S GOING ON?
American football can seem baffling to the outsider, but the
rules are fairly simple.
alt="Simple Guide to American Football" class="picright">The
primary aim is to carry the ball over
the opposing team’s end line to score a “touchdown”, worth
six points (after which the kicker has the opportunity to add
a further point by kicking the ball through the goalposts). The
team in possession has four attempts to move the ball 10 yards
forward; if it succeeds, it receives a further four attempts to
advance a further 10 yards, and so on. If the attacking team fail
to move the ball the necessary distance, it is turned over to the
other team.
Often a team will kick the ball on the fourth attempt
to ensure the opposition is forced to start their attack from as
far back as possible. Another scoring option is a “field goal”,
which is worth three points and involves one player propping
the ball upright on the floor and another kicking it over the
crossbar of the goalposts. For more information, visit
www.nfleurope.com a very beginner-friendly website.
To book a 45-minute
stadium
tour, call +1 312 235 7244;
tours cost from $15 for adults.
To see a game, the NFL
fixture list is released
each April, and tickets to
single games are generally
sold in July on
www.
ticketmaster.com or by
calling +1 312 559 1212
