Being a Bears fan is like being tall, short or gay: You're either born with the gene, or you aren't.
The image of a typical Bears fan is well-known: blue-collar, meat-eating, beer-swilling, cigar-smoking, polka-playing, heart-attack-having tough guys. Which isn't really true, but hey -- if you're going to pull for the team, you're supposed to at least pretend to be some of these things on game day.
For a Bears fan living in the Carolinas, Sunday is shaping up to be prime time: the Bears, with 85 years of history, face off against the Panthers, an excellent local franchise that nevertheless boasts only 11 years of heritage, in their first-ever playoff meeting. Which means that on Friday I'll be flying my colors and reminding anyone who cares to bother me that my team was here first.
The Chicago Sun Times this morning offered the best entry yet ("Panthers fans prefer fancy coffee, cats") in the pre-game hype contest: A story that compares demographics between the fans of the two teams:
Bears fans are smarter, richer and, well, maybe drunker than Carolina Panthers fans.
Just like you'd figure?
On top of that, Panther fans are more likely to prefer slurping specialty coffee drinks and to have pet pussycats, according to folks who keep tabs on such things. Bears fans are more likely not to have a pet and drink any kind of coffee you give 'em.
It also included this chart:
Which is, if you asked me, a remarkable thing. As a Southerner, I'm used to always being imagined the least sophisticated guy in the room. We're all used to that. Some of us are rather sensitive about it.
But thank God for Bears fans -- the only people on Earth who will celebrate how they are less sophisticated than Southerners. I don't know quite what to make of the fact that I am both Southerner and a Bears fan, but the Bears fan in me says thinking big thoughts like that is for Cheese-heads.
Prediction: Bears 96, Panthers 15.
That's the half-time score.
SNORT....the Bears got no offence.
Panthers 10 Bears 6
And pass me that Latte
Posted by: Jean McGreggor | Saturday, January 14, 2006 at 19:07
how strange that, in the end, the bears had no defense.
i just hope the panthers didn't get too beat up to kick ass the rest of the way.
Posted by: Janet Edens | Monday, January 16, 2006 at 10:20