Bearing Down

Monday November 19^th, 2012 – Fox Lake, IL

   Part of me is feeling extremely guilty right now, but I’m not going to lie. Another part is happy as a clam after watching the Chicago Bears get completely squashed on Monday Night Football. It shouldn’t mean anything in the scheme of life, and I know it’s not nice to rejoice in the misery of others – but I can’t help myself. This is almost as much satisfaction as when the Packers win.

The Germans call this feeling ‘schadenfreude’. Leave it to those soft hearted Krauts to come up with their own word for something so cruel and vicious where others must suffer. I wish I wasn’t so familiar with it, but I totally am. I know what it’s like to feel the pain of my team getting their asses handed to them, and I know that should mean nothing in the big picture either. But it does.

Whatever emotion master source the NFL and sports in general has plugged into, it surely does run deep. In theory, it’s only a game – but it’s much more than that to those who care. And there are MILLIONS of those who really do care, and that’s the reason leagues rake in mega zillions.

Soccer is the biggest. Look at how that gets people rioting worldwide. It’s laughable to us here in the ‘civilized’ United States to watch the hooligans flip out over a soccer match, but then there are games like this when the entire city of Chicago is on suicide watch. And I admit – I enjoy it.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but it’s so exhilarating to see everyone ELSE in pain and disarray for once I find it extremely refreshing. All I had to do was sit back and take in the carnage, and I was thoroughly entertained the entire time. If there is a hell and this sends me there – it was worth it.

Living in the Chicago area, I have to bite my lip through the torture as the local sports stations incessantly ram it down my throat how great the Bears are and how they’re going to easily stomp their way to an unchallenged Super Bowl victory. They’d been playing what seemed like a never ending series of tomato cans and also-rans, and have stacked up a pile of meaningless victories.

They lost last week to a pretty decent Houston team, but it wasn’t the humiliating bloodbath it was tonight. Tonight was a major league debacle of epic proportions – with a heaping helping of embarrassment thrown in for dessert. The final score was 32-7, but it was much worse than that.

I was hoping the 49ers would hit 50 by halftime. They marched up and down the field like the Bears weren’t even on it, and the more they did the more I loved it. Maybe I have a mean streak, or maybe I’m just a human being – but I’m not going to deny that I was in heaven all night long.

It was even better after the game getting to listen to Doug Buffone and Ed O’Bradovich lament it even further on 670 WSCR. They’re former players, and they really know their stuff. I respect their knowledge of the game, but when they go off after a loss it’s the best talk radio on the dial.

There will be a time when the Packers lose and the Bears win. Everything is a cycle. But today, I got to enjoy every last second of watching those pompous Bears fans and radio pinheads take it up the middle in the red zone, and I’m sorry but I liked it. Bad karma? Maybe. Fun? OH YEAH!    

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