Jennifer Klotz
CMN 605
Dr. Ron Bishop
Paper #1


The Impact of Sports on the Community

The Chicago Bears have always been a long standing Chicago sports team favorite. Ask any generation of Chicago resident about Da’ Bears and they will recount their personal favorite Bears story for you. Unfortunately, until this past season, Da’ Bears had been going through a period of rebuilding and reconfiguring the team, trying to get all the right players on the team at the right points in their career to relive that magical season back in 1983 when Da’ Bears won the Super Bowl and then proceeded to invent the most beautiful dance known to mankind, fondly referred to as the Super Bowl Shuffle!

However, the Chicago Bears 2006 season brought that magic back to Chicago and reignited the passion that fans young and old had all but given up on. It figures that the first year I move away from Chicago in my life ever, is the very same year the city unites as one massive Bears fan buzzing with excitement and energy! Next thing I know, the Cubs will win the World Series this summer as well. But moving back to the Bears, I have never seen anything like this before at all. The buzz was there during Christmas break when I went home to visit my family during the holidays. Quite honestly, it is hard to capture a feeling that spread throughout the city and enveloped it, kind of like a fresh sparkly new dusting of snow on a clear night with a bright moon. That feeling that you get watching the new snowfall and dance as it reflects the light from the moon. That something special and magical is about to happen because you can just feel it down to your core. Honestly, the Bears might not have won the Super Bowl, and half of the city might have been upset with Rex Grossman that very night directly following the Super Bowl, but they moved on.

What remained, however, was the euphoric feeling of something bigger than themselves that was created by every single player and coach on the Bears team that season, including Rex Grossman. What is even better is that this team is its own unique and interesting unit. Fans of the 1983 Bears finally were able to embrace the qualities of the new team with open arms and realize that you can never be champion copying someone else’s style. You can learn from that style, but to be a true champion, you must have a style all your own, and this Chicago Bears team had and has exactly that.

Personally, I have never been one to stop everything else that I am doing to watch sports on TV, but that all changed during the NFL playoffs. Each Sunday I scheduled my day around watching the Bears game with my boyfriend, Erick, and cell phone close by. Even all the way over here in Philadelphia, we could feel the excitement building in Chicago with each game that the Bears won. After every amazing play or horrible call, we yelled and screamed and high-fived and then answered our respective cell phones. Family and friends were bound and determined to keep both of us connected to Chicago and the Bears just as if we had been there ourselves, by texting or calling us every time something, anything, happened to share their opinion or to make sure we saw it! For both of us, those Sundays were something that neither of us will forget anytime soon.

The Chicago Bears connected people all over the city and brought them together for a common cause, and in our case, it extended all the way to Philadelphia. Not only were those afternoons spent talking about the game, but we also got to talk and catch up with most of out friends and family. We felt closer to home just seeing Soldier Field and shots of the lakefront path were we spent so many hours running and biking last year. The Bears and their quest for the Super Bowl title was truly one of those rare times in history where a whole city really gathers together and cheers as one.

When the White Sox won the World Series, half the city could have cared less. It really wasn’t even half as big of a deal as just one of those playoff game victories was for the Bears. And even though the Bears did not go on to win the Super Bowl, it will remain, at least I my mind, one of the greatest, most magical moments in Chicago, if not national, sports history. Considering, of course, my bias to Chicago, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that many people feel the same way.
The glow and buzz from the season is still running throughout Chicago and its many residents. The Chicago Bears ignited a fire that won’t soon be put out, and in true Chicago style, the fire has spread throughout the whole city and won’t easily be put out until history is made once again, on the football field of course!