Special Post for ChiO & My Other Pigskin Pals

[klondike]

And the news goes out, across the land . . and up, as well, through the icy fogs over Lake Michigan . . . to a place beyond . . a blizzardish kind of place, of eternal starshine & crackling northern lights . . to where those words are captured in the glass tubes of an old wood-frame Zenith radio, and emerges in the polished-brass tones of Edward R. Murrow:
“. . not since 1941 have these two storied rivals clashed ‘neath the banner of a conference title game . ." – calloused brown fingers scrawl the message on a scrap of rag-pulp by the light of an old-time railroad lantern, and within the hour it’s borne away by a shadowy dog-team hurtling across the frozen tundra, through mist-shrouded uplands & primeval forests of boreal pine, to a grim, soaring gate set in a foreboding palisade, where a silent, antler-helmed sentry takes delivery of the clandestine scrip, and relays it up the slope to a vast hall, hewn from great timbers and founded on huge quarry-stone, where the Aurora dances overhead like some fantastic dream of the Elders . . within this high Valhalla, seated halfway between titanic hearths where burn roaring hardwood fires, a leather-helmeted warrior named Nagursky pauses from a hotly-contested game of cribbage as a big, snowy, green-&-yellow-mittened hand drops onto his shoulder, and his frost-giant eyes look up from his foaming, brimming stein of ale, through bushy brows, up past a tattered Acme Meat Co. sweatshirt, into the weathered, bulldog face of Ray Nitschke, who, smiling his crack-tooth grin, rasps: “Hey, Bronc, are ya ready for some football?”

[ChiO]

Bears vs. Packers. Can it ever be better than that? Our local NPR station had two sports writers on this morning -- one a diehard Bears fan and the other a diehard Packers fan. Some conclusions (with which I happen to agree):

(a) The rivalry is one of the greatest -- if not the greatest -- in sports. But it is one of respect, not hatred (exception: the Ditka-Gregg years). Whichever one loses, its fans will cheer for the other in the Super Bowl.

(b) Without Halas and Lombardi, the NFL would look very different.

And because we're not only the City of Big Shoulders, but also Big Hearts (Polish sausage, hot dogs, & Italian beefs do that), these are for your reading pleasure, Mr. Klondike:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/colu ... 188.column

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/fo ... 548.column

[klondike]

Thanks for those great links, ChiO, I really learned a lot, especially from the second one . . those old timers were really something - and where would that museum in Canton be without living legends of their caliber?
I wish every one in Green Bay & Chicago was familiar with that other, truer legacy of those two immense rivals . . . especially as the game is now behind us, and should become a positive memory for both communities!

[movieman1957]

What a great story. Living in a town most of my life that has suffered the pain and the uneasy joy of relocation of a team that is a nice story about Halas.

While the Ravens - Steelers may be among the hottest rivalries now I doubt, save for the coach's respect for each other, there is much love lost between the two teams.

The Packers and the Bears have given us a great sports history.

[klondike]

W O O P S !!



Car salesman sacked over Packers tie

FOX Sports - Jan 25, 2011 11:29 AM ET

A salesman at a Chevy Dealership in suburban Chicago was fired Monday for refusing to take off his Green Bay Packers tie, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. John Stone wore the tie to work at Webb Chevrolet in Oak Lawn, Ill., to celebrate the Packers’ NFC Championship Game win over the Bears.

General Manager Jerry Roberts asked Stone to remove the tie five times, saying it might aggravate Bears fans and make it more difficult to sell cars. When Stone refused, he was fired.

“He said, ‘You have two options,’” a furious Stone said later Monday to the Chicago Sun-Times. “Remove the tie, or you’re fired.”

“When I didn’t, he said, ‘You can leave, you’re fired.’ Does that sound fair to you?”

Stone, a 34-year-old father of two who had worked at the dealership for a month and a half, said he has been a Packer fan for about a decade.

“I was just showing my love for my team and it was a nice, smart tie that matched my clothes — none of the customers minded: they had a sense of humor about it,” Stone told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Roberts defended the firing by saying that the Packers tie would have "salted the wounds" of Bears fans. Roberts said the dealership spends $20,000 a month in radio advertising with the Bears, including a "Most Valuable Bear” award handed out after each game.

“If he loves the tie more than his job, he’s welcome to keep wearing it — elsewhere,” Roberts said.