A young boy once sat in the stands of Soldier Field for the very first time with his large pop and hot dog with no ketchup, ready to see Erik Kramer and the Chicago Bears come out of the old rusty tunnel to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
That little boy was me and that game happened 14 years ago, but the experience of visiting Soldier Field has hardly changed since then, despite a recent stadium renovation and plenty of years of losing.
Chicagoans are old-fashioned with their sports. They hold on to traditions and are strict with loyalties. White Sox fans don't do the wave, male Cubs fans have to take their shirts off in the bleachers and Bears fans will never give up their allegiance to ""Da Coach,"" Mike Ditka. Win or lose, Chicagoans love baseball and football, but certainly don't mind reminiscing about a basketball player named Michael Jordan from time to time.
All of this comes with a majority of losing seasons, but none of that seems to matter in the Windy City, which Sporting News recently named the No. 1 sports city in the United States. When it comes down to it, a Sunday in Chicago will easily justify that ranking.
At first glance, Soldier Field tends to look like a grounded UFO. The new, glass faA§ade turned a renovation project into what is more like a new stadium inside the old stadium's walls.
Two hours before game time the parking lots turn into one great Chicago party with a grill for everyone. The diversity of the city brings brats, Italian sausages, Polish sausages, and of course the local favorite hot dogs to the table, but don't count on seeing any ketchup around Bear territory. If you put ketchup on a hot dog in Chicago, you might as well be a Packer fan.
My most recent trip to Soldier Field brought me within five rows of the Bears' sideline against the Packers to see a game that proved exactly why Chicago is the best sports city.
With the Bears' hopes for the playoffs vanished and the Packers on their way to another postseason appearance, Soldier Field was still just as alive as it was for the first week of the season. The sold-out crowd packed the stadium in orange and blue with only a limited number of green and yellow scattered throughout the 55,000-plus fans attending the game. A loyal Bears fan would eat his ticket to the game before he scalped it to a Packers fan.
Green Bay won the game convincingly, but Bears fans knew times were changing as the 2004 season ended. In 2005, and as recently as Sept. 17, Bears fever has swept the city as great and rapidly as it did in 1985 when the team won the Super Bowl.
That same great atmosphere is present on the North Side when the Cubs play, and on the South Side with the White Sox competing every year for the postseason. The West Side came alive in the '90s when Jordan and the Bulls excited the city for six years of dominance, and that excitement is rekindling around a revamped team this season.
In the fall, however, Chicago can't be better defined than by a young Bears fan sitting inside Soldier Field with a hot dog and large pop. Win or lose, that Chicagoan goes home happy.
