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I usually spend all my time as a formal writer so this is a much needed break where I can tell you about the great time I had at the Bears NFC Division Championship game. The Bears tailgate Bash was a big time party. I have a ton of pictures (check back soon), met some great guys and saw a historic win in what will hopefully turn out to be a small stepping stone to a 2007 Bears Superbowl win!

The game started the way it ended; with a huge roar and was about as close as one can get for a Bears team that should have dispensed of Seattle with ease. There were a couple of times where it looked like the Bears might choke and as a result we were on our feet the whole time. Especially considering that Shaun Alexander pretty much had his way with the defense by running down the gut all afternoon. Other disappointments came by way of the coaching staff. Lovie Smith called an inexplicable timeout with something like 2 seconds left in regulation while Seattle had the ball on 4th down. This gave the Seahawks one last ditch effort to throw the ball down the field instead of letting time run out or forcing a punt with 26 seconds. Bad move.

The other crazy call came when the Bears tried a pooch kick late in the game even though they were within field goal range, have a pro bowl caliber kicker in Robbie Gould and were down by 3. This was a chance they should have taken yet they tried a kick that I would have expected the Seahawks to do when facing the speedy Hester.

On the upside Grossman played a pretty solid game. He threw for nearly 300 yards before OT. The one fumble was a nightmare that resulted in points but the earlier interception wasn’t his fault, Muhammad should have caught that ball.

But it all turned out fine in the end as the Bears defeated the Seahawks 27 - 24. Gould came through with the wind at his back in OT to bring Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Duece McAllister and the rest of the Saints in next week for the NFC Championship game! The Bears will need to bring their A-game next week - pray for snow.

Tailgate Party

Thankfully I spent most of my time at the tailgate as a spectator so I could enjoy the game without the obvious ramifications of drinking in the morning. This is due to the punishment I subjected myself to at a pre-game party on Saturday evening. We hit Chicago at around 7:00 ish and began what was to become my eventual downfall with Saki bombs at an unbelievably excellent Sushi bar on right off of Michigan avenue. From there we went to Weber grill where my brother stuck one of our buddies with a $90 tab for 3 shots of Patron Platinum; thanks Rick (btw, should have taken the points and the odds)! We watched the rest of the Saints game and completed the rounds with a couple of guys we were going to meet on Sunday morning at the tailgate party. From there we were off to the Weiner Circle to get burgers and degradation by the hilariously foul mouthed clerks who wanted to know what the f**k we were doing there (this turned out to be not so much of a great idea for me). We arrived at the hotel at about 2:00/2:30 a.m. because we wanted to get some sleep before the tailgate started at 6:30 a.m.

The tailgate party was already under way before we arrived because the mix of Sushi, Saki, Patron and the Weiner circle slowed me down so much that we didn’t show up until 8:00 a.m. (I took a lot of crap for that.) The crazies were already partying hard with the usual tailgater amenities, cherry vodka, tv’s, fires, deep fryers and keggers everywhere. I actually ran into a beer bong contest at around 8:30 a.m. (purely as a spectator mind you). Again, I took a ton of crap for arriving with coffee and tracking down Tony the medicine man for advil. I was better off for it.

I couldn’t believe all the tv sets, tents, bars and of course bean bag games at the tailgate. It was great; kind of like college. In any event I met a lot of great people at the Bears tailgate party. Hopefully I’ll get to do this one more time before the Bears head to the Superbowl. Go Bears!!!

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