When I started thinking about comebacks, the Bears didn’t hit my radar… until now. This is odd, considering the comeback I’m about to talk about was of the all-time variety, and oh yeah, I was there in person for it. Where the hell is my head at? Yeah, let’s talk about the “they are who we thought they were” game.
I’ve told this story before, on these pages, and in person to anyone and everyone I can. It was October 16, 2006… shit, that’s almost 18 years ago?!?! I was living out in LA. I had met my aunt and cousin in Las Vegas the couple days before. On Monday morning, we headed out, back to Phoenix, where my cousin currently lived. He was a season ticket holder for the Arizona Cardinals. Of course, this was planned to head back to Phoenix with him before going back to LA, because the Cardinals were hosting the Bears on MNF; we would be heading to the game together. My cousin is from Chicago, and was of course, still a Bears fan. His seats were the definition of nose bleeds; we were the last row at the top of the stadium. I didn’t care. To be there in the house to see the undefeated Bears play on MNF… I could have sat on the roof, well, as long as I could see inside.
The game didn’t start off well. The Bears were down 20-0 at the half. What in the absolute hell was going on? Grossman looked like absolute shit. I can’t believe this. Thankfully I wasn’t drinking; I was too hung over from the Vegas nights. I was just down… wow. At halftime, we were talking in our seats; in front of us, was a younger guy talking to an older guy. It turned out that they were father and son. As the end of halftime approached, the son asked us if we wanted to swap seats with him; he wanted to stay up there with his father. We said, sure. After all, the seats can’t be any worse than ours. Well, it turned out they were a little better… we were like 15 rows off the field at the 30 yard line. Yeah… believe that. We were sitting with our Bears jerseys in a sea of red, and you know they were amped up, beating us badly. Well, that’s when the fun started…
The 3rd quarter started uneventfully enough, with the teams exchanging FGs; still down 20 boys… Then Mark Anderson (remember him?) came around the end and hit Leinart, causing him to fumble. None other than Mike Brown scooped it up, on our side of the field, and ran it in for 6. OK, now we’re talking. Down 13 points heading to the 4th quarter, there’s a chance… although the offense hasn’t done a damn thing the whole game; they wouldn’t have to. The teams switched sides and the 4th quarter began. Urlacher ripped the ball our of Edgerrin James arms and Peanut ran it in for the 2nd defensive TD. Oh yeah… let’s F-ing go!!! Now, only down 6 points, you could feel the momentum swinging; I could feel the fans around us not liking us too much any more, as we were screaming our asses off. What happened next was one of the storylines all year. Newly minted HOF Devin Hester took a punt to the house. He fielded it right in front of us, and once he made that final cutback, we knew he was gone. We’re jumping up and down, yelling at the top of our lungs… the Bears had scored 21 straight points without an offensive TD; we had the lead! The game wasn’t over yet. The Cardinals drove it down the field, right back in front of us again, and lined up for a game winning FG. Rackers was money, but not on this night; he missed it, and we went wild again, this time dodging shit that people were throwing at us… they were absolutely pissed; I get it.
On the other hand, we were ecstatic. We walked down towards the field with other Bears fans, talking to Baldinger from the NFL network about how this could be the year. Then, they showed the post game press conference on the big screen in the stadium; Dennis Green started his rant… absolute classic in every which way. So yeah, how’s that for a comeback?
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