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Bears-Vikings game proves safety is secondary (NFL WHINE ALERT)
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | Dec 20, 2010 05:24AM | RICK MORRISSEY rmorrissey@suntimes.com

Posted on 12/20/2010 9:17:19 AM PST by Chi-townChief

Old-time football players like to say they would’ve played for free in the parking lot, such was their love for the game.

It might be the hyperbole of men who watched too many grainy Knute Rockne clips, but you want to believe that they believe it. You want to believe that they were so tough and so committed to the game that they would’ve sacrificed the skin on their elbows to make a tackle near the third parking stall on the left.

You want to believe in someone who loved the raw violence of a sport so much that he would’ve been willing to sacrifice body and paycheck to play it. You want to believe in his craziness and passion.

You want to believe mostly because it wasn’t your body or your brain or your skinned elbows.

That might explain the gap in emotions between the public and Bears and Vikings players heading into a game tonight that very well could be played on a skating rink.

The players are worried and angry about the possibility of injury at the University of Minnesota’s football stadium, which was jarred out of its winter slumber by a caved-in roof at the Metrodome eight days ago.

The public? Not so worried. Or, if fans are worried about players’ injuries, it’s not for humanitarian reasons. It’s for playoff reasons.

(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bears; chat; cold; mnf; nfl; outdoors; overpaid; sports; strike; vikings
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To: dirtboy

“I think the Packers would have a fit”

I thought all along that the game should be played at Lambeau.

It’s about the same distance between the Cities & ChiTown -and oddities of oddities Most Packer fans that would go to this game will be cheering for the Vikings.. So in essence it would be a Vikings home game.


61 posted on 12/20/2010 10:02:10 AM PST by acw011 (Great Goooogly Mooogly!)
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To: Chi-townChief

I just need Lance Briggs to get 3 solo tackles or 5 Assisted tackles and they do anything they want about the game then.


62 posted on 12/20/2010 10:03:17 AM PST by justice14 ("stand up defend or lay down and die")
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To: Chi-townChief
Many many years ago the ground was frozen and like playing on ice.

At half time one of the teams put on tennis shoes and won the game.

New York Giants vs Chicago Cardinals????

63 posted on 12/20/2010 10:07:58 AM PST by TYVets
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To: MozartLover

If Grant were a military leader he looks like the kind you’d follow into battle.


64 posted on 12/20/2010 10:10:12 AM PST by ScottinVA (The West needs to act NOW to aggressively treat its metastasizing islaminoma!)
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To: acw011
Yep. I thought the same thing; and I would have gone and I would have cheered for the Vikes.

Odd, indeed.:)

65 posted on 12/20/2010 10:10:28 AM PST by MozartLover (Love your freedom? Thank your military.)
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To: MozartLover

Yeah, I don’t see aSuper Bowl this year, but a good playoff run would be pretty cool.


66 posted on 12/20/2010 10:10:53 AM PST by Mr. Silverback (Anyone who says we need illegals to do the jobs Americans won't do has never watched "Dirty Jobs.")
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To: BarbM
"Only once did I lick the fire hydrant."

Or the sled runners....or the door handle....or ANYTHING metal.

Doing it twice earned one a label that was hard to shake.

67 posted on 12/20/2010 10:19:44 AM PST by diogenes ghost
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To: Chi-townChief

Just wondering what Bud Grant would have done with this guy.

He coached for nearly 3 decades in Minnesota (and CFL Winnipeg!) and never let his players have heaters on the sideline.


68 posted on 12/20/2010 10:21:49 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Chi-townChief
You want to believe in someone who loved the raw violence of a sport so much that he would’ve been willing to sacrifice body and paycheck to play it. You want to believe in his craziness and passion.

Let's see....Bronco Nagurski, Dick Butkus, Chuck Bednarik, Ronnie Lott, Joe Greene, Sam Huff, Jim Brown, Ted Hendricks, Deacon Jones, Ray Nitschke, Jack Lambert, Conrad Dobler, Jack Tatum, and a very few more (and yes, Brett Favre would fit also) might certainly fit that description.

However, given the "namby-pamyby land" stature of our current crop of players, I would have to support the contention that this kind of toughness and love of the game and the physical mayhem it brings simply doesn't exist anymore.

69 posted on 12/20/2010 10:24:13 AM PST by Logic n' Reason (You can roll a turd in powered sugar; that don't make it a jelly donut)
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To: dirtboy
That's not true - outdoor deep-cold stadiums such as Lambeau and Soldier Field have heating systems in the turf. Ever hear of the Ice Bowl? It's when that system failed at Lambeau.

And one of the snowiest stadiums in the NFL, Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo, does not have underground heating coils. Count Arrowhead Stadium and New Meadowlands Stadium among them, too.

Source: PFT.

70 posted on 12/20/2010 10:25:55 AM PST by Dan Nunn (Support the NRA!)
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To: Dan Nunn
The Buffalo and New Jersey stadiums have artificial turf, I believe, which renders the need for a warming system moot.

KC isn't as consistently frozen as Chicago, Green Bay or Minnesota.

71 posted on 12/20/2010 10:43:52 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: TYVets
That was the 1934 Championship, the Giants versus Da Bears.

An ice storm the night before turned the old Polo Grounds into a skating rink.

A coach had an idea to switch to basketball sneakers and an assistant was sent by subway to procure some at a local college. He got back in time for the fourth quarter, as I recall, and the Giants went on to stomp the Bears with their new-found traction.

72 posted on 12/20/2010 10:46:56 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: Chi-townChief

OSHA would outlaw not only football at all levels but basketball, baseball, rugby and soccer. The injury rates would not be tolerated in any industry. Wimp America. Let the regulations flow.


73 posted on 12/20/2010 10:54:49 AM PST by JimSEA
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To: DManA

Watch this game. The forecast calls for heavy snow all night. Gonna be like old times.


74 posted on 12/20/2010 10:57:31 AM PST by cornfedcowboy (Trust in God, but empty the clip.)
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To: Chi-townChief

Favre upgraded to “questionable”......


75 posted on 12/20/2010 11:14:45 AM PST by MozartLover (Love your freedom? Thank your military.)
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To: MozartLover

I remember the ‘83 Monday Night game against the Cowboys in which Dorsett set the record for the longest TD run from scrimmage. Grant on one sideline, Landry on the other. One of the announcers called it “the battle of the great stone faces”.


76 posted on 12/20/2010 11:34:03 AM PST by Coronal
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To: dfwgator

“Maybe they can schedule the game in Namby Pamby Land.”

Winner!


77 posted on 12/20/2010 12:05:20 PM PST by freebird5850 (When 0bama fails, FREEDOM prevails!)
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To: Chi-townChief
Old-time football players like to say they would’ve played for free in the parking lot, such was their love for the game.

Never played college or pro, but I did and still do love the game.


Runaway Slave

Apostle Claver tells the world how the real party of racism is the Democrats

78 posted on 12/20/2010 12:56:35 PM PST by rdb3 (The mouth is the exhaust pipe of the heart.)
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To: rdb3

I do too but being a Browns fan makes it rough ...


79 posted on 12/20/2010 1:08:49 PM PST by Chi-townChief
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To: Chi-townChief

Tell me about it.

Cleveland is the city of almost, not quite, and not so much.


80 posted on 12/20/2010 1:28:38 PM PST by rdb3 (The mouth is the exhaust pipe of the heart.)
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