Under normal circumstances, you could say that witnessing the Bears vanquish Tampa Bay 21-9 Sunday is as exciting as watching grass grow.
Problem is, there exists scant evidence of the latter phenomenon at Soldier Field, which doesn’t prevent George Toma from searching.
An hour after this gala NFL opener, the world-class groundskeeper can be found surveying the gridiron, camera in hand. It is unclear whether he intends to photograph traces of vegetation, animal life or perhaps bodies buried beneath divots.
“A municipal course,” decides Bears receiver Tom Waddle, who spends part of his summer winning a golf tournament to celebrate the franchise’s 75th year. “If you were playing 18 holes on this surface, you would liken it to a municipal course. You know, lift, clean and place.”
To the naked eye, the turf does not appear particularly hazardous. This is something of a miracle in modern science, inasmuch as Sunday’s tiff is the third in four days staged within the cement slab on the lakefront.
Then again, the Bears can consider themselves blessed, beyond even having to debut against the annually inept Buccaneers. Rain stays away since Thursday, and three of the participants-Illinois, Northwestern, Tampa Bay-avoid using the entire field, as it were. One end zone is so plush, you could plant tomatoes.
Still, the Bears reach for help, and that can only mean Peotone. They are not scheduled at home again until Sept. 18, but hard on the heels of this recent football extravaganza come the Rolling Stones, due here for a two-night stand beginning Sept. 11. There might then be more grass in the stands than on stage, and this is not music to Michael McCaskey’s ears.
“We’re going to bring in sod from Peotone,” says the Bears’ chief agronomist and president/CEO. McCaskey’s primary job is to field a team, and now he frets about being able to field a field.
Peotone?
“Great sod in Peotone,” replies McCaskey.
He is not in the best of moods, nor should he be. All week, McCaskey exchanges barbs and memos with the Chicago Park District about Soldier Field. To a live and anxious radio audience Sunday morning, McCaskey explains that a free replay mechanism for spectator enhancement is offered to stadium proprietors, who refuse it out of hand.
“But that’s just an example of this crusade that’s going on,” McCaskey elaborates later. “There is all this misinformation about how we want Soldier Field just for ourselves. That isn’t true. We don’t want exclusivity, we just want the Park District to live up to its lease. And by holding a game here less than 24 hours before our game, such as Saturday night’s game between Northwestern and Notre Dame, they’ve violated the lease.”
On a perfect planet, McCaskey tells the city what it can do with Soldier Field and he goes elsewhere. But he is bound to the mausoleum until 1999 with no alternatives. The Bubble in Waukegan doesn’t accommodate 66,000 fans, and besides, McCaskey detests domes, even when they leak fresh air.
“A privately financed stadium for the Bears,” McCaskey says, dreaming aloud again. “I believe that’s the future.”
What annoys McCaskey is that he feels the Bears, probably Chicago’s most popular team, do more for the city than the city does for the Bears. If Soldier Field slobbers all over a once-in-a-lifetime soccer tournament, why such disaffection for the meal-ticket tenants?
“We beg them for more restrooms for women,” McCaskey says. “We can’t get them. The World Cup comes to Soldier Field, more restrooms for women.”
Forrest Claypool, general superintendent for the Park District, doubtless will construe this as another case of media brutality. But there has to be a better answer than the current mess, and it’s not Peotone.
Soldier Field will look good to the Bears only when it’s in their rear-view mirror, and let Bolivia replace the divots.
