From band to banned
Another sign of changing times and changing teams:
When the Bears arrived in New Orleans for Super Bowl week in 1986, they were met by 200 fans at the airport, and 200 more–backed by a brass band–at their hotel.
This year’s quieter Bears arrived to silence, save for jostling TV crews.
Fans were not given access to the team at the airport. At their hotel, players strolled out of their buses into a restricted parking lot–again, no fans.
Police at the hotel said they were taking no chances with security, and the team wanted it that way.
Imaginary numbers
Tourism officials in south Florida say Super Bowl XLI will bring in $350 million to $400 million.
Some economists, such as University of Chicago’s Allen Sanderson, say it’s more like $30 million to $50 million.
“All the television stations in the Midwest highlighting the warm weather, the great hotels, the beautiful beaches, we couldn’t have a budget to pay for that,” Broward County Mayor Josephus Eggelletion said.
Opera Bearismo
First Lyric Opera Center tenor Bryan Griffin recorded a video rendition of “Bear Down Chicago Bears.”
Then Saturday night, Griffin’s castmates in the Lyric’s final performance of “Die Fledermaus” came out for the curtain call decked out in Bears regalia, much to the delight of the sellout crowd.
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QUICK COUNT
60
The temperature degree difference between O’Hare International Airport when the Bears flight took off Sunday (15) and Miami International Airport when they landed (75). The National Weather Service predicts 78 in Miami for game day. However, Tom Skilling says Chicago may only reach 9 that day. QUICK COUNT
AUDIBLES
`I don’t think Miami and the NFL are ready for this.’
— Jim “Bears Jimmy” Bradley, 39, of Alsip on what he believes will be a deluge of Bears fans like him who are traveling to Miami just to tailgate in the Super Bowl city Sunday. The guest list for Bradley’s own sausage soiree, at C.B. Smith Park in Broward County, has already ballooned from a couple dozen to more than 100.
