Sarah Scully and I have shared a home and cats for many years. And because I’m not supposed to have direct human contact with anyone else on the planet currently, she’s our guest this week! Is she an actual Bears fan? Well, yea. She kinda doesn’t have a choice.
She’s also in political news business, currently serving as one of the top dogs at The Recount. You should check it out their awesome content both on the website and on Twitter. Their brilliant Trump calendar video has taken over the internet and can be viewed RIGHT HERE.
DBB: You live with me. That seems like a crazy decision. Why do you do it?
Sarah: To me, you hung the moon and the stars. You are the person who brings me more joy than anyone else in the world. You are handsome, clever and very funny. You are human Prozac. Yes, it’s true that I am a neat freak and it sometimes feels like living with a wild animal. A bear, if you will, when it comes to cleanliness and order. Still, you never roar and you give great hugs. You are also a hell of a cook.
[Editor’s Note: Yep. All true.]
DBB: Do you notice an emotional change in me based on the Bears winning and losing?
Sarah: One of the things I love most about you, that distinguishes you from past romantic interests, is you do not let a sports loss completely ruin your mood. If anything, you seem to gravitate towards seeking out positive things that can make up for the disappointment. For a long time, I hated football, driven by memories of my dad screaming at the Broncos during playoff games (“Damn you, donkeys!”), scaring the dog, scaring us. I saw nothing positive about a thing that could send my otherwise calm, thoughtful, psychiatrist father into hysterics.
DBB: We rarely – if ever – watch games together. But you following along with the score. Have you found yourself getting emotionally invested at all in the actual result or are you just kind of rooting for me?
Sarah: In addition to a mutual love of the under appreciated film Joe Versus the Volcano, a perhaps bigger element of kismet between us is the 1985 Bears.
Despite my dislike of the hometown team that made my father so mad, seeing The Super Bowl Shuffle changed something in my nine year-old brain. What a beat! It made me dance. Handsome Walter Payton, cool Jim McMahon with his headband, a guy nicknamed “The Refrigerator” – amazing! I wanted to befriend them all.
Football didn’t have to be limited to toothy, boring Elway and the loud, confusing noise blasting from the RCA box in our basement. I checked out books on football and Chicago from the Denver library and put up a poster of “The Fridge” I found in my dad’s Sports Illustrated. It went up on my bedroom wall amid the Duran Duran pictures I’d ripped out of Tiger Beat.
Football could be fun! Adventures full of personalities, music and dance!
My dad surprised me with a Chicago Bears t-shirt to wear to the Super Bowl party we attended at his boss’s house. What a fun day! A great memory. So, for those few months, I was pretty invested. But then other things like Top Gun, Choose Your Own Adventure books, the new toy shop full of costumes they let us try on, lacrosse camp, etc took over. I lost interest in Da Bears by the summer but the warm memories of that brief foray with Chicago Bears fandom stayed with me.
I’m so happy to have it rekindled! I am reinvested- and this time for the long haul.
