Chicago Football Chili

It's almost here!

The clock is ticking on Super Bowl XLIII, and the nation holds its collective breath.  Some game notes first, and some chili at the end...

How ready is Pittsburgh receiver Hines Ward?  Is he truly the 85% we keep hearing, or is he sandbagging that number?  Can Santonio Holmes do it on his own if he needs to?  And does one Hines Ward make up for the trio of 1,000 yard receivers on the other side?

And how about those guys?  Larry Fitzgerald has been about as unstoppable a player as we've ever seen here of late.  Does the two week rest cool him down?  Does it matter with Boldin/Breaston available, too?

Can RB Willie Parker take the pressure off Hines Ward?  Willie had a lackluster, injury-plagued year (just ask my fantasy football team).  He's good-to-go now.  Is Pittsburgh poised to open up the passing lanes with a better running game than Arizona?

Can Pittsburgh's highly touted defense shut down the explosive Arizona offense?

Can Arizona's less-heralded defense step up to give the Cards some breathing room?

Blow-out?  High-scoring fight to the finish?

My predictions have been pretty much useless this season.  So my guess of the Cardinals in a high-scorer probably doesn't mean much to you.

No matter.  We don't claim to be expert on the matters of actual football play.  Chili is another story.

If you haven't bought your ingredients for your gameday bowl of red, I suggest you get to the store right now.  It's crazy in there.  You'll be blocking, weaving, and looking for open lanes.  Very much the Super Bowl experience.

I know a lot of folks are looking at the front page match-up (at www.chicagofootballchili.com of course) for their game choice, but there are lots of great ideas (if not appropriately themed to the two teams) on the Archives pages, so you might want to check those out.

And finally, we got blurbed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, if you can believe that!  Check out the Latest Buzz link (originates from the "Some Chili Notes" page) for the news.

Here's hoping for a great game!  I'll have my post-game notes coming soon!

 CHILI DAN

Posted by dawn2 at 12:41 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of Steely McBeam.  But say what you will about the Steelers mascot, at least he's not creating bulletin board fodder for the other team.

Cardinals mascot Big Red, along with Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon (not the pro poker player) did something with the Pittsburgh Terrible Towel that's, um, well, let's just say it's not good PR for the Cardinals.  http://www.wpxi.com/video/18580458/index.html

Wiping the pits and blowing the nose almost seem more baseball-like, when it gets down to brass tacks.  So as insults, I'm not so sure how good they are.

But when I think of the phrase "how good they are", I think of:

Seven trips to the Super Bowl.

Pittsburgh practically owns this game, and a victory on Sunday will put them ahead of those pretenders in San Fran and the Big D in the win department.  As they should be.

Reasons I like the Steelers:

"Thanks, Mean Joe!"

Those Iron City Beer cans.

Lynn Swann

Don't get me wrong.  I'm still hoping my Bears pull off the next six Super Bowl victories in a row so as to end questions of overall football dominance.  I mean, we've been at this in Chicago since 1920, and have nine championships when you count the eight BEFORE they instituted a Super Bowl.  It would just be nice to round off this thing with a bunch of Super Bowl rings, too.

But until then, here's to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Even Steely McBeam

 CHILI DAN (or STEELY DAN today)

Posted by dawn2 at 08:37 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

So, to make good on my promise to provide a little more detail about the "could've been" Bears quarterback Kurt Warner - including why he never became a Bear...

Some of this you may know, but bear with me, and I swear that this is not a combination of NFL highlight films mixed with several Lifetime movies...

Kurt Warner did not receive a football scholarship out of high school.  He did not start at QB until his 5th year at Northern Iowa.  He was not drafted in 1994.  He signed as a free agent with the Green Bay Packers, but did not make the team.  He was turned down by 12 NFL teams and every team in the Canadian Football League.  He turned to Arena football, playing three years with the Iowa Barnstormers, going to two championship games and lighting up 183 touchdowns.  He played on NFL Europe's Amsterdam Admirals.  And in 1997, he had a tryout scheduled with the Chicago Bears. 

Let's back this up 5 years.

Kurt had met his future wife, Brenda, in 1992 during college.  She was an ex-marine, four years older than 21 year old Kurt, was divorced and has two children from that marriage.  One of whom has brain damage caused when his natural father accidently dropped him.  Brenda was getting by with help from her parents and food stamps.  Kurt, because of collegiate rules about these things, couldn't hold a job during his starting QB tenure.  So they ordered pizza and watched videos with the kids through their early dating life.  

Skip back up to 1997 (which means we're skipping the tornado that kills Brenda's parents at the home they retire to in Arkansas right before Kurt starts his Arena League career). 

Kurt and Brenda get married and Kurt gets an invitation to tryout with the Chicago Bears.  Things are looking up.  The tryout is scheduled for when Kurt and Brenda get back from their honeymoon.  The honeymoon is in Jamaica, and while they are there, Kurt gets bitten by a spider on his elbow.  His throwing elbow.  Which proceeds to swell up and make his arm useless.  He can't throw.  And it takes more than a month to heal.  He has to cancel his tryout with the Bears, and our Bears move on without Kurt.

So that's what happened.  In a cruel irony, Kurt finally lands on an NFL team a year later when the Rams cut ex-Bear QB Will Furrer to give him the 3rd-string spot on the roster.

The rest, somehow, some remarkable way, is history.

 CHILI DAN

Posted by dawn2 at 08:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hey everybody!  We've had a big influx of readers from the Southtown Star (who did a nice article about the website on Thursday), and I just wanted to say Hi!

We've had a few folks reference the article in notes they've sent us through the "Contact Us" page, and it's always very exciting for us to see that the word is getting out (even if the season IS coming to a close).  We even heard from longtime site viewer John!  You know, the man originally from Blue Island that got referenced in the article.  John is checking in, even post-Bears, and we're thrilled to see it.  Thanks, John!

We're going to post a link to the article on the site for those of you who haven't seen it yet.  As is always the case, go to the "Some Chili Notes" page from the Navigation bar.  And over on the left you'll see our "Latest Buzz" link.  Click on that and we'll have the new Southtown article as the top link, along with a few  of the other stories from this season. 

As for our Bears, what can I say?  The coaching staff is turning into Tampa Bay North, which I suppose isn't such a bad thing if they can get the defense up to that early-2000s TB standard.  I see the occasional article or blog post about "who can we get at QB" already, and still can't understand why no one is paying attention to our wide receiver needs.  Other than that, pretty quiet on the Bears front (as you might expect).

Closest other things I can find are about ex-Bears coach Haley working for Arizona, and the infamous spider bite that kept Kurt Warner from being a Bear.  Might have to go into that one next time.

Until then, thanks for stopping in.  We'll see ya soon!

 CHILI DAN

Posted by dawn2 at 08:54 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Big Ben pulled it off!

There's just no stopping the Pittsburgh Steelers.  They are a Super Bowl machine.  They are the anti-Cardinals.  And the Ravens are the latest to find out.

Like the earlier game, this one was a nail-biter.  I liked that both championship games could have gone either way, and I LOVED that they were still as different as night and day in terms of play.  Big offensive juggernaut in the afternoon, and a defensive battle at night.  Great games, both!

Makes you wonder - which team will set the pace at the Super Bowl?  Are we looking at a high-scorer or a low-scorer?  Pittsburgh has a good defense, but Philadelphia was supposed to as well.  And we know that Roethlisberger-Hines can light it up when they need to.  Should be interesting.

The line today was Pittsburgh by 7, but my informal poll today is showing a split of allegiances here in the Chicago area.  You like the proven winner?  The underdog?

Well, we are ready.  Put the finishing touches on a couple of recipes today, and posted the spread on the site (www.chicagofootballchili.com , of course).  Lots of stuff to look at, lots of great flavors and twists, AND we put a BIG emphasis on easy-prep for this one.  Game day's a busy one, so we're looking out for ya!

In the meantime, we'll be checking out all the pre-game drama the next couple of weeks, and will be reporting on THOSE stories as we go along, too. 

It's Super Bowl season, baby!

 CHILI DAN 

Posted by dawn2 at 10:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Gotta tell ya, it's a new surprise every minute.

Great game this afternoon.  Surprising lead, crazy comeback, couple of questionable calls, and the end of a 61 year drought for our Chicago Cardinals!

I mean St. Louis Cardinals.

Sorry, Arizona Cardinals.

Some folks around here were pushing for Philly because of the homegrown McNabb factor, but you've got to love the Cardinals.  They WERE Chicago.  Granted, it was years and years and years ago, but let's have some respect for history around here.  We can cheer for McNabb when they make him a Bear (three years from now, I'm thinkin').

On our side of things, the kitchen has been in a fury all day long, prepping for the Super Bowl extravaganza we're putting together over at the site.  Prepped a lot of "Born in the USA" bites today, and finally have our complete roster (will be public on the site on the evening of the 19th). 

Made a couple of trips to the store today, prepping for any team combination, as well.  It's been a busy Sunday.  All this AND the games!

Well, gotta get back to the Ravens-Steelers.  Check out the site tomorrow:  www.chicagofootballchili.com

 CHILI DAN

Posted by dawn2 at 07:53 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Don't let the title fool you.  This is not a post about bygone Super Bowls.

No, I'm thinking about the upcoming Super Bowl, which of course has nothing to do with our #2 QB.  Over at the site ( www.chicagofootballchili.com , as if I'd ever let you forget) we are cooking up a Super Bowl extravaganza, so we're pretty excited about that.  In order to be ready for the site when the games end this weekend, we're working up some ideas right now.

We're going to have snacks, dessert, two brand new original chilies based on the teams that play their way in, even a cocktail.  Halftime snacks will have a Bruce Springsteen spin, in concert with the halftime show.  And, of course, to have those two chilies ready, we have to have four chili ideas today.  Because if we could accurately pick the winners this weekend, we'd be in Vegas right now.

So, with chili consuming our every waking thought, you'd think someone could sneak some Bears news by us without our taking notice.  Well, you'd be wrong.

Ears perked up a bit a couple of days back when it became out-in-the-open that Kyle Orton is the 2009 starting quarterback and that the backup quarterback will NOT be Rex Grossman.  No Rex.

Not that it's a big surprise or anything.  Haven't seen him much this year, though we did shake our heads in disbelief at that moment on the sidelines when he was warming up and dropped a football he was trying to pass. 

Classic Rex.  We'll miss ya.

 CHILI DAN

Posted by dawn2 at 08:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It would seem that if you are trying to make a big move to build confidence, both among the team and the community, you don't make a big splash about solving your defensive line problem by hiring the coach that just went 0-16.

You gotta hide that kind of thing behind a big free agent signing or something.

Just sayin'.

 CHILI DAN

Posted by dawn2 at 09:22 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

If you're looking for other blogs that might pique you interest, check out this site:

http://blogs.trb.com/news/local/chicagosbestblogs/

Posted by dawn2 at 06:34 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Ah, the good and the bad.  And the ugly.  Notes from a winning season...

Best Moment (first half):  Bears defeat Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts by completely shutting down the running game in a surprise opening night national television victory.

Worst Moment (first half):  With victory seemingly secure in-hand, the Bears lose a last-minute heartbreaker to the Atlanta Falcons.

Best Moment (second half):  Gould kicks one through to shut down the crazy offensive juggernaut that is Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints in overtime.

Worst Moment (second half):  In the midst of division play with a real chance to open up a "the North championship runs through Chicago" swagger, the team loses to the Green Bay Packers 37-3 at Lambeau.

Quirky Moment:  The overtime coin flip bounces off of Brian Urlacher's helmet at the Monday night game against the Pack on 12/22 (which some have suggested knocked something loose, and explains his post-season dementia).

Overheard:  At every game in Chili Dan's fan cave:  "Put in Hanie!"

Pleasant Surprise:  Danieal Manning's kickoff return ability.

Unpleasant Surprise:  Inability to beat Houston Texans.

He's a little behind the times:  Jerry Angelo suggesting that there is a quarterback issue on his team AFTER the final game (while every football analyst in America was suggesting the Bears have a quarterback issue throughout the pre-season).

He should be barred from ever broadcasting Bears games again:  Joe Buck, who seems to think all calls should be against Chicago, and just seems to have that player-hater thing going on with our guys.

The biggest scam going:  Parking at Soldier Field (I'll share my nightmare in another post)

Some more Positivity for you:  Matt Forte!!

Overall, it's a winning season that ended a little too soon.  Oh well.

More thoughts for you later.  Also, we have some big things planned for the Super Bowl at the website.  In the meantime, we have some playoff team chilis right now and a special "Bears Favorites" coming up next week in advance of our all new Super Bowl extravaganza.

Keep watching!

 CHILI DAN

Posted by dawn2 at 03:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)