Bears vs. Saints
JANUARY 20, 2007 Listen to this Story
- Saints Fans
- View the Slideshow
The New Orleans Saints face off with the Chicago Bears at Chicago's soldier Field tomorrow, and the winner will go to the Super Bowl. The Bears haven't gone in 20 years, but the Saints have never gone. The Bears would bring the first ever African-American head coach to the Super Bowl but New Orleans, well, look at what they've been through. The game is fraught with back story. Radio producer Jenni Lawson went looking for opinions on which team deserves the win more. She climbed aboard the City of New Orleans, the famous railroad line from New Orleans to Chicago.
Notes from Producer Millie Jefferson:
I know most people in the country are behind the Saints and why shouldn't they be? Most people, whether football fans or not, love a good underdog story. But working on this particular story did more than just give me hope; it actually conjured up football memories from my childhood. In my house it was me, my sisters, my mom and my dad. Often feeling outnumbered, my dad had certain "man things" that were sacred. One of those was watching football on Sunday and Monday night, which meant we all watched football on Sunday and Monday night--those were times with just one TV.
I remember sitting with my dad and making friendly wagers on a segment of the game called "You Make the Call." It ran a couple of times during every game, and they would show a controversial play from a past game. At the end, a voice would come on and say, "You make the call: Was this pass interference?" Then they would go to commercial. During which my dad and I would bet, usually a quarter, on the decision. Now I couldn't have been more than 8 years old when we used to do this and I always guessed because I really knew nothing about football. But I was right most of the time.
The other memory and maybe the more relevant is the 1985 Chicago Bears doing the Super Bowl Shuffle, which was this corny video the team produced before the Super Bowl of themselves singing (or rapping) as they tried to dance. Hilarious! I can hear Walter Payton now:
Well, they call me Sweetness,
and I like to dance.
Runnin' the ball is like makin' romance
We've had the goal since training camp
To give Chicago a Super Bowl Champ.
And we're not doing this because we're greedy.
The Bears are doin' it to feed the needy.
We didn't come here to look for trouble,
We just came here to do
The Super Bowl Shuffle
The Bears won the Super Bowl that year, but I don't remember the game. All I remember is that video and trying to memorize the words to the Super Bowl Shuffle. I love working on a story that takes me on a voyage to the nether regions of my memory.
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- Music Bridge:
- North East Rising Sun
- Artist: Trans Am
- CD: Sex Change (Thrill Jockey)
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