Soldier-ing on?

The Arlington Heights Bears.

Roll that one around in your head for a bit, while you remember the wind scything off the lake in the last blush of fall. Nothing colder in the world than that wind, unless it was whatever abomination the Chicago Bears were giving the faithful beneath those Roman colonnades in Soldier Field. And there were a lot of abominations to go with the occasional triumphs.

Me, I remember a particular Sunday in late fall, 40 years and more ago, when the Bears and Lions committed heinous acts against the NFL on a frigid afternoon. I wore six layers that day, and still the wind sliced to the bone.

How cold was it?

It was too cold to drink beer. Almost.

That was about the only way to watch what the Bears and Lions were doing, which only vaguely resembled football. The Bears had the worst offensive performance in club history that day, if memory serves. Or maybe the Lions did. Or maybe neither did.

Memory doesn't serve as well as it used to. Bare-wood truth.

In any case ...

In any case, they were still the Chicago Bears.

Now?

Who knows. Yesterday the news came down that the Bears had purchased the land upon which sits Arlington International Racecourse, an iconic site in itself. With Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot already talking potential new anchor tenants for Soldier Field, it seems a lock the Bears will be leaving Chicago for new digs in Arlington Heights, 35 miles out in the 'burbs.

So, yeah; The Arlington Heights Bears.

This will take be quite a change, if only to the number of layers you'll have to wear when late autumn settles in. No more Lake Michigan wind throwing carving knives at the patrons, so that would be good. No more Soldier Field, either, which ... well, yes, that'll take some getting used to.

The Bears have been playing there for 50 years, even after the hideous renovation in 2002 that transformed it into some sort of Millennium Falcon afterbirth. Even at that, it's now the smallest stadium in the NFL. So maybe it's time they moved on.

As it turns out, I was at Soldier Field for the beginning of the renovation, too. It was another cold day shading into night, this one in January, and the Bears were again the Bears, losing to Donovan McNabb and the Eagles in the divisional playoffs, 33-19. I was columnizing on the game for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette that night, and when our beat writer and I walked out after filing, construction crews were already tearing out the seats in one end zone. They were wasting no time.

Nor will they again, one guesses. And who knows? Maybe they can still get away with  calling themselves the Chicago Bears. 

After all, the New York Giants still call themselves the New York Giants, even though they play in a completely different state. Yet no one calls them the Jersey Giants or the Meadowlands Giants, or even the Where The Mob Buries People Who Cross It Giants. 

So, maybe they won't be the Arlington Heights Bears. Although lest we forget, the Chicago Bears weren't the Chicago Bears to begin with, either.

They were, rather famously, the Decatur Staleys.

The Arlington Heights Staleys?

Hmm.