Saturday, December 29, 2007

Chicago-New Orleans game brings back bad memories for Saints fans


Along with Chicago Marathon debacle, here's another sporting event from this year that the Chicago 2016 Olympics bid committee won't be touting to the world. The behavior of a few fans, most notoriously the pair in the picture, at January's NFC Championship game, embarrassed the city. A few days after the game, Mayor Richard M. Daley apologized on behalf of decent Chicagoans.

The Bears won the game and went on to the Super Bowl. The Saints fans who made the trip regretted it, as the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports:

Hannigan, like many Saints fans who endured the bitterly cold weather at Solider Field that Sunday afternoon, said she and her party of four were threatened and intimidated almost from the moment they walked into the stadium. One fan intentionally elbowed her husband and others taunted their friends with Katrina-related insults.

Other fans said Bears fans hurled snowballs and went out of their way to instigate confrontations. Others denigrated their hometown and even dropped the Katrina card. One Bears fan infamously carried a sign that read: "Bears Finishing What Katrina Started."

"I've never witnessed anything like that," said Hannigan, 53, a New Orleans native whose Broadmoor neighborhood was flooded with 7 feet of water. "They were hurling expletives at us, and everything was Katrina-related. It was a very personal attack. We never leave a Saints game early but we did this time because I was afraid. It was a spark away from an explosion.

"I'll never go to Chicago again," she added. "That city is not going to get another penny from me."

The Bears host the Saints tomorrow in the season finale for both teams. I'm assuming that few of their fans will make the trip. The game means nothing, both teams are out of playoff contention.

Related post:

A participant's view of the cancelled Chicago Marathon: UPDATED

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