Thursday, January 25, 2007
Disappointment In Chi-town
I was disappointed in my trip to Chicago in more ways than just the Saints getting shellacked 39-14 in teh NFC Championship Game. Honestly, I am still sick about it. So much so, that I wrote a letter to the editor at the "Chicago Sun Times" which has not run as of yet. Because I fear it may never run, I will use this post to run my own letter to the editor that I submitted to the CST easrlier this week:
Dear Editor,
Any well-traveled sports fan knows that in every venue in every city there are a small group of classless fans who will embarrass themselves, their team and their city through their words and actions. For the most part, home fans are courteous and appreciative of opposing fans making the effort to visit their city. I was hoping that my negative experience during the Saints-Bears game Sunday was isolated. It wasn’t.
In talking with Saints fans at Grant Park, the airport and throughout the city Monday, it became clear that kind-hearted Bear fans were in the minority while the majority, in fact, were hate-spewing jackasses. Here is some of what I heard:
“Go back to your flooded home!”
“Go home to your eight feet of water!”
“How did you get here? Did you swim?”
“Your team blows like Katrina!”
And, perhaps the most horrifying, a sing that read, “We Finish What Katrina Started!”
Anyone who is as ignorant and vile as to hold up a derogatory sign referring to the nation’s worst natural disaster certainly has no clue what Katrina started. Allow me to refresh your memory:
-1,836 people confirmed dead
-705 people missing
- $81.2 billion dollars in damage
-900,000 homes without power
-Hundreds of thousands of evacuees
Imagine a New York Giants fans coming to Soldier Field and seeing a sign reading, “We Finish What Osama Started!” Absolutely horrifying! Yet, that is what Saints fans constantly had thrown in our faces.
You may be sick of hearing about Hurricane Katrina, but we are sick of living it. While Bear fans continue living a fantasy and planning trips to Miami for the Super Bowl, Saints fans return to a reality which includes FEMA trailers on front lawns, closed businesses and schools, and brave people working to bring a city back from hell on earth.
Ignorant Bear fans may have been the norm in Chicago, but my prayer for New Orleans is that it is not a pervasive attitude throughout this country. If that is the case, New Orleans may never return.
Sincerely,
Matthew Moscona
Dear Editor,
Any well-traveled sports fan knows that in every venue in every city there are a small group of classless fans who will embarrass themselves, their team and their city through their words and actions. For the most part, home fans are courteous and appreciative of opposing fans making the effort to visit their city. I was hoping that my negative experience during the Saints-Bears game Sunday was isolated. It wasn’t.
In talking with Saints fans at Grant Park, the airport and throughout the city Monday, it became clear that kind-hearted Bear fans were in the minority while the majority, in fact, were hate-spewing jackasses. Here is some of what I heard:
“Go back to your flooded home!”
“Go home to your eight feet of water!”
“How did you get here? Did you swim?”
“Your team blows like Katrina!”
And, perhaps the most horrifying, a sing that read, “We Finish What Katrina Started!”
Anyone who is as ignorant and vile as to hold up a derogatory sign referring to the nation’s worst natural disaster certainly has no clue what Katrina started. Allow me to refresh your memory:
-1,836 people confirmed dead
-705 people missing
- $81.2 billion dollars in damage
-900,000 homes without power
-Hundreds of thousands of evacuees
Imagine a New York Giants fans coming to Soldier Field and seeing a sign reading, “We Finish What Osama Started!” Absolutely horrifying! Yet, that is what Saints fans constantly had thrown in our faces.
You may be sick of hearing about Hurricane Katrina, but we are sick of living it. While Bear fans continue living a fantasy and planning trips to Miami for the Super Bowl, Saints fans return to a reality which includes FEMA trailers on front lawns, closed businesses and schools, and brave people working to bring a city back from hell on earth.
Ignorant Bear fans may have been the norm in Chicago, but my prayer for New Orleans is that it is not a pervasive attitude throughout this country. If that is the case, New Orleans may never return.
Sincerely,
Matthew Moscona
# posted by Matt Moscona @ 3:23 PM 
