I'll briefly set the scene. I'm sitting on the couch in my den playing NCAA March Madness 07 on PS2. The contest was a heated conference tournament game between Loyola-Chicago and Butler. My phone beeps. I let the phone sit for a moment as I finished up my possession in the game. Pause game. Look at text message. It's from my buddy Husby.
Husby (4:30:45)- Bears got Cutler.
I stop everything I'm doing and stare at the text message. I read it again. Bears got Cutler. My first reaction after the message sinks in is simple and straight to the point...no they didn't. So I responded to Husby with a one word text: WHAT?
I check the date on my phone thinking I got the dates mixed up and it was April Fool's Day. Nope, that was the day before.
I spend the next thirty seconds or so pacing around my living room looking out the porch window and back at my phone. Then...My phone beeps again. This time, the message comes from my unusually NFL-neutral friend Dan Craigie. His message is straight and to the point:
Dan Craigie (4:31:56)- Shit.
Less than 20 seconds later, my phone beeps again...and again....and again...and for good measure, it beeps again. I look down and see 4 new messages (mind you, these all arrived within ten seconds of each other).
Text messages begin pouring in from all over...the first one, the text I've been anticipating for a long two minutes or so...from ESPN. It's now official. Bears finally have a quarterback.
Now, I will associate Loyola-Chicago vs. Butler in college basketball with one of the most exciting moments of my sports life (and it's not even a basketball moment).
I don't doubt that I will remember where I was when I got the Cutler news twenty years from now. Even if the trade is a bust for the Bears, it is one of those moves that can get an entire fanbase geeked at the same time.
This is something that doesn't come with being a Bears fan. The Bears don't make offseason deals for top 5-7 NFL QBs. This doesn't happen.
There have been other moments that I can remember where I was for. The first one I will mention was back on October 9, 1993.
I was getting dressed in the second locker bay from the teachers office in the Plymouth Middle School boys locker room. It was the second or third period of the day. As I got ready for gym class, my friend (and the only other person I knew who loved the NBA as much as I did) Johann came running into the locker room.
"Michael Jordan is retiring!"
Apparently, Johann overheard someone in the halls talking about it--quite honestly, I don't know how he found out--we were in sixth grade. For me, an 12 year old sprinting into the boys locker room was as solid of a source as I needed at the time. We got dressed and went into gym class and we had to walk laps around the gym for warm up. I remember feeling an impending sense of doom. Michael Jordan, the best basketball player in the world on the best team in the world (incidently, my favorite team as well), was walking away...and he was only 32 (at the time 32 was old to me...just not too old to play professional basketball).
Now, at age 26, I realize this is an overreaction. But look at it from the perspecitve of an 11 year old. Sports at the time were larger than life itself. My bedroom was covered with Michael Jordan posters and Chicago Bulls pennents. My closet consisted of no less than 5 Jordan/Bulls shirts or jerseys (probably a incorrect estimate...there were probably more). Every day after school, I would go into the basement and act out NBA situations on my Hutch door basketball hoop. Some of the situations involved Mike Ricci winning the NBA Finals on a last second shot, however, at the time, most involved me as Michael Jordan winning the title (not sure what this said about my self esteem at the time, given that I was dreaming about OTHER people getting the glory, but I digress).
The point I'm getting at is this: as a kid, I had very little worries in my life. The fact that my favorite athlete in the world was leaving the game and team I worshiped was unfathomable. My life, for all intents and purposes, was over. That is why I remember everything about the moment. Sure, if the same thing happend today (say I was a lifelong Cleveland Cavaliers fan and Lebron James decided to up and retire one day), I would remember where I was when I heard the news and I would be crushed. Just not crushed in the same way that I would've been at age 11. My thought process would go from "Lebron retired!? The world is over!" to "Lebron retired...oh shit! I forgot to pay the rent. Is the post office still open?!".
Obviously, 9-11 is one moment where everyone remembers where they were (just as the assassination of JFK left a definitive "Where Were You Moment" for the Baby Boomers). So was the announcement of America's involvement in major wars. To this day I remember my elementary school principal going over the intercom system in second grade and telling us that we were at war in the middle east, thus kicking off the Gulf War...but it isn't as vivid as when I found out Jordan was going to retire a few years later. I also remember playing basketball on the backyard court of my neighbors when someone mentioned that the "guy from Nirvana" shot himself...however, I was still in my top-40 phase and this had no serious impact on me.
Sports-wise, this Jay Cutler trade is right up there with getting the news about Jordan. I'll always remember where I was when I got the text from Husby. Obviously sports don't hold the same "life and death" weight as they did when I was in sixth grade (except with the Cubs and the playoffs but that's a whole different posting for another day).
I would have a tough time explaining to non-sports fans the impact of the Bears trading for Jay Cutler. Since I just got another refill of coffee at Caribou, I have the time and I'll try.
Let's say you live in an apartment building that has been notorious for not having air conditioning (a good quarterback). You're building managers have been especially conservative in years past (perhaps keeping the same ceiling fans from when Carter was President). Every year, you hope that they upgrade and equip all of the units with a window fan at the very least. Finally, after years of ceiling fans that only throw interceptions (Rex Grossman---sorry, I can't find a non sports analogy to what Grossman did)...your building, out of nowhere mind you, decides to shell out the extra cash and get central air conditioning!
Yeah, it's weak, I know. But if you didn't expect central air, you'd probably be floored on a hot sunny day when you feel icy cold air blowing through vents...ok, ok YOU come up with a better comparison. I can't...trust me, it's freakin' exciting!
By the way, Butler held on to beat Loyola-Chicago.
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