Chicago eats and drinks Nashville dry while embarrassing the Titans and its fans.
The Bears won 51-20. After all six touchdowns the crowd erupted in the Bears fight song. The Bears couldn’t have given the Chicago fans a better game.
The day started off with my Bears crew taking a walk around Nashville trying to find our fellow Bears friends‘ tailgate. As we tried to find our tailgate party, I tried to talk some light trash at Titans fans.
When we walked past Titan fans, I would plainly say “Titans goin’ down.” I got the weirdest responses. One fan said, “We’ll probably lose,” another Titans fan responded to “Titans goin’ down” with a Nate Dogg like “true, true.”
Due to intoxication, lack of direction and misuse of technology by our Bears friends, we never found the tailgate. After walking for three miles with coolers, we decided to tailgate at our hotel near the stadium with many other Chicagoans. The Bears fight song and “The Super Bowl Shuffle” played on a loop.
Titans fans continued to walk by our tailgate, I decided to take the trash talking another level. I started mildly yelling “Down, down, down, Titans going down.” Most of the time Titans fans yelled back “give us a break,” and I apologized. People from Nashville are just nice. Then we left our tailgate, feeling confident the Bears will dominate the puny Titans, their fans were pushovers.
As we walked up to the stadium the planes flew over, the national anthem was in full blast and I was all jacked up.
Coming off my national anthem high, I decided to try one more time to antagonize the Nashville fans. So I said, “Locker isn’t playing, Hasselbeck can’t play and Steve McNair is six-feet-under.” I went too far. One old lady Titans fan shushed me like a grandma, and said “McNair is a saint.” I immediately backtracked and apologized to the surrounding fan base.
The Bears opened the game with a historic 28-2 first quarter, scoring on a rush, pass, punt block and interception. The mainly Chicago crowd went absolutely bonkers.
I personally knew at least 20 people that took the trip to Nashville. Rarely do I know that many people going to a game at Soldier Field. There was an estimated 35,000 Bears fans at the game. Shame on you Titans fans, you let more than half your tickets be sold to the opposing team.
Jay Cutler asked the crowd to quiet down and it got quieter than Soldier Field.
The Tennessee Stadium, LP Field was nicer than expected. Installed in 2012, the two large LED screens in each end zone really makes the stadium a good place to see a game from any seat. The screens are the second biggest in the NFL behind the Dallas Cowboys.
The game was a joke only Chicago fans stayed to until the end, so it was like a Bears celebration party outside LP Field. Bears fans were slapping high fives, giving some chest bumps, a few hip checks and many “Green Bay Sucks” chants. I saw three people with Packers jerseys, why?
The word “Bears” with “The Super Fans” accent must have been uttered one million times in Nashville that day. I would bump into a Chicago comrade and instead of saying “sorry” or “excuse me,” I would say “Bears” and he would say “Bears,” all was well. The expression “hello” was also replaced by “Bears.”
After the game most Chicagoans migrated to the Broadway bar scene. It became a Bears Babylon, no fights and a lot of drinking. Chicago cleaned out the bars and created a little chaos. At one point, someone, probably a Bears fan, pulled the fire alarm at the Honky Tonk Central bar. Lights and alarms start flashing throughout the bar, the security guard picks up his walkie-talkie and says “somebody pulled the fire alarm again.” I assume that means the firm alarm was pulled numerous times throughout the Sunday night.
At a couple bars, they were completely out of regular beers and had to make beer runs to the local Walmart.
The conversation with the bartenders went like this:
Me: “Bud Light?”
Bartender: No
Me: “Miller Light?”
Bartender: “No”
Me: “Bud?”
Bartender: “No”
Me: “Coors Light”
Bartender: “No”
Me: “MGD?”
Bartender: “No”
Me: “Jack Daniels?”
Bartender: “No”
Me: “What. No Jack Daniels in Tennessee”
Me: “Pabst???”
Bartender: “Yes”
Unlike any Bears road
game I’ve been to, every bar was full of Bears fans. Nashville is known for its live music and the bands at all the watering holes catered to the Chicago crowd, singing “Sweet Home Chicago,” the Chicago Bears fight song and shouting Chicago in the house.
The night was the greatest celebration for a week 9 victory against a second-rate team ever.
It was a complete day in Nashville, no violence, some shenanigans and a tremendous time for all.
After this weekend most Chicagoans would have to say Nashville is an excellent city and Nashville must have loved Chicagoans after the amount of money we spent in the Music City.
The title of the story, “Chicago Invades Nashville,” was inspired by a t-shirt that was worn by hundreds of Bears fans at the game.