Early September.  School begins, the weather begins to get a bit colder, teachers pile on the homework, and of course, you finish up all the summer projects you procrastinated on during the actual summer.  It looks as though there isn’t a bright spot in sight… but I’m here to tell you not to fret- there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  That one day, the end of the weekend.  Though marred by Friday’s homework, there’s always the huge bowl of chips, the T.V. and your couch, waiting for you.

It’s Sunday.  Larger than life players take to the grid-iron, butting heads and fighting for our city, and for a few hours, you can put the weight of teachers and assignments behind you.  People, this is football season, and our team is looking up.

First off, let me say that I quite simply can’t tolerate fair-weather/bandwagon fans.  It is of my highly esteemed opinion that one does not simply root for a team “cause they’re good” or “they’re better than the Bears” or “I like their quarterback,” etc.  Unless you have due cause, such as, say, your parent grew up rooting for the team, or you moved from a city with another team, that’s fine, but if you were born here, well, you’re pretty much locked into cheering for Chicago.  Sorry.

But honestly, how could you not like da Bears this season?  A new offensive system led by first-year offensive coordinator Mike Tice, the addition of Brandon Marshall to our starved  receiving core, Matt Forté’s assurance of remaining a Bear for the foreseeable future, and, of course, our suffocating defense.  While we were playing last season’s worst team last Sunday, if the 21-41 win over the Colts was indicative of the rest of the season (minus our horrendous first two drives), we should all be excited for the upcoming season.  With that being said, if the bulk of our team stays healthy *cough* Jay Cutler *cough*, why can’t this be our year?

Think about it, the Bears were on a roll before Cutler went down, but faded and missed a playoff spot due to his injury.  The year before, the Bears made it all the way to the NFC Championship game.  As you can see, we’ve greatly improved from our days of running the pass-heavy Mike Martz style offense; the sky’s the limit for this team.

Still, only time will tell how our division shakes up.  Can the Packers recover from a tough week one loss versus the 49ers?  Can the Lions give us a run for our money?  And then there’s the Vikings…. wait, no, not really.

Too often do I see the people of our city (mostly those of our age group) giving up the Bears much too easily, and hopefully, they won’t give you a reason to this year.  GO BEARS!!