Windy City: How Hurricane Katrina Saved Chicago

McQueary: You don’t know how many people acted like it was my fault, in those first few days. That’s crazy, right? The biggest freak weather occurrence in history, because I wrote this silly little editorial? Of course, no one cared about the reality of the situation. I’d asked for it, and it happened, so in everyone’s minds, it was my fault. What none of us knew back then, was… well, I was right.

V.O.: In August 2005, newly minted Chicago Tribune editorial board member Rachel McQueary, formerly a political columnist, published an editorial in which she called for a hurricane to strike Chicago.

McQueary: There was this enormous storm brewing in the Gulf at the time… well, obviously we all remember Hurricane Katrina. And I thought, “Man, come on. What does Tallahassee or New Orleans or Houston need with a hurricane? You know who needs a hurricane? Us.”

V.O.: Overnight on August 29, Hurricane Katrina suddenly and inexplicably disappeared in the Gulf, reappearing just as unexpectedly over Lake Michigan, nearly 1000 miles to the north. The results were sudden and devastating. Standard & Poor’s held an emergency meeting and downgraded the Gold Coast to the Bronze Minus Coast. Meanwhile, fitted with an overhead tarp of enormous proportions, which had many years prior been pressed into equally desperate service as William Perry’s emergency training camp pants, Soldier Field became a shelter for tens of thousands of residents lucky enough to live near Chicago’s famous Museum Campus. Bears officials estimated the ticket sales to be at least twenty million dollars.

Robbie Gould: It was the biggest sellout crowd I’ve ever seen. We must have been at double capacity, at least. I knew that night that Chicago football had found the beginnings of something really special.

V.O.: As Chicago experienced nigh-unimaginable devastation, cities across the Midwest took in thousands of displaced Chicago residents, even as atmospheric scientists scrambled to explain the unprecedented weather phenomenon. Some theorized the event was a result of mass quantum teleportation; others, a sudden shift in the Earth’s magnetic field. No consensus exists to this day.

Chad Johnson: I don’t know what’s so confusing about it. Made perfect sense to me. Plus I got to have a roommate from Chicago. You know they speak Chinese in Chicago? It’s on the moon.

VO: And even as people across the nation opened their doors to Katrina’s evacuees, Chicago football struggled to find a home of its own.

Rex Grossman: Look, I have never, ever slept in so many different beds. Like, I sleep in a lot of beds already, obviously, because that’s how the Sex Cannon works, but when you’re playing your home games in Champaign and Madison and Milwaukee… What I’m saying is I have a standing reservation at the Travelodge Downtown. Always have. And I […]ed more in that room than you and your three closest friends have in all the lives you’ve led and all the lives you’ve yet to lead, throughout the vastness of time and space. But whatever, man. You wanna rush me, you wanna disrupt my rhythm, you wanna make me move around in the pocket, I’m still throwing it deep.

V.O.:  Burdened by their displacement and by the lack of a consistent home crowd, the Bears staggered to a 3-13 record that year as quarterback Rex Grossman threw 46 interceptions, all of them beyond 30 yards.

Rex Grossman: Good Christ we all sucked.

Brian Urlacher: No […]. You think I personally went to the home of every last player on our roster on Christmas Eve that year and beat the […] out of them for nothing?

V.O.: On Christmas Eve 2005, linebacker Brian Urlacher made house calls to the homes of the Bears players, delivering a savage beating to each and every one.

Thomas Jones: Oh, yeah! I remember that! He broke my nose! I called him Santa Clubs for months after that. Because, like, it was Christmas Eve, but he brought beatdowns instead of… okay, so then in training camp he broke my nose again for calling him Santa Clubs.

V.O.: In April, the Bears drafted D’Brickashaw Ferguson second overall, passing over Reggie Bush with the pick only to take speedy returner Devin Hester in the second round. Both decisions proved fortuitous.

Jerry Angelo: We loved D’Brickashaw from the start, and felt he had what it took to be not only a great protector for Rex Grossman, but a human levee if we were ever faced with another storm like Katrina. As for Devin… well, I don’t have to tell you about the effect he had on the game, or the effect he’d have had, with that great clockwise spin move of his, if we’d had to drop him into a hurricane to lower its wind velocities. Both just great multi-purpose players.

V.O.: League commissioner Roger Goodell announced a month later that Soldier Field would reopen that season as the home of the Chicago Bears. As the Bears’ camp begin, a feeling of unbridled optimism swept through the surviving 60% of the city’s population.

Lance Briggs: It was crazy. Here we’d stunk up the joint the whole last year, but suddenly people couldn’t get enough of us. It was almost like a bunch of people who spent most of their waking hours rebuilding or applying to the government for disaster relief or mourning their drowned or crushed or starved relatives needed some kind of distraction. Like, almost like that. A lot of people say it was that but I don’t think so. I think they just knew we’d be awesome.

V.O.: The Bears opened their season by slicing apart an unprepared Green Bay Packers defense, as Rex Grossman threw for 432 yards, six touchdowns, and seven interceptions. In the face of the Bears’ ferocious defense, the Packers managed only three points off Bears turnovers in a 49-6 defeat that set the tone for the rest of both teams’ seasons. Before long, the Bears had catapulted to 8-0, setting up a dramatic showdown between the last undefeated team in the league and the Miami Dolphins, a floundering team nevertheless motivated to defend its legacy and prevent yet another perfect season.

Rex Grossman: Oh, man, we steamrolled those motherf– sorry, I don’t want you to have to edit this, we steamrolled those […]sucking b[…]asses. I must have thrown a dozen touchdown passes.

V.O.: Quarterback Rex Grossman’s three touchdowns and nine interceptions helped the Bears to a narrow 21-18 win over the underdog Dolphins, and for the rest of the regular season, the Bears never looked back. Their dedicated fans, dwindling in number as temperatures dropped and the city struggled to keep basic utilities like heat and light available to residents through its hurricane-ravaged infrastructure, rallied around the Bears’ undefeated run.

Jon Gruden: It’s really impossible to overestimate the effect of the Bears’ undefeated run during that long, cold Chicago winter. The Bears didn’t give Chicago’s homeless population, which increased nearly one hundredfold in the days after the hurricane and remained near those levels for almost two years afterward, warm food or clean water or shelter from the freezing winds blowing in off Lake Michigan, but they did give those people, huddled around the TVs in the display windows of the few local electronics stores that hadn’t long since been looted, presumably by… okay, the accepted word, term, is Polish-Americans, right? Don’t want to get that one wrong again… anyway, gave them a really, really fun football team to watch.

V.O.: The undefeated Bears, emanating an aura of invincibility bolstered rather than lessened by Rex Grossman’s newly record-breaking 48 interceptions, would breeze through their three NFC playoff matchups, winning the games by a combined margin of 138-5. But in the Super Bowl, Grossman met his equal and his opposite: Peyton Manning, a deadly accurate passer who, at his best, won games by not throwing interceptions at all.

Charles Tillman: We weren’t really sure how to defend Peyton Manning. We’d had so much practice tracking aimlessly thrown balls and all of a sudden it was completely irrelevant. We… you know, we defended receivers, or looked like we were defending receivers, but we weren’t really used to trying? So this was a whole new challenge.

Nathan Vasher: I had to match up on Reggie Wayne. What the […]?

Charles Tillman: Ha! Yeah, before that Nate never did anything but stare at the ball and then try to run under it when it went up. He was like one of those frisbee-catching dogs. Fast, though.

V.O.: A shootout for the ages unfolded on the rain-soaked turf of Dolphin stadium. While Chicago’s defense held firm, allowing only six points by halftime, Chicago’s offense surrendered a Super Bowl record 24 first-half points on turnovers. Safety Bob Sanders led both teams in all-purpose yardage and scored two touchdowns. But Grossman’s confidence never dimmed as he threw four touchdown passes in the half to keep the Bears within striking distance.

Grossman: It was pouring out there, man, but whatever. Rain’s no big deal. Like, who the […] cares about the weather. No one in Chicago, that’s for sure. That’s a city that knows rain and wind can’t hurt you.

V.O.: Manning found more success in the second half as he adapted to Chicago’s unorthodox style of defense, picking on cornerback Nathan Vasher on double moves and finding Reggie Wayne six times for nearly two hundred yards. Grossman, however, matched him score for score.

Grossman: I was soaking wet by the fourth quarter. I looked like the ladies watching me felt. Yeah, that’s right.

O.S. (faintly): We’re gonna have to cut that–

V.O.: The deluge of points continued until, with just four seconds remaining, the Bears faced fourth and 8 from their own 30-yard-line. With the game on the line, Grossman unleashed a strike to speedy receiver Bernard Berrian that fans would remember and speak of in hushed and reverent tones for at least a decade to come.

Grossman: Yeah, I threw the […] out of it.

Jim Nantz (game audio): Touchdown! The Bears win! The Bears win the Super Bowl! And what a whirlwind of emotion…

***

McQueary: No one liked what I had to say, back in 2005, but I think it’s undeniable without the millions of dollars in damage to property and the thousands of deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina, the Bears wouldn’t have been playing in that game. The people of Chicago were desperate for a championship, standing on the bleachers of their Wrigleyville rooftops, arms outstretched toward the sky in search of rescue, but what they really wanted, and what they really needed, was a Lombardi Trophy. It uplifted the entire remaining habitable portion of the city in a way you can’t understand unless you’re from here.  And, you know, they got that and so much more. They — well, the whole state really — found the political hero they’ve always needed, a man willing to take on the Chicago’s problems. He, as much as the storm itself, has really washed this city clean. Governor Blagojevich is in his fourth term now, and in speaking with him personally, I’ve been assured that there is not any corruption or waste — really, none at all! It’s amazing! But yes, not one bit of corruption or graft or waste in Chicago politics anymore.

He’s going to make a great President someday.

***

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makeitsnowondem
make it snow is an alot of beer. He is also a Broncos fan living in Denver.
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Winnebago Warrior

As Chicago experienced nigh-unimaginable devastation, cities across the Midwest took in thousands of displaced Chicago residents

Alternate history, indeed,

King Hippo

The Chad Johnson part is my favourite. Even better than carboat.

Don T

Inspired stuff. Read it twice. Urlacher as Santa Club still makes me giggle.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

For the record I like the pic I accidentally posted. Still sorry again

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

Moose has gone to bed. I have nothing to stay up for

One more NSFW pic ht
tp://41.media.tumblr.com/c4df63ec43f0424e3d781819a3c3c75a/tumblr_nsi51xJzC81uycf5uo1_500.jpg

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

GIVE ME AN EDIT BUTTON. Shit, sorry

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh
Marc Trestmans Windowless Van
Moose -The End Is Well Nigh
Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

NSFW. She is really proud of her red bush. That is my disclaimer.

h ttp://36.media.tumblr.com/7a18d13529961f2c8289cc6ffdc43ca8/tumblr_nsjzkrsP1u1uycf5uo1_500.jpg

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van
Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

I remain bored out of my mind at midnight. You will get more pics with a slightly broken URL. Probably more redheads than you want, but I am all for them tonight

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

NSFW

h
ttp://40.media.tumblr.com/2bac12974a9e779ffdbf9036e49c5818/tumblr_nmgyg865Qe1tqfgago1_500.jpg

Yes this was posted a couple hours ago but fuck you, she is beautiful. You get a repeat.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

We cannot….. CAN NOT…. celebrate a birthday without some Debbie.

http://33.media.tumblr.com/56d033c7a534c5141246c317609b38bc/tumblr_nt51amhLxS1snmmclo1_500.gif

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Some of Jed Kubrick’s (Stanley’s lesser known brother) early work:

http://33.media.tumblr.com/c93d5fa9ad5175b290d5c95abb82fb5a/tumblr_n6xrl3Gpps1tbaww1o1_400.gif

Brick Meathook

That’s some nice dolly-grippin’

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

More NSFW

h
ttp://40.media.tumblr.com/67b5e0ec9816eb2ab398ac1317ac9ffb/tumblr_nsjzf3igVY1uycf5uo1_500.jpg

But unlike Moose, mine has a naked Redhead

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh
Moose -The End Is Well Nigh
Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Oh shit; I didn’t link it.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

NSFW

h
ttp://41.media.tumblr.com/a64e1c4d10f1479ef98c45b7fa133919/tumblr_nsjzcqth8s1uycf5uo1_500.jpg

Jethro

I turned 35 today. My family has gone to bed. I made myself a meat pie and am drinking Bell’s Stout (really easy to drink, a dark coffee flavor, just a hint of licorice), and now watching American Dad. SOLO-JETHRO PARTY! FUCK THOSE SYLLABI.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh
Moose -The End Is Well Nigh
Jethro

It’s like he looks at my crotch and then into my eyes…Stop judging me, Confucius (he returns a wrong with a straightening).

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Mr. Wu is one of my favorite characters in that show, and that show was full of my favorite evah TV characters.

http://media.giphy.com/media/JFL6wDgQBPdS0/giphy.gif

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh
ssi_bulldawg

Hayng dai. Hayng fucking dai, Wu.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I am jealous of every single goddamned thing in this comment.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

And if you haven’t already drank the kool aid, might I suggest Rick and Morty?

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Trippin’ deflated balls on that Koool-Aide

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

I still am not sure who you meant this reply to go to. It isn’t stopping me from going to watch the last 2 eps of Rick and Morty I have missed.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

With that you are replying………..

TO THE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOORLD!!

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

I took a boredom nap that I meant to last til morning but instead lasted like 2 hours. I am up for celebrating your birthday with you. I got Bartons American Whiskey, it tastes like the solvent you use to remove gasoline from your garage floor. For food, I have some Dots or I can make some ramen,

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

Also, I didn’t say it directly in my first message. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (I like celebrating peoples birthdays openly because I have the absolute worst one 9/11)

sunrisesunrise

Had a friend in college with the same birthday. Most depressing party I’ve ever been to.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

All I want at my party is for you to get shitfaced. I don’t ask much

JerBear50

Some people are just never satisfied. Did you NOT see the huge display they put on for your birthday?

montythisseemsstrangetome

Hippo Birdy Two Ewes

ballsofsteelandfury

Happy Birthday!

King Hippo

Just fucking delightful.

entropy

“I must have thrown a dozen touchdown passes.

V.O.: Grossman’s three touchdowns and nine interceptions…”

Fuckin brilliant. Lofty work in the comments, as well, gentlemen.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van
Old School Zero

Goddamn tremendous.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

NSFW and I posted this in the past but she is gorgeous. She gets a repost.

h
ttp://40.media.tumblr.com/2bac12974a9e779ffdbf9036e49c5818/tumblr_nmgyg865Qe1tqfgago1_500.jpg

Cuntler

I’ve owned three Bears jerseys in my life. A Walter Payton in elementary school, a Mike Tomczak in middle school, and an Erik Kramer in college. A friend bought the Erik Kramer for me because he is a Packers fan, it was right after the Favre Super Bowl, and he thought it was so fucking funny. That friend lives in rural Wisconsin and is divorced, so who is laughing now, JEFF?

I think I still have the Kramer somewhere.

/God, that list is depressing.

//Breaks second thing in office

JerBear50

And now realizing I was way late to that party.

BrettFavresColonoscopy

Please tell me I’m not the only one who owns (owned? Have to check the closet) a Nathan Vasher jersey.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

I never did but we are now friends because you did. Ok, back to spamming almost naked women.

Cuntler

I’ve owned three Bears jerseys in my life. A Walter Payton in elementary school, a Mike Tomczak in middle school, and an Erik Kramer in college. A friend bought the Erik Kramer for me because he is a Packers fan, it was right after the Favre Super Bowl, and he thought it was so fucking funny. That friend lives in rural Wisconsin and is divorced, so who is laughing now, JEFF?

I think I still have the Kramer somewhere.

/God, that list is depressing.

//Breaks second thing in office

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

The Mike Tomczac if far more embarrassing than the Eric Kramer. You should have left that part out,

...

The funny thing is if you listed the Bears QB jerseys in order of ownership-worthiness, Erik Kramer is probably no lower than 3rd or 4th on the list.

Cuntler

And . . . he unsuccessfully tried to kill himself this morning. Jesus.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

NSFW. Fix the link to see it

h ttp://40.media.tumblr.com/fcf093837b8ad9492b39f74d6a4e76e0/tumblr_nt9nqkVRN11tbs59no1_1280.png

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van
ballsofsteelandfury

Nothing wrong with that.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van
Marc Trestmans Windowless Van
Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

[deleted the duplicate]

Horatio Cornblower

She has eyebrows?

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

I am just extremely bored right now. Enjoy some random pics. Not a fan of the no nudity policy on pics here

http://40.media.tumblr.com/4f0cdf638a581bdd20f1233c1be25acc/tumblr_nspkd2fqBZ1uycf5uo1_1280.jpg

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

The nudity thing isn’t a moral issue (at least, for me it’s not); we just want to be workplace-friendly so people can dick around here instead of working.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

Yeah I didn’t think it was malicious. Just all my sites I use to post liveblog pics are mostly NSFW. I have to work to find SFW ones. Or go to like bouncebreak or a site that every pic has been posted 15 times before

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

I like the challenge of finding close to NSFW, but SFW(?not my work). The way it is is fine with me.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Like this one is fantastic.

Horatio Cornblower

That’s quality stuff right there.

blaxabbath

Very good piece. Compelling and rich.

MikeMartzColorsDontRun

I knew the Sex Cannon went deep both on and off the field, but I vastly underestimated his depth going in the realm of philosophical musings. I am ashamed.

SonOfSpam

What kind of FA contract did the Raiders offer Grossman after that game?

I’m gonna say…9 years, $300 million.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

I am offended you are talking shit about Nathan Vasher. He was great for our team, well like ok, functional. Go ahead and talk shit about the rest of them because the second they weren’t a Bear they were giant dicks.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

I wasn’t really offended, more of a comment on how everyone else but Rex napalmed the bridge behind them on the way out. TBH I did love Vasher back in the day

Cuntler

Peanut was nice when he left last year, but you’re right about everyone else (ugh). I don’t think any of the McCaskeys, Angelo, and Emery would be what you would call a “people person.” Bunch of fucking weirdos. Why do I like this team again? God damn it.

/breaks something on desk out of frustration.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

I thought even Peanut went dickish after he left. I could try to google a source but instead I went and found this

http://41.media.tumblr.com/30805055d11220adc2996a979eefecc1/tumblr_mzklkeJhfJ1qlkwlio1_1280.jpg

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

Ok, back to loving him and his insane amount of forced fumbles and equally bad insane amount of missed tackles because he was trying to force a fumble.

Lothar of the Hill People

Tillman is my favorite Bear since the 80s. Class act, and a fucking terror. Sure, he might’ve missed some tackles trying to force fumbles, but he’s a goddamn CB, not a safety or a LB.

Plus, him totally mauling Randy Moss his rookie year still makes me smile.

I’m pissed as hell at the new regime for letting Peanut go to Carolina for a pretty small salary, and then replacing him with… another older CB with a history of injuries.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

That was the game where they were in their awful construction cone uniforms, right?

Lothar of the Hill People

I remember that was the longest (or maybe tied for the longest) return in NFL history, until a week or two later, when someone beat it by 1 yard.

Cuntler
Lothar of the Hill People

For an small-ish quick-not-fast 4th round pick, Vasher was a fucking sensation.

Too bad his confidence cracked and he went to shit. He’s like the anti-Grossman.

ballsofsteelandfury

Moar leik Kirsten McQueafy, amirite?