The Real Story Isn’t the Bears — It’s Why Everyone Is Leaving Illinois

The Chicago Bears might be moving. - John F. Di Leo

The state of Indiana passed an enabling act, months ago, establishing a framework to welcome the Bears across the state line into northwest Indiana – and the Bears’ board just passed a measure enabling it to work on site selection and other related steps in Hammond...

• The dreamers who hope to keep the Bears in Chicago cling to every interpretation, imagining with starry eyes that the Bears would never leave.
• And that’s the real lesson of this fiasco: the fact that in Illinois, the Powers That Be simply cannot imagine the Bears ever leaving.

Gentle Reader, in case you’re fortunate enough to be far away from this sad domain, here’s a brief summary of the situation:

• The Decatur Staleys were founded in 1919, a three hour drive south of Chicago, but were renamed the Chicago Bears and moved north to Chicago almost immediately, playing most home games at Wrigley Field on Chicago’s north side for the next fifty years...