Urbanagora has learned from a credible source that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is a closet Dallas Cowboys fan. Even though he occasionally bets on the Bears, Blagojevich has been known to require interns, even those from Chicago, to clip news clippings about the Dallas Cowboys.

Our source reveals:

When I interned for Blagojevich, in addition to clipping quotes about Chicago and Illinois politics, I was told to pull everything I could find about the Dallas Cowboys. On days I only found stories on current Chicago and Illinois events, I was told to look for Cowboys stories, but I was never asked for news about the Chicago Bears.

How can the people of Illinois, and particularly the citizens of Chicago, home of Da Bears, possibly support a Governor who loves the Dallas Cowboys? The Cowboys are the team you root for when you don't have any pride or loyalty to your home city, so instead you opt for supporting "America's Team."

Curiously, here is a Cowboys fan forum talking about Blago's ties with Rezko.

This may be the most compelling reason yet for a recall.

Labels: Billy Joe Mills, Blagojevich, Chicago, sports

This video is wonderful. Do take a look.

Labels: retirement, sports, the Greatest Generation, video games

Labels: badass(es), Fighting Illini, sports, U of I

You might have heard that the Chicago Bears recently won the NFC Championship for the first time since the ridiculous and violent ‘85 Bears team. You may have also heard that nearly every analyst in the country picked the Saints to beat us. In other words, we were supposed to get our asses kicked. The first graphic shows that all eight ESPN “experts” (as Brian Urlacher would later call them with “air quotes”) picked the Saints to win. The only person at ESPN with confidence in da Bears was the ESPN Accuscore Game Forecast: A fricken computer. ESPN also conducted an online poll asking the nation which team they thought would win the game. Nearly 70% of fans from the peanut gallery picked the Saints. The only State in the Union with faith in da Bears was Illinois itself, with a vote that was statistically the inverse of the nation’s. Keep in mind that during the regular season the Bears had the best NFC record at 13-3, while the Saints had the second best NFC record at 10-6.

Relax, I know this isn’t a sports blog and I know that most of you nerds are too in love with CSPN to turn to ESPN (I'm guilty of the same). So here’s my spin on things:

Hope permeates sports. When the Bears had won the game I was pensive and invigorated. I know it’s silly to admit that a football game could transfer its sentiments to my professional and political hopes, but it did. Many of us, many of the people who read this blog, are the underdogs. Many of the people who read and contribute to this blog have big hopes and dreams for themselves: Congressman, wealth, speech writer, Nobel economist, etc. But the problem is that we’re from Illinois…the University of Illinois, one of those dreaded and pathetic public schools. We are not from Harvard or Yale, and so our hopes are incongruent with our reality. Right?

Knowing this, knowing that I am not at one of the top ten law schools in the country inspires me in a way that would not be true if comfort and certainty laced my path. Just as Urlacher wants to tear someone’s head off when he is doubted, so too I want the chance to cut someone with a tongue sharpened by logic. America created the underdog. I can think of few historic instances of an underdog turned victor until the absurd American victory over the British. We rarely appreciate how likely we were to lose the Revolutionary War. America proved that David versus Goliath was now possible. We made social mobility, peasant to President, possible. America, da Bears and myself seem to fit into one seamless picture of inspiration churning from the doubts of others and from the probabilities of the reality that ought to govern. I hope that you feel the same.

All the underdogs, with coals burning in their chests, say the same thing:

“Fuck off, I’m a bad motherfucker, and I’m about to show you why.”

Labels: Billy Joe Mills, personal, sports