Bear Digest

Forecast Has Bears' Attention

A weather forecast calling for rain and wind at Soldier Field could even lead to a muddy mess with the new Bermuda sod recently put into place.

Gene Chamberlain

In this story:

It seems Bear weather has come early this season.

Or, it actually will be duck weather when the Bears host the San Francisco 49ers at Soldier Field in a noon, Sunday season opener.

Most Bears home season openers of recent vintage have been on beautiful late summer days along the lakefront. This will be something else.

The forecast calls for the coolest it's been in a many weeks, 70 or lower, winds 10 to 20 mph and a half inch of rain through the afternoon.

Such weather can have an effect on the game, coach Matt Eberflus agreed, even if he did coach all of his previous NFL home games with the Colts and Dallas in a dome.

"I mean, it depends. It depends what it is," Eberflus said. "Does it come with wind?

"The wet is the wet. But if it comes with a lot of wind, that's different. That changes things strategically. You always got to look at it."

The Bears and 49ers played one of the more famous wind-blown games in Windy City history on Nov. 13, 2005 during the Lovie Smith era. The Bears won 17-9 on a day so windy it blew a Robbie Gould field goal attempt almost to the right end line pylon.

It was the day Nate Vasher set an NFL record with a 108-yard TD return off a Joe Nedney 52-yard field goal miss.

The weather has always been part of Chicago Bears lore, from the Fog Bowl win over the Eagles in the 1988 playoffs to the snow falling in the 1985 championship game against the Rams to the 1933 championship game being moved indoors to Chicago Stadium due to a snowstorm that sacked Wrigley Field.

It's something that will be lost if the Bears go through with the move to Arlington Heights and a dome, but sloppy weather is not something a team built on speed like the Bears necessarily should like.

"You play this game long enough, and these guys have played it long enough, they've all played in wet conditions or snowy conditions, cold, windy, so, you just deal with what you got," Eberflus said. "Guys will be ready to go."

There is one other factor involved here beyond some rain and possible slop.

The Bears had the new much-publicized Bermuda sod put down last weekend. They seemed confident the week would let it take hold, but there's a difference between taking hold for a game and taking hold for a wet, muddy mess with players using deeper cleats to keep their footing.

So, it's possible this could be a real Mud Bowl if the rain is heavy enough.

Perhaps it could be like one other muddy mess of a game at Wrigley Field between the Bears and 49ers: Dec. 12, 1965, when Gale Sayers ran, cut, sliced and diced the 49ers up for six touchdowns.

The same two teams also locked horns in one of the true so-called "Bear Weather" games a week after the Fog Bowl in 1988 for the NFC championship. The temperature was 17 degrees, the wind at Soldier Field 29 mph and the wind chill minus-26 at kickoff. And the warm weather 49ers of Jerry Rice and Joe Montana destroyed the injury plagued Bears 28-3.Β 

So poor weather doesn't necessarily mean an advantage for the home team at Soldier Field.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

Published
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

Home/News