2008 Woodie Awards
Why the Bears lost: The 'Silver Platter' game
Peter Locke
Issue date: 2/7/07 Section: Sports
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About 15 seconds into the Super Bowl, there were two people I was certain were completely out of breath. One was Devin Hester, who took a kick to the house. And the other was me, who had just made two indescribably elated chest bumping laps around a Super Bowl party. The problem was, I was out of breath because I knew we were doomed.
Before the kickoff, I turned to my friend Loyal and said, "If Devin Hester returns this, I'm going to soil myself." That's where the noonans and black cats started to creep out from the woodwork. I'm not a big believer in superstitions normally, but rooting for a maddening team like the '06 Chicago Bears has turned me into a full-fledged pumpkin, or at least a believer that my Walter Payton jersey was 15-0 (I did not wear it during the three losses) and a stone-cold-lock to win us the game last night. The thing is, I believed in the jersey. Hester had changed EVERY aspect of the Colts special teams play. Even Adam Vinatieri missed a Super Bowl field goal? C'mon, we're golden, right?
Of course, this was my heart and my spirit of '85 number 34 jersey talking. My head should have realized two things. One, Walter Payton got snubbed in the last Super Bowl the Bears played in. This jersey, though it is 15-0 this season, was karmic suicide that I should have identified before I put it on (perhaps opting for my ethereal number 83 Willie Gault jersey instead). The goal of the Payton jersey was, in part, to resurrect the dominance of the '85 squad. But in '85 the Bears went 15-1 in the regular season. When I wore my Payton jersey, the two of us were 15-0. The football gods had to complete the '85 record of 15-1…and that one loss was the Super Bowl. How could I not have seen this coming? And on the biggest stage of all, these are the kinds of things I don't think I'll ever live down.
Second, Above all things, this was a classic Silver Platter Game. A Silver Platter Game is a complex and intricate piece of football theory that began to jell in my mind this season. Now, as I see it, this one theory explains everything else that happened in the game. It explains how the Colts offensive line looked like they were playing a high school defensive front. It explains how Rex Grossman broke my heart. It even explains Manning's first quarter struggles. The Silver Platter Game comes from some version of the phrase "everything was given to him on a silver platter." Essentially, a very nice gift has been given to a team, and they haven't earned it. So as soon as Devin Hester galloped into the end zone, I started to get very uneasy. Sure, I was psyched, but it was a free seven points. We didn't earn it in the same way like if, and God forbid that ever happens, Rex Grossman strung together a sustained drive. Maybe eight or nine plays, 76 yards, now that would have made me happy. When a team is given a gift like that, something changes. The team sees how effortless it is and lets their guard down. It's cliché, but it happens.
Before the kickoff, I turned to my friend Loyal and said, "If Devin Hester returns this, I'm going to soil myself." That's where the noonans and black cats started to creep out from the woodwork. I'm not a big believer in superstitions normally, but rooting for a maddening team like the '06 Chicago Bears has turned me into a full-fledged pumpkin, or at least a believer that my Walter Payton jersey was 15-0 (I did not wear it during the three losses) and a stone-cold-lock to win us the game last night. The thing is, I believed in the jersey. Hester had changed EVERY aspect of the Colts special teams play. Even Adam Vinatieri missed a Super Bowl field goal? C'mon, we're golden, right?
Of course, this was my heart and my spirit of '85 number 34 jersey talking. My head should have realized two things. One, Walter Payton got snubbed in the last Super Bowl the Bears played in. This jersey, though it is 15-0 this season, was karmic suicide that I should have identified before I put it on (perhaps opting for my ethereal number 83 Willie Gault jersey instead). The goal of the Payton jersey was, in part, to resurrect the dominance of the '85 squad. But in '85 the Bears went 15-1 in the regular season. When I wore my Payton jersey, the two of us were 15-0. The football gods had to complete the '85 record of 15-1…and that one loss was the Super Bowl. How could I not have seen this coming? And on the biggest stage of all, these are the kinds of things I don't think I'll ever live down.
Second, Above all things, this was a classic Silver Platter Game. A Silver Platter Game is a complex and intricate piece of football theory that began to jell in my mind this season. Now, as I see it, this one theory explains everything else that happened in the game. It explains how the Colts offensive line looked like they were playing a high school defensive front. It explains how Rex Grossman broke my heart. It even explains Manning's first quarter struggles. The Silver Platter Game comes from some version of the phrase "everything was given to him on a silver platter." Essentially, a very nice gift has been given to a team, and they haven't earned it. So as soon as Devin Hester galloped into the end zone, I started to get very uneasy. Sure, I was psyched, but it was a free seven points. We didn't earn it in the same way like if, and God forbid that ever happens, Rex Grossman strung together a sustained drive. Maybe eight or nine plays, 76 yards, now that would have made me happy. When a team is given a gift like that, something changes. The team sees how effortless it is and lets their guard down. It's cliché, but it happens.
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