Barack Obama not a Packers fan
President Barack Hussein Obama is probably the most well known Chicago Bears fan in the world. The former Senator from Illinois knows all there is to know about the age old rivalry between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. He also knows which
side he will be rooting for in the National Football Conference (NFC) championship game. He even added that he might go to the Super Bowl in Dallas if the Bears won.
Today we know where President Obama won’t be on 6th February because the Bears didn’t win. They were actually crushed by their division rivals in the NFC Championship game. The Packers won that game 21-14. Chicago fans, including the president, were devastated.
Their quarterback flopped in the most important game of the season and the backup quarterback was even worse.
Third stringer, Caleb Hanie, saved the Bears from humiliation with a strong fourth quarter comeback. The Bears good luck didn’t hold up for too long and Hanie was intercepted for an 18 yard touchdown by Green Bay’s 337 pound nose tackle. It just wasn’t a
good day to be a Bears fan. Chicago was thoroughly defeated and Packers fans couldn’t get enough of it. Bears fans in Packers territory got a ‘warm welcome,’ no exceptions. Not even for the President of the United States.
President Obama was in Wisconsin today to deliver the State of the Union Address. Charles Woodson, corner back for Green Bay, presented President Obama with a Packers no. 21 Jersey signed by himself:
“To President Obama,
See you at the White House!
Go Packers.”
The President took it in stride and grinned broadly when he was presented with another jersey which said ‘Obama’ on the back. The president commented to reporters that the Packers were ‘rubbing it in.’ White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs was expecting as
much. He joked that they might need another plane to take back the Packers paraphernalia he expected the president to receive in Wisconsin.
Woodson is trying to get Obama to root for the Packers when they go to the Cowboys Stadium to face American Football Conference (AFC) Champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers. That might be a little too much to ask from a lifelong Bears fan.
“I jumped on his bandwagon a couple years ago and voted for him,” Woodson said. “So for him to only go to the Super Bowl because Chicago’s there, I thought it’s not fair to me. I’m a voter, I’m a taxpayer. So I wanted him to root for the Packers as well.”
Woodson said that if the President didn’t want to go see the Packers in Arlington, the Packers would go to Washington to pay him a visit. Traditionally the team that wins the Super Bowl is invited to the White House.
“I’m glad to see that one of the greatest rivalries in sports is still there,” President Obama said in Wisconsin, deep inside Packers Territory. In a follow-up speech to the State of the Union Address, the former Senator from Chicago had a message for Packers
fans; “We will get you next year. I’m just letting you know.”
The President admitted that Sunday was tough for Bears fans and that he wasn’t taking the rivalry between the Packers and the Bears lightly. While the president won’t go to Cowboy Stadium to cheer for Green Bay, he wished them well. “In the spirit of sportsmanship,
I wish you good luck in the Super Bowl,” he said.
The Packers are going to need all the luck they can get. Green Bay ranks as the second strongest defence in the league. First place goes to the Steelers, their upcoming opponents in the Super Bowl. Both the Steelers and the Packers have a wide fan following
across the country and fans from both sides will be flocking to Arlington next Sunday. The Super Bowl is expected to break past viewership records.