The venue was Soldier Field

Sunday's NFC Championship game was my first time to Soldier Field as a fan. The photo above is a pre-game shot. I've been in the press box for games in the past as a member of the media. Before Sunday, I never had the "pleasure" to sit in the stands with all of those Bears fans. I heard stories about how brutal they are and I should have known because the Chicago media is brutal in the press box during games (I'm guessing that hasn't changed since I left the radio business). Good natured ribbing is one thing, but many Bears fans are rude, crude and downright nasty to Packers fans. I haven't heard so many F-bombs in my life! Many directed toward Packers fans and when the Bears were losing (which was the whole game) directed at their own team. To add insult to injury, some Packers fans would rub it in the Bears fans' faces and then you could detect true anger and passion and F-bombs to those fans. My plan, ignore them. If they talked to me in a reasonable manner I would talk to them. Many fans were cordial and to my surprise, when the game was over, many walked up to me to congratulate me and wish us good luck in the Superbowl. I've heard of Packers fans going without wearing the team colors, but please, this was the championship game. I borrowed Packers winter coats for my wife and I. No disguise for us!

The stadium itself is a decent place to watch football. But for the life of me, all those millions they spent to make it look like a spaceship did little to make the bathrooms decent. Everything seemed very industrial looking. One big plus over Lambeau? Seats. There were actual seats instead of bleachers which were much more comfortable. Food and drink are always expensive at stadiums, but $8 for 16 ounces of beer? Yikes. Walking around Chicago with the thousands of other Packers fans was a hoot. After the game was priceless. The only disappointing thing was the Packers' decision to hold the trophy presentation inside the locker room out of respect for the Bears.

Wish me luck for the upcoming two weeks. A PR guy trying to get coverage for non-Packers stories will be a tall order. The Gamblers have their biggest event of the season this weekend - Teddy Bear Toss. Some things were in the works that I think will fall through because many media folks will be heading to the big D to begin the week-long coverage. Not saying the Packers don't deserve it because it's a major deal for this town. But if any of you have a story idea of how to tie a teddy bear into the Superbowl, I'm all ears!

My championship blog + Paisley

All right, it's not really a championship blog, but everything everywhere is Packers-Bears right now. Being out of the media for 10 years, I kind of forgot how crazy it gets where any little thing can become a story. Everyone is betting each other I feel like I should bet a Chicago blogger something. I even saw the Archbishop of Milwaukee is betting Wisconsin cheese against Chicago deep dish pizza from the Chicago Archbishop. I don't know about you, but the deep dish stuff sounds pretty good to me. My wife and I have been offered the opportunity to go to the NFC championship game on Sunday and we're going to go! I've covered games at Soldier Field as a reporter, but have never sat in the stands. I've heard some stories about it. Let you know how that went next week!

Brad Paisley's concert was a big hit Thursday night. As I'm sure you've heard by now, as pictured here, Aaron Rodger made a surprise visit on stage. The crowd went NUTS. Interestingly enough, Paisley's dad travels with him on the tour and actually drives his bus! If you check out the Resch Center's facebook page, you can see we posted a picture of his dad on the wall Thursday. We see a lot of great crews come through the building, but we all agree the Paisley tour was one of the nicest and easiest crews we have EVER worked with. It was a pleasure.

Wedding show - I did it, you should too

All right guys, I know most of you reading this who are already married probably never went to a wedding show with your wife. Ladies, you probably went to several looking for ideas or to cement plans for your big day. The Wedding Show is happening at Shopko Hall this weekend - quite simply it's the biggest and best of its kind north of Milwaukee. Okay, so I went to this show with my wife to be at the time and actually had a good time - and....they didn't even have the Mens Warehouse lounge like they do this year for guys!

We had many of things settled on, but not the cake and my wife insisted our cake had to be fabulous. To me fabulous equates to expensive (and it was....both fabulous and expensive), but that's a whole different blog topic. Bottom line is we sampled many cakes at the show and it helped us make the final choice. I also found a great tux deal for my future brother-in-law who was getting married after we were. My point is, brides-to-be and their friends or mothers will be coming to the show. We know that. But, as a guy, I went and the rest should too. If you're already married, tell your buddy he should go. It really does score points with the future Mrs. because it shows you care (pssst...I know you don't care a rat's butt about some of the details). The cake is great and there always seems to be a lot pretty women walking around in wedding dresses. Besides, I went and so should you!