Sodboy13

I've seen several. I've noticed a couple of souvenir stores right in the middle of Chicago's Loop selling blatant fakes.

Welcome to the free-market economy. Glad to have you on board. This is why I go to Blackhawks games once or twice a year instead of having season tickets, and why my seats are in the 300 level instead of on the glass. This is why I drive a Dodge Stratus instead of a Bugatti Veyron. If there are things out there which you can't afford, you're always free to explore avenues which may lead you to acquire more wealth and personal property. In the meantime, I'll just bask in the glow of the stupefying irony of you, of all people, calling for entitlements.

It's not counterfeit, but it is piss-poor workmanship on a replica.

The normal consumer doesn't know it's a law. Ignorance is not the strongest of defenses.

Pics of your fake, please.

Oh my Christ. Can I get a second for PoTD?

I thought you left.

Amen, good sir. It's the old shoppers' mantra: never pay retail. When something's as overpriced as NHL jerseys are these days, and when there's as many internet jersey retail outlets as there are, there's plenty of good reason to wait for the off-season sales. Oh, and between the Blackhawks and Bears, Chicago has to be this country's foremost purchaser of horrendously inaccurate counterfeit jerseys. God, there's just so much crap out there, and none of it's worth the $40-$80 these people paid for it.

Because Da Bears have gotta play in Soljuhrs Field, cuz dat's da tradition. (Tradition meaning "from Coach Ditka onward".) The Soldier Field revamp has been a fiasco from about 15 years before its start (The Bears are moving to Hoffman Estates! The Bears are moving to Gary! The Bears are moving to Thornton Quarry!) to the present day. Given the renovations at Memorial Stadium, part of me thinks they might have been better off staying in Champaign.

Having been inside Soldier Field, I beg to differ. The plebian seats on the west side of the stadium are absurdly steep, and the concourse has all the charm and coziness of the Metrodome. But hey, it's got toilets, so, upgrade, I guess. Never mind that the exterior is an architectural embarrassment unfit for any sort of national television showcase, and that they still can't figure out how to grow grass there, but can't install FieldTurf, because that would enrage the obese lunkheads.

Except that the BCS is about to die, and get replaced by a Big 10/Pac-10/SEC/ACC(?) playoff.

Nebraska is going to the Big Ten in 2011, not 2012. Jim Delaney just whipped it out for all the world to see.

Y'know, Notre Dame and the MAC could be mutually beneficial at this point.

That sounds like a show on TLC.

Too small, too outdoors. That thing is locked in Indy, with perhaps an occasional token gesture in Detroit.

Outside of geography, there is no sense behind Notre Dame joining the Big Ten. The Big Ten needs Notre Dame; Notre Dame does not need the Big Ten. I'd put Syracuse down as a frontrunner here; three of their nonconference games this past season were against Big Ten teams. Clearly, there's an attempt to breed some familiarity.