“UFOs A More Fitting Honor To Vets Than Sweetness Statue,” Implies Park District
November 1 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of legendary Bears running back Walter Payton. To honor both the anniversary of his death as well as his life, Payton’s family and the Chicago Bears hoped to pay tribute to the man by erecting a 6-foot bronze statue outside of Soldier Field.
Sounds kind of awesome, right? Wrigley Field has Ernie Banks. The United Center has Michael Jordan. Why shouldn’t Soldier Field have Sweetness?
Well, for starters, Soldier Field and the land on which it was built was intended to be treated only as a memorial to war veterans. This means, according to a Chicago Tribune article published last week, that the city’s park district would not allow the placement of any non-veteran related statue outside the stadium. This code would be more understandable if the city hadn’t constructed a hideous saucer-shaped upper deck of seats on the stadium back in 2004.
Because of the alien spacecraft set atop this untouchable memorial to war veterans, no argument decrying six feet of shaped bronze placed next to the building makes any sense.
Another reason the park district has balked at greenlighting the statue is the fear that displaying Payton at Soldier Field diminishes “the stature of other Bears Hall of Famers.” Hell, didn’t Walter Payton’s performance on the field diminish the stature of other Bears Hall of Famers? Honestly? The Trib’s article wasn’t clear on who it is that feels this would be a problem, but to whoever it is I say, let the families of other Bears legends purchase a statue of them. Let nothing stand in their way. We’re not talking bout other Bears. We’re talking about THE Bear. The Bears have more Hall of Famers than any other team in history, but how many of them are second all-time in touches, rushing yards and rushing attempts? How many of those Bears are third all-time in yards from scrimmage and all-purpose yards? Can you imagine if the Bulls organization said, “well, we WOULD put up a Jordan statue, but we don’t want to diminish Bob Love and Nate Thurmond.”
Yeah. But … It’s. Michael. Jordan.
I have an idea. Let’s get organized. Let’s rank the Top 5 Best Bears of All-Time. Let’s see if we can whittle down which Monsters of the Midway most deserve to stand in bronze for eternity. Won’t that be fun? Here, I’ll even get you started:
Top 5 Bears of All-Time
5.
4.
3.
2.
1. Walter Payton
There. Feel free to fill in the remaining slots however you like. I don’t really care about the rest of it. As far as the Sweetness statue goes, I think Red Grange would understand.
Representatives from the park district, soon after the Tribune’s story, denied Payton’s family ever contacted them. Ocham’s Razor tells me either someone’s got their facts twisted or we’re looking at a clear-cut case of temporary, panicked public-relating.
Only time will tell what becomes of the statue. The Tribune reported that the park district offered to place it in any other park in the city. Then again, the park district denied having ever talked to anyone about anything, so perhaps that’s not true either.
Why not let the Chicago chapters of various war veterans groups decide? According to the Tribune, the park district is acting as if they would love to place the Payton statue in front of Soldier Field, but the war veterans memorial code simply handcuffs them from doing so. Nothin’ they can do. Sorry.
Let’s ask those who would be most affected. And once we have their attention, let’s see if we can’t convince them to approve a Butkus shrine as well.
Photos courtesy of Flickr
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