The Big Lead

Chicago Bulls & Chicago Bears: Similar Stories Of Heightened Expectations and Disappointment

By Stephen Douglas

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See, both the Bulls and Bears had overachieving regular seasons. Neither team was supposed to get this good, this quickly. Derrick Rose and the Bulls made a surprising jump from third place in the Central and a .500 record last season to the #1 overall seed in the playoffs and 62 wins this year. The Bears went from 7-9 and a 3rd place finish in the NFC North to 11-5 and the second best record in the NFC. While both teams could have expected to improve on their records from the previous year with the additions of key guys like Julius Peppers and Carlos Boozer, nobody expected them to contend to win their conference title.

During the regular season the Bears split their two games with the underachieving Green Bay Packers, winning early in the year and losing later  with a playoff spot locked up. The Bulls swept the underachieving Miami Heat during the regular season. Both the Packers and Heat were big preseason picks to challenge for a title and the Bears and Bulls had shown they could not just hang with, but beat both favorites.

The second round of the playoffs say both teams meet the Hawks and Seahawks. No one expected the Hawks to beat Orlando and make it to Chicago. No one expected Seattle to beat New Orleans. The Bulls dropped game 1 to the Atlanta Hawks and the series was tied after 4 games. The Bulls would win the final two games of the series to move on to the conference finals. The Bears controlled most of their game against Seattle. Since Chicago teams beat the Hawks and Seahawks, does that make the Game 7 defeat of the Blackhawks any easier? No? OK.

With a chance to compete for a title on the line, both the Bears and Bulls met the preseason champions who had underachieved throughout the regular season. Caleb Hanie tried his best to make up for the struggle of Jay Cutler. The Bulls have attempted to overcome the poor shooting of Derrick Rose. Man, that’s low. Even I feel mean comparing Derrick Rose to Jay Cutler. Maybe we should focus on Boozer instead.

Well, we know how this ends – heart break and deep-dished tears of disappointment. If Derrick Rose fakes an MCL injury in tonight’s game, expect to see him sporting a deep-V and shopping with JWoww in a week or two. Hey, at least the Cubs and White Sox are only a combined 16 games out of first.

[Images via Getty]