Warm up to this: Let's go 'in' to play

The time is right to renew my assertion that the Bears should play indoors.

You know, put a roof over Soldier Field, or move games inside Woodfield Mall, or relocate them to San Diego after the Chargers escape to Los Angeles.

The issue rekindled inside me when a neat little book arrived last week, a few days before the Patriots crammed the Bears into a meat locker on the lakefront.

Freelance photographer Ron Nelson of Elk Grove Village self-published “Pro Football at Wrigley Field.” A news release says the book now is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and ron@prairiestreetart.com.

The current cold spell makes Anderson's work relevant at this particular time.

Included among his photos are ones of halfback Ronnie Bull running on a snowy field, defensive coach George Allen addressing his troops with flakes swirling around his face, and George Halas, Paul Brown and Vince Lombardi bundled in overcoats.

Frosty football sure was romantic back then.

The Bears played at Wrigley Field the first 25 years of my life and I can't remember a game there in good weather.

That's a distorted memory, of course. The Bears played many games in temperatures fit for short pants and short sleeves.

However, we tend to remember what we want to.

My Wrigley Field memories are dominated by the season's final two games in December, often against the Detroit Lions and Chicago Cardinals, with fourth-quarter fights breaking out between players sliding around in the slush.

Ah, you can't beat fun at the old ballpark.

You would think that such memories would lead me to believe that the Bears-Patriots game was cool, so to speak.

Well, it wasn't too bad for me sitting in the heated press box. But, man, did the fans in the stands below look overmatched by the weather.

The game certainly was great TV for the impartial but miserable at the scene of the clime.

The difference now is back when I started going to Bears games we would return to homes with black-and-white televisions and ice boxes.

Times change. Conveniences that used to be luxuries are now necessities even during a recession.

So why in the world would fans here settle for paying to sit in an outdoor stadium instead of what amounts to a comfortable studio?

Sunday, 56,161 fans paid big bucks to be as abused by the weather as the Bears were by the Patriots. Another 6,186 were smart enough to stay home, though they were gullible enough to pay for tickets they didn't use.

Playing big games in the worst conditions is insane, and paying to watch or paying to not watch is the very definition of God telling you you have too much money.

Outdoor football is rationalized as a badge of courage, as if it proves Americans are as tough as they were generations ago.

We aren't, but if you want to demonstrate toughness, spend your summers without air conditioning. You wouldn't volunteer for that today because A.C. is available, as are indoor stadiums and the Weather Channel on smart phones to tell you how nasty it is outside.

But people actually pay to sit in Soldier Field and endure wind chills below zero.

Sorry, but that doesn't seem as romantic as when I was a teenager braving the elements in Wrigley Field.