Cheese graters and Pope Leo jerseys: Bears fans get creative with their team pride

Grate job!

Watching the Chicago Bears’ miraculous 31-27 win over the Green Bay Packers last Saturday in the NFC Wild Card Game, Bears fans have survived and advanced with the help of cheese graters and other innovative quirks.

Here is a look at a few of them.

‘Monangai!’

Abigail Mayer, a Wauconda eighth-grader, was not quietly doing her homework during the game, as her father thought.

Instead, the 14-year-old had created a bingo card of Jordan Mayer’s top comments and actions while watching Bears games in the family living room.

Written neatly in 25 boxes, Abigail included players’ names that her father might exclaim, actions such as when he paces the floor, and epithets he’ll yell at the television.

It included “Complains about heart rate,” an old Mayer classic.

“I don’t really know when I’m doing these things,” he said. “I don’t think anybody’s really listening in the house. Unfortunately it’s basically me talking to me.”

By the time the Bears had beaten the Packers, Abigail had checked 24 of the 25 boxes.

“A lot of people who know my husband know how passionate he is about the Bears and how passionate he is about the game of football,” said her mother, Marina Mayer. “He almost becomes a different person when he’s watching the Bears.”

Big No. 14

When John Kaplan’s friends wore Pope Leo Football Fan Jerseys to Soldier Field to the Packers game, they got stopped for photo ops.

“They were like celebrities,” said Kaplan, whose Plainfield-based company, Catholic Imprint, has sold about 300 jerseys styled as Bears jerseys but with “Pope Leo” printed on the front and back, along with other Leo- and Chicago-inspired graphics.

The jersey number is 14, as Dolton native Robert Francis Prevost chose the name, Pope Leo XIV, upon his election to the papacy last May.

“I’m basically thrilled that it’s a conversation starter, and it just brings awareness to what we do, and hopefully they can raise more money for charity,” said Kaplan, who has the shirts made in a plant in Chicago’s West Town.

The jerseys — available at catholicimprint.com or popejersey.com — so far have raised “a few thousand” dollars for Catholic Charities of Chicago and Catholic Charities of Joliet through a portion of sales proceeds, he said.

John and his wife, Lauren Kaplan, also sent a jersey to the pope’s secretary in Vatican City. They have yet to hear back.

That’s OK. Good work is already being done “just like Pope Leo wanted,” Kaplan said.

“I love that people are wearing something that is uniquely ‘Chicago,’ and I’m thrilled that it’s a talking point to people to reconnect with the Catholic faith, and basically bring a smile to their face.”

Just grate

For those seeking the gray, foam, cheese grater hats that have become popular at Soldier Field since the Bears’ Week 16 miracle win over the Packers … good luck.

Block Club Chicago reported that the Houston company that sells them, Foam Party Hats, received 2,000 orders the day after the Bears’ playoff victory and put 10,000 more people on a wait list.

The article said the company hired four new employees to help with production of the product ($39.99), whose deliveries are back-ordered until March 2.

Showing their colors

RMK Management, which has residential properties in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, was an early adopter of Bears mania.

Lights in team colors sprang up quickly this season on the management and leasing office of its Versailles on the Lakes apartment community in Schaumburg.

“Anything in our world that we can do to get our residents or people feeling good about us, we generally do it,” said RMK Management executive vice president Diano Pittro. “And I can’t say how many people have called to say that they liked it.”

All RMK properties are encouraged to decorate their offices or clubhouses seasonally or for special events, she said.

With a Bears victory Sunday, the Versailles lights will remain. A loss may dim them.

“Or they might stay up a little while longer in mourning,” Pittro said. “It’s kind of fun.”

• Daily Herald staff writers Eric Peterson and Katlyn Smith contributed to this report.