Football and concussions in Wrigley Field

Bob Dylan described this scene in
 "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)":
Obscenity who really cares, Propaganda all is phony.

They're going to have a college football game Saturday in Wrigley Field, Illinois vs. Northwestern, the venue serving as a gimmick to get Chicagoans interested in Northwestern football.

Padding (and ads) disguised
as the iconic ivy — which
long ago succumbed
to the change in seasons.

This won't by any means be the first time the inferior sport has been played on the home grounds of the Chicago Cubs.  Wrigley was the home field for the Chicago Bears through 1970, which means the likes of Alan Page and Dick Butkus played there. I don't remember it, but apparently the gridrion was laid out differently then, and one corner of an end zone was lost to the outfield wall.

This layout keeps all of the end zone, but there's sure not much room between the back of the end zone and the right field wall. If any — the goal posts are attached to the wall itself.

It calls to mind one of the old tales of Bronko Nagurski, the football legend from International Falls, Minn. He's playing fullback for the Bears in Wrigley, the Bears have the ball near the end zone, and they give the ball to Bronko. Bronko puts his head down and runs through a suddenly gaping hole, through the end zone and —BAM — into the brick wall.

He wobbles back to the huddle: I don't know who that last guy was, but he hit me pretty good.


Anyway... if they really must play football, they shouldn't contaminate Wrigley with it.