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It’s time to party like its 1997, Wisconsin; the Packers are going back to the Super Bowl. After marching into the eyesore that is Soldier Field, the Pack wasted no time shutting up all the FIBs in attendance by jumping out to a 14-0 lead and cruising to victory. Sunday was a pretty amazing day here in Wisco – everyone hunkered down in their favorite watering holes to share the simplest of pleasures, Packer football.

I know we have some heated debates in this state. I know that many of my more “progressive” tendencies are often met with staunch opposition from some of the dedicated Herald readers. But I like to know that we can put aside the little stuff like deficits and tea parties for the important things in life, namely Packer football.

Sunday was a great chance to put the Midwest’s best rivalry on display, and I don’t mean Packers/Bears, but Wisconsin/Illinois entirely. We don’t get much credit from the coastally biased news media in this country, usually just a bit piece about some county fair that had a contest to see who could eat the most fried bacon covered in chocolate (this apparently has never happened, but absolutely should).

With the added lens of Super Bowl fervor, America saw just how much this rivalry means to us. Want an example? How about John Stone, a Chicago-area car salesman who was fired on Monday for wearing a Packers tie to work. That kind of bitterness just can’t be faked. I’ll take internal business decisions being made on the basis of Packer-Bear affiliation over anything the Right has ever said to the Left. That’s just pure, unadulterated, in-your-face loathing.

Nobody was out building snowmen on Sunday or getting a nice head start on the semester in the library because we all wanted to beat the Bears. Not just to go play another football game in a couple weeks, but so we could shove it in the faces of all our neighbors to the south.

The manager of Stone’s store would like us to believe that the only reason the firing occurred was to cover the company’s ass due to an advertising arrangement with the Bears, but come on. You just know that distraught little Bears fan had probably just come in from burning his Jay Cutler jersey (that’s Illinois loyalty) and just went apeshit when faced with an unassuming sliver of Green and Gold running down his employee’s chest. I think that’s awesome.

Apparently even Minnesota knows to side with Wisconsin and pick the Packers, although this isn’t surprising considering the only bright decision their football team can make is attempting to sign washed up ex-Packers. But nonetheless I will acknowledge them for trying to sneak into our good graces by grilling a bear during the game on Sunday. Which made me laugh because the people in Wisconsin would never be caught dead rooting for the Vikings for any reason (unless you’re one of those “I’m a Favre fan first” and you actually switched allegiances to the Vikings last year, in which case, maybe its time for you to relocate as well).

Let’s see where were we? Oh yeah, that’s right, the Packers are going to the Super Bowl, Wisconsin is infinitely better than Illinois and Minnesota is like the distant third friend in the group trying to make fun of Illinois so we will like them better. Well that probably won’t happen anytime soon, unless maybe they pass a law allowing Minnesota state funds be used to buy us all Super Bowl tickets. We could even respond by passing our own law that says if the Vikings or Bears go to the Super Bowl we would pay for all of them to have tickets because really, who doesn’t like a law that has no chance of ever being needed?

I’m just glad that Wisconsin is getting to enjoy the spotlight for a little while, and that the spotlight had to pass right over Chicago to get to us. So Go Pack Go in Dallas in a week and a half, until then I hope all Packer affiliated people will be secure in their jobs and seriously, Minn. How about those tickets?

John Waters ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism.