Bear Necessities
My cartoon for The Hamilton County Reporter
“You snooze, you lose.” - Indiana Governor Mike Braun on the state of Illinois failing to negotiate a new stadium deal with the Chicago Bears
I did a cartoon and substack on the topic of the Bears moving to Indiana last month. At the time I was skeptical and thought that it was just a leverage move by the Bears. It might still be, but the situation has moved forward and seems a little more serious.
Just a few days ago Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed Senate Bill 27 that is designed to build a brand new stadium in Northwest Indiana for the Chicago Bears. The bill established the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority that sets up a plan to fund the new stadium. The Bears haven’t made a commitment to Indiana at this point, but have stated that they are prepared to invest $2 billion into the project.
Soldier Field, the current stadium was first opened in 1924 and is the smallest stadium in the NFL. For years the Bears, Chicago and the state of Illinois have gone back and forth on a new stadium deal unsuccessfully. With Indiana now becoming a serious option for the Bears lawmakers in Illinois are stepping up. They’ve put forth their own bill to address funding to keep the Bears in Illinois. It appears that the bill has moved out of committee and is headed to the Illinois house.
Deep down I still think Governor Braun is being played by the Bears and I think that they will eventually decide to stay west of the Indiana state line, but you never know. Many franchises have moved outside of their state or city. The New York Jets and Giants play in New Jersey and the San Francisco 49ers actually play their games in Santa Clara. Heck, even the Indy 500 which is a 30 minute drive from my home doesn’t actually take place in Indianapolis. The track is actually in a small town located inside the city limits of Indy called… Speedway, Indiana.
Bottom line. No matter what zip code they land in I’m confident that they will always be the Chicago Bears.
Sketches and sketchy stuff…
I always try to do something local for The Hamilton County Reporter and it’s also nice when the same cartoon works as a national story that i can share with my syndicate. This obviously isn’t the most important issue going on in the world, but local papers rarely have their own cartoonist and I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to comment on topics specific to my Hoosier audience.
The idea for the cartoon came about when I realized that the Bears had 3 options. They could stay in Chicago, move to Arlington Heights or move to Indiana. The number 3 is what generated the idea of The Three Bears.
I’ve drawn Governor Braun a number of times so it wasn’t much of an issue to draw him again. I only needed to work out the placement and size of the bowls so that the label on each one would work. In the actual story with Goldilocks the “just right” moments were always the 3rd option and for about 2 seconds I considered having the far right bowl be the NW Indiana choice. I ultimately decided to place it in the middle because I’m a fan of symmetry and it was the most visually pleasing.
Final drawing…
If you chose to help support me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you chose) along with a signed color print.
