A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

THE 5TH PHASE? PARKING: So thanks to my friends Eric and Becky I was able to attend last night's Eagles-Bears game at Chicago's Soldier Field. (To those friends I wasn't able to see while I was out there, sorry! Brief trip.)

This was my first time ever attending an Eagles road game, and so beyond the game itself there's a lot of compare-and-contrast to do:

• Soldier Field is an architectural wonder. Plopping an asymmetrical, futuristic stadium into the colonnades of the classical shell looks messed-up from the outside, but on the inside it really works. Yes, the slope of the western deck is extremely steep to fit it into the structure, but it results in an intimate stadium where the seats all remain close to the field. And there are some beautiful curves to the place, especially in how the luxury suite structure tapers off into video scoreboards which hang over the end zones, and I appreciated the gentle hill up from the Field Museum which led to an entrance halfway up the stadium.
  
• No cheerleaders. Drumline! I approve. Also, actual halftime entertainment (the Chicago cast of Jersey Boys), which the Eagles seem to have given up on.
  
• Very odd, as Eric noted, that they spend five crucial scoreboard hype minutes just prior to gametime reviewing the evacuation plans for every section. I blame lawyers.
• The most-worn jersey at the game, by far, was Walter Payton's. Number two was Brian Urlacher. Not a lot of confidence shown in the active roster from the fanbase. (At Eagles games, at least 5-7 active players lead this list before you'd get to the Reggie White and Randall Cunningham jerseys.)
• A very odd locution from the PA announcer -- every kickoff was announced as "restarting" the game, not "resuming" it. Always sounded weird.
• Eagles fans are louder and more hostile. I was wearing my McNabb jersey all night; wasn't harassed once.
• There's a timeout. Where?
  
• Good fight song rhyme: joy/Illinois. Bad fight song rhyme: nation/T-formation.
  
• Okay. So it's great and gorgeous that Soldier Field is part of this lakefront campus with the Field Museum and all (though I'm still pissed about the destruction of Meigs Field), but it did make me appreciate the merits of Lincoln Financial Field being sited in a sea of parking lots, connected to both major local highways and just two blocks from the trunk of our main subway line. It's easy to get to the Linc, and it's easy to leave. To this outsider, at least, egress from Soldier Field was confounding. Poor information about bus options, and absolutely impossible to find a cab back to downtown -- I think I ended up at Balbo and Michigan before locating one.
• Most importantly: E! A! G! L! E! S! EAGLES! Playoffs still within reach.