Delicious

Brett Favre's a cool guy. Since the Bears have been out of contention for the playoffs (sadly, for quite a while), my hopes are with our AFC North brethren, the Vikings, to win the Superbowl this year.

That said, oh man ... I wanted the Bears to win yesterday. It was a low likelihood scenario (5-9 Bears vs. 11-3 Vikings), but hey - it was a week full of upsets. Despite the odds, both the Colts and the Saints lost (and to Tampa Bay of all teams?!?) so anything seemed possible.

It was a "kinda hope" until the master himself, Mike Ditka -- the former Bear and former Bears coach -- spoke up. He claimed the the Bears would win, a lone voice of dissent that brought guffaws from his fellow analysts.

He looked like a fool. Yeah, right! the Bears are gonna win. Phht! When fans were asked who would win, the Vikings won both the "popular vote," (78%) and the "electoral college" (49 states).

But from that point on, I really wanted to see them win, if only so that everyone else would eat crow and Ditka's top record of picking winners preserved. (Most of those "expert" analysts had worse records than the public.)

It was pure folly, but with 16-0 lead after the first half it might just be possible. The only problem was Brett Favre.

The Bears have a long history of being tormented by Favre. He's so annoying -- there's never been a way to keep him down, and this year no one can stop talking about how old he is.

Things got dangerous in the second half. Beset by injuries to both Knox and Tillman, the Bears (with Hester already out) had few of their best to work with. It looked grim.

Then Favre fired a touchdown pass to Sidney Rice in the last play of regular time (à la that one against the 49ers) to tie the game. Victory teetered on the edge of despair.

Though the Bears won the first possession, they missed the field goal. AAHH! Then they held the Vikings to a three and out by sacking Favre twice. Not a sngle person was sitting in the entire stadium. The Bears themselves went three and out, and I was crestfallen. How could the Bears hold off another Favre offensive?

Then the football powers that be intervened and allowed the Bears to strike at the Minnesota's Achilles heal: Adrian Peterson fumbled. The Bears recovered in Vikings territory, and it looked like Robbie Gould would be able to redeem his earlier miss.

However, Jay Cutler immediately threw precision pass to Aromashodu for a touchdown in their first play, a total shocker to the defense. The result: a dignity-saving 36-30 win for the Bears' final game of the season.

Delicious, indeed.