As I mentioned in my NFL picks, yesterday I took the Festival on the road to Champaign, Illinois to see my Patriots face the slumping Chicago Bears and the University of Illinois, where the Bears play while their new stadium gets built in Chi-town.

The first thing I have to say is that, as I expected, those Coors Light commercials are pretty far from the truth in their depiction of the average football fan. Most football fans are not in any kind of physical shape (except maybe "round"), nor are they ever playing two-hand-touch with supermodels wearing officially-licensed NFL jerseys. They don't all drink Coors Light, either. In fact, most of them will drink anything and everything they can get their hands on, so much so that by the time the game starts they don't even remember what teams are playing.

I've got to give props to the Bears fans, though. We were definitely in hostile territory and stuck out immensely with our Pats gear in a sea of orange and blue, but rather than throw batteries at us, slash our tires, or wear t-shirts about how much our team sucks, Bears fans instead invited us over for some tailgate barbecue and taunted us good-naturedly during the game.

Then the fourth quarter came around and with it the Bears' horrendous collapse. Thanks to the most conservative play-calling ever by Bears coach Dick Jauron and a number of controversial calls that were decided by instant replay, the Patriots stormed back from a 21-point deficit to win. The fans were pissed -- chanting "bull-shit", getting in fights, and throwing footballs and other projectiles towards the field -- but we safely got out of the stadium injury-free. All in all it was one of the most exciting football games I've ever seen, and I was lucky enough to be there in person. It made the 3-hour-each-way drive through the middle of nowhere, Illinois worth every minute.