At this point it is down to the wire regarding whether the Chicago Bears will continue to play their games in Illinois or head over the border for a fresh start—and new stadium—in Indiana. The Bears might stay or the Bears might go, but what is important here is what this saga about a storied football franchise tells us about the increasingly problematic collisions of politics and culture in our fragmented, furious, and frustrated nation. Football is a very big business. It is estimated that the NFL’s 32 teams generated an estimated $22.2 billion for themselves in income last year which is certainly a nice chunk of change by any measure. The owners are themselves generally billionaires, star players earn tens—and sometimes hundreds—of millions of dollars, and the associated revenue generated by local hotels, restaurants, and bars, drops many more Read more