{"id":1960,"date":"2015-04-25T22:52:43","date_gmt":"2015-04-26T05:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=1960"},"modified":"2015-10-13T15:05:13","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T22:05:13","slug":"chicago-a-true-football-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/offcourse\/1960\/chicago-a-true-football-legend","title":{"rendered":"Chicago: A True Football Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Room<\/a>

Renaissance Hotel Chicago<\/p><\/div>\n

The National Football League may be operated out of an office in a New York City skyscraper, and Gotham may boast two gridiron teams, but the heartbeat of professional football is in the heartland \u2013 Chicago. \u201cDa Bears,\u201d one of pro football\u2019s original teams, has won more games and enshrined more Hall of Fame players than any other toe-to-leather organization. The sport will pay homage to the \u201cMonsters of the Midway\u201d Thursday through Saturday when it stages its\u2019 80th<\/sup> \u201cNFL Draft\u201d in the Windy City \u2013 the first time in a half century the event\u2019s been outside the Big Apple.<\/p>\n

There won\u2019t be a single pass thrown or tackle made, but there will be plenty of excitement, as collegiate starts-turned-NFL-signees, along with NFL legends, will stroll up a red carpet into historic Auditorium Theatre on Michigan Avenue for the first two draft rounds on Thursday and Friday nights, with rounds four through seven at \u201cSelection Square, across from the theatre\u201d at Congress Plaza, via remote from NFL cities around the country.<\/p>\n

The NFL\u2019s marketing masters, along with Chi-Town\u2019s creative civic leaders, are turning Grant Park into \u201cDraft Town,\u201d a free, three-day, outdoor, 900,000-square foot interactive football festival. Museums, high-tech games, youth football clinics taught by NFL legends, autographs, live music, food, obstacle courses, team-specific exhibits, memorabilia, shopping, and of course, beer tents will entertain locals and visitors who want to feel like part of the action. While the world watches on ESPN and the NFL Network, Grant Park\u2019s famous Buckingham Fountain will change colors every 10 minutes – lit up to match the colors of the team about to make the next draft pick.<\/p>\n

\"Room<\/a>

Renaissance Hotel Chicago<\/p><\/div>\n

For more information and hours the exhibits are open, visit www.NFL.com\/DraftTown<\/a> or book a stay and play package at NFLonLocation.com. The Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel, on North Columbus; and the Doubletree Hilton Magnificent Mile on East Ohio; are handy hotel choices, as is The Peninsula, on East Superior. Dolphin fans can get a slice of South Florida at Joe\u2019s Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab, on East Grand, based on the legendary Miami Beach restaurant. Bear fans won\u2019t miss chomping on \u201cDa Pork Chop,\u201d the signature dish at Mike Ditka\u2019s Restaurant on East Chestnut. The Super Bowl-winning coach\u2019s eatery is in the shadow of the Hancock Tower.<\/p>\n

Or save your appetite for one of Chicago\u2019s next big festivals: The Windy City Smokeout, featuring world class barbeque, country music, beer, \u201cMan vs. Food\u2019s\u201d Adam Richman, from the Travel Channel, all on Grand St. along the Chicago River \u00a0July 10-12. I bet every football player would love to be drafted by the Bears just to attend that. Visit www.WindyCitySmokeout.com<\/a> for the schedule and package prices.<\/p>\n

Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at\u00a0<\/em>InviteYourself@aol.com<\/a>\u00a0or via TravelTattler.com\u00a0His talk show can be heard weekday mornings in\u00a0Lansing\u00a0on 92.1 FM and Fox 47 TV.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Football League may be operated out of an office in a New York City skyscraper, and Gotham may… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":1962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19164],"tags":[499897,3427,4048,895824,980598,998684,202],"class_list":["post-1960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-offcourse","tag-hotels","tag-chicago","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-network","tag-restaurant","tag-dinner","tag-football"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2015\/04\/Room-Suite.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1960"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2017,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions\/2017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}