We Are Chicago

Oh hi! I’m Jiggly. And it’s a Tuesday.

Last year when we started the site, I made sure that the first thing we posted was “Stand and Deliver”. What was literally just a forum post, typos and all, has been used as a creed for many of the older supporters. It was written with such ambition at a time when the Fire were probably at their highest. Since then, things have changed drastically. Brandon Kitchens wrote about our “strength in numbers and unity” as something that was unique to our club at the time. Nowadays, we’ve looked a whole lot more like “Barnum and Bailey FC”. Brandon never lived to see the fall of the Chicago Fire. And it’s sad to say that his passion, his energy is very of its time for the Fire. Many of those who stood with him no longer stand at all. In fact, over the past season, I’ve wondered whether he would still be there if he were still alive. With a team that’s lacked an identity for almost five years, and a fanbase wrought with infighting, it’s a scarily realistic thought. Would he still be as involved as when he wrote this piece? Is that piece actually still relevant today?

“Stand and Deliver” was written with the optimism of someone who didn’t slog through the swamps of hell. The heart and passion are undeniable in what he wrote and it’s not like there aren’t those who have stuck it out through these dark years. But just like he says, “Am I wasting yet another weekend on nostalgia?” I was born in 1999, Brandon passed away in 2007. He saw all six pieces of silverware won by this club. I have the vague impression of a memory of one U.S. Open Cup in 2006. I think my memories really started to come into focus when I was around 9 or 10, we’ll call it 2008. Since then, I’ve seen 4 seasons out of 16 where the club was within the league’s top 10. I’ve been to maybe 5 total playoff games, but really only remember two (I know I missed the 2012 play-in game, but I remember the 2009 Conference Finals and 2017 play-in). What I do know that I’ve seen are 7 seasons finishing at 20th or lower (sometimes in a league of 20 teams), 3 seasons finishing below what had previously been “the worst season in club history” in 2004, 3 seasons giving up 55+ goals, and just recently saw the Fire go 4 seasons in a row scoring less than 40 goals.

Brandon probably was vaguely aware of me, I was one of the five or so kids that were running around Section 8 all the time. Maybe I asked him if I could go up on the capo stand and he told me “Wait until you’re older,” but I’m pretty sure I asked Patrick that. So I don’t really have any memory of him that I could really point to personally. What I mean to say is that I didn’t know him that well, but I want to be clear that I’m not trying to step on a legacy that he left at this club. But I think that given what we’ve seen at this club over the past 17 years and how much has changed, he might even agree that we need a new “Supporters’ Creed”. At the very least, one with a bit more intention behind it. Maybe the person who sends “Stand and Deliver” to every new coach can start sending this along as like an addendum.

So in the same spirit that Brandon had when challenging the club and the fanbase in “Stand and Deliver”, I submit to you my own new challenge.

We Are Chicago

Hi to anyone who doesn’t really know me. I get around a lot at the tailgate, but I’m very bad at remembering people and whether or not we’ve met. I’m Jiggly, I’ve been around this club my entire life. You’ve probably seen me these days at every game wearing a flannel shirt and my blue Providence Crabs baseball hat, and I constantly have a beer in my hand (If you see me without a beer, please hand me one. I need it.). I’m a writer. When I was a kid, I’d write about the Chicago Fire in every school assignment I was allowed to. I did my own freelance database statistic work, I created my own stat to track (the “p-quad”), and I ended up trying to be a sports journalist. Without my sheer love of the Fire, I don’t think I could ever attempt to be a journalist in any way, and honestly? I’m still not. I’m still just a fan, someone who absolutely loves the Chicago Fire and happens to have found my way onto a platform where I talk about how much I love them. But, that puts me in a rough position. Because sometimes, I have to be highly critical of this club. In fact, it’s quite often these days. As a journalist, I have to talk about facts as they exist, to not put any sort of extra meaning on results one way or the other. But when you care so much about something, you’re not gonna write objectively. There will always be some sort of extra edge, whether it’s the sound of relief upon scraping out a close game or the unhinged use of “tough love” that comes out whenever there is a single mistake or something out of place for the guiding plan for this team to improve. It’s usually the second thing.

I’m tired of losing. I’m tired of being a loser. As Fire fans, we have such an intimate relationship with failure. Those who weren’t around in the good days have really only known failure. I’m so constantly shocked whenever I meet someone who said they started following the team any time after 2013. What did you see in this club? How did you find what I saw? We’ve been living in our own stench at the bottom of the table for so long that sometimes I forgot why we stayed here alongside this club. This is something that I’m sure plenty of the players understand on some level, especially those who have been here for a while, whether as long-serving first team players or homegrowns who have followed this team since before they turned professional. But truly, we’ve been down so damn long that it looks like up to us. We have missed the playoffs so often that simply making it, something that in our early years would’ve been the bare minimum, is seen as this lofty goal that we can’t quite reach. In MLS. A league in which, by basic math, more teams make the playoffs than don’t. You have to genuinely suck to not make it and the Fire have somehow been unable to find their way into the postseason.

All the while, we’ve watched all of these teams walk into the league and instantly surpass us. Some took a while to get their footing, but sure enough, they shot over our heads. We’ve watched so many teams rise and fall, the fortunes of most MLS teams looking like they were spat out of a random number generator, yet we sink like a rock to the bottom every season. We move in the shadows, our existence holding no meaning to the rest of the league outside of being a group of dudes in a different colored jersey on someone else’s highlight reel. Our fanbase was the gold standard that essentially set the guidelines for modern American supporters’ culture, doing things that the rest of the league would learn from and go on to emulate (whether they’re aware of it or not). Nowadays, the supporters’ section is about as unified as the Baltics in the 90s. We are no longer the powerhouse that we once were. But we’re not even the laughing stock. People genuinely feel sorry for us! The amount of times I’ve heard “Oh, wow, you’re a Fire fan? I’m so sorry,” from another MLS fan is probably the closest thing I’ve ever gotten to being a Cleveland Browns fan (which makes me feel even worse for the Browns and Detroit Lions fans in our ranks). And we’re only barely hanging onto that level because most of the time, other teams don’t even think about us. The team has no bite, the fans have no “culture”. We are so divided, we are so unable to do even the simplest tasks, that we can’t even remember our own history. That we used to actually be the envy of this league. We are losers. Right now we are losers. And I’m not going to pretend that we aren’t. I’m not gonna act like we, as a club and a fanbase, have been acting in any competent way over the past decade and a half. And despite all the good signs we have this year, I’m still not convinced. I’m sure many of you are thinking the same thing. “When will things come crashing down this year? How will it all fall apart?” It’s expected because that’s all we’ve been for so long.

But starting from this point on, this sentence on, I do not give a shit. I don’t care if that is our U-7 academy team out there, I am no longer allowing excuses to be made. It doesn’t matter what your skill level is, the Chicago Fire will be a team that will be better than who they are. I don’t care what your limits are, you’re gonna be expected to surpass them. I don’t care anymore. This is where you are, this is who you are now. You are no longer you, you are the Chicago Fire. You are not some USL-level defender, you are the Chicago Fire. You are not someone who showed up to the game a bit tired and wanted to have some beers, you are the Chicago Fire. Because that’s who all of us are now. And the bar needs to be higher than it’s been in years past. Even if you are in over your head, you are HERE now. You are a part of a club that deserves to be known for all time, that deserves to be in their opponents' heads at all times, that deserves to be at the top of the league at all times. Even if you believe you are better than this club, if you’re a player who has dreams of going to Europe, while you are on the Fire you will be playing better than that. I expect you to be World Class. Minimum. Because this league is filled with actual world-class players and I don’t care where you are from, how much you admire that opponent, you will wipe their ass OUT! It doesn’t matter if you’re from Hinsdale, Naperville, Schaumburg, Milwaukee, Gary, somewhere hotter, somewhere colder, or somewhere on the other side of the world. When you put on these colors, when you put on this badge, you are the Chicago Fire. You represent Chicago. And Chicago demands better. Always. On and off the pitch. Because the fans can do more, always. You can find ways to be louder, you can invite a friend (if you have any), you can paint a banner, you can learn the damn chants and join in. You can work together. You can stop waiting for things to get better, saying “It’s fine.” Because it’s not fine. We are all the Chicago Fire and we need to start working to that standard. Hell, even when I go non-verbal, I’m still going to be on the drums all game, every game this season, for as long as my hands can hold out (and I plan to bring gloves). Waiting doesn’t work, go out and do something.

Every day is a challenge to do more. Every game is the biggest test that you will ever face. It doesn’t matter how much or how little hype there is. If you are the Chicago Fire, you are going out there and you are going to play harder than they think you can. You are going to be louder than the literal laws of physics will allow you to be in the dimensions of Soldier Field. Even if you believe, if you know down to the bottom of your soul that you are not good enough, it does not matter anymore. To those on the pitch, you’ve got to go out and fight. Win, score, hit somebody. Put your body on the line, and show some passion. Put on a fucking show. And to those in the stands, put aside the petty arguments and just fucking join in. Because no matter how you feel about that person over there, for the next 90 minutes, they are your family. For 90 minutes, we are all the Chicago Fire. And any dissent within the ranks, any claim of “This is my team, not yours,” any grudge that is held over shit that happened outside of the game is no longer valid. This is the fucking Chicago Fire and I am fucking tired of everyone forgetting what that means.

One of the oldest images I saved to my phone, the one I always see when I scroll all the way up on my camera roll, is one that my dad took many years ago and had reposted on BigSoccer around that time. It’s from the 2004 CONCACAF Champions’ Cup game against Saprissa, the return leg at Soldier Field. Prior to the game, some fans were able to put up some banners in the tunnel, this one sorta looked like a little shrine with scarves below it. Made, admittedly a bit crudely, by Liam Murtagh, it read “We Are Chicago: You have been chosen tonight, for all those before you, for all of us now, and all those to come. Honor your Colors. And your Privilege.” Much like “Stand and Deliver”, the wording probably needs a bit of a touch-up, but the sentiment and the message behind it remains the same.

WE ARE CHICAGO

You were chosen Tonight

To follow the Tradition that came before you

To bring the Passion this city deserves

To Honor the colors we fought to keep

And to accept nothing less than Victory

Miscellaneous Notes

More Banners. I’m just really excited about the banners and chants that Section 8 and Sector have been working on for the past few months. I’ve done my part to help with them.

Music Time. Apparently, I’m now MIR97’s in-house composer. Which is weird cause we have a literal music major on staff. But, whatever. I made a new Hot Takes intro that you should be hearing on Episode 2 this season.

Still Love My Wife. I finally finished a save in Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a fantastic game and a testament to what games should be. There’s a Karlach quote that I wanted to fit into this piece somewhere, but it felt awkward in the outline. So I’ll just add it here: “There’s no courage in fearlessness. There’s courage in being fucking terrified, but still going forward. Still being grateful. Still trying.” That’s an energy I wanna bring to the season.

Song of the Week. Did you know that Donald Glover referencing Sufjan Stevens in his early work as Childish Gambino wasn’t just a random thing? He made an entire remixed version of Sufjan’s legendary “Illinois” album under the name “mc DJ” called “Illin-Noise!”. The one I linked to is “Chitown”, which you can guess which song it’s a remix of.

I love you.

And I’ll see you next week.