At team's request, celebration canceled

Despondent Bears fans won't have to worry about braving single-digit temperatures and frozen tears to welcome home a team that brought the city joy with its NFC championship but couldn't finish the job.

At the team's request, City Hall has cancelled its post-Super Bowl celebration.

"The team wanted to thank all of the fans for their tremendous support throughout the season. They look forward to celebrating with the fans when the [world] championship returns to Chicago," Cindy Gatziolis, a spokesperson for the city's Department of Special Events, said this morning.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that City Hall was planning a ticker-tape parade and rally Tuesday at Daley Center Plaza, much like what greeted the Super Bowl champs on Jan. 27, 1986. The tentative plan called for the Bears to assemble at Soldier Field and proceed downtown along a route that includes Lake Shore Drive, Roosevelt, Michigan Avenue, Adams and Dearborn.

But that was before the Bears laid an egg in a soggy Super Bowl XLI, losing to the Colts 29-17 Sunday in a driving rainstorm in Miami.

"There'll be no parade or rally," Gatziolis said. "That's why we said all last week that we had no official information about the celebration and that we wouldn't until after a victory.”