Chicago's Mayor Wants 2 NFL Teams

With the Cardinals heading to the Super Bowl -- a team who originally played in Chicago, including a stint in the old Comiskey Park -- Chicago Mayor Richard Daley decided to use it as an opportunity to push for a second NFL franchise.

The Cardinals moved to St. Louis in 1960, and then again to Phoenix in 1988. Their name was changed to the Arizona Cardinals in 1994. Since 1960, Chicago has maintained it's one franchise, the Bears. Since the city supports two baseball teams well, Daley contends it could handle a second football team.

"We should have a second NFL team in Chicago. If San Francisco has two, New York has two, Florida has three teams ... and when you take Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia, they have three teams there in that region, we could easily support a second pro football team," Daley recently reiterated to Mike North and Dan Jiggetts on Comcast SportsNet's "Monsters in the Morning."

Including Florida -- which, I'm sorry, has just a tad bit larger area than the city of Chicago -- and lumping in Philly with Washington and Baltimore is quite a reach. That's not even mentioning that San Francisco and Oakland are definitely two different cities.

I understand that if you look at market-size, Chicago has a case over several of the above places. You have to remember, though, that this isn't baseball or hockey. NFL football has grown so immensely popular that no franchise is in trouble. I can't see the league expanding any time soon -- 32 is quite an ideal number, really -- nor can I see any franchise needing to move in the near future. Additionally, if something does happen, wouldn't Los Angeles get a team before Chicago gets a second one?

As a Bears fan, I'm totally against bringing another team into Chicago. After enduring all the incredibly stupid hatred between White Sox and Cubs fans all summer, it's pretty refreshing to be an united front through the late fall and winter months. The Bears are the team in Chicago, much more popular to the masses than either of their baseball teams, the Bulls, or the Blackhawks. Why give them company?

Of course, the Bears' ownership (the McCaskey family) is an abomination. Maybe the great city can add a second franchise and pawn off the McCaskeys onto it, freeing the Bears from the albatross? If so, sign me up immediately.