The moment they landed in England, they were met by a tabloid frenzy of outrage against their bawdy behavior and lack of morals. And I love that origin story.īENNETT: With Starter-jacket-fueled undaunted confidence, they didn't care what others thought about, and their way made them self-made superstars.īEASTIE BOYS: (Rapping) Foot on the pedal, never ever false metal, engine running hotter than a boiling kettle.īENNETT: And then the Beastie Boys came to England on an eight-day tour that ended in Liverpool. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO SLEEP TILL BROOKLYN")īENNETT: "License To Ill," their debut, was faintly audible all over Britain when it came out with its attitude of, let's push every boundary but see what we can get away with. We're just here to do the Super Bowl shuffle.īENNETT: The Bears, who proved that it's possible to take an identity of failure, self-sabotage, an inferiority complex and shook it to rewrite who you are to turn from perpetual loser to glorious winner. THE CHICAGO BEARS: (Rapping) We're not here to start no trouble. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE SUPER BOWL SHUFFLE") The Bears won the Super Bowl that season, releasing a single right before the big game, "The Super Bowl Shuffle." They became a smashmouth team who eviscerated opponents, brutalized them, taunted them with swagger and collective joy. Yet as soon as I started tuning in, their fortunes changed. UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER: Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28, Chicago Bears 38.īENNETT: I chose a phenomenal time to start tuning in because the Bears had been a shambolic entity. I would watch, and I'd root for the Chicago Bears. Where it ran as an hour-long highlight reel of the previous week's game all scrunched into an hour. The Raiders trampled all over Giants quarterback Ken O'Brien.īENNETT. UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER: New York Jets nil, Los Angeles Raiders 31. So when the NFL started to be broadcast in England in the early '80s on a remote channel, it became a cult hit on Sunday nights. In my imagination, Chicago remained my family's spiritual home. Music, books, clothes, an occasional pair of knockoff Ray-Bans which made the United States my light in the darkness. (SOUNDBITE OF JAN HAMMER'S "MIAMI VICE THEME")īENNETT. HERVE VILLECHAIZE: (As Tattoo) The plane, the plane. JACK JONES: (Singing) Soon we'll be making another run. And I survived by making believe I was an American trapped in an Englishman's body by inhaling everything American I could lay my hands on - "The Love Boat". There are some parts of the city where 18% of the people are out of work.īENNETT: And it felt like you could stand on the street corner of Liverpool, which had massive unemployment, no real hope, a heroin epidemic and witness the city decomposing before your very eyes. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: In Liverpool, unemployment's double the national level. It's a magical city, but back then it was a town in turmoil - Britain overwhelmed by economic and social change in which the north of England rotted away and the coal mines, the steel mills, the cotton industry fell apart. (SOUNDBITE OF GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS SONG, "FERRY CROSS THE MERSEY")īENNETT: I came of age in Liverpool, England, in the 1980s. And he'd shake his head and say, we should have lived there. And he'd read the inscription about, give me your tired, your poor. I now have it on my desk in New York City. And in dark times - and there were many - my grandfather Sam would take a cheap plastic tourist tchotchke of the Statue of Liberty off his fireplace. I play chess with him almost every afternoon. And although Roger Bennett's great-grandfather never did make it to the U.S., the dream to get here never died.īENNETT: I was very close as a kid with my grandfather, who is obsessed with America. When his boat landed in Liverpool, he was sure he had made it to New York City and made his exit. The Bennett family myth - says Roger's great-grandfather, a kosher butcher - left Ukraine and headed to Chicago. Man City arrive in Porto after drowning Everton five-nil with.ĬHANG: The co-host of the "Men In Blazers" podcast and NBC show also really, really loves the United States. ROGER BENNETT: One last dance before we go, and it's the Champions League Final.
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