On any given fall Saturday in Chicago I'm taken aback by the number of Hawkeye-clad football fans. To be honest with you, I sometimes wish it wasn't that way. That just means that it's impossible to watch a game comfortably at a bar with other Hawk fans. And I'm all for Iowa pride, but when you see some douchebag 22-year-old running around Lincoln Park drunk, screaming, hollering and acting like a hick fool with a backwards Kinnick hat on, you kinda wish you weren't wearing the Black and Gold, just for the simple fact that you don't want to be associated with such tomfoolery. (It's cool in Iowa City and at any away game, but when you're acting like you're at the game but you're not even in the town the game's being played, you look kind pretty stupid).

ANYWAY, the Hawks were in town playing Northern Illinois at Soldier Field, and the number of Hawk fans running around the streets of Chicago increased nearly ten fold. They were everywhere; walking on Michigan Ave. when I got off work, walking around Wrigleyville during the Cubs game Friday. If you were in the South Loop on Saturday, you would have had to pinch yourself to be reminded that you weren't in Iowa City.

It was surreal. And it was awesome. I tell you, if football games were decided by their fans' desire for them to win, or at least their showing up in droves, I don't know if the Hawks should ever lose a football game. This particular showdown was in a town hundreds of miles away from the University, Iowa was playing an Mid-American Conference foe, they were coming off a losing season and were no where near the Top 25, yet, by judging by the enthusiasm of the fans (and their drunkeness) you'd have thought they were playing in the Rose Bowl. It was a very unique experience; something they should do every couple of years or so, be it Northern Illinois, Illinois State or even Northwestern. (Shit, if Northwestern were to play in Soldier, it might actually feel like you're at a real college football game and not a really well attended high school one — thought 95 percent of the fans would be rooting for whichever Big Ten opponent they were playing).

The game was a blast. My dad and I somehow managed to score box suites, which are the way to go if you want to spend a hundred extra bucks. Why? Great views, air conditioning, and bottles of Stoli. You didn't lose anything in sound, despite being enclosed by windows (you could wind them open quite a bit.)

Some called the new Soldier the Mistake by the Lake, but as ugly as it looks from the outside, the views from inside are pretty stellar. There's not a bad seat in the house. And the concourse and passageways retained a vintage NFL stadium-like quality to them, despite being completely renovated. Not to mention when you leave the stadium, you're either viewing a harbor on Lake Michigan, the massive McCormick Center, The Field Museum or a spectacular angle view of the skyline. The entire stadium in surrounded by rolling knolls of lush green grass and well paved sidewalks. My dad, who's only been to Chicago a handful of times, was visibly taken aback by the experience.

There might not be a more beautiful place to go to and from a football game in the country.

Well, except Kinnick Stadium.