Witness to history

By NICK DETTMANN
Daily News Sports Editor

Nicholas Cole’s leg frantically bounces up and down while he's seated.
Every look of the clock, every look at the calendar makes the wait that much more excruciating. Is it Sunday yet?
He does everything he can think of to keep his mind off of it.
It’s just too hard, especially since the life-changing phone call he got Tuesday. On the other end of the line was good friend and work colleague, Tim Verbeke.
Verbeke, a resident of Cedarburg, had four tickets to Sunday’s NFC Championship Game between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. Verbeke asked Cole if he’d like to go.
No arm twisting was needed. The tickets practically fell into his lap. Lucky guy.
“He said, ‘Do you want to go?’” Cole recalled.
Uh, yeah!
Cole was elated, shaking. He was going to what many are saying will be one of the the biggest games in NFL history: Packers-Bears for the NFC Championship and a trip to Super Bowl XLV in Dallas.
Then the news got better for Cole: the seats are on the 50-yard line, fourth row, Packers sideline.
Cole nearly fainted.
According to Joellen Ferrer, a spokeswoman for Stubhub.com, the average ticket price for Sunday's game is around $800. The average ticket for Sunday’s AFC Championship Game between the New York Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers? $400.
“It’s, by the far, the highest selling conference championship game in our history,” she said Thursday. “We knew that it'd be a highly anticipated event.”
Ferrer said Sunday's game is the fourth-highest selling NFL game in the 11-year history of the company, topped only by the previous three Super Bowls. The average Super Bowl ticket can cost $2,500.
Cole, a 2004 West Bend East graduate, still can’t believe he’s going.
“The media coverage and the buildup all week, that's all you're hearing about,” Cole said. “It’s just exciting to think about. It’s a game of a lifetime. I don’t think I’ll ever get to go to anything like this ever again.”
One reason Verbeke picked Cole to accompany him to the game is that he believed he had the physical prowess to be able to hold his own against an anticipated hostile crowd inside and outside the stadium.
Plus, Verbeke knew Cole was one of the biggest Packers fans he knows.
“You have to be the right Packers fan,” Verbeke said. “We're going to have to fight our way in and fight our way out because Bears fans are terrible winners and worse losers. It’s going to be ugly.”
Also going to the game are friends of Verbeke’s. One is a Packers fan. The other is a Bears fan. Verbeke is a Bears fan.
He said he’s taken a lot of heat this week, as expected, but he said he takes a lot of heat every day of the year for being a Bears fan in Wisconsin. He’s not afraid to show his allegiance.
He proudly donned a Jay Cutler Bears jersey Friday. His license plate says “Bears” on a commemorative Packers plate. He calls it “The Bear Mobile.”
Verbeke grew up in the Detroit area, but wasn’t a Lions fan. He joked not many in Detroit even admit they’re Lions fans. They’re something else. He moved to Chicago in 1985.
“Who wasn’t a Bears fan in ‘85?” he asked.
That was the only time the Bears have won the Super Bowl.
Verbeke joked that having tickets for this game is like winning the lottery while evading the taxes and getting the full payout.
Verbeke works as a regional sales representative for Central Steel & Wire in Milwaukee, and the company has 12 season tickets for the Bears, including the four where he and his friends will sit Sunday.
He said he knows some Bears season-ticket holders who are selling tickets Ñ to Packers fans Ñ for Sunday’s big game to pay off the balance of their season tickets. The face value of his tickets are $200 Ñ a fourth of the average cost. But don’t look for him to sell his tickets. He’s going to the game.
“It's super exciting,” Verbeke said. “I don't even know if you could put words to that.”
All week, Cole has done just about everything he could possibly think of to occupy himself and to think as little about Sunday's game as possible. Easier said than done.
Is it Sunday yet? Almost.
The biggest thing to occupy his time this week Ñ other than the anticipation for the big game Ñ is organizing the company ice fishing party today.
Cole works at Cole Manufacturing. He’s worked there for about two years.
“That's been distracting me a little bit,” Cole said.
Just a little bit?
“When I think about (the game), (the week) slows down a little bit,” Cole said.
The two have gone to big sporting events together before.
Last year, the two were at the United Center when the Chicago Blackhawks clinched their best-of-seven series against the San Jose Sharks to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. Does this draw a comparison? Not even close.
“This is probably going to be more exciting than the Super Bowl,” Cole said.
This is a game that will be talked about for decades.
“I'm going to watch history,” Cole said.