Couple share their love -- for the Bears -- in the bedroom For them, team was natural attraction

ANTIOCH -- Merry and Max Ladewig have a marriage made in Soldier Field -- which isn't far from heaven for this couple.

The Ladewigs, whose Antioch Township home is a virtual shrine to the Bears, got serious about each other after discovering that one of the things they have in common is their favorite Bears player, former defensive end Dan Hampton.

"I was a bartender and Max just came in and swept me off my feet," Merry said. "He asked if I liked football and I said yes. I asked him his favorite team and he said the Bears. I was scared he was going to say the Packers."

Then came the critical part.

"He said, 'You don't know the players.' I said my favorite player was Dan Hampton," Merry recalled.

And that was that -- natural attraction.

Perhaps, then, it's appropriate that one of the largest Bears paraphernalia collections in the house is in the bedroom. A Bears quilt that Merry's mother made using old Bears shirts covers the bed, along with a handmade Bears afghan.

Bears posters, pictures, books, videos and other sundries line the walls and compete for shelf space.

"Everything is Bears around here," Merry said.

"We have stuff we have to stow away because there's not enough room," added Max.

The couple plans to make a weekend of the Bears Fan Convention scheduled for early spring. But first there's the little matter of Super Bowl XLI.

Merry thinks the Bears will win and rough up Colts quarterback Payton Manning in the process.

"I'm looking forward to yelling at him on the TV and telling him to rub some dirt in it," she said.

Max thinks the game won't even be close.

"I think the Bears are going to win by a big margin," Max said. "I don't think Manning will be able to speed up the Bears defense. We saw last weekend that the defense can really play."