Packers fan awaits judge's ruling on Sunday game gear

Green Bay Press Gazette

CHICAGO – Now Russell Beckman waits to see if he can wear his Green Bay Packers gear on the sidelines Sunday at Solider Field before the Packers-Bears game.

A U.S. district court judge heard arguments Wednesday from Beckman and the Bears on his request that he be allowed to wear Packers gear as part of a pregame season ticket-holders event.

U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall did not indicate when she would rule, but Beckman is hoping it will be before Sunday's game.

"This judge is wearing the proverbial blindfold. She wasn’t impressed by the Monsters of the Midway and their four attorneys, but she also wasn’t impressed that I’m a regular guy. I think she’s going to call it exactly as she sees it," Beckman said after the hearing.

Beckman sued the Bears in June 2017 because the team would not let him wear his Packers garb on the sidelines at Soldier Field, where he participated in a 2016 pregame event as part of the Bears' season ticket holders' rewards program. He is a Packers fan, and season ticket holder for both teams.

Attorneys for Beckman filed a request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. They argued the Bears are depriving Beckman of his First Amendment right of freedom of expression.

Beckman argued the requirements of the Bears' operating agreement with the Chicago Park District for Soldier Field makes the football team a state actor. In other words, what happens at Soldier Field is a public, not private, activity, as it might be where a team owns its stadium outright.

The Bears counter that the Chicago Park District has no involvement in the rewards program, called the Pregame Warm-up Field Credential Experience, and so it is not subject to state action.

The team has declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Gottschall on Tuesday denied a request by the Bears asking her to reconsider a March 2018 ruling that the case could proceed. The Bears wanted it dismissed.