Hoge's Bears Things: Legit Field of Dreams vibes in Indianapolis

WESTFIELD, Ind. — If you build it, they will come.

Apparently, that’s what they did in the cornfields north of Indianapolis. Grand Park is an enormous sports complex with what seems like 100s of football, soccer and baseball fields. The surrounding community is being built up with nice homes and the complex now hosts training camp for the Indianapolis Colts. There’s even a Starbucks being built down the road — so you know they’ve made it.

On Wednesday evening, Grand Park also hosted the Bears and it was a beautiful night for joint practices between the two teams. There were legitimate Field of Dreams vibes — the football version, at least — as the sun set over fresh-cut grass. It’s not quite the cornfields of Iowa, but the players even emerge from a small forest of trees as they enter the practice fields. 

For me, Wednesday’s practice brought back memories of Bears training camp in Bourbonnais — although Grand Park is more like Olivet Nazarene University on steroids. There’s something to be said for getting away for training camp, and Wednesday’s practice felt more like a true training camp practice. The added intensity of practicing against a real opponent added to the vibes.

Don’t get me wrong — the Bears have done a really nice job with their new(ish) training camp setup at Halas Hall. And, technically, Grand Park is a lot closer to Lucas Oil Stadium than Halas Hall is to Soldier Field. But anyone who was out at practice in Westfield — and there were a ton of Bears fans who showed up in force — knows what I’m talking about. 

It was just a beautiful setting for August football. And practice was a lot of fun. For our full recap, check out our CHGO Bears Podcast from last night. I promise we had as much fun as the players on the field.

Up Next: The Bears and Colts link up for another practice Thursday night at 5 p.m. CT and our entire CHGO Bears team will be there with a recap show later Thursday night.

Dive deeper: Nicholas Moreano’s notes from the combined practice

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