​Money talks, and football teams walk – such is life in the NFL. So when it comes to the Bears, a big city team that’s operated like a small-market one for much of its century-plus existence, the people and lawmakers of Chicago should probably take heed before the organization makes good on its escalating threats to decamp the Windy City.I’ve talked to any number of Chicagoans who are dismissive of the notion that the Bears will wind up playing their home games in Hammond, Indiana, which is about 30 miles due south of Soldier Field – or even in Arlington Heights, Illinois, on the 326-acre site the team owns about 30 miles northwest of downtown on the former home of the now-demolished Arlington International Racecourse. And those people may be right. Civic demands, political agendas and deadlines all have a way of exerting pressure and producing alternative solutions … and this has certainly been true in various forms in Chicago over the years. I acknowledge and appreciate the skepticism.But the notion that team chairman George McCaskey, grandson of NFL legend and Bears founder George Halas, won’t move his franchise across state lines out of some sense of nostalgia or municipal ties? Pfft.Chicago ranks third among the United States’ media markets, behind New York and Los Angeles and just ahead of Dallas-Fort Worth. And guess what – neither the Giants, Jets, Rams, Chargers nor Cowboys play within the city limits of the towns they represent. No NFL team has played in a New York City borough for more than 40 years. After the Rams and Raiders left after the 1994 season, L.A. had no team at all for more than two decades – but now you can go watch the Rams and Chargers at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood … which is probably the only reason Angelenos or visitors make the trek to that part of the metropolis. The Cowboys, whose bottom line hasn’t been hurt by playing in stadiums surrounded by massive parking lots in Irving and Arlington, Texas, stopped playing home games in Dallas proper 55 years ago.Oh, and some other things the Jets, Giants, Rams, Chargers and Cowboys have in common? Their stadiums have all hosted Super Bowls and, just this summer, staged a combined 25 World Cup matches. Chicago’s Soldier Field? It’s never had a Super Bowl but did get the World Cup … in 1994. So yeah.In addition, according to Sportico’s just released list of NFL franchise valuations, the Cowboys, Rams and Giants are the league’s top three clubs in terms of estimated worth − all listed at more than $12 billion. The Bears are currently ranked 14th at approximately $9.45 billion.More broadly, 12 of the league’s 32 teams (37.5%) play in suburban sites – and that’s including the regionally branded New England Patriots, who, like the Cowboys, left the big city (Boston in this case) in 1971. And while the Commanders will soon be returning to the District of Columbia after years in the Maryland boonies, the Browns are scheduled to leave Cleveland by the