Actor and die-hard Chicago sports fan William Petersen was interviewed for this week's Sports Illustrated Q&A. Here is the rest of the interview.

SI: What person in sports would make an interesting film subject?

Petersen: I'm not right for the part, but Al Davis would be great.

SI: Now that George Eads is back at CSI and everyone is happy again, shouldn't you as executive producer fine him for playing Evel Knievel?

Petersen: Who says everyone is happy [laughs]? But I can't fine him. He was excited about playing Evel. I think he simply liked the suit. But I'm glad George did it, and I'm glad it wasn't me.

SI: Who is your favorite Chicago athlete?

Petersen: Ron Santo, and now having him as a kind of a friend is remarkable to me because there I am when I was 10 years old, looking up to No. 10 and thinking, 'God, I'd love to get his autograph.' Now he's signing pictures, balls and bats for me.

SI: Last June you sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at Wrigley and someone was quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying you did things to the song that are illegal most southern states. Fair or unfair?

Petersen: That's totally unfair. I totally sang that song great. As long as they don't let any of the Chicago Bears sing that song, nobody can mess that song up.

SI: While you were filming Manhunter in 1985, you left the set in Atlanta to fly to Washington D.C. just so you could watch the Bears on TV, correct?

Petersen: Yeah. Dennis Farina and I were shooting in Atlanta on a Saturday afternoon and we saw that the Bears were playing the Skins, a huge game. So we wrapped shooting Saturday night and jumped on a 9 p.m. flight. On the flight, the stewardesses invited us to some United Airlines party in D.C. So we went to the party and at 3 a.m., I pulled Farina into a cab and we checked into the Bristol Hotel. The next day, we ordered room service and sat there and watched the Bears win. At 5 p.m. that day, we flew back to Atlanta so we could shoot Monday morning. It was great.

SI: Every year Cub fans say, "This is the year." But is this really the year?

Petersen: Well, you know, last year at the All-Star break everybody was like,"They are going to get there." But I was like, "They are still a year away." Then they get in the playoffs and get right to the brink. When it all ended on that horrible night, ESPN had a remote outside. They were going to grab Cubs fans as soon as it ended, and I was stuck at Hollywood Park shooting. All of a sudden, I had to go on the air right after this tragedy happened. You don't want to weep and I could just imagine the people at Wrigley just filing out.

So I said, "You know, I'm not disappointed by this year because I expect it next year," which is now this year. So I was saying "wait till next year" last year. Now I can't say it. This is supposed to be the year, and if they get into the playoffs, which I think they will do, I think in a playoff they can take St. Louis.

SI: Best sports movie ever made?

Petersen: I made a pretty good one [Long Gone], but my favorite sports movie of all time -- and it's just terrible if you look at it now -- is Ray Milland in It Happens Every Spring, an old baseball movie where the guy develops a substance in the lab where he can throw an unbelievable curve ball. He takes the team to the championship game and then he loses the stuff. It's fabulous.

SI: Best job by an actor playing an athlete?

Petersen: Will Smith was pretty good in Ali.

SI: What's the best event that you have gotten to attend thanks to your celebrity?

Petersen: I'm not a big fan of the Super Bowl, but I did that. Playing in the AT&T Pebble Beach tournament, though, is as good as the world gets.

SI: You intended to play football at Idaho State but it never happened. What went down there?

Petersen: I went there, but I had such a bad great point average -- I went to five high schools and played football my senior year in Idaho -- that they said I had to come and get my grade point average up to be eligible. So they put me in these theater classes that were easy. We were just painting flats and hanging lamps and getting A's. There were no tests. So I took three of these classes and fell in love with the people in the theater department. I never did play any ball.

The theater department eventually gave me a scholarship. I was getting $3.50 an hour to be the auditorium manager. Then they gave me service scholarship for making sets. And there were no girls on the football team. All the guys in theater department were gay and all the girls were horny. The great thing now is that Idaho State wants to give me an honorary degree. I took eight classes there and they want to call me an alumni now. I'm like: "You're just giving way college degrees" [laughs].

SI: Do you envision staying with CSI as long as it lasts?

Petersen: You know, as far as I'm concerned, television has become like Major League Baseball or the NBA. You have a contract, they can trade or you or dump you, or you can leave them. The only difference is we don't have free agency, which is something I'm going to work for someday because they don't want to renegotiate with my actors. I don't think that would fly past a sports agent.

Quite frankly, I don't think they handled this well, and that incudes all the powers that be that have something to do with CSI. If somehow the stress gets less and the party gets better, yes, I'll stay. But like an an athlete, I'm just trying just to figure out things day by day and week by week.

SI: Just in case CBS decides to bleed the franchise again and make another CSI spinoff: How about CSI-SI after Sports Illustrated?

Petersen: Why not? You guys can go out and dig up all the skeletons in the closet.