By: Jacob Christner
I have a story to tell, and it’s a bit long winded.
I became a Bears fan in 1984 at the ripe old age of 6(yes, I could absorb what was going on). Since there was never cable television in the house, Dad and I got sports on the weekends. Depending on the season, we got the Cubs on the game of the week, the Celtics on Sundays, and the Bears on Sundays. At that time, I picked properly. The first eight years had fourteen division titles, five conference titles, and three rings. Imagine getting home every Sunday and you know your team will win. From the middle of 1984 to 1987, the Bears didn’t lose two in a row. Till 1989…never three in a row. I didn’t see the Celtics lose at Boston Garden till the Game 5 against the Knicks in 1990.
But I’ve told my Larry Bird stories. This is about the Bears.
Those Bears had an aura. They EXPECTED to win every single week. That was Mike Ditka. He owned that team and owned Chicago. His strength wasn’t Xs and Os (In fact, his OC was a former QB from the 1930s, and if it wasn’t for McMahon and Payton ignoring Ditka, it would be worse), but motivation. Warts and all, he sold the town on the team winning…a team with a poor infrastructure and a rough recent past (No titles since 1963, and only a couple miracle playoff appearances in the late 70s). Ditka pulled it off by making all the decisions, and winning ballgames. Those were great times, and it really hasn’t been the same since (especially against the Packers).
But the last twenty years have been absolutely insufferable as a Bears fan, and not even for the record in that time (159-171, and it’s that close because of Lovie. You should see the past ten years). It’s because the Bears have actually had two eras where they were pretty close to building a consistently strong team that one player could put them over the top, and fans whined when the winning wasn’t flashy enough. Even worse, the front office kept listening.
A timeline:
2005: The Bears draft Kyle Orton in the fourth round from Purdue, and because of an injury to Rex Grossman(more on that in a minute), and Chad Hutchinson being awful, Kyle Orton gets the starting job. Fans immediately predicted doom, especially after a 1-3 record, but the team started coming together. The run game was strong, Kyle limited mistakes, and the defense was just a monster(8 out of 16 games giving up single digit points). Still, fans whined for Grossman. He had a flashier arm and was a highlight factory, but he was also wildly inconsistent and made stupid throws. Grossman cost them a playoff run in 05, and the Super Bowl the next year. Yes, the Bears would have won that Super Bowl with Orton. Not because of him…he’d had the same 145 yards and a TD as Grossman, but he wouldn’t have had all those backbreaking turnovers, and Lovie would have focused on the run game instead of following the insane route of trying to go toe to toe with Peyton Manning.
2005-2009 was the first straw in my anger towards Bears fans. Those teams almost had it all…Devin Hester, the special teams behind Hester, that defense, the run game. A star QB would have just been a huge bonus, but they just had to have a consistent one that limited mistakes and made some plays. They had that and benched him.
Back to the point of the column.
2007: Bears trade Thomas Jones to make room for Cedric Benson. This is very underrated in the bad ideas department. Thomas Jones was a monster in the run game…2500+ yards in two years, 15 TDs, broke tackles, good blocker. He did it all. Ended his career with 10000+ yards in eleven years. In 2006, Bears fans were whining that he couldn’t “take it to the house” because his longest run was thirty yards. Was all over sports talk radio and message boards. They said Cedric Benson was better, and needed more touches…that he could “take it to the house”, even though his longest run all year was thirty yards also. The next year, Benson had 3.4 yards a carry before he went to Tampa, and Thomas Jones had 3800 yards and 28 TDs in three years with the Jets.
2008: I call the end of this era absolutely unnecessary. 2008 started with Kyle Orton proving my point about the Super Bowl by going into Lucas Oil Stadium and clobbering the Colts. Zero mistakes by Orton, awesome run game, great special teams, and a beast defense. The Super Bowl had three of those four things. No one had to outduel Manning with that team, and that is the point. Anyway, Kyle Orton had a Kyle Orton year, although he was having a career year before his high ankle sprain. The team ended 9-7, just out of the playoffs. They were probably a wide receiver and one more pass rusher away. What happens?
2009/2010: Fans spent all of 2008 throwing a temper tantrum over Orton despite a 21-12 career record. They got their wish again. Chicago trades Orton to Denver for Jay Cutler, and cue the premature celebrations. Oops…Mike Martz gets hired as OC and Greg Olsen is traded because he wouldn’t have been a part of Martz’s offense. There are consequences to stupid decisions, fans, especially when the trade is for a QB that was Rex Grossman with more talent…a highly talented but seriously mistake prone QB with an infuriating lazy streak.
Note: Fans, if you want to replace a QB that helps win games, please have higher expectations. Your severe addiction to highlights hurts teams more than it helps. More on that in a bit.
We know this story by now. 2010 was a really good year. Bears win their last playoff game, and get the ultimate challenge…the Packers at home for a chance at the Super Bowl.
Cutler quit. He flat out quit. I don’t care what his excuses were, or what Lovie said. He quit in the biggest moment of the team’s life. He didn’t protest to go back in, he looked indifferent and uncaring, and it spit in the face of all of us Bears fans that remembered Jim McMahon annoying Ditka into coming into a game fresh from a hospital stay the week before. It’s almost more blame on fans that only care about their entertainment and less about winning. As a teammate, there was nothing wrong with Kyle Orton. Zero. Three different times, he had over one hundred throws without an interception, including two hundred and five. It’s all the team needed with that run game, special teams, and defense. If there aren’t mistakes, defense stays off the field longer. If they get to rest, they are even more devastating. This isn’t rocket science. There was also one more consequential issue to that trade.
2012/2013: Lovie Smith is fired, replaced by NOT Bruce Arians. Another stupid fans wish comes to fruition. After four 10+ win seasons, including the final one, Lovie is fired and replaced by Marc Trestman. Admittedly, that decision is not the fans fault, but whining about Orton was, which brought in Jay Cutler, which cost the team Bruce Arians. Cutler didn’t want someone as tough as Arians holding him accountable, so the Bears get a former OC and Canadian football coach to tuck Cutler in at night. That would be the fault of the fans by proxy.
And there is one more fault that the fans do not realize.
2017: We know who got drafted, and we know who is playing hindsight bingo. The original argument was Watson, but since Watson had more fetishes than NFL wins, it is the in thing to say the Bears would have had Mahomes and all those rings, but we know only Reid and Brett Veach knew what they had in Mahomes, but it sure would have been sweet to have Arians because Mahomes wasn’t getting developed under John Fox.
So, for better or for worse, Mitchell Trubisky was the Bears choice, so grow up and live with it, fans.
The fans refused and threw a four year temper tantrum.
They booed him at Wrigley and United Center for absolutely no reason, they attacked online when he would do a charity event, and a lot of the fans rooted for him to lose(You should have seen 2020 when the fans were SO SURE Deshaun Watson was going to come into Soldier Field and embarrass Mitch, and the Bears won 36-7). Mind you, there’s no mistaken that Trubisky would never be a star or hall of famer, but he did his job despite a coach that sandbagged him, and a fanbase that made up their minds to hate him.
Note: I won’t bring up Matt Nagy anymore than I just did. He hated the one QB he could win with, and sabotaged his career. Also, one thing to remember is that there would be no Nagy or Fox if Cutler didn’t bomb Arians from being the Bears coach. There are consequences to all levels of stupidity, especially Bears fans stupidity.
And now, the final straw.
2021-Present: Truthfully, I don’t like doing this to Justin Fields. He is everything you do want as a player, teammate, and man. Hard worker, absolute warrior, great to fans, wants to win. Everything you want in a QB
But from the beginning, so many fans made delusional predictions about Justin. “He didn’t need help”, “he’d make Nagy’s offense look good”, “he’s BUILT DIFFERENT”, “he’ll NEVER lose to the Packers”, “He’ll have 4000 yards and 30-40 TDs”, and on and on. All the delusional lies and wishful thinking just to bring a narrative against a QB they hated for no reason outside of he wasn’t their choice.
One of two that helped win games consistently or semi-consistently. They hated that one also.
The reason I didn’t want Fields, believe it or not, had everything to do with Tom Brady. During 2020, when Bears world was trying so hard to run Trubisky out of town with pitchforks and torches, all I was doing was telling the world to replace him properly. At the time, Mitch’s record was 23-18 and 19-11 over the previous two years. He’d broken three Bears records, and the Bears had been to the playoffs. With that roster, a better QB finishes the job. The Bears were close.
Tom Brady was available. I felt like the only one that cared. Not that he was coming to the Bears, but I wanted fans to pine for the greatest QB ever. All they did was make fun of his final pass in New England…a pick six. Instead, they slobbered over five year old Cam Newton highlights.
Now, mind you, Cam Newton on the Bears in 2015 would have been amazing. The guy was supernatural. 3837 yards with a 35/10 ratio and 5 yards a carry over 16 games with 10 more TDs. That goes without saying. This was also five years past that, and a double shoulder and foot surgery later. Fans were enamored with old highlights and making fun of Brady’s final pass.
So what happens? Bears get Nick Foles, who was awful with Nagy’s RPO offense, Cam goes to New England, where he’d play decent before getting COVID, but wasn’t the same, and Tom Brady won ring number seven.
RING. NUMBER. SEVEN!
For everything I have written, this has been the final straw with Bears fans. Brady may have been a long shot to come to somewhere like Chicago, but the fact that absolutely no one pined for the greatest QB ever, and they chose to slobber over highlights, gave me a bad feeling for Fields.
Going into fantasy world for a second, Tom Brady would completely rebuild Bears culture and infrastructure. The expectations would be Ditka level on steroids. Day one would be a boardroom meeting on a complete reconstruction of the offensive line with Olin Kreutz in charge. Training camp would be nothing but position, footwork, everything. You don’t go on that team estimating fantasy numbers. Everyone blocks, everyone catches passes, everyone has a role. Most of all, everyone has the highest expectation to win every week. Outside of his final season, Tom Brady had 3 game winning streaks. He also had 11 six game winning streaks, 8 eight game winning, and 8 ten game winning streaks.
But those spin moves for ten yard TD throws are so awesome on YouTube.
Back to reality, this is what Bears fans do not understand. They slobber over Caleb Williams highlights and want to threaten to pull out the pitchforks if it’s Drake Maye. Truth is that there is no infrastructure for any rookie. There wasn’t for Mitch, there isn’t for Justin, and there won’t be for Caleb. All the fans crying in hindsight about picking Mitch over Mahomes(It was Watson) forget that it was John Fox and Dowell Loggains developing him instead of Andy Reid.
Now imagine if it was Bruce Arians as a Bear.
Just imagine.
