There is a selflessness to being a sports fan.
For a few hours each week, I allow my emotional existence to be impacted by a collection of individuals with whom I have zero personal connection. They don’t know me. They don’t care about me. To paraphrase a great Jerry Seinfeld bit, the only thing linking us is the laundry the fellas wear.
But emotions are only involved when there are expectations, and it’s been five years since I’ve had any expectations when it comes to the Chicago Bears. After sitting in the building and watching Cody Parkey shank away the 2018 season, Noah and I drowned our grief at the Lou Malnati’s bar. There was immense sadness, but that sadness was accompanied by hope. 2018 was a site to build upon, and 2019 would be the erection of a championship tower. I predicted the 2019 Bears to go to the Super Bowl, but Mitch Trubisky had other plans. (Those plans, it would turn out, were that he would play the quarterback position badly.)
Ryan Poles made two moves over this last week, trading for a pair of defensive linemen in Darrell Taylor and Chris Williams. To the outside observer, these would be considered minor moves, depth moves, backend of the roster stuff. But they struck me, symbolically, as the moves of a GM who thinks his roster is close to competing for a title. And I happen to think he’s right. The 2024 Bears have a terrific defense and the best collection of “skill” players in organization history. This is a team that should win double-digit games and be in the tournament come January. And one has to look no further than last year’s NFC playoffs to understand that every team in the tournament has a prime opportunity to play on the final Sunday.
Why can’t this team make a deep run in January? The only argument that holds water is they’re starting a rookie quarterback, and a rookie quarterback has never won a title. C.J. Stroud had just about the best rookie season at the position we’ve ever seen but he inevitably ran into a great Ravens defense in January, ending the fairy tale. But this is sports. “Never” is constantly changing. Caleb Williams is taking over an offense that was second in the league in rushing a season ago and they have supplemented that attack by adding the league’s fifth best rushing back, D’Andre Swift. They’ve also added two premier receiving weapons in Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze. It is fair to acknowledge no rookie quarterback has won a title while also recognizing no rookie quarterback has ever had a supporting cast this deep and versatile.
So let this column be your permission slip: it’s okay to have big expectations for the 2024 Bears. It’s okay to allow yourself to be hurt. Low expectations for a roster this good are the coward’s way out of the fan experience.
So take this Labor Day weekend and enjoy yourself.
Go to the beach.
Lay by the pool.
Grill up a few Sabretts and down a few Molsons.
But when you wake up next Tuesday morning, it’s officially the first week of the 2024 NFL season. Expecting greatness from the Chicago Bears should not only be tolerated but expected.