Open Thread Question of the Day: Who was your first favorite Bears player?

Seeing the game through a child’s eye is a fun way to see football.

You never forget your first, right?

Firsts are remembered with the rose-colored glasses of time they were experienced in.

Have you gone back to watch your first favorite movie? The one you LOVED when you were say six or seven years old? A lot of times it does not hold up to a more mature or sophisticated tastes.

With experience and knowledge, often you figure things out and understand why things have the merit that they have.

Sometimes it can be the same with athletes. Why did I love that one player when I was a kid? He wasn’t very good.

I say it a lot, but I came to sports just a little bit later than some people. Sports, especially football, was mostly background noise when I was little. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that i started paying attention to the score, how the games worked, who won and, perhaps most crucially, who was actually playing for the teams.

My older brother was into sports well before me and used to get mad when I said I had a favorite team because I couldn’t name more than two or three players. You know how brothers are.

“You’re not a true fan, you can only name three guys!” That type of thing.

For the Bears, though, my first favorite player was Brian Urlacher. He was drafted in 2000, when I was 12 years old. He immediately became a rock star in Chicago and a cornerstone for the Chicago Bears.

Not a bad first favorite player though, right? He’s in the Hall of Fame!

Having a kid of your own, though, changes things. Little kids are funny. My daughter, Holly, is five now and last year was really the first time she kind of, sort of, understood what was going on during Bears games.

She still doesn’t get the nuances, like four downs and offense and defense come on and off the field, etc. But her enthusiasm is unmatched.

And hopefully, her first favorite player is going to work out as well as mine did.

It’s Caleb Williams.

Obviously.

I talked about him enough and early in the season, she’d want me to play with her while the game was on and I would. But as soon as the offense got the ball, I would say, “hold on, I want to see Caleb Williams.”

Soon she asked me what number he was. Now she was constantly asking “Where’s number 18?” So I explained to her where the QB stood and how he got the ball first on every play. She knew where to look and she would get all excited “There’s 18, Dad! There’s Caleb Williams!”

Caleb has a huge fan in my daughter now. Of course she’s had a Bears outfit since she was little but this past season she finally out-grew it.

When it came time to pick out a new shirt, you know which one was her favorite as soon as she saw it in the store. I said “Oh, look what number is one here.”

“18.”

“You know who wears 18…”

“Caleb Williams, oh he’s my favorite!”

I hope she’ll get many years of enjoyment from her first favorite player.

Who was your first favorite player?