UA-59049186-1 2024 Chicago Bears Season Preview: Stupid Stuff - Good if it Goes

2024 Chicago Bears Season Preview: Stupid Stuff

It’s time. [Photo: Soldier Field on Twitter]

Not long after the Bears drafted Justin Fields in 2021, Scott Morrow was shot in Humboldt Park. His story went viral because of a quote he gave when detailing what was going through his mind in the moment. From Block Club Chicago:

“I just kept thinking about all of the family and friends I didn’t want to leave behind, and all of the things I still have to do: ‘I’m working on an album. I can’t die before this album gets done.’ And stupid stuff like, ‘I can’t die before I see Justin Fields on the field for the Bears’ — just trying to focus on all of the stuff that I’m looking forward to, and thinking about my mom,” he said.

Fields would end up visiting Morrow and giving him a jersey. I feel bad for that guy. 

Nobody else, though. 

Actually, scratch that. There were these two kids who couldn’t have been more than 8 or 9 who sat in front of me on the bus back from training camp last year. They were so excited because they had gotten Fields’ autograph. I feel bad for them, too. They’re kids, though. They’ll get over it quickly, unless they’re the kind of sports-obsessed nerd that I was at their age. Maybe they were upset the day Fields got traded, but come autumn, they’ll be excited to root for whoever’s out there. That’s the good thing about being a kid – you’re still a goldfish.

So actually, you know what? I don’t feel bad for those kids. This was just their baptism into the fanbase. I went through it at their age, too. My bust was Cade McNown. So, if those kids are reading this, welcome, guys, you’re official now. Hopefully, you’re the last group that has to partake in this particular ritual.

Every other member of the Fields cult can bite me. 

After the end of the US. Civil War, in his second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln spoke of malice towards none and charity for all. After the Bears Civil War, I’m saying “screw that.” It wasn’t just that these people were wrong, it wasn’t just that they were loud and obnoxious in their wrongness, it was that they took away from what should’ve been the most fun Bears offseason of my life. Thus, the banned list exists. When Caleb shines, those jabronis aren’t allowed to celebrate. I’m not a tyrant, though; with a few exceptions, whose names are engraved on the list (Greg Gabriel, the goof who tweeted out the pictures of his guns, a couple real losers who said some truly awful things), I am willing to let folks off the banned list…if they apologize like Happy Gilmore apologizing to Chubbs.

Some of the more annoying folks get the full Jesse Jackson treatment, though. 

Not knowing ball is one thing. Not everyone does, it’s okay. Acting like you do know ball when you don’t have a clue it’s annoying, but hardly anything new. It’s some of the rationale employed by the cult that made the situation truly annoying. The painted nails, crying with his mom after a painful loss, the pink phone – all pure silliness. A poor outing against Notre Dame last year, as though Fields didn’t stink it up against Northwestern in 2020 – foolishness. The most annoying idea, though, was that Caleb wouldn’t want to play here. That he would be turned off by the franchise’s inability to develop a star QB. This is a guy who started playing QB because his team lost a game when he was still a running back, so he decided to become a QB so he could have more control over the game and make sure his team wouldn’t lose anymore. This is a guy who, when asked how he felt about the expectations for the team now that’s he’s here said this:

Yeah, that’s a guy who definitely thinks he couldn’t succeed here. 

Sumito “Ariyo” Ariyoshi is a blues pianist from Japan. He first came to Chicago in 1983 and during his time here, has worked with numerous iconic blues artists. He currently plays the keyboard for Billy Branch and the Sons of Blues. At one point, due to a visa issue, he wasn’t able to get back in the country. The situation went on for years, during which time he wrote this:

It’s a love letter to the city and everything that makes it great. Listening to that song, you can feel Ariyo’s love for Chicago. You listen to someone who’s not from here talk about Cisco that way and you realize how lucky we are to be from here and to not take that lightly. It puts that in a new perspective. Because from time to time, we need those reminders of how lucky we are. Of how great it is to be here. We especially need that now, after months of listening to numbskulls claim that someone wouldn’t want to be here. Listen to the way Anthony Bourdain talked about Chicago:

That’s a guy who went all around the world talking about how great it is here and yet the Fields cult talked about Chicago like it’s Green Bay or Jacksonville or something. And that was the most insulting bit about the whole thing. Here’s Jay Glazer on the topic:

He knows. He knows that if Caleb wins here, twenty years from now, the only boys not named Caleb will be the ones named Connor. 

 

This song was all over the radio this summer. There have been a bunch of songs written about Chicago, few have encapsulated its energy so perfectly. That energy gets cranked to 11 when a team goes on a title run. And if that team is the Bears…man…

One theory about the death of the great philosopher Diogenes is that one day he simply got tired of living. That he had lived enough and done everything there was to do, so one day he just decided to go and die. (Which would totally track for him; to say he was eccentric was putting it mildly. Sam O’Nella did a great video about him that’s hilarious and really accurate. Check it out.) I’d like to think this is how Anthony Bourdain went, that he had just done everything there was to do, seen everything there was to see, experienced all the world had to offer. But it isn’t. Anthony Bourdain took his own life because he was sick. Even though tons of people loved the guy, he couldn’t see it. That’s because depression lies to you. It gaslights you into believing a false reality. And no matter how hard you try and realize that it’s lying, there are still days when you think it might be right. Those are the days when it takes a little extra effort. When you have to find something that pulls you away from that toxic conversation you’re having with your own brain altogether. For me, one of those things has been sports. And it’s why I take umbrage with Scott Morrow referring to it as stupid stuff. Because there was a point where I didn’t want to go on, but I did because the Blackhawks were in the playoffs. And even though they lost in the Western Conference Final, the playoff run was a reason to keep going and then I wanted to keep going because I wanted to see them go all the way the next year. When they did, it made that one extra special. I’ve written about that team before, this is the other half of that story. 

Some of those same dark feelings resurfaced this year. I’m a decade older now and a decade more experienced with this fight. I saw the promise of a really fun fall ahead of me, and many more fun falls after that. The promise of my favorite thing in the world being really, really good. We’ve been waiting to get here for a year now. I watched Fields throw up all over himself against Green Bay in the opener last year and knew it was over. I was fine with that because at least it was an answer. I was not fine with that because my favorite thing in the world, the thing I look forward to all year, had no hope, and I had 16 more miserable Sundays ahead. And then the cult tried telling me we should try it again and, in doing so, pass on the kind of prospect that comes along less frequently than seasons of Rick & Morty. Screw those guys. The cult, I mean, not Rick and Morty. Now to the matter at hand:

Week Opponent Prediction
1 vs. Titans Likely win
2 at Texans Lean loss
3 at Colts Lean win
4 vs. Rams Likely loss
5 vs. Panthers Must-win
6 vs. Jaguars (London) Toss-up
7 BYE
8 at Commanders Likely win
9 at Cardinals  Lean win
10 vs. Patriots  Must-win
11 vs. Packers Toss-up
12 vs. Vikings Likely win
13 at Lions Likely loss
14 at 49ers Very likely loss
15 at Vikings Likely win
16 vs. Lions  Lean loss
17 vs. Seahawks  Lean win 
18 at Packers Lean loss

Depression is nasty. It lies. It doesn’t fight fair. It lingers and waits for its moment to strike. So you have to fight back. Focus on the things you enjoy, no matter how big or how small. Live there, because those are the only things that actually matter. The rest is just stupid stuff. 2024 Chicago Bears: 10-7, 2nd place NFC North, NFC Divisional Round

 

Whatever Elmo’s calling it now, Bluesky, Threads: @312sportsguy

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