The Chicago Bears held a mini-dress rehearsal Sunday with the return of Family Fest to Soldier Field.
Head coach Ben Johnson stepped onto Soldier Field for the first time Sunday with the home team. A small, but lively crowd was on hand with Lollapalooza happening right down the street.
Johnson was not too happy with the offense’s rhythm Sunday, saying practice was sloppier than he would have liked. But Johnson did not mind the chance for his team to get a few jitters out of the way.
“Man, it’s great to be out there. The weather’s incredible. The fans are amazing. I know our guys felt it. We treated it somewhat like our preseason zero game, if you will, by staying downtown last night. A special thank-you to George [McCaskey] and Kevin [Warren] and Ryan [Poles] getting that done for us, because the guys certainly, they felt it, you know?” said Johnson. “We go into next week, our first preseason game — particularly the young guys, they get amped up a little bit, so hopefully, a little familiarity with the process will calm their nerves a little bit, and then they can go out and play.”
Bears tight end Cole Kmet said there was some noticeable anxiety from the newer members of the team.
“I kind of felt a little bit of nervous energy a little bit — I just kind of felt that from maybe guys who are new or younger guys on the team, you know, first time out in the stadium, fans around, and I think that’s a good thing for us to go to, and you know, it did kind of feel like a little bit of a preseason game atmosphere in a sense,” Kmet said.
Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards noticed the difference between practicing at Soldier Field and practicing at Halas Hall.
“Summertime Chi, baby. That’s the place to be,” Edwards said. “But it was awesome to kind of get down here, and obviously get out to Soldier, with all the fans obviously to break it out from practicing at Halas, and kind of get on the game field. Man, it was awesome.”
The Bears will be back along the lakefront next Sunday to take on the Miami Dolphins for their preseason game for 2025, after holding a joint practice with Miami on Friday.