We didn’t just beat the Packers on Saturday night. We stole something from them: control of the rivalry. For the first time in my 19-year life, the idea of a Bears Super Bowl doesn’t feel like nostalgia or delusion — it feels possible.
I’ve been a Chicagoan my entire life, which means I’ve known one truth: The Packers own us. Year after year, season after season, the rivalry felt less like a competition and more like a sentence: We watch, we hope quietly and we brace for disappointment.
Saturday night, I was at a watch party packed with Bears and Packers fans. The consensus was cautious optimism: the kind we have learned to carry as Bears fans. We knew we could win. We also knew how easily it could fall apart.
At halftime, it felt familiar: losing 6-0 in howling 20 mph winds. We made field goals instead of touchdowns. Even with Jordan Love out, belief felt dangerous.
By the two-minute warning, Packers fans were comfortable again. Up 16-9 with possession, they wore the confidence of decade-long dominance. Bears fans felt that old feeling creep back in — the one that says, this is where it ends. Then something broke the script.
The Bears lined up for an onside kick, a play successful only 8% of this season. Romeo Doubs bobbled it. The Bears recovered the ball, and the house exploded. For the first time all night, hope wasn’t theoretical — it was real.
Caleb Williams took over, moving the ball with purpose. On 4th and 4 with 28 seconds left near the goal line, it felt like everything — this game, this season, this rivalry — came down to a single snap. Jahdae Walker shook the defense and came down with the ball, barely inside the end zone. We were going to overtime.
In overtime, the Packers cracked. A botched snap at the Bears’ 40 gave Chicago the chance to finish the story. Williams launched a 46-yard throw to DJ Moore, a perfect two-handed dive in the end zone. Game over.
Tom Brady called it a “10/10, A+ throw.” But for Bears fans, it was more than that — it was release. The rivalry shifted. We didn’t just win a game; we remembered how to believe.
For the first time in decades, there are two words Chicagoans can discuss without laughing: Super Bowl.
— Jacob Goroff, Chicago
What an embarrassment
As a newspaper reporter on the Bears many years ago and now a fan, I welcomed the hiring of a much-needed team president. But Kevin Warren, once promising in that leadership role, has become embarrassing. He should have realized he would not get the taxpayer money he wanted to help the reported $8.8 billion franchise build a domed stadium. He even took too long conceding there was the only one reasonable stadium site, Bear ownership having already purchased the property in Arlington Heights.
After proposing $2 billion from the Bears toward the roughly $5 billion needed for a new stadium and surrounding infrastructure, Warren should be seeking the additional money with appeals to private investors, the ultra-rich and the obligated NFL. He already has wasted a lot of time, money and publicity on an unworkable lakefront project and now has ridiculously brought Indiana into the act. That’s his response to the state legislature’s denial of a taxpayer bailout.
It’s not likely taxpayers in Indiana or any other place want to financially benefit a multibillion-dollar franchise, even one headed for the playoffs. The Bears figure to be stuck in Soldier Field for quite a while, maybe until their lease expires in eight years.
— Ed Stone, Northbrook
No more rip-offs by Bears
I’ve been an enthusiastic Bears fan for 45 years. I keep up with my team. I attend games occasionally. I watch most games on television. When the Bears are great and win, I’m excited with every play. When the Bears lose, I’m disappointed for an hour or two, and life goes on.
In other words, I’m as loyal and emotionally tied to the Bears as most fans in Chicagoland but certainly not as zealous as the die-hards who live and breathe Bears. My point: If the Bears move to Arlington Heights, fine. If the Bears stay in Chicago, fine. If the Bears move to Indiana, fine.
But please don’t let them rip everybody off like the last time.
— Bob Ray, River Forest
Ticket prices keep rising
Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren was hired for one reason and one reason only: to get the Bears a new stadium deal, period.
He’s looking foolish with all this posturing about wanting to stay at Soldier Field or moving the team to the suburbs (Arlington Heights) or elsewhere in the vicinity of Chicago and now to Indiana. Who is he kidding? And what an insult it is to Bear fans and the taxpayers of Illinois.
The Bears have billions of dollars; they would own the stadium, and all the revenue from it would go into the team’s coffers. For Warren to keep playing this ridiculous game is only ruining his good name and reputation and the Bears’.
I’ve been a season ticket holder since 1986 and have endured endless years, decades of pathetic teams, coaches and executives. My ticket prices have gone up each and every year, even when the Bears were an embarrassment to football. I live in the western suburbs, and just going to a Bears game today is an all-day event. There is only one way in and one way out of Soldier Field.
If they ever move to Indiana, going to a game via Interstate 294, God help us all. No way will keep my tickets; I’m out.
And really, don’t continue to insult Bears fans’ intelligence. We all know, tax breaks or not, you’ll just make up the difference with ticket cost increases.
Just get over yourself and do the Arlington Heights deal and put all this ridiculous time and effort into winning a championship for us Bears fans.
— Ray Calamia, Winfield
Real reward for Bears
The Bears have stunk for years. The McCaskeys want the taxpayers to pay up big time, every time; it’s just what they do.
Just watch what happens if the Bears happen to win the Super Bowl this season. Illinois and Chicago will be throwing money, that they do not have, at the Bears for a new stadium to keep them on the lakefront or at least in Chicago. So in a warped way, the Bear’s and the MaCaskeys are playing with and for other people’s money.
The Super Bowl is the secondary prize, while the fleecing of the taxpayers to get their stadium is the real reward.
— Thomas Burgan, Geneva
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