The Chicago Bears have been a lot of things in the history of their franchise.
They’ve been winners (sometimes). They’ve been losers (a lot). They’ve been maddening (always).
But aside from the Super Bowl-shuffling ’85 squad that dominated the NFL with unprecedented amounts of aura, you would never, ever describe the Chicago Bears as “cool”. As a matter of fact, the Halas-McCaskey family ownership has done everything to ensure the Bears are as vanilla and uninteresting as possible.
All that’s over with
now.
The Bears—that’s right, the Chicago Bears—have swag.
Let’s start with the fact that their quarterback, Caleb Williams, might be the coolest player at his position in football right now—so much so that Madden put him on the cover of its latest game.
I don’t think you understand how big a deal that is.
Forget Madden curses and “it doesn’t matter unless you win something!” tropes. The Chicago Bears have a player—a quarterback, no less—so damn cool and talented that the league and everything affiliated with it wants to put his face on everything. And he looks like he was literally born for it.
(Also, I’m not trying to hear anything about Madden curses. The Bears left curses behind in 2025.)
Oh, and let’s throw in the most maniacal head coach in the league—the guy promised he was going to beat Matt LaFleur and the Green Bay Packers twice last season and actually did it. Not only that: he actually turned a high-school football chant into appointment-TV viewing in an NFL locker room. You have any idea how hard that is to pull off?
Luther Burden III gives off radiative levels of swag and makes you hold your breath every time the ball ends up in his hands.
Colston Loveland turned into a top-five tight end by the time his rookie season was over and looks like a potential superstar in the making.
Kyle Monangai knocks the paint off people’s helmets.
The team as a whole has developed a reputation as a fourth-quarter boogieman with a penchant for walking down opponents in the most cinematic fashion ever.
It’s not just that the Bears are finally relevant again as contenders. It’s that everyone wants to watch them now. (To that effect, they have seven nationally televised/primetime games in 2026.)
When you tell people you’re a Bears fan these days, you don’t have to do it with a sigh, and people don’t immediately go, “Damn…sorry.”
Those of us who weren’t born long enough ago to remember 1985 haven’t experienced something like this: rooting for a Chicago Bears team that was this awesome just off vibes alone. Even in 2018, when they were taking the ball away at a historic rate and had Khalil Mack, no one was trying to put a Bear on the Madden cover. No one was trying to put Mitchell Trubisky on magazine covers.
It’s weird. Maybe it’s a little scary—after all, they have a target on their backs and a tougher schedule to contend with this year.
But most of all…it’s really damn cool.
Enjoy it.
