This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Robert Zeglinski is filling in for Andy Nesbitt.
For as long as I can remember, the Bears have never had a great quarterback. They’ve had All-Pros and Hall of Famers at almost every position.
Yet, somehow, they’ve never had a truly great quarterback.
As a tortured Chicagoan who loves that orange C on the helmet almost as much as my loved ones, it’s not a fun experience watching the Bears waste the talents of so many awesome players; repeatedly starting from scratch because they couldn’t make a quarterback click. I’m understating the futility. It’s beyond depressing.
In Justin Fields, they finally have that player. That superstar. That quarterback. And you know what? Even while I feel so much joy watching a young, exciting player everyone in the football world is starting to fall in love with, it’s still so hard for me to believe it finally happened. I know this might be a foreign concept to some of you used to competent offensive football. As your teams make deep playoff runs year after year with incredible quarterbacks, you might find it hard to relate to this strange feeling.
But, once again, the Bears have a leader who can launch 60-yard bombs with a flick of his wrist and decide he’ll run 60-plus-yard touchdowns mid-play. One of the only thoughts staying in the front of my mind about this new reality is:
What?
The Bears aren’t supposed to have a quarterback defenses fear, an NBA alpha dog in football form. Their quarterback is supposed to be a game manager, as everyone hopes and prays a star-studded defense lifts them to victory while they successfully play the field position battle.
The Bears aren’t supposed to have a clear answer at quarterback everyone is enamored with. Every native Chicagoan knows one thing — the most popular person in town, by far, is the Bears’ backup quarterback. By late October, we’re supposed to be arguing about the backup taking the helm so the Bears can crawl to a Wild Card spot or steal one meaningless game from the Packers.
The Bears aren’t supposed to have a star quarterback who dominates in place for a decade or more. This team’s exhaustive list of starters since Jim McMahon is a prideful, living, breathing meme in itself. It’s a place of comfort.
Want to know what it feels like to closely follow the Bears as a relatively young person? I started watching the NFL’s oldest franchise in 2006 when I was still a kid, and the best roster they’ve built in the last four decades — that played in a Super Bowl! — was ultimately sunk by the bumbling Rex Grossman.
And I’m probably “lucky” in the context of most Bears fans!
Before this fall, most of the team’s diehards wouldn’t be able to tell you about the last time they had a legit star signal-caller. Some might name McMahon — the steward of the legendary 1985 squad — but I have reservations about calling a quarterback who threw 11 touchdowns in said season a “star,” regardless of statistical differences in eras. It’s bleak, and it’s all we, as a sad bunch, have ever known.
To upend all of this “comfort,” to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel in Fields’ official arrival as a bona fide STAR is just strange. All I’ve known on an emotional level as a football fan is evaporating, and I can’t believe it.
Please have patience with Bears fans like me. We’re not used to having a face of the league making defenses sweat every week, and it influences our behavior. My colleagues at this here website are too nice to say anything to the contrary, but I’m fairly certain I annoy them with how much I mention the former Ohio State Buckeye. I’m not unique in this regard. They should know Fields stands as the likely most significant event for every football-loving Chicagoan. In talking about him all the time, it’s almost like we’re in a collective state of disbelief he wears an orange C on his helmet.
I realize there’s a long way to go. I know Fields still has a lot to prove as the Bears try to give him a roster worthy of his special abilities. But Chicago finally has a great quarterback.
And as he goes on to break more records, win so many games, and maybe even hoist a Lombardi Trophy or two — I don’t think I’ll ever fully come to terms with it.
Quick hits: LeBron James defended Kyrie Irving … Jack Eichel trolls Sabres fans … What was that, Marcus Mariota? … and more.
— LeBron James called Kyrie Irving’s Nets suspension excessive
— Jack Eichel trolled Buffalo fans after a goal against his former team.
— What was that throw, Marcus Mariota?
— The aircraft carrier college hoops game is back, so let’s look back at some photos of some past games on ships.
