Back when NFL scoreboards couldn’t be relied upon to keep time, officials kept a starter’s pistol on the sideline. As the clock wound down to zero, an official — starting in 1965, it was line judge — would fire the gun in the air to signify the end of a quarter.
The NFL scrapped the practice at the end of the 1993 season, but the colloquialism — to play until the final gun — lived on. While it’s fair to wonder whether a tanking Bears team did that in a 29-13 loss Sunday to the Vikings, there’s no question the men running the first 14-loss team in franchise history need to take the concept of the starter’s pistol literally.
