David Kaplan speaks his mind in this week’s Chat Room

At 21, David Kaplan had no interest in law school. So when he was offered a part-time coaching job at Northern Illinois, he dropped everything and moved to DeKalb — even if it meant earning a measly $4,200 annual salary.

But nearly four decades later, Kaplan has become one of the most recognizable faces in Chicago media.

Kaplan, who hosts shows on ESPN 1000 and NBC Sports Chicago, is known for his big personality, his relentless energy, and for being an unapologetic Cubs fan.

Love him or mock him, Kaplan always keeps it real.

“I don’t ever want to be that guy that’s like, ‘Ahh, I shouldn’t say that because it might upset somebody,’ ” Kaplan said. “I’m just going to be me. This is who I am. I don’t ask you to agree with my opinions. I just ask you to listen, watch, read it and understand that I’m giving you my honest opinion. I don’t ever do a show where I go, ‘OK Madeline, you take that side, I’ll take this side and we’ll just argue because it’s entertaining.’ It’s not authentic. I want to always be authentic.”

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And he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

“People have asked me, ‘Are you going to leave Chicago? Are you going to try and aspire to go national?’ ” Kaplan said. “And the answer is no. This is my town, this is where I grew up. Love this place. I bleed this city.”

Kaplan joined the Sun-Times for this week’s Chat Room.

Between ‘‘Sports Talk Live’’ on NBC Sports Chicago, your radio show on ESPN 1000, cryotherapy treatments, workouts, maintaining your Keto diet and everything else, how do you find time to sleep?

David Kaplan: “So my wife has been an amazing influence on me and how I’ve evolved as a person. And she had this, for lack of a better term, ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting with me probably three or four years ago. And she’s like, ‘You don’t get enough sleep, I’m totally in love with you and I don’t want you to drop dead.’

‘‘And now I’m really good about at least getting into bed. Like she can fall asleep in two seconds, for me, it’s a lot harder process. I have this kind of strategy, I play golf holes in my head. Her boss, Marc Malnati, had said, ‘Think of a course that you know every hole intimately well and think how — all right I’m gonna hit my first shot here and then I’m going to try to play to this spot here.’ And it actually gets me to sleep.”

How do you find ways to unplug from everything?

DK: “When I’m home, I don’t know if I’m ever totally unplugged — that’s just not who I am. I’ve had people say, ‘Well, when you go on vacation, just don’t even look on Twitter.’ And that’s just not who I am. I’ve tried and I’m more stressed by [that]. And it’s not fear of missing out, it’s not, ‘Oh, my God there’s going to be a story and I’m not going to be on top of it,’ I’m in Mexico or I’m in Europe or whatever the case may be, it’s just I like being plugged in. I like knowing whether it’s world events, sports, the latest — I like being on top of that.

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“But I guess the best way I unplug is being at home. I have three dogs that are amazing, my wife and my son, Brett, who we go hang out and do things. We’re in a bowling league every Sunday, father-son — it’s a Sunday morning men’s league, he’s 25, but we’ve been bowling for a long time.”

Are you a pretty good bowler?

DK:“I think I average 189, so I’m OK — not great.”

Would a Bears’ Super Bowl victory be bigger than the 2016 Cubs?

DK: “I don’t think it would be simply because the Cubs were 108 years. If the Cubs were to win the next 10 World Series, add it up and they wouldn’t be as big as 2016 because there’s so many people that died and never got to see the Cubs win. And I remember saying to Theo [Epstein], ‘Hey man, I’m not getting any younger. Are you going to get this done or what?’ And he was like, ‘I would make sure I would watch what I eat and take care of yourself and exercise.’ Kiddingly, but I really had this fear — and I’m a huge Chicago sports fan. I want them all to do well, but that’s my one team. And I had this fear, I said to my wife, . . . ‘I’m gonna die and my team is never going to win and it’s going to drive me insane. Forever.’

“And so we went to see that summer Pearl Jam at Wrigley. And Eddie Vedder is up there in a Cubs jersey. He’s got Jose Cardenal, he’s got [Ron] Santo’s kids, and he’s singing, ‘(Someday We’ll Go) All the Way,’ and . . . I got tears rolling down my face, singing it, and I’m like, ‘Could this be the year?’ Like nothing will ever top that. Nothing, for me.”

No one in Chicago will forget where they were when the Cubs finally won the World Series.

DK: “That night was a microcosm of what it meant to be a Cubs fan. You’re terrified, you’re up, you’re tied and you’re thinking, ‘You gotta be kidding me?’ And then they finally won it.”

So you’re the biggest media personality in Chicago when it comes to the Cubs. Everyone assumed you were going to Marquee Network and I think a lot of people were surprised when you renewed your deal with NBC Sports Chicago last May. Why did you decide to do that?

DK: “It was really flattering. I met with them, it was really flattering, I’ve done 25 seasons [of Cubs pre- and postgame shows]. ... Some people, I guess, were like, ‘Really?’ But my dad told me shortly before he died — and he died of a heart attack, it wasn’t like he knew death was coming — he said, ‘Let me just give some advice: Don’t ever run from happiness.’ ...

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“And I love who I work with, I love who I work for, that newsroom is a great place. I just love those people. And while it was really an intriguing concept to be at this new station, and the Chicago Cubs, and all of that, I just couldn’t imagine not working there. And that’s why I turned it down.”

How has sports industry evolved over the years, especially with the rise of social media?

DK: “It’s much harder to develop relationships with athletes, coaches, executives, because back when I started in the business when I got done coaching, I scouted four years in the NBA and I developed amazing, amazing contacts, dealing with agents, dealing with players who then became coaches, I mean on my close friends is Tom Izzo. ... He and I can have a dialogue because he trusts me because we’ve been friends for so long but a lot of the people who are in the business now, they’re afraid of tweets, one quick sound bite that they give you gets blown up, and so they’re way more protective, reserved, afraid to start a relationship because they don’t know where it’s going to lead or if you’re going to burn them.”