There’s an Associated Press pic that basically says it all. Caleb Williams, Bears draft cap perfectly placed on his perfectly coiled ‘fro, Chrome Hearts suit still zipped, surrounded by insanely excited Bears fans, minutes after he was drafted, screaming into a camera, letting the world know what this feeling feels like.
With all around him letting all know what it feels like for us. The exuberance and euphoria captured.
So this, in any way you want to picture it, is the new new. The beginning of the new beginning. A generational quarterback coming to a team that has never had a quarterback pass past 4,000 yards or for 30 touchdowns in a season, being drafted in the beginning stages of what will possibly be remembered as the QB Era of the NFL. How lucky are we? Or has the last 104 years been worth this moment? We’re about to find out.
But as Williams enters our lives, let’s not lose sight that, for the Bears, that was just the half of it. The day before the draft, their strategically orchestrated news conference to announce a new stadium buildout to keep the team in the city was a slice of public-relations brilliance. It was as if a perfect storm (at the most perfect time) finally said, “OK, let’s visit Chicago.” In a week that will change the team and organization forever, the past few days — including the selections of Hinsdale Central alum Kiran Amegadjie at offensive tackle straight outta Yale in the 3rd round, Iowa punter Tory Taylor in the 4th round and Kansas edge rusher Austin Booker in the fifth to round out their draft picks for 2024 — will go down in Chicago history as the sports antithesis of the Chicago Fire or Red Summer.
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Is there room for unconditional excitement? Hell yeah. Is there room for undeniable skepticism? Hell to the yeah. The risk-reward history of this franchise doesn’t disappear just because they are in the midst of a moment unlike any the city has ever experienced. So let us have this week. Let us bask in the new hope and no longer false premise of our immediate and distant future.
“Fulfilling expectations.” The two words that will follow and haunt Williams for one reason and the Bears for another. “Fulfilling promises.” The two words that will haunt and seek to destroy the Bears ownership for one reason and Kevin Warren just on general purpose. But those can wait. As we have to enjoy this space while we can still hold it, let this feelgood reality we’ve never felt before linger for a couple of more days before the real reality returns from its offseason vacay.
Because, on all surfaces, it seems organizationally the Bears got something right. The promise and circumstance around Williams was so hype that while he was not the only “wrong” choice for the Bears at that No. 1 pick, he was the only “right” one; he wasn’t the only “can’t miss” in their options but would have been their “only miss” had they chosen someone else. The low-risk selection of wide receiver in Rome Odunze as the ninth pick to be his PIC (Partner In Crime) for the journey only made the “Bears Week” more perfect.
Yes, there’s going to be locker room questions and leadership questions and questions about whether Williams is mentally strong enough to carry everything that comes with this city’s football history as he is given the responsibility of elevating this team past the Vikings, Packers and Lions and beyond on a regular basis for the next 6-10 years. Or at the least before an extension can be attached to his rookie contract.
And yes there’s already questions and concerns and pushback about the proposed stadium and efforts being made to keep the Bears in the city. Everything from Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Friends of The Parks not immediately co-signing or even favoring the concept to public outcries for the blasphemy of having a pastor speak at the unveiling of the rendering. Because even though “In God We Trust” is on the dollar bill, putting God in the middle of a $4.7 billion Lake Shore Drive stadium plan might not be the way to get the city’s football prayers answered.
But still we rise. Rise above the noise to rest (if only for a second or two) in this week of seminal excitement that has fallen upon this team and this city. Where for a week the Bears were the talk of the NFL for something besides incompetence and losing. We are living in “a franchise” moment for this franchise. For this city. One where the outcome is not guaranteed but there’s promise both on and off the field unlike anything anyone claiming this place home has ever gone through.
Enjoy it people. Enjoy it even if it’s not deserved. Because this right now will never happen for us again. While things moving forward will continue to happen to us, this for us life we’re living in is like for once the football gods looked away from all of the other cities in the NFL and looked down at Chicago and finally said, “We got you.”
