What does the McCaskey family do right as owners of the Chicago Bears?

Summary

Forward Progress – A Chicago Bears Podcast

Episode: What does the McCaskey family do right as owners of the Chicago Bears?
Hosts: Dan Bernstein (with guest host Cody Delmendo filling in for Matt Abbatacola)
Date: June 11, 2026

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Brief Overview

This episode explores the complex legacy of the McCaskey family as owners of the Chicago Bears. Using spirited banter and decades of frontline experience, Dan Bernstein (with guest Cody Delmendo in for Matt Abbatacola) break down what, if anything, the McCaskeys do right, and why their unique lack of both football and business acumen continues to puzzle and frustrate fans. Alongside this existential discussion, the hosts address current Bears stories: mini-camp updates, the ongoing stadium drama, and the fan experience heading into an optimistic but wary new season.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Existential McCaskey Question

• Stadium Debacle as Microcosm:
  Dan reads and reflects on an email from a Chicago business veteran who contrasts the McCaskeys’ lack of business and political skill with that of big-time dealmakers in sports (03:00-09:30).
  • “The McCaskeys, these dopes, have no such experience. They've built no businesses to compound their wealth alongside their inherited NFL asset. … They're like a rookie quarterback figuring out how to read coverages and prone to making painful mistakes.”
    — [Dan, quoting listener email, 06:08]
• Are the McCaskeys Business People? Football People? Neither?

  • Dan’s distilled verdict:
    “The McCaskeys aren’t business people. Somehow the McCaskeys also are not football people.”
    — [Dan, 09:29]

  • They continually lag behind in all areas, always playing catch-up—whether in facilities, stadium deals, or football operations.

  • Their main “achievements” amount to retiring too many numbers and constantly commemorating 1985 and 1920.

  • “It's pretty amazing that you can go this far and be this proud of something that's been in your family this long and you haven't gotten good at it, at an aspect of it...”
    — [Dan, 13:01]

2. The Process Behind Major Team Decisions

• Who Hired Ben Johnson — Ownership or Football Operations?
  • Matt wonders about ownership’s involvement in the hiring process (10:52).
  • Dan clarifies ownership always has the ultimate say, especially when major financial decisions (like massive coaching contracts) are involved:
    “They can unlock. They can say it's $14 million a year. They got to say yes.”
    — [Dan, 11:49]
• History of Bad Football Choices:
  • The hosts recall missed opportunities, like passing on Bruce Arians for Mark Trestman, as examples of poor instincts and/or reliance on outside advisers:
    “It's just pretty incredible to me that you could say, well, they don't really know football … They don't really pay attention. The Bears are just a little line item … This is all they have. And they're bad at it.”
    — [Dan, 12:17]

3. Sustained Pessimism and Hope as a Fan

• Why the Bears Inspire (Justified) Fan Skepticism:

  • Cody (filling in for Matt) identifies the Bears as his most pessimistically-viewed franchise, despite the “magical” previous year (14:37).
  • The hosts agree that even with a potential franchise quarterback and right coach, McCaskey ownership is a constant source of doubt:
    • “There's still that little voice in the back of my head thinking, like, it could easily fall apart after one year.”
      — [Cody, 15:03]

• Compartmentalizing Stadium Drama from Football Optimism:

  • Dan argues fans can choose to focus on what’s fun—the exciting offseason, the hope around Caleb Williams—while ignoring the ownership and stadium woes (16:44-21:08).
  • However, the hosts acknowledge that off-field incompetence inevitably seeps into fan confidence, especially in the offseason news vacuum.

4. Ownership Comparisons and Lost Business Opportunities

• Contrast with Other Chicago Owners:
  • Dan makes pointed reference to owners like Jerry Reinsdorf (White Sox/Bulls) and the Ricketts family (Cubs), who, despite their flaws, possess clear business acumen and have learned from mistakes.
    • “Guys never lost a real estate deal in his life … He knows how to make deals.”
      — [Dan on Jerry Reinsdorf, 17:11]
    • “The Ricketts family got better. ... They hired people. And more importantly, they listened to the people they hired, where the Bears were just a mark for the next Kevin Warren grift.”
      — [Dan, 18:45]
  • Bears ownership, by contrast, is perpetually behind the curve, failing to learn from errors or innovate.

5. Current Bears Notes

• Mini-camp and Ben Johnson’s Coaching Style:

  • Caleb Williams is progressing, Ben Johnson is emphasizing “coaching up” players harder, especially on defense.
    “Ben Johnson has said he's going to coach better. He told everybody ... to coach you harder, coach you better. And Sweat laughed. He said, I'm expecting the worst.”
    — [Dan, 28:47]

• Injuries & Roster Moves:

  • Jedrick Wills, a “wild card” at left tackle, was seen participating, potentially impacting O-line competition (31:13-31:35).

• Nike 'Rivalries’ Uniforms:

  • Bears vs. Packers on Christmas Day will feature special “rivalries” uniforms (23:14-27:55).
  • Some playful banter about past uniform disasters, and excitement for the reveal.

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Memorable Quotes

• On Ownership’s Lifelong Incompetence:
  “This is all they have. It's all they have. And you haven't gotten good at anything. ... What have you, other than retiring numbers?”
  — Dan Bernstein [12:22]

• On Bears Fans’ Perpetual Skepticism:
  “For the Bears, I'm—I… The Bears, that—I'm the most pessimistic of any team that I, that I like.”
  — Cody Delmendo [14:37]

• On How the McCaskeys Fall Short Compared to Other Owners:
  “The guy will not agree to a contract he's gonna lose. There's something to that. That's business sense.”
  — Dan Bernstein, on Jerry Reinsdorf [17:11]

• On Fans Choosing Their Focus:
  “If you want to let the fact of McCaskey incompetence overshadow your on-field thoughts for the Bears...that's a choice.”
  — Dan Bernstein [21:05]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:00–09:30: Listener email and existential McCaskey business/football discussion
• 10:52–13:13: Ownership’s involvement in hiring decisions—Ben Johnson and historical missteps
• 14:37–16:44: Bears as the most pessimism-inducing Chicago team
• 16:44–21:08: Compartmentalizing off-field drama; why fans are justified in skepticism
• 17:11–18:45: Chicago sports owner comparisons (Reinsdorf, Ricketts)
• 23:14–27:55: Nike “rivalries” uniform talk and league marketing
• 28:47–31:13: Mini-camp, Ben Johnson’s approach, and injury worries
• 31:13–31:35: Jedrick Wills sighting and offensive line outlook

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Tone and Language

• Largely irreverent and unsparing, heavy on sarcasm and dry humor.
• Candid, with no attempt to sugarcoat the McCaskeys’ shortcomings—“Congratulations, because that is a pretty spectacular achievement.” (Dan Bernstein, 09:36)
• Loosely structured, conversational, punctuated with Chicago sports insider wit and inside jokes.

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Summary

This episode crystallizes a central frustration of Bears fandom: the McCaskeys’ unique inefficiency both as business people and as stewards of an NFL legacy. Using current events (notably the stadium fiasco and coaching hires) as launching points, Bernstein and Delmendo argue the family’s persistent backwardness permeates every aspect of the franchise. Yet, they acknowledge the paradoxical ability of fans to enjoy on-field promise while accepting persistent organizational doubt. With humor and sharp insights, the hosts make it clear: the Bears may finally have a quarterback and a coach, but dysfunction at the top remains—and will define their hopes as much as any draft pick or uniform change.

Transcript

[Dan Bernstein]

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[Matt Abeticola]

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[Dan Bernstein]

I mean, if you're a Bears fan, you're thinking forward progress. Come on. Forward Progress a Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and matabeticola on 31 sports. We give you forward progress here on 312 sports. And the Bears are in day three of their mini camp. They are running around and doing things. Ben Johnson is coaching Caleb Williams hard and he likes it and enjoys it. So we're hearing about passes he's completed and passes that he hasn't and people were running with the twos and the threes and the devil and everybody else. So Montez Sweat says he has heard what everybody's saying about the defense. Good. I'm, I'm glad you have. I, I don't. It doesn't matter to me as long as you produce. If the question hey Montez, are you gonna take this as motivation that everybody says the defense was bad last year is going to be bad again? You hear it? Okay, I still want to know is anybody right? We're going on day two of no Questions about Roma Dunes foot, nothing. I guess we're going to be the voices crying in the wilderness here about maybe asking about your number nine overall pick, this big first rounder, supposed to be eventually grown to the favored target of Caleb Williams. And then he says he hurt his foot. His foot's never going to be the same again. Okay, maybe, maybe that's just not a thing that every taking everybody's word for it and the team says, well, he's fine, it's not a big deal. I don't take the team's word for it. I never take the team's word for it when they say it's fine and it's no big deal. I just don't. By the way, that's Cody Delmendo. Matt Batticola is off today. So we are here with you on Forward progress. I got an email and it was in thinking about this, I know we're going to do Friday feedback Friday tomorrow on dbu. But there was this. It's got me to thinking. It's asking me sort of an existential Bears question with everything that we're seeing right now about the weight of the stadium. That is just, it's, it's an albatross right now on, on your Bears excitement and fandom. And I really don't think it's that hard to compartmentalize some of these, these things because the way I look at is this way. I, I do think that there is a false sense of, there are some of the saying, well, I don't this Bear stuff isn't fun and I want only Bears fun. I want only the happy Bears things. And I have called out Kevin Warren and will continue to call out Kevin Warren for hijacking positive moments to publicize his failed stadium gambits and his fake pivots and everything that he's doing, whatever next thing he's making up to try to create leverage and to jump on whether it's a draft or whether it's the packers week or whether it's Caleb Williams being on the COVID of Madden and there's always something else. I like talking about the other stuff. It doesn't bother me. I don't feel sort of out of sorts or feel like my Bears buzz gets ruined by talking about the stupid stadium stuff. But I get it if you say, well, I just want to think about the fun. I just want you can do that. You have the bandwidth, you have the ability to channel these things and compartmentalize these things, but you really don't need to care where Caleb Williams is playing right now. There shouldn't be anything about the Bears stadium silliness or the smell of the Indiana swamp or what the toxic chemicals are that are soaking into your skin and your, your, your lungs when you're watching games. That, that shouldn't bother you. That'll figure itself out. It'll be fine. Whatever, Wherever they'll, they'll play somewhere. They'll be on your television, they'll have a C on the side of their head and it'll be fine. Enjoy what you want to enjoy. But there was this statement or this question from an email, and this came in from somebody who has a lot of business experience, a lot in Chicago, who's made large deals, real estate deals, business purchases, mergers and acquisitions. We're talking large scale things, casinos. And the email said after Pritzker statement Tuesday about the status of the Bears stadium deal, I started to examine the McCaskey ineptitude through a new lens. Abhorrent though they may be, Private equity and hedge fund bajillionaires have had lots of experience doing deal after deal, including for those at this level of wealth, long, complicated real estate developments involving multiple stakeholders, competing interests and the necessity of work in the political system. The McCaskeys, these dopes, have no such experience. They've built no businesses to compound their wealth alongside their inherited NFL asset. They own no stadium, just a plot of suburban land they bought way too soon. They're like a rookie quarterback figuring out how to read coverages and prone to making painful mistakes. Of course, in order to learn from those mistakes, it requires brains and savvy attributes. I'm not inclined to ascribe to the McCaskeys, but it doesn't matter because the stadium opportunities come once in a generation and we aren't going to see this same group of dopes, even if sharpened by their humbling at the hands of deal veteran Pritzker trying to do better the next time. So we get rookie mistakes, including being susceptible to believing that slick talking promoters actually know what they're doing and not listening to the actual experts you hire to advise you. Yeah, that that's the case. And then in my response, I, I read my response to it and I thought, what if I'm right about this? And I think I am. What does it say? Like, what's the conclusion? Because my response was two sentences. The McCaskeys aren't business people. Somehow the McCaskeys also are not football people. That's what I sent back. And I think I'm right about that. And it mystifies, angers and terrifies me. How is it possible that that is a reasonable thing to say at this point? How is it possible that amid everything that's going on, with all the on field excitement and everything else that's still for my entire life and for, hell, maybe for whatever, you know, the. The century of Virginia's entire life, that this family, this ownership, has somehow been able to, not even through osmosis, become either business people or football people. Either one. Either one. We say, well, they. They need help hiring football. They don't know anything about football. That's why here comes Ernie, of course, he and the animal that lives on his head. Or here comes Bill Polian, or here comes this search firm and that search firm. And they all have to be brought in to provide outside paid football knowledge because McCaskeys don't really have any friends or have any connections or know anything about football. Well, okay. Well, it must be because they're so busy with business. No, no. Really? Yeah. What do they do? It's one thing to say, what do they do? Well, what do they actually do? This is what I'm trying to. I. It's a bizarre question and I don't know the answer to it. I just wanted to put that out there because I thought about it. I'm like, this is the answer I can figure out to this. Because I can't give you. I can't talk to you about the intricacies of doing real estate deals and some of that stuff. My head starts to spin and I rely on people much smarter than I am to do that. But having been around the McCaskeys, having covered this team for 30 years, and just my observations of being there and around from. From old Hallis hall on Washington street to what they're doing now, they aren't business people, and somehow they're also not football people. Congratulations, because that is a pretty spectacular achievement. That's pretty amazing. Yeah.

[Matt Abeticola]

I guess a question I have is, how much did George McCaskey have play in to hiring Ben Johnson? Because I don't know. When I think about Bears ownership over the years of my life, especially since George has been the head guy.

[Dan Bernstein]

They.

[Matt Abeticola]

It was like that cycle that we were in, you know, that whether it was the coach or it was the front office, and it just was never going well together. You couldn't get the quarterback right, all these things. And I think most people just give Ryan Poles all the credit for hiring Ben Johnson, even though he was the biggest name on the market last off season. But I feel like with how the Bears run. The Bears, they have some play in.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, no, no. They have. They have say. I think there's something, you know, they can unlock. They can say it's $14 million a year. They got to say yes. They absolutely have to say yes to. To whatever that's going to be. But I.

[Matt Abeticola]

But when they've hired coaches in the past that, you know, you. You kind of wonder, well, they could have had. Who's the one guy they could have had?

[Dan Bernstein]

Bruce Arians.

[Matt Abeticola]

Yeah, Bruce Arians. That's the guy.

[Dan Bernstein]

Bruce Arians instead of Mark Tressman. But. But that. That just comes down to having a sense of the room and the moment and the timing. And it's also. To whom do you listen? Are you listening to the people you hire to give you the advice and should you need to hire people to give you the advice about certain things or should you have a sense of it? It's just pretty incredible to me that you could say, well, they don't really know football. They're too busy running their businesses. They don't really pay attention. The Bears are just a little line item that they have in their massive portfolio of all the businesses that they've run and all the other generational wealth that they have from all the offshoots of everything that they do. This is all they have. And they're bad at it. This is all they have. It's all they have. And you haven't. You haven't gotten good at anything. What have you. What have you, other than retiring numbers? They found a way to do to. To retire too many numbers, and now they have to stop retiring numbers. Maybe they're not even good at that anymore because they didn't even husband their resources well.

[Matt Abeticola]

But they're good.

[Dan Bernstein]

I just told you, too.

[Matt Abeticola]

They're really good at reminding us about

[Dan Bernstein]

1985 and 1920 that we're very good about. About that, about looking backward and being happy to own the Bears. It's just so many things have passed them by on so many levels. And here. Here they are. And then they're. I don't know. Their two grandkids, both named Ed will. Will soon take over. I don't know. It's pretty. Pretty amazing that they also have two grandkids, both named Ed. We figured that out last week. But it's just something in the back of my mind that it's. It's pretty. It's pretty amazing that you can go this far and be this proud of something that's been in your family this long and you haven't gotten good at it, at an aspect of it that when it comes to the improvements, you generally have to fall behind before you get up to league speed on things. You have to have John Fox come and tell you your practice facility sucks. You have to have other people tell your stadium sucks, your stadium deal sucks. And they have to tell you, no, you. Maybe you want this kind of player, that kind of player. It's always catching up, catching up, catching up, catching up to what other teams are doing. It's never ahead of it. It's never. We're gonna do. We're gonna be first to this and we're going to innovate. And because they don't have any of that, they're the opposite of that stuff. Yeah. So it's too bad.

[Matt Abeticola]

Yeah, no, I, I completely agree. And that's why I think, you know, I do the. I do off the Ivy with you. And so, you see, you've seen my side of optimism and pessimism when it comes to the Cubs. But for the Bears, I'm. I. They are the most. I'm more pessimistic about any team that the. The Bears that. I'm the most pessimistic of any team that I, that I like.

[Dan Bernstein]

It's them.

[Matt Abeticola]

And last year was fun and it was a magical year and all that, but there's still that. That thought in the back of my head. Despite the fact that you have a quarterback and the right coach in the back of my head, just because of everything that you're really just describing here about this organization from the top, there's still that little voice in the back of my head thinking, like, it could easily fall apart after one year. And of course it could. And it might not be because of the head coach or, or the quarterback,

[Dan Bernstein]

but

[Matt Abeticola]

going back to what you said to start this podcast, you know, with how fans are kind of bummed out by all the stadium stuff and it's taking away from all the other stuff like this. This is, this is supposed to be a really, like, fun offseason. Like most offseasons as Bears fans, it's like we celebrate, you know, winning the off season and then it fails.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right.

[Matt Abeticola]

But this offseason is so much different. You've said this before where now, like, now it's like building off this and, you know, you're not in the draft trying to find the.

[Dan Bernstein]

No, you're there. You're. You finally. You finally got a quarterback. You may have the quarterback, right?

[Matt Abeticola]

Like, you're moving forward now, and it's. You just have to see them do it. For fans like me to at least believe in the entire organization as a whole. But the stadium stuff and, and all of the, you know, the negative that's come from it, it, it. It is frustrating when we're finally in an off season where I, I think it's fair to want to be as optimistic as you've ever been as a Bears fan.

[Dan Bernstein]

At least you're my age. Maybe it's this. Maybe if we distill it down to this is what it is. It's the fear where you're constantly reminded that no matter what else is going on, that the team is run by people who aren't good at running a team. And that creates. In the back of your mind is like, yeah, they have the coach, they have the quarterback. How, how will their lack of football knowledge, business knowledge. I didn't even include political. Like they're bad at politics, everything. They're somehow. They haven't ever gotten good at any aspect of owning a team. It's way undervalued. If you say, well, they're billionaires. Yeah, but they should be gazillionaires. If you really hold them to the standard of the. What the owners of the Chicago Bears could be, what this asset should be, what their investments. I think I said this a while ago, just track some of this stuff. If you just were putting stuff in an S and P fund, let alone. Rather than they finally do go and buy land and they got that wrong and they missed the timing or this or how to. How to present the purchasing of that land and how they publicly went about it and what they. Oh, I guess we. I guess we build a stadium here maybe. Kinda. We think. I don't know. At some point there's. I just. At one point I'd love to say, you know what? You can say this about any ownership. There's always like, well, you know, he sucks. He's awful and evil. But you know what? You gotta hand it to him. It's like, you may hate Jerry Reinsdorf, you may resent Jerry Reinsdorf, and I resent a lot of the ways treated White Sox fans in general. And I think there's all kinds of problems with how long they stuck with mediocrity in some places and his loyalty to a fault. But guys never lost a real estate deal in his life. Kind knows. He knows real estate and he's. He knows how to make deals. And there are. The guy. The guy will. Will not Agree to a contract, he's gonna lose. There's something to that. That's business sense. That's what that is. And look at everything he's doing now within with the 1901 project and everything has gone on and, and even the, you know, go to the Ricketts family. They figured it out if, if they could solve the, the thorny political wilderness of Wrigley Field and landmark status and city government, state government, federal government with federal landmark protections and all this stuff. And somehow they were, with every opportunity, swoop in, buy that building, buy this building, buy this land, buy everything around there. Next thing you know, you boom. And they own a radius outside of that park that isn't subject to revenue sharing, that they just have. They start their own broadcast network and all these things. Like, there is some forward thinking there. There is some actual business sense there. And even though they learned from some mistakes, the Ricketts family got better. They got clobbered for their original ask of the amusement tax, offsetting the purch and say, yeah, let us in on this. And they got pounded and they blew it. And you know, I remember talking about it, they weren't ready. But you know what they learned? They hired people. And more importantly, they listened to the people they hired where the Bears were just a mark for the next Kevin Warren grift and it makes them susceptible to it.

[Matt Abeticola]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

So if you're saying, like, well, let's get back to the fun. The fun, the Bears and Luther Burden, all the stuff running around, I think we can exist on concurrent channels here where I am. If you want to let the fact of McCaskey incompetence overshadow your on field thoughts for the Bears. I'm not going to tell you not to, but that's a choice.

[Matt Abeticola]

Yes, that's.

[Dan Bernstein]

That's a choice.

[Matt Abeticola]

And it doesn't help that it's the off season too. Like this news coming out when there is no football.

[Dan Bernstein]

Sure.

[Matt Abeticola]

You know, if the team was playing, you know, like what happened at the end of last year where some news came out like the week of Bears, Packers.

[Dan Bernstein]

That's what I mean. But that's. That, that, that is a reason to get mad at Kevin Warren. That is different. That is absolutely him being like, watch my. I'm gonna use this because what I'm doing, I'm gonna put myself in front of it. That stuff just sucks. And if you're a fan, I agree. Being like, what are you doing, man? Come on. If that's not fair to the players either, that starts to piss off players. You know, that's different when you're talking about the way they're looking at things and, and not having their moments or having their stuff rained on by. By Kevin Warren playing these, these shallow minor league political games that nobody falls for except the, the low hanging fruit of stupid. But if that, that, that, that does bug me. But yeah, I think you're right. I think because we are in a news vacuum and it's hard to get really excited when you actually go through. Here are the highlights from minicamp. Caleb Williams completed a pass. Okay, great. Great. Okay. And awesome. I don't get too excited about those things. As interesting as it is to watch them run around. The essential dining experience is set long before the plates are plated, the sauce is simmered, or the puree hits the pan. It starts with a simple blend that's consistent, purposeful and precise. Trusted by the world's best chefs. So you can bring your best Vitamix only the essential. I started Ornod in 2013 and we make bike apparel. The best part of Shopify for me is our ability to run the business as essentially non technical people. We're able to admin everything on the back end, front end and sell things online easily.

[Matt Abeticola]

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[Dan Bernstein]

think it would actually be the bicycle. It's the thing that you do the thing on. We run the business on Shopify. Start your free trial on shopify.com. you know what? I am interested in their version. What are they called? The rivalry uniforms were announced. The Bears have announced their their themes, their game themes for 2026 for the regular season games, whether, you know, alumni, homecoming, Latino heritage. There's salute to service celebrating women and girls in sports by Jewel Osco. We get it sponsored. Yay women and girls. Here comes JoJo who is not a woman or a man. We don't know what JoJo is, but here he is. I don't think he ever told us what JoJo is. JoJo got me.

[Matt Abeticola]

We.

[Dan Bernstein]

We had a thing with JoJo and Staley one year, which is why it always sticks in my head. One year Terry and I were making fun of JoJo and then we got Staley involved and then Staley was trying to not get involved in any sort of fake rivalry with JoJo. And then we were retconning all sorts of really weird and disgusting mascot stories and everybody told us to stop, but then we didn't want to. So anyway, the rivalries game is December 25, Christmas Day. Green Bay packers and the Bears Will participate in the rivalries initiative, highlighted by the debut of the team's unique uniform. So Nike is making rivalries uniforms, which is their version of City Connect or whatever they want to call it. And I can't wait. I can't wait. There's a lot of fake stuff out there. Sort of anticipating what it might be.

[Matt Abeticola]

Yes. And I fell for it, too.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well. And I saw one that looked really cool, that had the four stars and the red stripes and some of the light blue. Blue. It was a light blue sea on an all white helmet. And then people were saying that the. The all white leans into Caleb Williams's iceman, which he doesn't own yet. But I'm down. I'm down for any. Like, I think the Chicago flag is great. I happen to be wearing it. Yeah, I got things falling off my headphones.

[Matt Abeticola]

They just better be good that way.

[Dan Bernstein]

That.

[Matt Abeticola]

That game means so much to go with these uniforms.

[Dan Bernstein]

Forms. That's. I mean, I don't care if you're wearing hula skirts. Win the game. Yeah, I can wear whatever you want

[Matt Abeticola]

as long as I'm talking about going into that game. Because that's December 25th.

[Dan Bernstein]

Like. Yeah.

[Matt Abeticola]

You know, you're towards the end of the year. Hopefully by then, you know, hopefully by then you. You have.

[Dan Bernstein]

You.

[Matt Abeticola]

You. You're owning the division.

[Dan Bernstein]

But it will be meaningless by then. Everything will be wrapped up. Rest the starters. Tyson Bagent in the Unis against the Packers.

[Matt Abeticola]

If. Yeah, if we got that, that would be incredible. But yeah, you just. I think the uniform stuff in recent years and just the NFL in general, I think they've done well. I think they've done better than baseball. I think the city connects and MLB kind of suck. But I think the uniforms, the. The newer uniforms for these types of things in the NFL have done really well. So I'm excited to see what it ends up being.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. And I'm also excited to see the arbitrarily angry purists out there. Primordial rivalry. Does that mean the packers are wearing weird unis, too?

[Matt Abeticola]

I would guess so.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. They've done it. It's a uniform. Who cares?

[Matt Abeticola]

The packers throwback unis really suck, too. I know as a Bears fan, it's like, of course I think that, but I just. In general, I think they suck.

[Dan Bernstein]

Oh, the Steelers were the worst, though. Oh, yeah.

[Matt Abeticola]

They have a bad one as well.

[Dan Bernstein]

Worst. Yeah, by a mile. Those were the ones with, like, the beige pants or whatever.

[Matt Abeticola]

It was like a stripe, isn't it?

[Dan Bernstein]

Like striped. Yeah, whatever. That One time, the Steelers and I, and it was, you could not look good. I don't care if you're running a 4, 2, 2 and high. Stepping down the sidelines like Deion Sanders, you look like an idiot.

[Matt Abeticola]

Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

You cannot look good in those uniforms. And it looks like you're there to, to like, film a Three Stooges episode or something so bad. So I'm, I'm curious to see what these look like. Do we know when they're going to be unveiled? These? They said end of summer. Yeah, 2026. At some point we'll see them. I don't know.

[Matt Abeticola]

I'm sure they'll have it like, right before, you know, like right before training camp or maybe preseason maybe is when they'll be released.

[Dan Bernstein]

Okay.

[Matt Abeticola]

I don't know. The NFL's. The one thing they, that they for sure have always done well with is when they need to promote something, they do it at the right time.

[Dan Bernstein]

So usually, usually I, I think that they've done a pretty good job of monetizing things, of making the most out of such things. But, yeah, sure, I'm. I'm good. And boy, thinking about how quickly December 25th is going to be upon us, too. It goes fast, man. We're gonna. Because you say it now, boy, they're already talking about. Did you hear Montez Sweat yesterday talking about training camp?

[Matt Abeticola]

People were talking about the defense.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, no, just the. How hard yet how hard they worked everybody. And now they say, well, Ben Johnson has said he's going to coach better. He told everybody, told Dennis Allen and everybody on that side of the ball to coach you harder, coach you better. And Sweat laughed. He said, I'm expecting the worst.

[Matt Abeticola]

Ah, yeah, okay.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Matt Abeticola]

I do remember Ben Johnson saying that.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. He said, it'll be a little bit easier. I've already been through it. Live days, hard hitting, long drives, preseason games. I'm ready for it. Yeah, but, but if, in fact, it's believed that the Bears defense was more undone by injury than anything else, do they go as hard? Because I think that's fair. If you're going to use that as an excuse and if you're going to say, well, we. Our defense wasn't bad, we were just hurt. We just had a lot of players who were asked to do more than they should have and. Or people out of position. So our, you know, in our secondary, the turnovers, the unsustainable number of interceptions and turnovers help prop up a bad defense because we were all hurt. Maybe you don't want to Go as hard. I would hope some of those discussions

[Matt Abeticola]

are being every, every training camp, every preseason there's always one brutal injury to one like to some key player for some team and I'd prefer it to not be related to the Bears. This, this, this summer, this late summer, whatever.

[Dan Bernstein]

I

[Matt Abeticola]

for me when it comes to like training camp and practicing and all that like I don't know when, when I remember you talking about when Ben Johnson talked about, you know, we just need to coach better and I sure if that's your excuse for not drafting a defensive player higher in the draft on the defensive line, like if that's what you, like if that's what you came up with, fine. But I mean you say that the, the guys on this team better be better this year or we will remember that and it's just going to be a bad look. So I want to be optimistic about the defense with when healthy but I mean we've seen this the last two years with this defense. It just hasn't really been a strong point with this team and I, I think it could be a miss that they didn't add someone on the edge before you know when they could have still time left.

[Dan Bernstein]

I just, I want to say one thing. There was a Jedrick Wills sighting yesterday that the guy on, on whom they took a flyer to say well he was a first round pick, he's been terribly injured. If he comes back he might be a decent player. Just it's a starting point to keep our eye on the fact that he was participating in some drills. Jedrick Wills who is a wild card at this left tackle spot where it's been Jones and Amagaji who have been rotating with the ones and Theo Benedict over on the right side at some point they may want it once they get that extended look if he does get some of those opportunities, especially once they put pads on. I just wanted to make sure that we note that he was actually available and moving around and we'll keep tabs. We'll find out more tomorrow. By the way, Kevin Fishbane is scheduled to join us so he is going to recap everything that we saw. Give us everything that you need to know about what is going on on the fields up at Hallis hall with your Chicago Bears. Thanks for joining us today on Forward Progress a Chicago Bears podcast on 312Sports for Progress has stopped. Forward Progress Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and Matt Abeticola on 312 sports with the American Express Platinum card you can access over 3500 in annual value with benefits and eligible purchases across travel, entertainment and more. There's nothing like Platinum. Learn more at americanexpress.com/explatin-platin enrollment requirements monthly and other limits in terms of play.