Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us for the seventh offseason straight? Shame on you, NFL.
The Chicago Bears have admittedly pieced together an impressive body of work this offseason, highlighted by the hiring of head coach Ben Johnson, who is already rebuilding his new team in line with the Detroit Lions' gritty, kneecap-biting ways.
That's all well and good, but we need to pump the brakes.
The NFL has started releasing its marquee games ahead of the full schedule release this week, and it's already crystal clear that the league believes in the Bears. Chicago will host the Green Bay Packers as part of a blockbuster Saturday doubleheader in Week 16, and it doesn't end there.
Prime Video also dropped an announcement that the Bears will visit the *checks notes* Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles on Black Friday. The league is putting an awful lot of faith in the Bears not getting blown out and humiliated on a national stage.
Packers fans know better than anyone to be careful of Bears offseason predictions.
NFL should've consulted with Packers fans before rolling out the red carpet for Bears
Remember when Caleb Williams landed in the best situation of any rookie quarterback in NFL history? Bears fans quickly changed their tune.
How about when Bears GM Ryan Poles boldly claimed they would take over the NFC North and never give it back? His team has embarrassingly finished fourth every season since. We all remember when Mitch Trubisky was about to dethrone Aaron Rodgers and Matt Nagy's division champions were poised to dominate for several years.
We spent an offseason hearing about how Williams was ready to take over the NFL as a rookie. He inherited the deepest receiving corps in the league and had generational talent. Well, 20 touchdown passes, 68 sacks, and a 5-12 record later, the Bears were rooted to the bottom of the NFC North and hit the reset button.
Packers fans know what it's like to play in the same division as the reigning, defending offseason champions. Unfortunately for the Bears, they do so much winning in March and April that they run out of steam by September and instead bring back the Fire [Insert Coach Name] chants. One year it's Matt Nagy, another it's John Fox. Marc Trestman. Lovie Smith. The list goes on.
Did the NFL learn nothing from the 2023 New York Jets? They slapped them all over the primetime schedule and lived to regret it after one game.
Maybe it's finally the Bears' year. The NFL sure thinks so. But Packers fans have read this book far too many times, and it rarely has the fairytale ending Bears fans promise.
The league will soon learn a harsh lesson that Packers fans could've told them, but hey, as the Bears like to say, there's always next year.