It was October 16th, 2006. The Chicago Bears had just beaten the Arizona Cardinals in a nationally televised Monday night game. The Cardinals had blown a 23 - 3 lead in the 3rd quarter by giving up three unanswered touchdowns, two of them to the Bears defense and the last one on a 83 yard Devin Hester punt return special. The win pushed the Bears to a 6 - 0 record and the Cardinals fell to 1 - 5. This loss made Cardinals head coach (at that time) Denny Green livid and he delivered one of the most memorable post press conference speeches of all time. That night, Green's most recognized line may have been "they are who we thought they were!" inferring that the undefeated Bears were more hype than bite and not superior to his struggling team. Well the Bears did live up to their hype by finishing the 2006 season 13 - 3 and making it to the Super Bowl.
Spin the clock ahead to 2010 and the current Bears team came into this season with a lot of question marks. Since their Super Bowl run in 2006, the Bears have not made it back to playoffs. Last season the team finished 7 - 9; they lost linebacker and defensive leader Brian Urlacher to a season ending wrist injury in their season opener and newly acquired quarterback Jay Cutler disappointed the Bears faithful all year by his inconsistent play. After the 2009 campaign, they signed free agent DE Julius Peppers, undeniably the best acquisition made in the NFL during the off-season. Even with the addition of Peppers, many experts didn't warm up to the Bears. The Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers were supposed to be the elite teams of the NFC North. Those teams were expected to battle it out for division supremacy while the Bears would be relegated to trying to keep the Detroit Lions off of their heels. Even NFL Hall of Famer and Bears legend Gale Sayers publicly doubted how well the team would play in 2010, which infamously caused Urlacher take shots back at Sayers. Head coach Lovie Smith was also squarely on the hot seat, as it was universally believed that another mediocre Bears season would cost him his job. The team opened the 2010 season at home with a controversial win over the Lions. Lions WR Calvin Johnson seemingly scored the game winning touchdown with seconds to play but because he dropped the ball pushing himself up off the ground, the "catch" was ruled an incomplete pass. Most people thought that the Bears got away with one and should have been 0 - 1. Their next contest was a win against the Dallas Cowboys. Even though the Bears played a solid game on offense and defense, people blamed the Cowboys for playing poorly and "losing" the game. Game 3 was a division matchup on Monday Night Football against the Packers; the Bears won and finally started to get a little respect for being undefeated. That respect was short lived though because the very next week the Bears was beaten literally and figuratively by the New York Giants. Cutler, who had been getting sacked a lot despite the wins, was absolutely abused by the Giants. They sacked him nine times in the first half and knocked him out of the game with a concussion.
The Bears reputation took a beating after that Giants loss. Despite a 3 -1 record, many did not take them seriously. A lot of folks thought that the Vikings, who were off to a very slow start, would turn it around and surpass the Bears. Critics felt it was only a matter of time before the Bears would self-destruct and finish the season the way that most had predicted. That implosion never occurred. Chicago finished the season 11 - 5 and was crowned the champions of the NFC North. The Bears did have bad home losses to the Washington Redskins, the Seattle Seahawks and they were annihilated by the New England Patriots 36 - 7 (in the middle of a blizzard). If the they would have beat the Patriots, I think they would have received the respect that had escaped them the whole season, but the butt-whipping they took only gave the doubters ammunition. Despite the Bears success, they were never given "Flavor of the Week" status in the NFL (see NFL "Flavor of the Week" http://klassybreeze.blogspot.com/2010/11/nfl-flavor-of-week.html and NFL Flavor of the Week - End of the Regular Season Edition http://klassybreeze.blogspot.com/2011/01/nfl-flavor-of-week-end-of-regular.html ).
The disrespect of the Bears has crept into the post season as well. I have yet to hear the Bears mentioned as a team that will make it to Dallas in February. I'm even hearing folks predicting that the Bears will lose again to the upstart Seahawks at home this weekend. I think the Bears deserve more respect for what they have done this year and for who they are as a team. They have an excellent defense, playmakers at skilled positions on offense, and the ever-dangerous Hester (and reliable PK Robbie Gould) on special teams. They only need to win two games to get to Dallas and three to take the Lombardi trophy home. If their offensive line can hold up and maybe even play above their heads, they could possibly win their first Super Bowl since the 1985 season. Folks, the Chicago Bears are for real; they're not who we thought they were.
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