Chicago Bears clinch playoff berth, blowing in belief to Windy City sports fans

Everything I’ve ever learned about the full spectrum of human emotion, I’ve learned from being a Chicago Bears fan: Love, hate, hope, loss, pride, general confusion, all the things that come with loving a sports team like your own child. 

To this end, someone once described parenting as a never-ending stream of work, responsibility, and exhaustion, dotted ever so sporadically by brief moments of true beauty that make it all worthwhile. 

For most of the 21st century, being a Bears fan has felt like the first part of that adage, testing our hearts and souls as they torture us, trying to find new and inventive ways to lose football games every Sunday.

But sometimes those moments that make it all worthwhile do arrive, and for Chicago sports fans this season, and in particular the team's recent dramatic win over the Packers, have been just that and then some. 

Coming into the contest with the stakes right out of the third act of a Hollywood movie, The Bears faced off against arch-rival Green Bay in a monumental game that held both first place in the NFC North and playoff hopes in the balance for both teams. The matchup marked the second meeting between the two ancient foes in less than a month, with the first bout going the way of the Packers in a thrilling clash that saw the Bears come up just short on the last play of the game. 

The defeat left Chicago chomping at the bit for another crack, and this time the Bears got to host the Packers at Soldier Field on a balmy Saturday night in December that brought Bears fans (and alcohol sales) out in full force. And boy did the game deliver, finishing in style with an incredible fourth quarter comeback, capped off with an onside kick and a remarkable downfield overtime touchdown from Caleb Williams to DJ Moore to seal the victory. 

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The scenes and emotions from Bears fans in the stadium that night were ones the Windy City had not seen in a long time. While we’ve had some moments to cheer for in the past couple of decades—a Super Bowl appearance with Rex Grossman, a deep playoff run with Jay Cutler, a “double doink” derailed season with Mitch Trubitsky—all of those felt like the best possible outcomes of imperfect situations, filled more with cautious hope than genuine belief. 

Now this team feels different. This team feels like the beginning of an era rather than the climax of one, complete with a cast of characters that you want to root for, and performances that don’t just grind out victories but actually entertain along the way. And with it have come hope and optimism to a sports fandom that badly needed it.

So for Bears fans, my plea is this: Remember how this one feels, for we all know there will be a time in the future, on the horizon, when things long bleak again, when the rain clouds roll back in, and the sun stops shining on us so bright. But with playoffs assured, a competent head coach at the helm, and a young, burgeoning franchise quarterback under center, we aren't thinking about that horizon, nay, we CAN’T think about that horizon. Right now, we are rightfully so, just focused on basking in this moment of true beauty…however brief…for as long as it decides to last.