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By African Healthcare, Athletico Physical Therapy, bet Rivers c detailing you Connie's Pizza by Gens Energy and Miller Like Kierra, Your hosts Jeff Chiloniak aka the Mayor of Bearsville and his psidekick Term the Surfmaster there.
Surfing into Week one. My man with his surfboard. I'm looking at him on Zoom everybody. My man Tom Beaars got his first surfboard ever hanging from the raptors of his head. So, yeah, he is the surfmaster, all right, And I'm the Mayor of Bearsville.
Yeah you are.
Hey, Hey, it's an old sticking Arab.
You are the mayor of Bearsville. They can make a Christmas comedy about it.
Hey, I hope, so, I hope the comedy is uh is absolutely a blockbuster win Week one and we are laughing and kicking it up at the stadium on Sunday, Tommy at three twenty five. By the end of the day, you and I are laughing. You're saying, you're yelling ball. You're laughing when and Justin's firing a sixty yard bomb to a streaking DJ Moore or running out of trouble into the end zone and we're sacking Jordan Love. Yeah, like the old days.
I know, But I would like that to be Game eighteen, when they're playing Green Bay, the last game of the year, and there's a reason for the excitement, the enthusiasm.
It's a playoff bound football team because.
You know, Jeff, in the course of football, if you're a broadcaster or if you're a player, the immediacy of the next week is upon you as soon as the game ends, and you're already thinking about what you have to do to get prepared for Tapa, what the conditions are gonna be, Like I have the app on my phone that I'm looking up the weather report and so.
But you're not playing anymore. So can't you enjoy the moment? You know, if the Bears win or Bears are playing a great game on Sunday, I better see a ear to ear grin on your face and that you're enjoying it.
You will, I will, But you know, the love for football and what it means to me and my family and what the Bears mean to me. It's so ingrained in me that I want to see the ultimate success. I don't want to live for three hours of success and then, you know, whatever unfolds. I want to have a season of success. And so at the end of the year, you're buying me champagne and we're you know,
we're having having fun that way. So listen more than anything, Sunday three twenty five and then it ends at six twenty five or whatever whatever.
I do want to have that fun, that laughter and all the plays.
That you just talked about, justin Fields, Dj Moore, Tremaine Edmunds in the Gang and the rest of the twenty three Bears getting down to business Sunday at Soldier Field. This is Bears Weekly. That's time there the Super Bowl Bear thanks to Jordan tread Up and Dan Brilly, our producers from the Bears. Tonight at the ESPN one thousand Studios. There is just cracking me up by his attitude right now. I love it. It's Packer Week and you can feel it.
Kevin C. Pack, Sean Greeney, our executive producer, Eric Ostrotski coming up tonight. In our next segment, wide receiver Darnel Mooney. We had him on Our Bears et cea podcast for rolling them out again tonight, and at six thirty ESPN Primetime host the legendary Chris Berman for a couple of segments. Tom and I visited with him yesterday. So News of the day, rest day for a tight end. Marcedes Lewis out for a personal reason today of an unknown nature.
Right guard Nate Davis. We'll hear from Matt Eberflus tomorrow. What does it mean? We don't know. Reserve linebacker Dylan Cole not able to go the last couple of days. From a packer perspective, David Bactieri, he gets rest, he doesn't practice much. He's a veteran, He's got eleven years hunder his belt. Romeo Dobbs limited hamstring, Christian Watson did not with his hamstring, and Nntavius Wis the rookie receiver out of Virginia full practice limited the last two days
for a returning room. Sean Gary, the edge rusher of importance for the Packers. Break it down, Tommy.
You know to me, it's the you know, David Baffieri is a big question mark because he's has this consideration of being such a dominant offensive lineman and a tackle, and when you don't practice, I don't see how you can just automatically be ready. But my same concerns are for Nate Davis. Here's a guy that's put a couple
of practices underneath his belt. He's, you know, signed a big money contract, enormous expectations that have been placed on him because you're trying to break in a rookie right tackle that could have an incredible future.
In front of him and Darnell Right.
So, as much as you want to talk about the quarterbacks, you have to think about the supporting cast because Jordan Love or Justin Fields, they can't do it on their own. They need the guys that are hopefully to be a part of this football team for their growth and progress.
All Right, the man call the plays. Luke Getzi, in his weekly news com prints each Thursday up here at hallisaw rolled it out. You know, I call it all the time. We all talk about it's a great unknown week, and the anticipation is there.
No, I wouldn't say there's more.
There's there's comfort that the unknowns of Game one are are always going to be there for for both teams, right and all all facets of the game.
It's game one.
No one does anything in preseason that's that's gonna unveil anything to you. Uh, And so you go into Game one with uh, you know, trusting your training. That's truly what you have to do in this situation, right, because they could do anything, and they could change their style
of play or whatever. You know, new coaches come in, new players come in, and people change a little bit and it may not be drastic, but there could be just subtle changes, and you want to make sure that you're prepared, and that's what you take training camp to do, right. You take training camp to to get your fundamentals in the right place so that you can execute whenever that new thing happens and you guys can respond the right way. So there's definitely no comfort in that. But uh, you know,
just you know, excited. And I would say the relationships that we have with the players are much are much deeper, and those things we can lean on a little bit more.
He knows they know each other, and he knows the Packers, and he knows Joe Barry that that hasn't changed defensively. It's a veteran defense offensively because of Aaron not there anymore and you got an unknown at quarterback. That's the anticipation we're looking at. But from what Luke tells you, what is you think he's in going to anticipate from the Green Bay Packers?
You know, Jeff, to think about it is this isn't the college Boloney, where you start your first couple of weeks and play against inferior talent just to get things ramped up when you start, when you go to the game field at three twenty five Sunday, you have to be going at a million miles an hour. And that's
the thing about the NFL. And so you know, I like what Luke said is you have to have the fundamental zone grained in your head that if they make an adjustment, whether it's fundamentally technique or design, that you have to be ready to face whatever it is. And you know, Stanfelder, offensive line coach, used to say, Hey, practice is the time to work on the things that may be new to your arsenal or your weaponry and stuff.
And now you have to have confidence built up in the practices that are all behind you that when you face a situation that calls for that new technique or that new move or whatever it is, according to the position you play, that you're ready to put it on display or you're ready to react against it.
Now slip to the defensive side. Alan Williams trying to keep things as simple as possible.
It's still about winning your one on one matchups. It's still about they have one football. They don't have three, so we have to find the football. We know where it is. It's still about tackling, lining up, reading your keys, getting to the ball, and all the other things. Those are distractions. That's window dressing, all the other things that come into effect and all the other things about Hey, the stats say this, and the analytics say this and whatever.
I've never heard of a game that was won through analytics. Now, with the technology and all the things that we have and all the information that we have, sometimes they make guys play slower, not faster. So we want to again, I'm saying the same thing over and over again. But if we get lined up, see the formation, read our keys, play fast, run and tackle, will be fine.
You know, Jeff.
It kind of reminds me of a speech thirty years ago when the defensive coaches were getting the Bears defense ready to play against Barry Sanders. You can't be apprehensive, you can't be thinking you have to play a million miles an hour.
And that's what Alan Williams is saying.
No matter what the era is, the modern day era or the old time, you gotta be ready to play, and you gotta play all.
Right, Tommy, our first segment in the books Coming up next, Darnell Mooney joins the program. This is Bears Weekly on ESPN Chicago and the Bears Radio Network.
This is Bears Weekly with the voice of the Bears for twenty three years, Jeff j on the Bears Radio Network.
You want VIP access to every Bears home game, exclusive seating, sideline credentials, and more now available. Get the ultimate VIP fan package this season by visiting Chicago Bears vip dot com town. The season opens tonight. How about this weird thing. Two hundred and seven days after the Super Bowl, they were showing Nick Bolton to the Chiefs scoop and score
against Philadelphia the Super Bowl. And this is the two hundred and seventh meeting between the Bears and Packers on Sunday, I told your field, but tonight it's Kansas City without Travis Kelce as they open things up against the Detroit Lions. America's love affair with Detroit is underway. Let's see if it lasts through the evening.
Difficult stadium to play in.
I mean, Patrick Mchomes one of the best starting quarterbacks in the history of the NFL throughout early portions of his career, and like Alan Williams said, we're not worried about the analytics.
We're worried about the style of play.
Yeah, the numbers eighteen touchdowns and his openers in five years, five and zero and fifteen hundred yards and no interceptions. So they tell me young quarterbacks throw interceptions, But not Patrick Mahomes in Week one, all right, getting ready for his own Week one after a battle with an injury of significance last season and through the off season. Wide receiver down now Mooney ready to rock and roll. Here's my interview with the veteran wide receiver earlier this week.
I want to start on the Packers because it's what everybody's been hoping for and thinking about. So let's just dive right in before we just chat a little bit. It feels like it's bigger than one game. I know you guys can't look at it that way, but there's just something about it symbolic. You play them again a week, right, guy, You guys could ever be locked up, playoff spot, you know, stuff like that happens. This This thing just carries a lot of weight for a lot of people. What's a
player perspective? What's Darnell's perspective?
I mean, I've never beating these guys since I've been in the league, So it's definitely a big one. And you understand the rivalry many years after. You play multiple games and it's definitely a big one. First game of the year for sure, and then going against them, and it's something that the fans care about, so you you kind of gravitate and understand like why they care about it so much, and then you're just like, Okay, yeah, let's definitely beat those guys for sure.
So didn't you have a team even in youth football or any sport you played, you just got tired of that.
You want to beat them exactly exactly?
Are you at that point now?
Yeah?
Definitely, definitely want to beat them for sure. For sure. I mean, whatever we got to do to beat those guys, for sure, I'm ready to pull out everything that we have just to take care of these guys for sure.
You know, I went back and looked, and I know what the numbers say. Okay, it has been a struggle way before you ever got here, thirty years of it. Kenny Clark, for example, was thirteen and oh against the Bears. Preston Smith's ten and oh, Matt Leffleur is eight. No, it's just yeah, it just hasn't happened. Yeah, so it's not for taking. When the bully on the block, you gotta finally punch you in the mouth, right otherwise, Oh my gosh. But it is interesting because it is Bears Packers,
and that thing hangs over the whole rivalry. Anyway, this is big for you. I know it's big because coming off injury is a lonely ride. I know you and I spoke months ago and you said you're glad you went through the experience not even getting injured. But yeah, just what you learn. Can you put that in the context for the average Why.
It's just you. You get a lot to like self reflect I mean, and just have a lot of self awareness. I mean, it's just you a lot of rest time, and I mean you you get to read some books and just have a lot of loan time. You're looking at the ceiling a lot of times, and you're just relaxing and just thinking. Thinking a lot, and sometimes thinking overthinking can be a bad thing, but sometimes it's can
be a good thing, you know. So it's been what eight nine months since the last time I was actually in a in a game or whatever, so I'm excited to get back out there. It won't be any like fearness or anything. I mean, obviously the preseason was nice. I didn't get the actual feeling, but I definitely will allow myself to have some emotion going into this game and in what sense just readiness and just ready to, you know, get back to being me and going out there with what I wanted to do. Last year I
didn't get to do as much. But uh, just pick up, pick pick back off of where I feel that, you know, I'm able to perform at and it's easy to do that with a second year and into the offense and just everybody is it is not so much of a newness thing. It's more of like we know what's going on, so I'm happy to get back.
For sure, is it an offense? I mean, just think about you. I can't remember how many targets well over one hundred couple of years ago. Is this gonna be an offense? Now? We just gotta find your place for sure? You mean like role wise, role wise, but that's day to day for sure, day to day. Like, I don't think this is an offense, and you correct me if I'm wrong. Hey, Darnell, listen, and here's the pecking order. This is how it's gonna go. So you know, don't
be anticipating a lot or a Darnell. You're gonna be the feature. No day to day, week to week. Depends the matchups, yeah right, what justin ces.
Definitely matters on all those cases. You never know, you can be the top guy for this game and you cannot be the top guy for the next game. So it just depends on who we're playing and just matters about matchups, like you said, So we'll see. It's it's big for the first couple of games, honestly, to identify who we are and what we like to do.
So see, I already think that. Yeah, we love to run the ball and we're good at it. Justin's dynamic runner, the weapon reason increased, the offensive lines different. Hopefully they'll be healthy. I don't know. To me, there's not too many surprises.
I mean, it all looks it all looks good. It's just it just has to be put out there and performed. So, I mean, you can you know throughout the whole offseason you have all the hypeness of everything and just like, yeah, we're gonna be able to do this, but you don't really know until you actually go out there and play.
Or how they're gonna play you, exactly because I'm thinking, I'm thinking they're gonna play less man. They don't want their back turn to Justin. Don't you think for sure?
You never Yeah, you never want to do that. So it's just a dangerous thing. Obviously he showed you don't do that at all last year, So yeah, we'll see you never you have you can have some guys that are just like, I don't care who you are, we're gonna do this.
So that is going to happen.
You never know how how people are going to play us.
So post injury, it's always an interesting discussion because and you said you were gonna have ankle surgery of some kind no matter what happened, and you happen to have a broken ankle. First of all, painful? Was it when I first injury?
At first? I like on the field wise, like I knew I broke it. Yeah, because Byron was telling me like get up. I'm like, nah, bro, this is this is broken. It's like, no, there's no way I'm getting up after this. And uh, I'm usually like I'll get up and go to the sialide or whatever.
And then shake it off and then come back in.
But this one I knew even going to the locker room Andrea, and then we're trying to like give me on the stretch, and I'm like, that's one thing I'm not doing. I'm going to walk off of this field, but I'm not getting on that stretcher. You better give me your shoulder. That's the only way I'm getting off the field. So, I mean it was it wasn't painful then, but didn't want it like died down. I got a
little painful. And then I got in my car after the plane ride all that all that air or whatever and kind of blew my blew my ankle up a little bit, but it was a little painful. One too crazy, but it was it was painful.
Do you feel whole again?
Yeah? I mean I felt felt whole, yeah, within it all. I mean I made a decision when I was in after surgery that this is something I really want to do, so I'm going to continue to pursue what i want and get out of what I want out of this. And I made that decision then and I'm not looking back.
All right, you look amazing, right, You're you're you're strong, not that you weren't before, But what do you think that'll do for you? Have you Have you felt that strength that you've added, that muscle, that armor. Have you felt it when you've gone up against dbs even in practice?
For sure?
Yeah?
Sure I can. I can use my strength more, whether it be like a sneaky push off or just blocking wise and running my routes and not getting bumped off of anything and just just playing some uh, just having some good play strength. Uh. I would say, look dj Man, DJ has incredible play strength, Like he can catch the ball over anybody at any point of time, and it's
just amazing. To see that because it's like, that's what I want to be able to do every time, Like, no matter what happens to the balls and the ris minds and DJ does a good thing, good a good act of that, and I want to do that same action of that as well.
You mentioned you read a lot of books during your time rehabbing and getting ready. Would you read anything that's sticking with you.
To this Unstoppable? It's by Tim Grover. Oh yeah, we.
All know Timmy's Chicago Bulls fame.
Amazing.
What's the gist of that book?
It's about It's basically about finding your role and understanding, understanding your role and and playing that role into the into the like the the best you can and uh understand it and really going fullfill about it. So yeah, that was a good book. I kind of read it over and over to remember myself on what I.
Don't want to do.
Well, listen, like you said, long time, you're all about heart, right, Yeah, that's gonna carry. That's gonna win the day for Darnell Mooney, have a great season, stay healthy, let's go get him. Thank you, appreciate it, Thank you all right. Tommy Always introspective. I love talking to Darnell, what strikes you about his comments? Where is that mentally, physically, and spiritual.
I think he's in a really strong place.
And Darnell always has the first thing about recovery from an injury, because we've all been through in our career, is it kind of you go through a couple of movements, you go through a couple of hits, and then all of a sudden, it's out of your mind. You're back to normal. So that's what I look at individually for
Darnell Mooney. But when you think about the team, this is a team that desperately needs to have a convincing win against the Green Bay Packers, and they need that message inside there to have them believe that they are part of this division and they're in the mix. And so when you think about those numbers that you talked about, are the guys in the Green Bay Packers, that's similar to what we went through when we played against the Packers.
And then finally, I just think that this is a team that when darn Old Mooney said he learned what the people care about beating the green Bay Packers, Listen, I care about my dogs.
I hate the Green Bay Packers.
So that's the type of message that they have to have inside that locker room, and everybody needs to carry it. And Jakwan Brisker said it perfectly at the podium. He doesn't have to hate the people, he just has to hate the team they're playing against.
That's Tim theair. I'm Jeff Jonie Coming up next, a two part conversation over the next twenty five minutes or so with the legendary Chris Berman. This is Bears Radio Network and esp in Chicago.
This is Bear's Weekly with the voice of the Bears for twenty three years, Jonik on the Bears Radio Network.
This segment of Bears Weekly is brought to you by Athleticophysical Therapy. Visit athletico dot com and requested in clinic or virtual appointment that start feeling better tomorrow. Jeff, Jonyk and Tom Fair here on ESPN Chicago and the Bears Radio Network please to be joined by the legendary Chris Berman from ESPN. Thank you for joining us. Tom says that you are his mentor in this business. So high praise for someone we all respect. How you doing big, Chris, Hi.
Jeff, Tommy, great to be with you. Guys, your friends. I don't know what mentor I am for Tom certainly not on the golf course for Tilge, I think. But I'm sitting in front of mine, even though it's ninety degrees for me too. By the way, Connecticut, my New England, you know my stone Fire plot. I mean, I wanted to give you the feel of fo level in New England, even though it's ninety degrees with humidity. But you know what,
Let's bring on the season. The Bears and Packers. They're playing for what the eight millionth time?
Is that?
It two O seven number two O seven. We all fall in love with sports in a different way. You've done everything, but you are so tied to the NFL. Do you remember the moment you fell in love with the NFL?
Well, I do. When I was young, Jeff, and it was really the AFL. So let's just go professional football. I'm sixty eight, which makes you and Tommy babies.
In my We're in your wheelhouse.
We're catching out the house.
But you know I'm already either a base ahead or a base behind. So I was nine, my brother was seven. Andy sixty four. Sha Stadium was just built. We live right on the New York, Connecticut Olympus Chase Statium was pretty close. New York Giants. It's like Chicago Bears. If you want a tickets, good luck to you, right, And my dad decided, I did well, I'm going to take my two young boys. And it was not a fanatical fan, but he enjoyed it.
Right.
Used to go to the Polo Grounds and watch the New York Football Giants all right, what he could, but what season tickets to the Then I just turned the Jets. They were the New York Titans. Stayed him out by where the World's Fair was built to date ourselves in sixty four, and they're eight dollars a ticket and they were like the third row in the upper deck. So that sounds awful. But actually I've told Bill Belichick this.
I didn't know as now we go through high school about all these games that I kind of was watching football as you would game film a little bit. So that's sixty four, sixty five. They signed a guy named Joe Namath. In sixty eight, I was in eighth grade. They won the Super Bowl. So uh, and they're still trying, which is why Aaron Rodgers is not on the Packers.
So It's not like I bleed jets. I mean, I'm happy because my dad got rest his soul, who would have been ninety nine this year, like would be happy. But there's your answer, right, I can go on. But so the AFL, anything AFL, because we we we threw the ball and Dodgy, you know, and and if we had named it, we had haiteled all. If we had Landaus and we had you know, we had like a good George Blander was still throwing the ball for you. We threw we we threw the ball, and so anything.
I like Buffalo, Well they were the first champ I remember as a young boy, right, they were the champs in mid sixties. I like Sandy La Chargers because they're in an AFL team and they were cool in their helmets. They're uniput in. So there you go. And it didn't mean I didn't like the NFL either. I mean I know who the George Hollis was, and Jim Brown was and and uh et cetera.
You know, Bermonador, I'm gonna kind of speed up a little bit because a couple of weeks ago, we were in Indianapolis and I was watching a documentary about the seventy two Dolphins because they closed out the documentary of you on the field doing a stand up of the Bears Dolphins game, the game we lost in eighty five. To me, as long as I've known you, that little piece had nutted so many questions.
I would always like to ask you.
Well, as you know, you know, Bears were unbelievable, and I'm a historian of the game as so many are, and I've gotten no Shula very well or did fly down Monday or whatever. I remember going to the Orange Bowl right before the game started, and I came down to that rickety underneath the bleachers and come out on this field and I'm from you know, Connecticut, be like from Chicago, and the weather's great, and the colors and there's, oh my god, they're the Mighty Bears across the field.
And I come out and I see Shula with the jaw out farther than usual. And I looked down on my left and I see Zanka, I see Kick, I see Warfield, I see Larry Little and I went, oh, oh, I get it, Oh oh, I get it. If the Bears are this good, they're going to have to beat all of them too. The Nickmoto time is going to make a tackle from the sideline and they're not going
to flag them. It's just the way it is. And so what I remember is how special the night was, not because the Bears got beat and the legacy stayed, but how special it was. And then what you guys went on to accomplish, giving up ten points in three playoff game blah blah blah, and you know, blowing out everybody in eighteen and what I mean. So it spoke to how special the night was, even though for Chicago it's all we wish we had won, but you got
the big prize anyway. And I'll never forget that night. I still get goosebumps when I talk about it, just as a foot not because of the result, Tom, just.
The events that you've covered throughout time, the different people that you see that you've mentioned there, and when I see on the sidelines and doing a final love that game and the people rushing around you.
You know, it's like you had.
To do those a lot of stand ups back there uninterrupted, no matter who's going to run in your face or get in your space.
Well, look, you had to make the block. If you had one shot at it right the pass and you got one shot at it on a given play. Those stand ups in our business, which are not anything like making a pancake block or like I say, you know, making an innuracy. You're breaking on the ball as a dB and either getting it or getting beat. You got one shot at it. Are you rolling three two one? I figure you get twenty seconds before you get trampled. So try to speak in a complete sentence and get
it done. So that I mean, but that's just a small part of it. But we're just as excited as the fans and this and that it was just electric. Like I said, had you want it would have been even maybe even more electric. Just the whole night was magic, trust because of who he was and that team. You know, I don't have to explain it, but your team speaks for itself and often did.
Yeah loudly. Chris Berman from NFL Prime Time joining us here on Bears Weekly on ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network, Jeff joni Ak and Tom Thayer. All right, so let's take it forward now to where we're at today. You're still working in that studio, they still love three minutes. How hard was it to master it. Obviously, we saw Howard Cosell all those years on Monday Night Football do it at halftime and it was mussy TV. The fastest three minutes on Monday Night is also mussy TV.
Well, it's first of all, it is a kudo to Howard. We do all the games. They couldn't what I could have. But it was different than it's like an outline. I run through it a couple of times ahead of time. Well in the old days, I mean I did it live, like you got one shot of this and be like playing the game, and I screwed up plenty. You get five seconds, four seconds behind. You don't have fourteen second Bears package. There's just a feeling you could go all
the way. Well, I'm here coming forward to love he Well, now we're out of the lions, whoa, whoa, and I'm behind. It takes you a minute to catch up. We have a big shoehorn and uh we stuff it in pretty good.
Well, how do you do your studying in preparation for a season that's getting ready to begin? And I know it's the Kansas City Chiefs and Andy Ree is one of your best buddies. How do you how do you get involved in the You guys, is.
Now NFL prime time. I'm more highlights based only rather than pregame where you got to really be up on what's going on with It's almost impossible to be up on all thirty two teams at one time, but you got to make it your best effort. But this week in particular, I still have a lot of friends in the league, like Andy Reid just to name one. You mentioned them, and they're good enough to give me time. And I will talk to a lot of coaches and gms because you can't wish them good luck week three.
You better have a conversation with them Week one, Oh they come out of the gates to and oh hey, good luck, Well where the hell were you? Right? So better cover as many as you can, and then and then during as the season goes, you're not checking in on all thirty but you're doing reading just like you
guys are. You're up on the league. Even if the Bears are only playing the Packers this week, I mean, you're working, you're worried about the next game, So I mean you have to know what's going on in the league because it affects Bears. Even if it's ten gently, you know what I mean, the tangent. That's a tough word to say in a tangent.
There you go, you got it, Nail.
I'm sorry, we're gonna step away. One more segment ago with Chris Berman from ESPN With Tom There, I'm Jeff Joniac. This is ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
This is Bears Weekly with the voice of the Bears for twenty three years, Jeff Jack on the Bears Radio Network.
This segment of Bears Weekly is sponsored by CDW People to get it. With Tom There, I'm Jeff Joniac. We're breaking down Bears packers on the show this week. Of course the opener, we'll bring it to you from Soldier Field starting at three twenty five. Be sure to join us all the pre game, four hours pre game, four hours postgame, and our first regular season game on ESPN one thousand, Chicago. Our guest tonight kind of enough to join us for a few more minutes. NFL Primetime host,
the legendary Boomer, Chris Berman. So I always say what Tom and I do. First of all, it is a privilege. But we charted the history of the game, and you mentioned earlier, and I think you were a history major, if I'm not mistaken. D Brown, you talk often about the history of the game. Is this your college education coming to fruition? What you do with the Hall of Fame? How important is that to you to be there with the greats of the game, the few that have managed to get into that place.
Well, that's a very good question. I never thought that being a major American history major would therefore me I was a NFL and whatever, major League Baseball or a few other major But it is part of America anyway, so maybe it is coming to fruition. The history of the game is Well, you live in Chicago, so I mean you're dripping with at the minute. You talk about the Chicago Bears, obviously, and I even have a hard
time saying Chicago Bears. That saying Chicago Bears, you know, I mean, I really feel like I should, right, yes, the Bears and the Packers for the two hundred what is it seven or eight?
Seven?
How many times on frozen, et cetera.
So I feel that we.
Should have context. Now again, you know, not everything that happens in twenty twenty three. Oh, he's not as good as passers, well bear quarterbacks through the years, except for sud Luckman maybe you know. And that's not a knock on Jimmy. I'm going way back, like we're not trying to compare, but you've got to have some context, I think, and part of it Jeff and Tommy. I don't feel like it's my johnt to educate our youth, but do no fault of their own. We had to read a
lot more. Yes, they can read right here. But I'm afraid that Joe Montana is Sammy pau to a lot of them. To me, Joe Montana in my contemporary Tommy's good. You know, he's my friend. I can call him up right now, Sammy Baugh. Okay, that's ancient history which we should know about. But I feel there are times when you can kind of throw some stuff out there. Well, for example, Jim Brown passed away a couple months ago. Right, well,
he retired in nineteen sixty five. And they're young. They see this name, Well, he's twelfth on the rushing list or thirteenth or whatever he is. Now he must have been okay, no no no, no, no no no, no, yeah he was, he was, okay, So I give that as an example, because I don't feel it's my duty, but I'm into it and I feel that if you write a little something with them, ah, maybe I'll go look up how good Jim Brown was. And it's not something that normally would google first thing in the morning,
you know, I feel. And you're in the same business again. I mean, you're may you have Bears fans listening to you. So but there are twenty thirty year olds that unless their dad or grandfather told them about Gail Sayers or might get as a player, or even the eighty five Bears right that they don't they've heard of it. But you're bringing them to life because they trust you because you're the Bears. So does that make sense? I feel it's not our duty, but I educated educating our youth. Hey,
we're still youthful. I feel it. It's fun and it's necessary, you know.
I also refer to Chris as Berminator. I don't think I've ever called them Chris and I. It's either Burman or Berminator. There's a famous poster of Mount and MAUI hangs in a place that we go to after golf.
So Aberminator, can you describe Football Sunday for those of us who have never been to the campus of ESPN and like the type of room you sit in, the conversations and how do you watch it when you have to have your eyes on every screen where Jeff and I have been broadcasting one game for the last twenty seven years, and that's game we pay attention to.
Well, let me take it back. First of all, I'm thrilled that you guys are ESPN now. I mean you're You've always been family, Tommy, but now you're my professional family. But you are Ohana and Jeff you too because of your friendship with tom and your partnership. And I feel like I know you gave you know I don't see you very much. I don't see Tommy enough anyway. So let me go back to the days when I would.
I don't mean I did it all, but my responsibility on a Sunday was every show that we did NFL related for ESPM, when we started with one building, then two buildings. You know, I started one month and I was twenty four and I looked like Ron Bergen with the mustache and allowed jacket and hair which are pretty good, which was which, by the way, worked in that era, don't we leave it at that? So that's it. But now we're a campus. We're like a college campus, if
you will. Now, so we're three buildings over to go to the studio and then you get set for the show, and then you do three outs. I take about fifteen minutes, kind of myself, almost like I was the quarterback, no more important than anybody else than Tommy Jackson or anybody or anyone behind the scenes of this. We're all in this together. We're all going to get together in another room.
It's two or three buildings over which has all the screens. Now, for example Week one, where everybody's playing, and I don't know how many of the noon Central time games there are eight, nine, whatever the number is. Anyone that says they can watch eight games at once, it's wine, okay. In the day, you would have pecking orders when he has been couldn't afford. So we have three or four or five really good monitors and then some other ones.
And so I'm dating myself. So Tampa would be way over to the right, the Bengals would be way over to the left, the Falcons would be wayed that you get my point, And so you could kind of watch two or three to get or four to get flow of game. And then there's the somebody for some reasons watching this back in the day the Buccaneers over to the right, right, Oh my god, look at that play in the Tampa game. And then we all look over
here for twenty seconds at Tampa. Oh, Doug, well, I'm really dating myself, you know, my god, look at that. And then you're back to the other three or four or five. Now again in the late games kickoff, you get a field for those, but now we're talking about what it's obvious, a sixty yard touchdown that's going to
go in that highway. But the third and three in the mud that they picked up five yards and essentially clinched the game, you still got to tell them that's creating their younger that's got to go in because it's primetime and we have three, four or five minutes to tell the story of the game. It's not exciting, but they ran out the and it was muddy, and it wasn't an easy to get you that those sort of plays.
So you're having conversations. Then in about the third quarter of the late games, the shot sheets come in and you want to see them from the early games to highlights, because you can get fooled on a couple of things, and certainly the names now are harder to pronounce than that Tom Fayer or even Jeff Jodiak. But then we got to go over back to the studio, and so the late games are often they're ending while we're on.
So in the old days of prime Time with Tommy Jackson and me in twenty nine years, we did it actually at thirty, you know, did it together. We'd have the monitors of the four let's say late games on. You couldn't watch it while you were alive, but you'd have a two minute commercial work all denvers down to the ten. Now how much time has left in the broncos fifty okay? And then but now you're back on the air, so you at least knew they had a
chance to do something right. But it still ends while you're on, and then the sheet is any of you doing in blind? Now with Booger and the ESPN colusts, the only difference is we have no commercials. So once those late games, you know there are eight minutes left, and we go to the studio for the ones that Okay, there's been a l injury or a long time out. We are really winging it. We're the only one in America that did see the finish of the game. And then we got to put it on TV, and how
can he screw up that highlight? And the only thing but I tell them, do not tell me who won. Let me do this like I'm play by play like you, Jeff, and all I get for my producers, you won't believe the finish of this game. Here it is Denver and the Raiders. You know so, and then you do it. But that's live TV. That's the play by play part. And then we used to have the night games Tommy Sunday night was after prime time and then that's when
we did the fans of three minutes. So we put that together and I'd stayed at the end of that game, a case a uffo landed. You never know what could happen.
He made it look easy, and he continues to your buddy has stories that could last forever. We had to cut the interview short. We here's more to it. We'll have to repurpose this someday. But I love the history about all happened because back of the day. It wasn't so easy. Now it seems that way with the red zone and everything else going on. But nothing easy about it.
Yeah, you know, you just think of the history of ESPN and what it means to sports. I remember when ESPN just came aboard and I go, Who's gonna watch sports.
Twenty four hours a day?
Well, that person is me, and so it's on my channel.
All the time.
All right, one more segment to go. We'll take a look at how the Bears are gonna tackle literally tackle the Green Bay Packers. It's all coming up next to here on He has been one thousand and the Bears Radio Network.
This is Bears Weekly with the voice of the Bears for twenty three years, Jeff Jony on the Bears Radio Network.
Of Bears.
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La boy.
Got to start a feeling better tomorrow, Jeff in tom our final segment. Tackling is always an issue in week one, So who better to talk to the Bears defensive line coach Travis Smith today gathering with the defensive coaches up here at Hallisaul, are the Bears ready for this?
So we we talk about we installed in the meetings, we show film on it. We teach tackling techniques with there's that we all say the same name for how we tackle certain players. We show tape of how to tackle certain players. And then we also drill an individual out d lion linebackers and dbs and we talk about when twenty eight has the ball, when thirty three has
the ball, how do we tackle these players? If you look it back to our first Green Bay game last year, we had like twenty missed tackles as a defense and then we went to the second game, I think with the seven. So that's one thing that's we've all we've been talking about all week, all off because the first regular season game, usually across the league, tackling is pretty poor on defense because the limited reps that a first unit takes. But that's we don't want to start off
or it's the same thing. You want to start off rolling right off the bat right because you're tackling. If you have limited miss tackles, they got limited yards after catch, limited yards after contact. The run yards will be down, runs per carry will be down. The whole thing will be better.
What's different about tackling Dylan?
Yeah, obviously you got a bigger man. You got two hundred and forty seven pounds. I think he is right now. He's got those big strong handstrings squads on him, all right, So we have a certain name for it. I'll keep it quiet though, right here. But there's a certain way to tackle Dylan. There's a certain way to tackle what's his name, Aaron Jones, thirty three.
Here's the bottom line, Tommy Aaron Jones four hundred and seventy yards on after contact in the run game last year, tenth in the league, four to ninety four in the passing game. Yack aj Dillon four hundred and fourteen yards after contact in the run game. They are difficult to bring down. I'd love to know what he means when he gives a name to each person different that you have to tackle. I'm sure it's something that kind of triggers the defensive players.
Yeah, there's a specific tackling target no matter who you play against, just like I mentioned Barry Sanders a little earlier in the show. But the thing about it is, you can't allow these guys to have a lot of space. If Aaron Jones is touching the ball, if aj Dillon is touching the ball, there's got to be a lot of bodies within the vicinity that are able to help the first hit, the second hitting, the third hit that you know stops the player in their tracks.
Well, and one thing is don't stop your feet first and foremost, right, not this the way they want them to tackle you. Don't stop your feet. You keep going, you take three steps, and you deliver the goods. And we'll be focused on that. That'll be a big part of this game on both sides of the ball, among many others. From a headline perspective, what's your headline? How do they get there? But how do they get there in thirty seconds?
You know, you have to use the dynamic athleticism of Justin Fields and he's got to be accurate throwing the balls. I still think they're going to be able to run the ball, but it's.
About him throwing the ball, all right, Tommy, good show, Thank you very much, Thanks everybody for listening. Thank you Chris Berman and Darnell Mooney of the Bears. Thank you to Eric Ostrowski, Kevin z Pack and Sewan Graney. And Dan Brilly and Jordan tread Up, all of our producers. Have a great night, everybody. We'll see us Sunday at Soldier Field, kickoff at three twenty five. We'll have a four hour pregame afore our postgame in our first regular
season game. I'm the new home of the Chicago Bears. ESPN Chicago can't wait for it. We're gonna get there bright and early, even though it's a three twenty five kick Tommy, what's your estimated time of arrival? Seven thirty in the morning, is the guests, that's my guess. I'm gonna take the under on that, but I think he'll be there right on time. Stay tuned for Black and Abdalla.
It's been a great night. Enjoy it. First week of the season about to commence in Kansas City with the NFC North Lions taking on Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. That'll do it for us on Bears Weekly on ESPN Chicago and the Bears Radio Network.
Thank you for listening to the Chicago Bears Network presentation of Bears Weekly, hosted by the Mara Bearsville, Jeff Junia and Surfmaster Tom Thayer.
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