Right justin middle of the field forty five to fifteen. Bring Russ in front of all leaving lions in his way. I am Jeff Joniya Whitz.
Is not Donny go r Wolves like playing for coach Bogdom.
I don't want to answer any questions like that. Sixty one yards?
What's Sunday stroll for? Justin Fields?
Yea Bears et Cetera with the voices of the Chicago Bears Jeff Joniac post trade deadline, the Bears get stronger on the defensive line. They also keep cornerback Jalen Johnson. How will this impact the Bears moving forward and into Sunday's matchup down in New Orleans against the Saints? Hi Everybody Jeff Joniac and Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Thayer in episode thirty. The Bears et Cetera podcast brought you in part today by Bette Rivers. Take a chance download the Bette Rivers app.
Today.
Coming up, we're going to replay the entire twelve minute news conference from Wednesday with gentle manager Ryan Poles. Active Day, active storyline, but the biggest is that Montes Sweat is the Chicago Bear six ' six.
And we can talk about the combine all you want.
He's four years deep in his league, but when he ran a four to forty at six six, two hundred and seventy pounds, caught everybody's attention. Great athlete. He's had a really good year. Second the quarterback in his career expects to do the same here.
Yeah, but you know one thing about the combine.
You can see these guys and they go out and they run an impressive forty, or they jump high, or they bench a two twenty five a bunch of times. But like you said, it's how they put that talent in motion. And I think to me, that's been the most impressive thing about Montest Sweat since he's come aboard into the NFL, is that. Yeah, he caught everybody's attention immediately, he was on everybody's radar. He played, had the speed
that he plays a very unique position. And then can you put all that together, Because we've seen guys that have special skills that weren't the football players that they had hoped to be. But Montes Sweb has been able to scratch the surface of ultimately where he can go.
And Bears to give up a high second round pick as it stands right now anyway, We'll see how the season winds up, but that will be an impact to the story as well. But the Bears are trying to sign him. We'll see if he's interested in signing right now. He it would be under Bears control regardless because they could easily franchise tag him. But Ryan Poet says they hope to get something done on the near termy home. More about that in what Ryan had to say. And
that's what you'd like to do. You give up that kind of draft choice capital, Tom you want to sign him long term.
Of course you do.
You want a guy come in here that you made a trade mid season of a portion an area of the game that you need a lot of help, and he comes in here and performs at a high level.
He's a good guy inside the locker room. He can help young guys maybe achieve what ultimately they want to achieve by getting some tutoring on the field, and you work well with the organization, the linebackers and the Yeah, you definitely want to be able to have this guy impress you, and then you want to get him signed to a long term deal.
Bears weren't sure he'd be available for a minute. He wasn't than he was, and other teams were involved, so they took the swing at it. We talk about the pass rush all the time, but they got to be edgsetters well in the run game. And I you know, going back and watching every snap of that game against Washington the Bears won, and just some other clips, he is a good run defender. Tim, what is your professional opinion of his run defense?
You know what the thing about it.
He has length, he has speed, and he has athleticism, everything that you need to be a good defensive end that plays every portion of the game first, second, and third down. And I think that's what impressed me most about Montese Sweat is that we all became noticed of him because of the forty he ran. But I think when you look at his game over the course of years and his development is his willingness to play the run.
Because you know, Jeff, when you look at some of these defensive ends that you become familiar with over your last thirty years in the league, you have guys that want to run on the field on third down and they want to rush the passer. But then you have these guys that are willing to stay on the field in first and second down and be contributors in the
running game. And that's what I see about Montes and whether he's you know, being blocked by a tight end or an offensive tackle, he's able to use his traits and his skills and his length equally as effectively against all pieces.
Jalen Johnson remains with the Bears.
He took the podium on Wednesday as well, gave a very detailed explanation of where he's at. Your first impuls is, well,
you know, he couldn't get a trade done. The asking price not quite what the Bears were looking for, and Ryan Pols will talk about that here in a minute, but he basically asked for a late first, early second and he was not going to budge from that, but he granted the wish the Jalen side had said if they didn't get a contract done after meeting on Sunday in La, you know, he asked for a trade, so he said, you know, go take a look.
So they took a look.
They're still communicating though it doesn't mean they're not going to sign him, but he is still here. But you wonder, you know, is he going to have the same desire to be great as a Bear without the safety net and the security of a long term contract. We'll hear from Jalen Johnson on that here in a few minutes as well. I was convinced he'll be fine, Tom, he will be fine. So he feels he's the best cornerback
in the league. He feels he's playing the best ball of his career, and so he continues to make that clear. And now he's got to show it the rest of this season.
Yeah, you're right, he's got to show with the rest of the season and him going up to the podium and saying that he feels that he's one of or not the best cornerback in the league. Then you're talking about what are the teams that are trading for you, What do they think? What do they think your value is in terms of getting a long term deal done with Jalen if you went and.
Traded for him.
Listen, I want every guy to have a high opinion of themselves, but I also want them to go out and prove it. And that's where the kind of where Jalen is right now. If he thinks that he is this type of playmaking cornerback that can really go out there and play at a blocking down a number one receiver on any team in the league. And if you continue to show it, you're either going to be rewarded here or somewhere else. And he understands about the franchise
tag as well. So I hope Jalen comes out here and continues to make the types of plays that cornerbacks need to make in order to be considered one of the tops in the league.
Well, when sweat gets down the field, you presumably will get a bigger impact up front. Guys will get slotted differently, the rotation gets a little more experience and a.
Lot of production. It will help the dB.
So that'll be an interesting connection with Jalen Johnson. For all your journeys ahead, go with a partner who's been on your team from the beginning, the one members and communities have trusted for over eighty five years. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, always standing by you, with you, for you through it all. Also the news of the daytime the removal of running back coach David Walker dismissed for repeated violations that involved the HR department and workplace conduct.
So the new running backs coach now will be Omar Young, who's been here under Eberflus, working with wide receivers and also other aspects of the Bears passing offense. So the running game certainly is something he's been around and that'll be the transition. But you know, as a second coach in six weeks, better than to just say, let's just ignore that and move on. You got to make these decisions. They're not easy decisions at this point in the season.
What's your thought.
I think it's some of the most difficult decisions you'll ever have to make in an assistant coach's life because Jeff, like I always say, how long you been around the game, And you see how many hours that a lot of these assistant coaches put in to ultimately getting the job job that pays for all the dues that they put in in life and in time in the moving that they've had to do throughout their career, and then they finally get the opportunity to get a high profile job
in the NFL market, it seems like you'd want to do everything you possibly could to present yourself in the proper way in order to hold on to that job as long as possible. These guys are paid very handsomely when they do achieve this type of success, and you know, that's what I think. Matt Eberflus has a really high expectation of every one of these guys, from character to coaching.
Has to that's the only way it's going to work for sure. Injury report today. They did not practice on Wednesday, but there was an injury report. Eddie Jackson would be clear to go the entire day, Brisker, Edmunds, Terrell Smith, Nay Davis all out, justin fields out limited for Brexton Jones, that twenty one day window still open for his return from his neck injury. I'd like to see him out there, but I don't want to see a less than one hundred percent Braxton Jones at this point.
You yeah, now with the neck issue, and you're talking about a position that your neck comes into play almost every single play, and sometimes it can have an extremely high impact to it if you're pulling or if you're on the mover, you're.
Going to the second level.
So Braxton Jones is a super young man in his career with a super bright future ahead of him. So coming back from this issue, you got to make sure that you're one hundred percent confident rather than being uncertain about your ability.
Busy heart Seltzer the official heart Seltzer of the Chicago Bears. As indicated Ryan Poe's met the media on Wednesday, we'll give you the whole thing right here on Bears et cetera.
We expect him to come here and help our entire team get better. We see him as a long, fast, explosive, relentless defensive end that can help us both in the run in the past game, and really I see him as a multiplier.
He's gonna allow everyone to play better.
Our entire defensive front, our corners are safeties and again, hopefully we talk about the ball all the time, creating turnovers and stops so we can be better In terms of our process, really was a situation where you know, you try to forecast forward, you look at the draft potential. Our guys have been doing a really good job being the information in as well as free agency, and we felt like this was a really good opportunity to get ahead of that and get a top pass rusher in
the building. And again that's short term, but also for long term, we're currently working on getting a contract done now.
Too.
I got a lot of questions about Jalen.
First, Jayalen I have a really good relationship, a lot of transparency.
We sit down and we talk, We go through different things.
And heard a lot about not wanting Jalen here long term, and that couldn't be further from the truth. He knows that we want him here and we've talked about that our process there.
I'll just kind of pull back on that whole deal.
Anytime we do an extension, I bring players in to sit down and have a conversation to really go over what an extension looks like, what does it feel like. Because the biggest thing is you can take things personal when you're negotiating through an agent. So there's the club side starts one side, the agent starts the other, and you try to find that sweet spot in the middle to get the deal done.
And in that sense, you can take it personal.
And the big thing, I want our guys and the guys here to be able to come in my office and talk about if they feel disrespected anyway, and we can talk through it to go because it's a tough situation.
So I want them to know that my phone's on my door's open. We talk through that.
So we've been able to do that with Jalen and go through that process.
Really with that one, we've.
Exchanged a couple of times and it was one of those situations. A lot of times it happens when you exchange emails back and forth with deals. Tone can be misunderstood, emotions can be misunderstood.
We all know that.
I'm sure we've all texted and it's like, no, I didn't mean it to be that way. So on Sunday we met with his side. I had really good meetings in La I thought we made progress. I talked at text of my group. I'm like, we'll be able to get this deal done in a matter of days. We come back from the trip and his team wants to explore a trade situation. So I'm fine with that. But I brought Jalen in, we sat down, we talked about it. I granted permission to do that. Here's the thing I'm
not I don't want to lose Jalen Johnson. If I were to lose Jalen Johnson, I would like to have a high percentage of hitting on another Jalen Johnson, which to me is a late first, and it's an early second, so really simple there.
That didn't happen.
So we are still open to getting a contract done and I'm going to follow Jalen's lead on how he wants to go about doing that.
But we're still open.
And again, Jalen and I have talked as recently as today and.
That's what I got there. So those are two topics open up for questions.
How would you characterize the state of extension talks with Montes and where you're at a that.
Yeah, so he just signed up, got the physical done, so you know, we just kick that off. It's hard to put a timeline on it, but I'm hoping it won't take too long.
When it came down to Montese versus Chase Young, we know now that both were on the market, how'd.
You come to the decision to, you know, shout.
Out as a two for Montes versus you know, Chase Young going for for three.
Yeah, I'll be honest.
I really didn't think Tes was available for a while, so that door was kind of closed and it was gonna be kind of quiet, and then it popped back up in the last couple of hours.
Ryan Ran, we talked to him Matt earlier today, you had your second assistant coach leave in six weeks?
Yep? Does he have a culture problem? Did bears have a culture problem? And if no, why why not?
Because these things don't happen you know it's happening twice in six days.
Yeah, Well I can be really clear with that one. We have a expectations here and this comes from me, Kevin, George and Matt. If you don't meet those expectations or how you move around this building, how you treat people, how you talk to people, how you act, you don't belong here. So the alternative is you do nothing and you just kind of brush around the rug and you're cool with that, which we're not, or you act accordingly
to make sure that your culture is strong. So unfortunately, just I feel like every time I talk, it's like the easy way the quiet way. The hard way is a loud way, and we have to deal with this. But that's how we're going to do business here.
So right, how certain are you that you can get a deal done with Sweat without using the franchise tag because when you spend a second obviously it's a long term thing. Is that put you in a little bit of a tough situation leverage wise, trying to get knowing that you need to have this guy here long term.
Yeah, I feel really confident that we can get a deal done.
Right.
What is the benefit being able to negotiate with him now, essentially paying the second round pick to do that, as opposed to waiting till March and getting involved in that situation.
Yeah, I think it's capitalizing right now because you start to lose opportunities. It's really hard to see, you know. It's like we talked about it, like if you look at the phrasing and stack now, it's going to look very different by the time you get to that point of the year because there's so many different opportunities that can pop up in terms of extensions, tax different things like that. So we decided with that type of player, we want to capitalize on that now.
And you've got a sense that if you guys weren't the ones to trade from yesterday, somebody else.
Yes.
Are you surprised that the pass rush up until this point, given how many draft resources free agent resources that you've utilized, that hasn't hand out the way that you might have been hopeful for.
Yeah, you're always hopeful with the guys that you're bringing in, but sometimes you just need, you know, someone that can come in and create some disruption where you have to slide the offensive line a certain way, you have to double team certain people, and then that starts again. We're talking about multipliers where it can open up different situations for different guys to get home.
So I'm hoping that this improves that.
We're aggressive again this year, same situation, second round. Pick what gives you confidence that this time this move of the trade deadline is.
Going to work out. Yeah, it's one of those things. Again.
I try to take a lot of pride in it, but you know, you look at things that you do. If they fail or you make mistakes, can you look back at why and address those? And then I think the key is like sometimes you become a little bit shy to make aggressive moves as you move forward, but
that's just not how we're wired. So it took a lot of those things from that situation and kind of went through that process and said, Okay, here's where we may have messed up this and then for this one not not making the same mistake and learn from that.
It was obviously a significant move on your part to open the door for Galing in his camp to go seek a trade.
What was in that for you?
Philosophical philosophically, what were you?
Can you say that one more time?
I'm sorry.
Obviously a significant measure by you to open the doors for jail And in his camp to explore a trade possibility yesterday from from your vantage point philosophically, what was advantageous to you to allowing them to do that?
So you didn't have to grant that if you didn't want.
I think again, it's a respect that I have for Jalen too. It's like, if that's in your heart, then you want to go check that out. Go check that out and see what comes back. If if everything lines up perfectly well, if you want to go somewhere else, then that can happen. If that brought the pick where I felt like we could get another Jalen Johnson, then we can do that too. So it's really just to have clarity on the situation. But it had to work out perfectly for both sides to.
It's such a financial divide between what he is looking for and what you're willing to do.
That's the thing we never got to that point. That's what we meant in terms of let's close the gap and figure out where to go next. Because when you negotiate, you, just like anything else that you guys have done it, you go back and forth a couple of steps.
So there was only a few steps. No one was final. Does that makes sense?
Yeah, I mean I guess obviously there's still.
I don't know what the gap is.
Does that frustrate you not having clarity?
I guess he was a surprise because we were working to close the gap.
So there had not been an offer extended.
They were offers, but there was no last and final from any side.
Right between the losses and the staff issues.
Why are you confident still that Matt is the right coach for this game? Yeah? And I get the question.
What I see on every every day where I see him address the team, and I see his approach through adversity.
It is stable man.
And I know in the outside world that doesn't look like that, and I know it looks like we're far away, but this dude comes in every day and just keeps chipping away. He has high integrity. The people that he brings in here, He's done the work to make sure that they're the people they're supposed to be. Again, we hold that standard. If it doesn't follow that and people aren't acting that way, they're not here. But the way that he holds holds everything down here is incredible for
how loud it is, how tough it is. I mean, this team, you could watch them.
They fight.
I know this past weekend wasn't great, but you can't watch that team and be like, oh, they're gonna fold. Most teams fold, and they're not folding. It's been hard. It's been really hard, especially from where we started last year trying to build this and do it the right way. What I see from him on a daily basis and how he gets his team ready and on a weekly basis, to me, I see a grown man that has leadership skills to get this thing out of the hole and into where it needs to be.
Right.
You said before the season that this team can be measured on winning. Why hasn't this team lived up to that standard.
Yeah, we got to EXCU better, we got to XQ better, we got to continue to put guys in the right place positions. We've got to continue to add good players to help us get over the hump. We've got to add playmakers to like when you have some of these mistakes that we've had, when you watch just NFL football in general, you have guys that can just I call them a racers, erase some of those mistakes, those turnovers, make plays, and we just got to get to a place that we can do that and also close the
gap where we can play clean football. When we've played clean football this year, we want games when it gets slopped. We haven't, so we just got to continue to clean it up and fix the execution.
Just to clarify the gal situation, that's a little confused. His camp has a number, the Bears have a number.
Why is there no mental works? How does it work? How you go back and forth right and you try to find a sweet spot.
So you have to conclude that and say, hey, this is my final, this is your final, and then you know what the gap is.
But we haven't gotten there yet.
Is this some kind as well, some kind of baby endorsement of what your quarterback situation. You're taking the control out of your hands, somewhat, you're adding to your defense, You're proving your rostery in your eyes. Is this maybe say you're kind of comfored with how your quarterback situationalized.
I would say, in general philosophy's just continue to add really good football players to this roster so that we can win football games.
So he hit some of the things we discussed Tom. Anything else stick out about Ryan Poles his news conference on Wednesday that resonates with you, and I know they asked him about coach Eberflution and why he still believes in him, and he gave a real passionate answer for that, and the grind and the old process of dealing with adversity which they've faced a ton here out of the gate, beginning with that opening loss to the Packers in Week one.
Where they're at right now, two and two in the last four Yes, new additions, subtractions because of injury, coaching changes, you name it. It's happened. They've had some tough losses, some blowout wins. I mean it's only week nine, but a lot has gone on.
Yeah, you know, I think he always have to consider when Ryan talks about what this roster looked like and what the building looked like when he came aboard, and
how much change there has been since then. And you do see the signs of development, even though Matt Iberflus had to take over midstride to become the defensive coordinator, and the defense has been making improvements, and hopefully a guy like Montes sweat that Ryan Poles obviously went out and studied and had an attraction to in terms of what he could do for this football team. Can make
the defensive backs better. If you got the interior the line, who I think has improven significantly along with the rookies, they can help the outside rushers like the outside rushers can help the interior guys. But I think when you think of Ryan Poles, it's hard not to think about
where this building is right now. With Ryan Poles, with Kevin Warren and with Matt Iberflus, I think they have a positive working relationship that you would like to see take major strides through the remainder of the season.
All right, let's listen to a little Montes. His arrival at Chicago. First first stop was the podium and answering questions. So a guy doesn't even know he's going to live for the time being, and that's the part of it, you know, there is a other side of it. Anybody who has a job, and they get transferred and you
got to start right away. But in a high pressure business of football, with all eyes are on, you expect them to be on the field Sunday afternoon down in New Orleans and to play football and to play winning football. But you got to get your life set up very quickly, find out where you're going to live and all that. You moved once in your career, but you were a single guy. You had no attachments other than your family
and Joli yet, but you weren't living with them. And you can get by with board shorts and flip flops and do your thing in Miami. You know, you just picked up some friends and let's go. Let's go play football.
You know, That's what I did, Jeff.
I went down there and I had my equipment, and I had an overnight bag filled with shorts and flip flops and T shirts. And luckily enough, I had a friend down there that had offered me a place to live and.
A minivan.
And that's what That's how I survived over the next eleven weeks. And I enjoyed it. But he again, I was I was on my own and only accountable for myself. When he talked about wardrobe and living and in the car here and all that kind of stuff. And then you you think, well, so what happens if he does sign a long term contract midway through the end of the season, and now you're talking about bringing your whole life up here, not just for a period.
Of time, right, all right, here's Montes sweat.
I'm just going, Uh, I know I'm doing media right now afterwards. I mean, I ain't been in my locker yet.
Do you expect to play Sunday?
Will be able to fin get out there right away?
I believe so.
Anywhere.
I don't know that yet. Specifically, Justin Feels was swirling about about the trend. Man, I was actually uh, I walked through and uh, I don't know. Well, I was on my way. I was on my way to walk through, and the rumors was squirling about. So I had my phone close to me. My Hager gave me a call there was.
What are your questions like when you get that call?
I mean it was a lot, there's a lot of there's a lot of emotions. I mean, I was in Washington for maybe for four or five years. I developed some strong relationships there that I mean would last after that, and I mean, you gotta pick up shop and find a new home.
So it's it's.
A lot of emotions to come with that, but I mean, I'm I'm ready for the challenge. I'm ready to meet my new team, hit the ground row.
We also talked about Jalen Johnson time and I just want to run one clip just how he feels about himself, as we alluded to it at the top of the show.
Here, he feels he's the best.
For one, I played my best year that I played at the Bears. For one two, I feel like my impact is greater than has been. I mean, I feel like they're arguably I like I'm the best corner of the game right now. So I mean, just going off that and continue to play at a high level, that's not going to change. And I feel like for me that only increases my value. And it just happens that you strike the iron wilds hot.
And of course now continue to show it. The New Orleans Saints. This is what this podcast is about. But so much happened here in the last couple of days that we had a shift gears, but the focus now becomes the New Orleans Saints. For the rest of the week, and Jalen Johnson will be facing some really good receivers and a quarterback and Derek Carr that he's known for a while and has faced before. But that team is an interesting one. I can't figure them out yet. The defense is very good.
They're going to be.
Better playing in the Dome. You know, once upon a time with the Saints, for great they were the Dome patrol right. They were sacking quarterbacks and playing vicious football. And they have those type of players edge rushers the secondary that I value a linebacker tomorrow. Davis has done a great job and has been a long time vet there.
But on the opposite side of the ball, they have run out thirty two offensive players tom the most in the league so far in the first eight weeks of the season, and they have played a full They haven't had their buy yet, so they've played eight games. Thirty two offensive players have already run through. They run a lot of different personnel groups and they're not going to be easy to maintain in terms of their excellence. They
have outstanding receivers. Michael Thomas, as we know, had the injury woes the past couple of years, but the last time the Bears played him, he was considered arguably the top receiver in football, or at least one of the top three. And Chris o'lave and the speed of Shaheed there is a lot to deal with. And Alvin Kamara included.
Yeah, and you know, don't bring up Taysom Hill because you have a guy that is such a jack of all trades that you really don't know what they're going to do when he's in the game. He can play quarterback, he can play tight end, he can play full back, he can play wide receiver. And then you mentioned all those other players that they got world class speed. They have one of the top receivers that's been in the game all although he's been injured the last couple of years.
They have a running back that is top tops in the game. So, you know, I think even Tyson Bagen said it at the podium that they have to play perfect football on offense because the defense moves.
So perfectly together.
They have an older group of guys that have been around in this system for a while, and I think when you look at the offensive side of the ball, they can do a lot of different things. So listening to Jalen Johnson at the podium today. The first thing I would do is go and introduce myself to Montese Sweat and tell them how important it is to have him on the field today.
Yeah, no question, you know.
Also, Bajen talked about as you alluded to, the defense has been together a while. Dennis Allen's the head coach, and he is aggressive. He can be really aggressive as a play caller. So it'll be interesting to see how these guys are deployed. But I've been impressed with watching right defensive end Carl Granderson Tom he's an outstanding pass
rush undrafted free agent back in twenty seventeen. He got himself a big contract as an undrafted player, and he's probably been their most impactful defensive player, taking nothing away from Cam Jordan, but he's on the other side of thirty. He's been there a while, slowing down just a smidge, not the same exact player, but still very productive. And then, as I mentioned, the middle linebacker and the green dot linebacker to Mario Davis, and then you got Marshawn Lattimore.
Paulson Nadibo is another corner. He shined last week. Marcus May is under the weather a little bit at safety and Tyron.
Matth Yeah, is there so honey Badger.
Yeah, the honey Badger has been around a while, but he's still he's still on the scene. So there's a lot on defense the Bears are gonna have to root out. What is your biggest concern about facing that defense with Tyson bajor right now?
Crowd noise and it's hard to hide. I've been in that stadium as an offensive lineman where you can't hear the calls being made, whether the center is directly under whether the quarterback is directly under center, or you have to make adjustments at the line of scrimmage when the lineback or when the offensive lineman or the quarterback is pointing out the linebacker of responsibility, you almost have to look and see who he's pointing out because you can't
hear him call him out. But when you think of the big picture of the game, there's gonna be three free agents that are going to have a huge part of the outcome of this game. When you look at Rashid, you look at Granderson, and you look at Tyson Bagent. Now you're going to have three free agents that didn't get drafted, but they can do enormous things. And so to me, every time I played in New Orleans, it's always been crowd noises my biggest concern.
However, I will tell you this.
If the Bears go in there and they run the ball well, they run it efficiently, they run it at four yards of pop, they have thirty five carries of effect to football, they can drown the crowd out of the game. So I think if there's any one key to this game, it's running the ball effectively to bore the crowd out of it.
Hey, and I do tempo too. That takes a crowd out of it when you're getting on your gashing team. So hopefully that can happen as well. I think he'd be good. I mean, they dabbled in it last week, but obviously they were working from behind. We're brought to you by a PNC Official Bank of the Bears and Miller Lite, the official beer of the Chicago Bears, tastes like Miller Time Chicago. Tom can't go past this day without remembering Walter Payton once again, your teammate, your friend,
A powerful man. Twenty four years ago on November one, passed away. Next day I have a daughter Caitlin. You're like an uncle to her and my other daughter Kelly. So I never forget this day. And I saw a Jim Brown quote from NFL Films earlier today. He said, give me the heart of Walter Payton, because no one had a bigger one. A guy who doesn't run out of bounds to avoid contact is my kind of guy. And certainly he played with the attitude and ability that
Jim Brown played with. And it was Jim Brown whose record was broken by Walter Payton and the rushing record, But a big hole in the Chicago Bears family without Walder here.
Yeah, it is, it is and it always will be because Walter Peyton is fondly remembered by every single person that's ever had a chance to meet him. And he's so fondly remembered by every person that's ever got to watch him dedicate himself to football.
He did incredible things on the field.
He was just so talented and self motivated.
He was not a guy that had to.
Go out and hire a personal trainer, because he trained himself harder than anybody else could train him. He was a model citizen in the locker room on and off the field. He made people feel comfortable every time he came across them. And Walter was, you know, special beyond compare. And you see a reflection of it when we're fortunate to see Jared and his daughter Britney and his wife Connie for that matter, how great of people they are, because you know, they were all super.
Influenced by Walter the father.
And so when you want to talk about every walk of life and being a great person that's fondly remembered, it's Walter Peyton.
Yep.
Great family, great, great, great family. Hey, after you guys, careers are over to you.
Guys, just ever pick up the phone and give each other a call or get out together.
At a of tons of times, I was super fortunate to be friends and my mom had a great friendship with Walter. And I always talk about this photo album that I have here because there was about four or five times that Walter showed up at my house down here and Joe Yet and he just showed up on his own because he knew that my family got together every Sunday. In one time, Walter came and drove to a McDonald's and went up to the counter and said, hey, I know Anthair works here, can you tell me where
she lives? And they go, oh my god, it's Walter Peyton. So they brought him to the phone. They called my mom on the phone. He got directions how to.
Get here and showed up.
And it's almost like a scene out of the Rocky movie because Walter would sit in the backyard. He would be here on his motorcycle in all the neighborhood kids would come over here and he would hold a couple at a time.
They would sit on his motorcycle.
They would put on his helmet, and I was super, super fortunate to have a friendship with him that extended well beyond our playing years.
That awesome story. Awesome, awesome. Well, when I the Bulls, he was always showing up.
You know, he kind of zipped down town faster than most people would get there. He found away, but he was always sitting there rooting MJ and the boys on. So it was always good to say hello to him. Certainly a treasure that we all miss, that's for sure. All right, Tom, that's gonna wrap up our show for
this week. Good New Chicago. You had the airlines getting brand new planes with all the bells and whistles like Bluetooth connectivity screens at every seat in the room for everyone's rollerir Bag United, Proud to fly the Chicago Bears and you too. For Tom There, I'm Jeff Joniak. Thanks for listening, everybody. Our Next Bears et cetera podcast drops next Tuesday, after the trip to New Orleans.
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