Bear Digest

Amon-Ra St. Brown's promise to new Bears coach Ben Johnson

Call it a threat but Amon-Ra St. Brown's departing discussion with Ben Johnson showed the Lions receiver could keep his sense of humor in a tough situation, even if Lions fans couldn't.
Gene Chamberlain|
Amon-Ra St. Brown leaves Soldier Field to the cheers of Lions fans in Chicago after this season's Detroit victory.
Amon-Ra St. Brown leaves Soldier Field to the cheers of Lions fans in Chicago after this season's Detroit victory. | Audrey Richardson / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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The realization new Bears coach Ben Johnson has left Detroit hit home with Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Unlike a lot of the Lions fans who wanted to call Johnson a traitor, St. Brown had a realistic view of it along with some fun banter while talking to Johnson.

Speaking on the St. Brown Brothers Podcast, Amon-Ra called Johnson's departure inevitable.

"Obviously I love Ben, one of my favorite coaches that I've ever had for sure," he told his brother, Equanimeous. "He's smart. He's one of the hardest working coaches that I've been around. But obviously I would want to have him in Detroit forever but that's not the reality of things."


The time had come for the team and Johnson to part ways because he also had other chances to leave in the past and didn't take them.

"Like, if he didn't leave this year I feel like teams are going to say, 'oh what's wrong with him?' Like, we had the highest-scoring offense in the league. This was ... we lost early unfortunately. I feel like this was the year for him to leave and he took it."

Equanimous, the former Bears receiver, told his brother about the Bears: "That's going to be a scary team. That's going to be a scary team now."

Amon-Ra couldn't deny it.

"We got our boy Caleb (Williams) over there, who's talented," Amon-Ra said. "They got some good players over there. (D'Andre) Swift is over there. So, they got a pretty good team."

Amon-Ra had spoken to Johnson on the phone an hour before doing the podcast and said they had some fun with the whole thing.

"I told him, I said, 'For two times a year Ben, we're going to (blank) you up,' " Amon-Ra said. "He goes, 'I'm going to (blank) you up.' "

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.