Bear Digest

Double doink by the NFL with its MNF scheduling for the Bears

Given two easy layups for fan interest nationally with Bears games for the opener and at Christmas, the league somehow managed to botch it twice.

Gene Chamberlain

Two Bears games on Monday Night Football put them in prime time but would have been better at other points in the season.
Two Bears games on Monday Night Football put them in prime time but would have been better at other points in the season. / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
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Maybe there's hope the money-grubbing NFL after this altruistic act.

Either that or they're just plain stupid.

While the league seems to be doing everything they can to alienate fans by trying to squeeze every last cent out of their product with streaming telecasts, they just missed the very golden opportunity to maximize their exposure with two interesting Chicago Bears games.

To put it simply, they blew the wide-open dunk on the fast break. And they did it twice. They must not like the money.

The obvious season opener for the Bears was not Minnesota but against the Detroit Lions, whether in Detroit or in Chicago. You couldn't get greater interest in a Bears game nationally than a matchup with their coach facing his old team, especially after the bad feeling toward Johnson for leaving Dan Campbell and the Lions before they could make it to a Super Bowl.

It would have been a little like the 1987 season opener, a real classic dubbed Super Bowl XXI 1/2. Tht was the Bears-Giants battle that never occurred in the 1986 playoffs because the Bears played like garbage and lost to Washington in the playoffs. The Bears routed the Giants and Lawrence Taylor in this much-anticipated battle to open the '87 season to tremendous ratings.

Johnson is constantly being hung in effigy in Detroit for being the traitor and now the league has a perfect season opener for prime time to feature this rivalry. Everyone would have been watching.

And what do we get?

Bears and Vikings on Monday night, Packers and Lions on Sunday afternoon at 3:25 p.m.

Right idea, wrong opponent

The NFC North openers are fine. But for the past decade Packers fans have tried sticking it to Bears fans by saying they really don't have a rivalry with Chicago anymore, it's with the Vikings.

Good then, go play the Vikings. Have fun. Let the Bears play the Lions in the opener when they have a matchup that should capture the imaginationā€”the coach against his old team.

Eventually the Bears will face the Lions, but who knows what happens by the time that game is played? Both teams might have injuries and have losing streaks.

The interest would be negligible. In fact, odds are at least one of the teams is struggling at that point and the national interest wouldn't be there. It might not even be the Bears. The Lions did have their coaching staff gutted and they could have a drop-off in effectiveness.

Hail Mary II for Xmas was better idea

As for the other missed open-court dunk, it's the rematch of the Hail Mary pass. This one was set up for the Christmas Day game after the Bears and Commanders were both slated to play on Saturday, Dec. 20, the Bears against the Packers and Commanders against the Eagles.

Tyrique Stevenson's bone-headed play, the ridiculous way Matt Eberflus' defense handed the game-ending situation against the Commanders, might be the most recognizable play from the 2024 NFL season. It's definitely not the defining play but easily is recognized as "The Hail Mary."

A rematch is a natural for Christmas with the whole country watching.

Instead, JP Finlay of NBC in Washington reported it's a prime-time game for Week 6 but on Monday Night Football just like the Bears opener with Minnesota.

Maybe they're trying to breathe new life into MNF because viewership last year took a 14% drop in 2024 from the 2023 season.

The NFL seems to go out of its way to stumble into mistakes and it's little wonder their ratings are dropping when they give away the gimmees afforded them by Bears-Lions for the opener and Bears-Commanders wrapped up in a Christmas package.

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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.