Shakespeare on the Gridiron for Bears

There is Shakespeare in the park.

Now, for the Bears, there is Shakespeare on the gridiron.

The Bard probably never thought he would be a way for the Bears to cope with all the running coach Matt Eberflus is subjecting them to with his HITS principle, the acronym which stands for hustle, intensity, takeaways or taking care of the football and smart play.

When the Bears first started applying Eberflus' principle on the practice field, defensive coordinator Alan Williams said he expected some dissenters.

Meet cornerback Jaylon Johnson: Former dissenter.

"No, I didn't buy in right away," Johnson said. "It was just something that I wasn't familiar with, something I wasn't used to doing, so naturally there's going to be some back-and-forth.

"But really coming in, being in it, going through it during the spring, and now, like I said, it's becoming second nature. It is what it is. It's the standard, and as a leader I have to push myself to push other guys, to uphold that standard. I'm definitely used to it now. It's natural. It's what the expectation is."

It's making a difference, Johnson said.

"Oh, 100%, 100%, because I mean that's something that wasn't here at first, and now it's being demanded each and every day, no matter what we're doing," Johnson said. "During walkthroughs, jog-throughs, full speed pads, no pads. Regardless of what we're going through, it's always about the HITS principle. So we’re improving on that each and every day, each and every week."

It's hard to see how a team can apply running in the HITS principle to a walkthrough, but either way Johnson admits all the running affected him.

"I mean it definitely made me more in shape, all the running that we're doing, for sure," he said. "So my endurance is more advanced than it was in previous years."

They can't loaf.

Coaches grade sheets will let them know the bad news after practice or games upon film review of every single play.

"It was an eye-opener for me after that Kansas City game, getting back your grade sheet," center Sam Mustipher said. "I'm a guy who prides myself on going to pick up the ball carrier, but I had 'loafs' on the sheet. That's something I'm not used to. I went back throughout the week, like, 'shoot, I got to practice harder.' Because if you don't practice hard, you're not going to be able to do it in the game."

So they run everywhere and they come up with ways to cope with all the extra work, finding the extra gear when it appears a play or practice rep is over.

"...But one of our quotes that we said Shakespeare came up with is, 'Thou who runneth to the ball, good things shall happen.' "

"It's funny because we joke around with it, but one of our quotes that we said Shakespeare came up with is, 'Thou who runneth to the ball, good things shall happen,' " Johnson said. "So I mean, just things like that. Just really kinda seeing the bright side of running.

"It's not just, 'Oh you guys just run to the ball, just because we say you guys run to the ball.' It's some rhyme and reason to why we do it, and once we see good things happen from running to the ball then it gives us more confidence to push ourselves to really run to the ball, because you never really know what could happen."

Mustipher saw an example of it the first play against Seattle last week, the tight end screen for a first down to Cole Kmet.

"When Cole is on the ground, there's nothing but white (Bears) jerseys around him," Mustipher said. "That's the HITS principle. How that comes to fruition. Now Cole knows, 'no matter where I am on the field, all my guys are going to be there for me. So I can run harder, I can fight for those extra yards.' It's cool things like that. To see it come to fruition is nice."

After all, it was Shakespeare who wrote: "Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, and others have greatness thrust upon them."

It is those who are the ones the Bears coaches would say have HITS thrust upon them.

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