Bear Digest

A fleeting opportunity too great for these Chicago Bears to ignore

It's not every year the Bears get a chance like this Saturday night, with a playoff game against a rival on their home field.
Gene Chamberlain|
Cole Kmet makes a big catch against the Eagles in the Bears' Black Friday win.
Cole Kmet makes a big catch against the Eagles in the Bears' Black Friday win. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Several Bears playoff veterans are imparting messages upon younger players or those who've never been in the postseason, none with words more impactful than Cole Kmet.

The six-year veteran tight end is one of only two Bears left who played for the team in its last playoff game after the 2020 season, and recalled the feeling then going into their 20-9 loss at New Orleans.

“I remember it being weird," Kmet said. "As a rookie you didn't really know this from that and you're 8-8 and there was, it felt like, a lot of negative sentiment around the team at the time even though we were going to the playoffs. It almost felt like, 'oh man, you go 8-8 and it feels like this?' "

Kmet remembered thinking what many young players think when they're in  the postseason for the first time.

"Surely getting in is not an issue," he said. "Sure enough, five years later,  you're going back for the second time."

It's not as simple as it looks, even if they did get in at 8-8 that year before losing to the Saints.

Playoffs don't come along often

"So, I think I just look back on it and you realize, first of all, you never take a playoff berth for granted," Kmet said. "And maybe I did a little bit at the time and just based on the atmosphere of that, but also, that being said, I do feel like this team is way different than that team, and I think that that team had a lot of things going on throughout the year, a lot of changes at some key positions.

"Whereas this year it feels like we’re more cemented in who we are and our identity as a team."

Safety Kevin Byard's message included some of Kmet's theme while discussing his Titans playoff experience, but also the added thought that anything really can happen to teams once it all begins. No team can be discounted.

"I understand how special these opportunities are and they don't come around that often," Byard said. "I know just even that 2019 (Titans) team, like they were saying even back then we were too early, we had snuck into the playoffs and, ‘Oh, they're not going to do anything. They don't have all the pieces.' Then we went on the run.”

They went to the AFC Championship Game and lost to the Chiefs.

That part of the message is entirely applicable to this Bears team. They have been described as flukes by some but by others as being a year ahead of themselves because it was expected coach Ben Johnson would need more than a year to turn around a team that hadn't reached .500 since Kmet's 2020 playoff team.

"I've been hearing the same noise about this team this year as well," Byard said. "I just think for us all together, just understanding how special this group is and going out there and just playing for each other. It's do or die at this point."

Byard was on another Titans team this was said about in his second season, under Mike Mularkey. They won a playoff game. He led the NFL with seven interceptions that season.

He led the NFL this season with seven interceptions, as well.

In case younger players needed a good jolt to realize how fortunate they are to be in the Super Bowl field and should take advantage, defensive end Montez Sweat delivered a comment for all about what this week usually meant to them.

"We’re usually packing the cars up, sending everything back to home base and getting ready for the offseason," he said. "So it feels good preparing for the postseason right now."

In other words, it's usually packing day and not Packers day.

Sweet home Chicago

Kmet has a little more invested in this opportunity than others when it comes to knowing how rare playoff runs can be. He relates from the fans’ end, as a Chicagoan and long-suffering fan of its teams.

He rooted for the Cubs when they were going through their 108-year-long “wait until next” and even now in eight seasons since they won it all. He's hoping to be part of the rare Chicago winner so few pro athletes in the city have experienced.

It's been hard times since the Blackhawks' Stanley Cup run ended in 2015 and Cubs won the World Series in 2016.

“I think I feel like that with Chicago sports in general, I always felt like that with the Cubs and here obviously in Chicago with the Bears, and it's made me feel that recently with the Bulls—you talk about the 90s, and you know, that's kind of far away now at this point,” Kmet said. "I'm not taking shots or anything, but that's just kind of what it is.

“I think Chicago is just a city that's deeply rooted in history, which is awesome and it's what makes it such a special place. But that being said, we want to build our own history here and we have a chance to do that here coming up on Saturday.”

It's a message for the young and older players alike.

The 1985 Bears are still living off their world championship, and these Bears could do the same.

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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.