Bear Digest

Shirtless Ben Johnson caught the attention of someone at home

The coverage of coach Ben Johnson removing his shirt during the Bears' victory celebration in Philly apparently played well to the home crowd.
Gene Chamberlain|
Ben Johnson was hoping to involve the fans even more with his antics after the win over Philadelphia.
Ben Johnson was hoping to involve the fans even more with his antics after the win over Philadelphia. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Ben Johnson attracted plenty of attention by tearing off his shirt at the urging of the Wieners Circle restaurant, especially at his own home.

There will be hot dogs for everyone courtesy of the restaurant after Johnson's decision to fire up the troops during the celebration.

"To be honest, thought, I haven't heard anything from outside of the building," Johnson said on Monday. "My wife was just laughing, that's about it.

"I guess my 2-year-old was watching the TV screen back at home and she's looking, 'no shir, no shir.' She just pointed at the screen. 'No shir, no shir.'"

He hadn't told anyone he was planning to do it.

"My wife had no idea what was going on," Johnson said. "That's really about how that went. I think any time you get a chance to feed a city you want to do it. So, man of the people."

Not much prior thought went into it. However, it seemed the previous promise made by the restaurant about the hot dogs entered into Johnson's thinking. So did his own physique.

"That was a spur-of-the moment deal I guess," Johnson said. "But I guessed the  sooner the better because I'm not in the weight room very much any more because this thing keeps getting a little bit worse as we go along in the season. So, no, it was good."

Johnson saw a down side to his stunt during the celebration

"I hate to draw attention away from our players. but the intent was to bring up the city of Chicago and hopefully gave them a little excitement and because they're a big part of this journey as we're going through this season also."

Apparently it's not an original concept, as some fans of the Seahawks pointed out on social media.

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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.