Super Bears, Super Bowl! ESPN Analyst Louis Riddick Is In On the Hype Train and Other Bullets

It’s that time of the year where I can’t find anything I want to watch on TV, which leads me to head to the DVR to re-watch Star Wars. It sure beats diving through crates and boxes looking for the DVDs and VHS tapes.

  • The Chicago Bears Super Bowl hype train has a new conductor. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce ESPN’s Louis Riddick:
  • Before we dive in, let’s offer up Riddick’s credentials. He played in the NFL from 1991-98 with stints playing for the 49ers, Falcons (twice), Browns, and Raiders. From 2001-13, he was in a front office role of some sort with Washington (Scout from 2001-04, Director of Pro Personnel (2005-07) and Philadelphia (Scout in 2008, Assistant Director of Pro Personnel in 2009, Director of Pro Personnel from 2010-13). That’s an impressive résumé, to say the least.
  • There are no perfect teams in the NFL. And on any given day, any one team can beat another. With that in mind, the Bears can absolutely win the Super Bowl. Anyone who tells you otherwise is ignorant or isn’t old enough to know better. Because if you’ve watched football for long enough, then you’ve seen top seeds lose in the Divisional Round and No. 6 seeds make it from Wild-Card Weekend to The Big Game. Once you’re in the tournament, anything can happen.
  • To Riddick’s points, the Bears have high-end talent, depth throughout the roster, and a coaching staff led by a top Coach of the Year candidate. There isn’t one overwhelming weakness that can keep this team from winning the Super Bowl. This isn’t to say the Bears are perfect or should be the outright favorites, but they have as good of a shot as any team that laces ’em up in January.
  • Riddick calls Mitch Trubisky the key to a Bears Super Bowl run and he’s not wrong. So long as Trubisky limits his interceptions and turnover-worthy plays, then the Bears have a better chance of winning than you might otherwise be led to believe. But if Trubisky doesn’t have it working, then it can be a long day at the office. Then again, you can say that about every young quarterback entering the postseason. But that’s why they play the games on the field and why we tune in to watch every weekend.
  • Yep, this team is going to be a tough out:
  • The D is good:
  • LOL. It took TWO tweets to show how dominant the Bears defense has been this season.
  • At minimum, this team was much better than a lot of its detractors thought it would be:
  • And while I know an easy fall-back is to point out the Bears played a fourth-place schedule, it makes me wonder why they couldn’t rack up 10-win seasons or playoff berths after last-place finishes in 2016, 2015, or 2014? No one ever has an answer to that query.
  • Since postseason talk is on our mind, it’s a good time to share this tweet because I can’t stress it enough:
  • It has become ridiculously easy to falsify tickets and parking passes in recent years and I’d hate for Bears fans not to be aware of this possibility. Odds are if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
  • The answer is yes and I’m not sure why people keep asking:
  • Healthy starters should play and are expected to play. Should the Bears deviate from this plan, I’ll be very curious to hear Head Coach Matt Nagy’s explanation behind his change of heart.
  • Sound on:
  • https://twitter.com/nflthrowback/status/1078801137250140161

  • I would trade a future first-round pick for the Bears to re-create this on Sunday.
  • If anyone knows what it’s liked to be overlooked, it’s Akiem Hicks:
  • Some players don’t read news clippings. Others see bulletin-board material and use it as inspiration. Knowing where the Bears were earlier in the season, there were plenty of clippings to choose from. This is where plenty of people want to play the gotcha! game, but I don’t have much of an interest in doing that any more. I don’t love that people who took strong contrarian stances won’t own up to being wrong, but that’s just the nature of the beast these days. It’s OK to admit mistakes because you’ll never grow if you don’t.
  • written by

    Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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