NEWSLETTER
Packers Week is underway and the Bears are in The Bad Place.
The Packers have their sights set on clinching the NFC North as soon as Sunday night if everything goes their way leading up to that game. Meanwhile, the Bears are 4-8, with playoff odds you need a microscope to see, and far more questions than answers.
Chicago doesn’t have much going, but it does have David Montgomery. And if Head Coach Matt Nagy wants to fire up the troops, rallying around Montgomery is the move. On the field, Montgomery has been the Bears’ best and most consistent performer. In the locker room, Montgomery has the necessary perspective of the type of leader this team should be following.
If you didn’t catch Montgomery’s post-game press conference, there is video at the bottom of the post. Meanwhile, here are the highlights, which should be taken to heart by everyone cashing a paycheck at 1000 Football Drive this week.
⇒ “I ain’t got no quit in my blood. I’m going to make sure nobody else in there ain’t got none in theirs either.”
⇒ “I’m going to work, and I’m going to get on everybody’s ass. They’re going to get on mines, too, and we’re going to go back to the drawing board and figure it out. Regardless of anybody else who wants to give up on us, I ain’t giving up on us.”
⇒ “Ain’t gonna be no moping around. I’m not built like that. I’m not going to change now because it gets hard.”
⇒ “You’ve got to get back to the basics of just having fun, regardless of how it looks. Even when it’s dark, or as dark as it may seem, you’ve still got to understand that it’s a game and we’re still meant to have fun, and not everybody in the world gets to do this. So you’ve got to take advantage of it, and you’ve got enjoy it while you’ve got it, because it doesn’t last forever.”
I don’t know about you, but I – despite all my deficiencies and athletic shortcomings – now want to go to battle for Montgomery.
While Nagy searches for “the why’s” and his assistants sort through tape, Montgomery wants to fight. I’m here for it. Frankly, his teammates should be, too.
Montgomery’s words should be everywhere at Halas Hall today.
Show the video below in team meetings. Put it on tablets for players to watch. Throw it on a podcast and let the players listen. Make sure coaches and staffers get a whiff of it, too. Make a note and toss it on Ted Phillips’ desk. Let the team president know this is how the players are feeling despite so much going wrong around them this season. Make sure Chairman George McCaskey sees/hears these words, too. Nudge Virginia Halas McCaskey, while we’re at it. Let her know that — despite given ample reason to close up shop — there are still leaders in that locker room.
Good players will fight if you will lead them. And in the case of Montgomery, good players will take the leadership roles into their own hands. It’s not much, but it ain’t nothing.
Want to get a team fired up for Packers Week? Let Monty do the talking, because he seems to have the right perspective on so many levels.
