Forty-one years. That is how long it’s been since the Chicago Bears celebrated a football championship. That 1985 season remains the only one that ended with hoisting a Lombardi trophy. Since then, the organization has endured decades of mostly disappointing seasons, interspersed with tantalizing all-too-brief teases. They came so close in 2006 before falling apart against the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl. They got back to the NFC championship in 2010, but were put down by the rival Green Bay Packers. Since then, the team has only made the playoffs twice.
At this point, Bears fans are happy just to reach the postseason. The idea of winning a Super Bowl? That is the impossible dream that would make their lives complete if it ever happened. Just don’t mention that to Ben Johnson. The Bears head coach has his own aspirations for this football team. They are so much higher than anybody can imagine. He said as much to Dan Pompei of The Athletic in a recent interview. Why should the Bears be satisfied with a championship? This game should be about aiming to be the best. Not just that season. Of all time.
Johnson wants the Chicago Bears in all the record books.
“You’ve got 31 other teams coming to training camp saying, ‘Our goal is to win the Super Bowl,’” he says. “I want more than that. I want to have the highest-scoring offense ever, which happens to be the 2013 Denver Broncos. I know how many points per game they scored (37.9), and I want to surpass them. I want shutouts. I want blowouts.”
He asks which team has the most consecutive victories. It’s the New England Patriots, who won 21 straight between 2003 and 2004.
“Why can’t we do that?” he says. “There has never been an undefeated season (since teams have been playing more than 14 regular-season games). The moon is the Super Bowl, but we’re shooting beyond that, for the stars. And I want these players to feel that each and every single day they come in.”
The Chicago Bears should always be aiming as high as possible.
That, in Johnson’s mind, is part of why the organization fell into such disrepair over the past two decades. They stopped aiming for greatness and became content just trying to be good. That is no way to think in professional sports. If you’re not operating at a level of unrelenting competitiveness, you’re doing the city and the fans you represent a disservice. Johnson once told former wide receiver Jarvis Landry that he should think like someone who wants to be the best wide receiver ever. After all, the coach said he expected…not hoped…expected to be in the Hall of Fame one day.
The best way to guarantee that is winning multiple championships, setting league records, and doing things other head coaches never have. Is it ambitious? Sure, and that is the point. Johnson isn’t just happy to be in the league. He wants more. He demands more of himself. That is why he is hard on his players. He knows they are capable of so much more than they’ve accomplished to this point. It is his job to get it out of them. If you’re not aiming to be the greatest, why are you even in the sport?
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Johnson shows he is a student of history.
If you look at Chicago sports over the past several years, you’ll find many instances of teams having an incredible singular season, culminating in a championship. However, things slowly fell apart afterward. You saw it with the 1985 Chicago Bears, the 2005 White Sox, and the 2016 Cubs. In all those instances, the teams never quite had the same edge and drive they had after finishing the mission of hoisting the trophy. It is why, to this day, many consider those teams underachievers, especially the Bears and Cubs.
Johnson has no intention of letting that happen. Yes, he wants to win the Super Bowl. Anybody in their right mind does. Yet his goals don’t end with that. He has greater aspirations than a single ring. He wants a stacked trophy case. He wants offensive records and NFL immortality. Most importantly, Johnson wants his players to feel the same way. Don’t ever be satisfied with dreaming small.
