A Chicago Bears Super Bowl title seems close again for the first time in almost a decade. Fans have been starved for one for a long time. It’s not easy sitting at home year after year watching other teams win it. Seeing the Philadelphia Eagles get their first in 57 years must’ve been a harsh reminder of how long it has actually been.
So can 2019 be their year? It certainly feels possible. They finished the year with the best defense in football. They have a young nucleus filled with Pro Bowl talent and a quarterback in Mitch Trubisky who continues to show steady improvement. They were a kicker away from knocking off the defending champs in the playoffs.
If they can upgrade that position and boost their depth? There’s every reason to think the Bears can go all the way. However, for many simple logic like that isn’t enough to sway belief. So how about a little mysticism? There are plenty of unnerving things about next season, strange coincidences that make one think it could be the Bears’ time.
It’s the 100th anniversary of the franchise
In 1919, the owner of a corn processing company named A.E. Staley decided to dive into his love of a new game called football. He established his own personal team based out of Decatur, Illinois called the Decatur Staleys. After an opening day loss, the team finished a run through the independent football circuit with a 6-1 record. A year later, Staley handed control of the team to a young kid named George Halas.
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Halas would eventually buy the team from Staley and move to the city of Chicago, rechristening them the “Bears” in 1922. Thus began the ascent of one of the charter franchises in NFL history. The 2019 season will mark the 100th year of its existence, now valued at billions of dollars after it originally changed hands for a few thousand. It would be quite the story for the first team to turn 100 years old to win a championship.
Chicago Bears Super Bowl 54 sounds right
The number 41 didn’t mean much to the Bears when they last played in the Super Bowl. Such will be the complete opposite were they to make it this time around. Everybody knows how much the number 54 means to Chicago. It was gloriously worn for over a decade by one of the greatest players in team history, linebacker Brian Urlacher. Imagine how fitting it would be to win a title in the name of a man who was never able to.
It will be 34 years since the Bears won a championship
That won’t be the only meaningful number of note about this game. The 2019 season will also mark 34 years since the Bears last won the Super Bowl in 1985. If 54 means a lot to Chicago, then 34 means double as much. It was donned by the greatest Bear of all-time in running back Walter Payton, and the team has shown already they tend to do remarkable things involving his name and memory.
Don’t forget just six days after his death in 1999, they beat the Packers for the first time in six years. Sweetness has a magical effect like that.
The game is on George Halas’ birthday
This might be the piece de resistance. Those other facts are cool and all, but this is where it gets downright spooky. On a cold day in Chicago way back in 1895, Papa Bears Halas himself was born. The date was February 2nd. Not an overly remarkable day. It’s the date the Mexican-American war ended, the date the first Groundhog Day was observed, and the date peace activist Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
It also happens to be the day that Super Bowl XLIV will be played next year. If the other points didn’t get you to buy into the belief that 2019 is destiny for the Bears, then this should be the straw that breaks the back.
