Ted Phillips didn’t mean to do it.
He didn’t get on that Zoom call with the Chicago Bears beat writers in January 2021 planning to condense the charter franchise’s long-running identity crisis with a pithy, viral quote that would haunt him for the rest of his days as the embattled Bears president .
But he said it. And it was perfect.
“Have we gotten the quarterback situation completely right? No,” Phillips said after an 8-8 season in 2020. “Have we won enough games? No. Everything else is there.”
That about it sums it up, doesn’t it?
For decades, Chicago’s quarterback issues have led to a lot of losing seasons for the Bears. Starting in 1966 (the first year of the Super Bowl era), the Bears have had 32 losing campaigns compared to 19 winning ones.
The list of starting quarterbacks over that time would make a Cleveland Browns fan blush. On Thursday, USC’s Caleb Williams will add his name to the organization’s tortured history and, like those who have come before him, promises to be different. But he is different. He’s going to be a No. 1 overall pick. He was the consensus top QB in college football. He can be The One instead of another one.
Chicago has heard it before.
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Can Caleb Williams make Chicago forget about the Bears’ sad QB history?
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