Speaker 1: Welcome in TOUM Bears Weekly, a Chicago Bears Network production
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Speaker 1: Pierre Your hosts Jeff Joniak aka the Mayor of Bearsville
Speaker 1: and his sidekicked Tom the surffask there.
Speaker 4: Pleasant get even everybody.
Speaker 5: Later this evening we find out if the thirty Bears,
Speaker 5: already in Trina, Canton and the Pro Football Hall of
Speaker 5: Fame will become uh well more Company Veterans Committee finalists
Speaker 5: and legendary defensive tackle Steve McMichael return star Devin Hester,
Speaker 5: a Hall of Fame finalist for three years in a row.
Speaker 5: We'll fight out surely if they'll get the gold jackets
Speaker 5: officially and their bronze bus displayed for perpetuity.
Speaker 4: Exciting that ahead.
Speaker 5: Indeed, I'm Jeff Joniack with Super Bowl Bear Tom Thayer
Speaker 5: and thanks to producers Jordan Trudup, Dan Brilli. Also to
Speaker 5: Kevin z Pet of the Spen One thousand Studios, Executive
Speaker 5: producer of the Bears Ready Network as Eric Ostrowski also
Speaker 5: joining us from Vegas after Super Bowl. He's been working
Speaker 5: all week from Serious x MNFL Radio is moving to change.
Speaker 5: Jim Miller time we start with you. Great anticipatory night.
Speaker 5: A lot of rumors out there, obviously, but until we
Speaker 5: hear it for official, I know, as an ex teammate
Speaker 5: of Steve McMichael, for one, and a broadcaster for Devin
Speaker 5: and Julius Peppers for that matter, is.
Speaker 4: A big night.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, Jeff, I just wish that we could
Speaker 6: react to the stories because with anticipation of it all happening,
Speaker 6: I'd like to be able to talk honestly about a
Speaker 6: guy that deserves a Hall of Fame. I'm talking about
Speaker 6: a teammate first of all, and Steve McMichael, he deserves
Speaker 6: it on what he was able to accomplish, the impression
Speaker 6: that he left on the league, the improvement that he
Speaker 6: helped his football team when he came aboard the Bears,
Speaker 6: but his commitment of him, his self and his life
Speaker 6: to professional football, and then obviously Devin is a game changer.
Speaker 6: He's left more good memories in our mind and your
Speaker 6: broadcasting voice, and a lot of other guys they have
Speaker 6: along the way, And we all have tons of respect
Speaker 6: for Julius Peppers, what the type of player he was,
Speaker 6: who he was compared to, and his accomplishments and results.
Speaker 5: And Jimmy, you wore the uniform of a bear as well,
Speaker 5: so a lot of pride as well for the charter
Speaker 5: franchise of the National Football League. And I'm certain that
Speaker 5: you long felt that McMichael hester included should have been
Speaker 5: in the Hall of Fame even before this.
Speaker 3: Yes, And you know, I think it is safe to
Speaker 3: say that Mago's getting in. You know, I can pretty
Speaker 3: much say that I know Misty, his wife. I was
Speaker 3: texting back and forth with back and forth with her.
Speaker 3: She's out here in Las Vegas for a reason. Because
Speaker 3: Mango's getting in, and he's well deserved. And Tom can
Speaker 3: talk about him as a teammate more than I can.
Speaker 3: I can only talk as me as a lover of football,
Speaker 3: you know, watching the tenacity that he played with and
Speaker 3: in the fierceness and the competitiveness that he played and
Speaker 3: what he's what he stood for from afar, No time
Speaker 3: can go a lot deeper than that. As for Devin Hester.
Speaker 3: You know, with the current rules in the NFL with
Speaker 3: the kick returns, you know, it's pretty much been eliminated
Speaker 3: with the new rule. We'll have to see what the
Speaker 3: NFL does down with the NFL and the owners meaning
Speaker 3: supposedly they want to implement what is the old XFL
Speaker 3: kick return and how the XFL ran it. But no
Speaker 3: one has done what Devin Hester has done, and I
Speaker 3: think that's what swayed the voters. You know, as for
Speaker 3: right now, he's the number one guy all time. You know,
Speaker 3: you could make an argument why wasn't he a first
Speaker 3: ballot Hall of Famer because he's done more than any
Speaker 3: kick returner has ever done. So that one sounds like
Speaker 3: it's in the books as well. Well.
Speaker 5: I'll say this about calling all those except for one
Speaker 5: with the Atlanta Falcons that put him over the top
Speaker 5: pass Diane Sanders, I haven't seen anything like it to
Speaker 5: have it.
Speaker 4: Repetitively done, and you're you're still kicking too.
Speaker 5: And then for periods of time they weren't kicking to him,
Speaker 5: they were afraid of them, and he was getting frustrated.
Speaker 5: It affected his play in anything else, including a wide
Speaker 5: receiver and the pressure and I just was on with
Speaker 5: the Cap and Waddle on ESPN one thousand and we
Speaker 5: talked about this because I believe that Devin, from the
Speaker 5: time he started playing youth football knew he was going
Speaker 5: to be a Hall of Famer and he charted that
Speaker 5: path long, long time ago because he always knew he
Speaker 5: could do it. And just how he returned the ball,
Speaker 5: the arrogance of which he returned that ball, and the
Speaker 5: confidence and the competitiveness of the opposition, the coaches, the
Speaker 5: special teams, coordinators, the punters, the kickers, Eh.
Speaker 4: Let's give it a shot.
Speaker 5: Maybe you know, maybe we'll make a story out of
Speaker 5: him by not letting him get in the end zone.
Speaker 5: And he proved everybody wrong every step of the way, Tommy,
Speaker 5: every step of the way.
Speaker 6: See, let me ask you something about confidence and arrogance.
Speaker 6: Are you glad that he read turned the one in Atlanta?
Speaker 6: Or else you would have called everyone no, I listen,
Speaker 6: listen me. And Devin wasn't a bear at the time,
Speaker 6: so we never cheered against him. However, if throughout the
Speaker 6: course of your broadcasting career, you could say I called
Speaker 6: every single one of Devon's returns throughout a Hall of
Speaker 6: Fame career. That would be something amazing to say.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no question, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 5: But West Durham, the Atlanta Falcons radio guy, Jimmy he he,
Speaker 5: he did give me a little shout out, like my
Speaker 5: good friend Jeff Joniek would say, Devin Hester, you are ridiculous.
Speaker 4: He said it, so thank you, West Durham. It means
Speaker 4: a lot.
Speaker 5: I you know, you never know who you're gonna call
Speaker 5: in this in this league, right and and he was
Speaker 5: just he just resonated with everybody. And I get more
Speaker 5: questions about where did ridiculous come from even today. Well,
Speaker 5: that's the genesis of that. It was the it was
Speaker 5: the second return against Saint Louis. The Bears were blowing
Speaker 5: out the Rams. They were on side kick and I
Speaker 5: saw the distance between Devin and the nearest approaching defender.
Speaker 4: He blew by him like nothing. I just I just
Speaker 4: lost it. And you can't believe this stuff. I just
Speaker 4: can't believe it.
Speaker 3: Jimmy, Well, it's perfectly framed, and that's what you do
Speaker 3: as a radio guy, and he's framed it perfectly. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: What he was doing was it was ridiculous at the
Speaker 3: time of how he was making special teams play to
Speaker 3: another level. I'll never forget the game where Mike Shanahan
Speaker 3: is the head coach of the Washington Redskins at that
Speaker 3: time time formerly the Redskins, i should say, and Keith
Speaker 3: Burns who or not Keith Burns, Keith Butler who was
Speaker 3: their special teams coach, and we had we had played
Speaker 3: together at some at one point, and he became their
Speaker 3: special teams coach and Mike Shanahan challenged him or Keith
Speaker 3: Burns excused me, and there was Mike Shanahan challenged him.
Speaker 3: They kicked to him twice and he had two returns
Speaker 3: in that game, and it basically destroyed the game. White
Speaker 3: coaches would even kick to this guy or challenge him
Speaker 3: is beyond me. And that goes back to the Super
Speaker 3: Bowl against Tony Dundee. If you remember, Peyton Manning was
Speaker 3: screaming on the sideline, who the heck made that call
Speaker 3: to kick to this guy? And it goes back to
Speaker 3: the head coach and Peyton was upset from the first snap, yep.
Speaker 5: And you know what happened after that? Tom Tom smacked
Speaker 5: Jimmy smacked me so hard on the rear end, which
Speaker 5: he used to do before every broadcast early in my career, anyway,
Speaker 5: to make sure I'm ready to go. And it hurt,
Speaker 5: it's stung. You got your mind off the nerves. And
Speaker 5: he turned to me with a finger and my faces
Speaker 5: in the game hasn't even started yet.
Speaker 4: And he was so right.
Speaker 5: And if they just would have continued to run the football,
Speaker 5: we would have been talking about a second Super Bowl
Speaker 5: champion in Chicago. I really believe that. Anyway, we got
Speaker 5: to take a break, boys, sit back. We got some
Speaker 5: time in between. Earlier today we visited with Jim, your
Speaker 5: old teammate, Jerry Azuma for some twenty minutes talking about
Speaker 5: all things. Very lovely man, great player for the Bears.
Speaker 5: We talk with him coming up next here out of
Speaker 5: espon Chicago and the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 1: This is Bears Weekly with a voice of the Bears
Speaker 1: for twenty three years, Jeff jony Aik on the Bears
Speaker 1: Radio Network.
Speaker 5: Unfortunate Bears Weekly is brought to you by CDW.
Speaker 4: People to get it.
Speaker 5: Welcome back to Bears Weekly, Jeff Joni Aak and Tom Thayer.
Speaker 5: Jim Miller to rejoin the program from the Super Bowl
Speaker 5: in Vegas in just a moment and joining us now
Speaker 5: our good friend, the president of Bears Care, the charitable
Speaker 5: arm of the Chicago Bears. One of the most exciting
Speaker 5: Bears players for a seven year stretch from nineteen ninety
Speaker 5: nine to two thousand and five, the New Hampshire running
Speaker 5: back turned cornerback and Pro Bowl kick return to the
Speaker 5: one and only Jerry Azuma, who still every time I
Speaker 5: see him, is fit to hit, looks like he should
Speaker 5: still be playing. I don't know how you do it.
Speaker 5: What are you thirty five?
Speaker 2: Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll just stick with that.
Speaker 5: But no, you you have kept yourself in tip top,
Speaker 5: rock solid shape. And is this something of significance in
Speaker 5: your life that you pay attention to every single day?
Speaker 7: Well, I have to you know, you know your body
Speaker 7: starts talking to you, you have to start listening to it,
Speaker 7: especially when you get older. I have a six year
Speaker 7: old and an eight year old, so they basically keep
Speaker 7: me active as much as possible. So it's all about
Speaker 7: them right now, so I have to make sure that
Speaker 7: I'm able to move around for them.
Speaker 5: By the way, I love the names of your children,
Speaker 5: Santiago and Valentino, those guys that either they're movie stars,
Speaker 5: starting quarterbacks, I don't know, but they're gonna be a
Speaker 5: really big right, Like, tell me the genesis of those names.
Speaker 7: So Bianca my wife, she is a Mexican, and we
Speaker 7: wanted to go with a name that just kind of
Speaker 7: was like Spanish influenced because they have a whole bunch
Speaker 7: of African names right behind them.
Speaker 2: So we went with Santiago.
Speaker 7: He was born on Christmas Eve, so a couple hours
Speaker 7: later he would have been Jesus who knows, but we
Speaker 7: went with the saint instead for Santiago. So that's how
Speaker 7: that turned out. And then Valentino was just a name
Speaker 7: that we've always loved and admired, and we went with
Speaker 7: that with our youngest.
Speaker 3: Jerry.
Speaker 6: So you figure where your body's at at this point,
Speaker 6: What is the state of the game in your mind
Speaker 6: of a father for young kids? And I'm going to
Speaker 6: follow up with the question after that, but let's talk
Speaker 6: about that first.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, I get that question asked a lot.
Speaker 7: You know, my kids in the fall, it was the
Speaker 7: first time playing flag football and they absolutely loved it.
Speaker 2: And it was the first time that I.
Speaker 7: Was able to actually throw the ball at them and
Speaker 7: have them catch it in you know, just kind of
Speaker 7: learned the foundation and fundamentals of the game, so.
Speaker 2: They really liked it. I think I grew up in Oklahoma.
Speaker 7: So I grew up in Oklahoma in the late seventies
Speaker 7: early eighties, So football was life and it was all
Speaker 7: about hitting people as hard as you could. It was
Speaker 7: always about being aggressive, you know, the Oklahoma drills and
Speaker 7: things like that. So I learned to hit and be
Speaker 7: aggressive at a very early age. And then now looking
Speaker 7: back at it, and now that I have kids, I'm
Speaker 7: thinking to myself, well, maybe that isn't the direction that
Speaker 7: I necessarily need to go, because you can build a
Speaker 7: strong foundation and really learn the game of football and
Speaker 7: love the game of football without having that physical contact,
Speaker 7: you know. I think flag football builds a strong foundations.
Speaker 7: You can learn the ex's and o's and things like that.
Speaker 7: So I'm more of the standpoint of, you know, learning
Speaker 7: the game and having a lot of fun and running
Speaker 7: around what you can do with flag football without the physicality.
Speaker 2: And then later on, once your.
Speaker 7: Body starts to mature and you feel like you know what,
Speaker 7: you can lace up the cleats and see if you're
Speaker 7: really about that life to take some hits, then we
Speaker 7: can find out.
Speaker 2: So I would say, like you know, junior high high school.
Speaker 7: Is is when you can start put on pads and
Speaker 7: see if you really want that contact.
Speaker 6: Well, you know, you are also a guy that brought
Speaker 6: people out of their seats or made them stay in
Speaker 6: their seats for a part of the return game, and
Speaker 6: I think you kind of forge an opportunity for yourself
Speaker 6: in the NFL through your ability and the return game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, give me.
Speaker 6: Your feelings about the state of the return game in
Speaker 6: today's NFL. Do you want to see it changed and
Speaker 6: stay in as significantly as has been throughout the one
Speaker 6: hundred years of the NFL? Or are you okay with
Speaker 6: the changes that you're seeing.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Well, the return game and special teams has always
Speaker 7: been a dynamic thing in the NFL for a long
Speaker 7: period of time, and I understand.
Speaker 2: The changes that they've made. They've they've made these.
Speaker 7: Changes due to safety and safety concerns and things like that,
Speaker 7: So I understand it. And they made drastic, sweeping changes,
Speaker 7: you know, to kind of push the game forward as
Speaker 7: we now know it and try to get away from,
Speaker 7: you know, the big time collisions with you know, running
Speaker 7: down on kickoff. You know, we have guys like Israel,
Speaker 7: Aadneje who's running down at you know, three hundred pounds,
Speaker 7: running as hass as he can to like knock somebody's
Speaker 7: block off. So I understand getting that part out of
Speaker 7: the game, but they.
Speaker 2: Can't swing it too far because these days, these.
Speaker 7: Games and these plays are extremely dynamic. You're talking about
Speaker 7: a person like Devin Hester, who's hopefully we'll get into
Speaker 7: the Hall of Fame tonight. He basically flipped you know,
Speaker 7: the field position. He changed the whole dynamic of a game.
Speaker 7: He changed game plans, He changed so many different elements
Speaker 7: that the game presented, and I think that I don't
Speaker 7: want to see that go away, and it's it's definitely
Speaker 7: have gone.
Speaker 2: It's gone away.
Speaker 7: And you know, return is the most one of the
Speaker 7: most exciting things to start off a football game. Returns
Speaker 7: are extremely exciting because if you have a person like
Speaker 7: a Devin Hester or a Johnny Knox, or Glenn Milburn
Speaker 7: or Daniel Manning, you know, the list goes on and
Speaker 7: on and on. These guys can really do incredible things
Speaker 7: just off of one play.
Speaker 2: So I think the NFL is they have their.
Speaker 7: Concerns, and I understand their concerns, but I just don't
Speaker 7: want to see them eliminate, you know, special teams return plays.
Speaker 5: Former Bears cornerback kick return star Pro bowler Jerry Azuma
Speaker 5: with ushign Bears Weekly, Jeff and Tom with you here
Speaker 5: on the ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 5: So to that point, a couple of things. One back
Speaker 5: to the flag football and then we'll get back into
Speaker 5: the kick return thing. I heard a quote from Brock Perty,
Speaker 5: the starting quarterback for Sunday Super Bowl for the forty
Speaker 5: nine ers, and my.
Speaker 4: Fellow Iowa State alum loved that guy.
Speaker 5: He started playing flag football at twelve, and he said, hey,
Speaker 5: it was a quicker game my decision making process I
Speaker 5: had to think quickly, and that's kind of transferred over
Speaker 5: to him as a quick thinking quarterback. I thought that
Speaker 5: was an interesting statement about you know, because flag football
Speaker 5: is going.
Speaker 8: To be an Olympic sport.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 5: It's mushrooming, no question about it, and it's including girls
Speaker 5: and women. So I think it's fantastic for the sport
Speaker 5: of football in general because the game's always under attack.
Speaker 8: So that's just my statement about that.
Speaker 5: Okay, So looking back at your career as a kick returner,
Speaker 5: a couple of seasons you had over forty returns.
Speaker 8: The average number of returns this year for an NFL
Speaker 8: team was eighteen.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 5: The Rams had nine returns. So you've eliminated the third
Speaker 5: phase of the game. Because on top of that, the
Speaker 5: punt return game, Zoom and Tom.
Speaker 8: The kickers have become.
Speaker 5: So so good athletic, big legs. They're either kicking it
Speaker 5: out of bounds or really a lot of hang time
Speaker 5: for fair catches. And so to me, the more dangerous
Speaker 5: of the two. And I didn't play the game, so
Speaker 5: maybe I'm speaking too much here would be the punt return.
Speaker 5: You look what happened at Tarik Cohen shortly after he
Speaker 5: signed his long term contract, gets jumbled up there and
Speaker 5: suffers a serious injury that he's.
Speaker 8: Still coming back from.
Speaker 5: But they have to they have to find a way
Speaker 5: to keep that excite, inciting element in the game.
Speaker 8: It's a football play.
Speaker 5: And you know, you suffered some injuries though, and I
Speaker 5: don't know, I can't recall you had a pair of
Speaker 5: neck injuries, you had a hip problem. Was it more
Speaker 5: from playing corner or was it more from the return game.
Speaker 7: I just think it was just from playing football. You know,
Speaker 7: you know, I spent a lifetime playing football, and people
Speaker 7: are like, you played seven years in the NFL, you know,
Speaker 7: relatively short career, and you know, why did you retire
Speaker 7: so early? And I was like, well, actually, you know,
Speaker 7: I started playing football at the age of six, you know,
Speaker 7: and I played till you know, twenty eight, twenty nine
Speaker 7: years old.
Speaker 2: So that's a lot of.
Speaker 7: Time of you know, pounding my body and really playing
Speaker 7: football and really getting after it, mixing up, mixing up
Speaker 7: myself with football. So it was a lot of a
Speaker 7: lot of time between starting and loving football at the
Speaker 7: age of six or early age, going all the way through,
Speaker 7: you know, my professional football career.
Speaker 2: So injuries do happen. This is the game of football,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 7: And I understand what the NFL is trying to do
Speaker 7: with slow down injuries and prevent them as much as possible.
Speaker 7: But at the same time, I'm about the integrity of
Speaker 7: the football game as well, and I feel like the
Speaker 7: integrity of the game is really taking a hit at
Speaker 7: this point.
Speaker 2: I feel like, you know, the.
Speaker 7: League is leaning towards protecting certain some people and not
Speaker 7: necessarily protecting all people. And that's a bigger conversation that
Speaker 7: we can get into. But I just think just looking
Speaker 7: at it, I just think that you know, it's still football,
Speaker 7: and there should still be some type of integrity that's
Speaker 7: still in place. And at the same time, you do
Speaker 7: have to be mindful of like the egregious you know,
Speaker 7: for example, head shots or next shots. I mean, I
Speaker 7: think that we all know what those egregious headshots look like.
Speaker 7: But you know, sliding last minute and then getting hit,
Speaker 7: you know what I'm saying, It doesn't really feel like
Speaker 7: the egregious headshot or the unnecessary roughness, or taking a
Speaker 7: quarterback down even if he's off balance and then trying
Speaker 7: to race yourself so that you don't land fully on him.
Speaker 7: You know, like there's a lot of little situations that
Speaker 7: happen that.
Speaker 2: We have to be mindful of.
Speaker 7: And I think that the NFL is doing all that
Speaker 7: they can to protect people, but at the same time,
Speaker 7: they're losing a lot of the integrity of the football game.
Speaker 6: Jerry, you look at the two way player that Dion
Speaker 6: Sanders has in Colorado, then you have to think of
Speaker 6: some of the untapped potential of a guy like Devin Hester.
Speaker 6: But I remember during your career, I used to sit
Speaker 6: with Jay Hilgenberg, and he would sit there and say,
Speaker 6: week in a week out, one of the best running
Speaker 6: backs on the Chicago Bears is Jerry Azuma.
Speaker 2: When you think about.
Speaker 6: The game and where it's at now and the potential
Speaker 6: you had back then, could we have seen Jerry Azuma
Speaker 6: and the backfield as a running back on an NFL level?
Speaker 7: Well, absolutely, Tom, Absolutely, you know I'm going to say
Speaker 7: yes to that.
Speaker 2: Growing up, I've always.
Speaker 7: Been a running back, and I've always been on the
Speaker 7: offensive side.
Speaker 2: Of the football.
Speaker 7: I've watched Walter Payton in my days in Oklahoma, and
Speaker 7: that's who I try to be. I try to be
Speaker 7: a running back and I try to beat Walter Payton.
Speaker 7: So conceded on being a running back through high school,
Speaker 7: through college, and then when I got to the pros,
Speaker 7: you know, I started running backwards, which was completely different
Speaker 7: and very different than what I was used to. So
Speaker 7: the challenges were definitely there. But in the NFL, I
Speaker 7: think that there is some room right now for you know,
Speaker 7: two way players. I mean, there are guys out there
Speaker 7: that can that are very dynamic on the offensive side
Speaker 7: of the football and defensive side of the ball, So
Speaker 7: why not give them an opportunity to go out there
Speaker 7: and show their greatness on both sides of the football field.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: So I think that we might see a lot more
Speaker 7: of that because things change in the NFL. As we know,
Speaker 7: the running back position has changed a lot. It's no
Speaker 7: longer like really ground and pound. Now they're they're looking
Speaker 7: more for like scap backs and guys that can you know,
Speaker 7: step in the slot or guys that can catch the
Speaker 7: ball out of the backfield.
Speaker 2: So the traditional running.
Speaker 7: Back sort of speak, or like even the quarterback, you know,
Speaker 7: pocket quarterback, you have to be able to run these days,
Speaker 7: and now they have design runs with these big time
Speaker 7: quarterbacks that the overall like positions, the foundation is there,
Speaker 7: but like, I think that they're morphing into something different
Speaker 7: and I think that you'll see a little bit more.
Speaker 7: I would like to see a little bit more two
Speaker 7: way players, you know, because there are a lot of
Speaker 7: dynamic players in the football league.
Speaker 6: You know, you think of the play specifically like the
Speaker 6: Jets sweep and how much that has infiltrated the offense,
Speaker 6: whether it's the distraction of the motion that tries to
Speaker 6: get a defense off balance or the actual handoff at
Speaker 6: that place specifically, it seems there's been some plays that
Speaker 6: have been developed since even your time from the NFL
Speaker 6: that have could have been a part of you being
Speaker 6: on the offensive side of the ball more often. And
Speaker 6: Jeff and I were talking about it even with the
Speaker 6: guy like Devon, because Devon's never going to be on
Speaker 6: a field like Terry Hill, and you're not going to
Speaker 6: be announcing defensively where he's at in what he could
Speaker 6: possibly be doing. But like those plays specifically have changed
Speaker 6: the course of some of the athletes in the NFL today.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and I think that you'll see more of that
Speaker 7: moving forward, Like you know, the evolution of the football
Speaker 7: player bigger, stronger, faster, more dynamic, can do different things.
Speaker 7: You know, you look at like I think his name
Speaker 7: is Taysom for the Saints, Taysom Hill. Yeah, Taysom Hill.
Speaker 7: They use him, and he's very dynamic. He can throw
Speaker 7: the ball, he can run the ball, you know, he
Speaker 7: can pass the ball. He can do a magnitude of
Speaker 7: a lot of different things. So I think that you'll
Speaker 7: find a lot of players coming up and trying to find,
Speaker 7: like the offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators to try to
Speaker 7: figure out the best usage of these dynamic players.
Speaker 2: I think that you'll start to see more of that.
Speaker 8: There's one at Utah.
Speaker 5: I just did the Senior Bowl for Sirius XM NFL Radio,
Speaker 5: and sionovaki is gets a really good running back, can
Speaker 5: catch the football, but he's a bad man at safety.
Speaker 5: So you know, And I'm looking back at your statistics,
Speaker 5: and you had three hundred and fifty two tackles in
Speaker 5: your career according to Pro Football Reference. Anyway, you may
Speaker 5: got more from Lovey Smith, excuse me, from your coaching staff,
Speaker 5: but did you think when you started in the NFL,
Speaker 5: when you get drafted in the fifth round, that you
Speaker 5: would have had three hundred and fifty two rushes as
Speaker 5: opposed three hundred and fifty two tackles at least in
Speaker 5: your direct and that you know, we've talked about this
Speaker 5: the four just to convince you that it's gonna Hey, Jerry,
Speaker 5: we need you to run backwards and play corner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was very weird.
Speaker 7: I don't know if a lot of people understand that story,
Speaker 7: but I started getting in college. I started getting, you know,
Speaker 7: some calls and some scouts coming up saying that I
Speaker 7: could possibly be a defensive back, and then I was
Speaker 7: I just really didn't understand that because I went forward
Speaker 7: so well, and I wonder Walter Payton Award in Rushford,
Speaker 7: you know, sixty two hundred yards and so on and
Speaker 7: so forth. So I felt really confident in my in
Speaker 7: my ability to run the football. And then I went
Speaker 7: to BC's pro Dade, which was the biggest college that
Speaker 7: was in the area, and I did running back drills
Speaker 7: and then afterwards this scout comes by and he says, hey,
Speaker 7: there's a little buzz going on that you could possibly
Speaker 7: be a defensive back.
Speaker 2: I'd like to take you through some dB drills.
Speaker 7: And I said, you know, I've never done this in
Speaker 7: my life, but if you think that it's worth it,
Speaker 7: then I'll give it a shot.
Speaker 2: So he took me through the drills. Later on he
Speaker 2: shook my hand.
Speaker 7: It was actually Phil Emery, who was an area scout
Speaker 7: for the Chicago Bears back then turned GM, you know,
Speaker 7: so he was the one that was probably very instrumental
Speaker 7: in drafted me. But he was the first one to say, hey,
Speaker 7: I think that you could be a defensive back at
Speaker 7: the next level, Like, let's send you through some dB
Speaker 7: drills and see what you can do and then after
Speaker 7: that I went to the combine and did running back
Speaker 7: drills and you know, the whole dB thing just never
Speaker 7: really took off. So I was like, okay, well that
Speaker 7: was that was quick lived and I'm just going to
Speaker 7: be a running back. And so I got drafted by
Speaker 7: the Chicago Bears and on the phone they told me
Speaker 7: that they wanted to see me as a defensive back.
Speaker 8: Unreal.
Speaker 5: You're also a teammate of Ryan Dave of Ohio state
Speaker 5: head football coach from New Hampshire, as well some other
Speaker 5: NFL players.
Speaker 8: But so you know, the.
Speaker 5: Debate is raging on Justin Fields number one pick in
Speaker 5: the draft, and from our perspective, it's been a fifty
Speaker 5: to fifty split.
Speaker 8: Were you standing at this point.
Speaker 7: Well, looking at the team, I think that Polls basically
Speaker 7: stripped everything down and he's building this team up in
Speaker 7: the right way.
Speaker 2: Obviously, the draft capital is.
Speaker 7: Very important, as we know, and getting you know, key
Speaker 7: free agents, you know, to plug and play will really
Speaker 7: make this thing go. So, you know, looking at this
Speaker 7: whole thing with Justin Fields, I think that he can.
Speaker 7: I think that he has a lot of potential. I
Speaker 7: think that his ceiling is definitely high. He has a
Speaker 7: lot of potential. I think that he has to get
Speaker 7: the right system around him. He has to get more
Speaker 7: help around him, and things will start to naturally happen.
Speaker 2: I think last year he started to take off.
Speaker 7: Obviously, you know, he had his dips and he had
Speaker 7: his moments, but at the same time, he he had
Speaker 7: a lot of flashes of really good things. And then
Speaker 7: you put a person like DJ Moore around him, who
Speaker 7: arguably had his best, you know season of his career,
Speaker 7: you know, thirteen hundred yards, eight touchdowns, almost one hundred
Speaker 7: yards you.
Speaker 2: Know, receiving.
Speaker 7: I feel like if you add and add more pieces
Speaker 7: to Justin and then a strong running game as well,
Speaker 7: a strong offensive line that's that's really good at the
Speaker 7: point of attack and creating you know, creases for him,
Speaker 7: and then just the system of utilizing his strengths and
Speaker 7: his talents. He's good on the run, he's good and
Speaker 7: sprint out and rollouts to misdirection and things like that
Speaker 7: three step drop.
Speaker 2: He can get the ball out.
Speaker 7: So I think that he has some things that that
Speaker 7: can be very beneficial moving forward. I don't know if
Speaker 7: I really want to hit the hard reset button with
Speaker 7: a brand new quarterback, you know, and it's a rookie
Speaker 7: quarterback too, so there's no real guarantees. I like the
Speaker 7: soft resets, and I also like putting more pieces around
Speaker 7: Justin Fields. So that's where I stand with this whole thing.
Speaker 7: Put pieces around Justin fields. And last year, if you
Speaker 7: look at at a lot of the games, we were.
Speaker 2: Really really close. We were really really close. And I
Speaker 2: think that if they keep on.
Speaker 7: Building the pieces and putting things around Justin fields, I
Speaker 7: think that will be in a really good situation because
Speaker 7: the offense is you know, they're coming, and the defense
Speaker 7: is playing extremely solid special teams obviously, and then coaching,
Speaker 7: the coaching really here's the thing. The offensive coordinator is
Speaker 7: extremely important, just as important as the quarterback, and you
Speaker 7: have to get a person that can put people in
Speaker 7: the right place at the right time and really utilize
Speaker 7: their their their their talent and their skill set. So
Speaker 7: hopefully this coaching staff can get together and they can
Speaker 7: work with Justin Fields to bring out the best in
Speaker 7: him and build pieces around him.
Speaker 2: And that's where I stand on that.
Speaker 6: You know, Jerry, one thing you can't deny about the
Speaker 6: decision that you're going to make future is how the
Speaker 6: finances figure in on the deal.
Speaker 4: So when you.
Speaker 6: Talk about college players with NIL and then you think
Speaker 6: about what the quarterbacks are making, especially in their second contract,
Speaker 6: that's you know, that's not a subject that you can't
Speaker 6: bring into the conversation. My question to you, though, is
Speaker 6: we never had the luxury and the opportunity.
Speaker 4: What is your feeling about.
Speaker 6: The NIL money because I think it changes everything from
Speaker 6: college all star games to the amount of money some
Speaker 6: of these kids are making and not playing very much.
Speaker 6: But what's your feeling on an IL money.
Speaker 7: I'll tell you what, Tom, You and I were just
Speaker 7: too early. You were just too early. The NIL has
Speaker 7: really changed the game and really changed the dynamic of
Speaker 7: you know, college sports in general. These guys are you know,
Speaker 7: pretty much professionals. Now they're they're making money and with that.
Speaker 2: Comes business decisions.
Speaker 7: So the fact that these guys are like holding out
Speaker 7: of you know, bowl games and things like that, the
Speaker 7: spirit of you know, college football has really taken a hit.
Speaker 7: I think that, you know, college football was all about
Speaker 7: the guys, the kids, I should say, that want to
Speaker 7: go out there and give it their all and win
Speaker 7: a championship for their team, for their university. I felt
Speaker 7: like that spirit and that desire was in them, but
Speaker 7: now it's all like.
Speaker 2: The business decisions. Everyone is making a business decision.
Speaker 7: On whether they want to play, whether they want to
Speaker 7: leave this team and go to another team and play
Speaker 7: for this coach and that coach. So I think the
Speaker 7: spirit of the NIL and like the portal for example.
Speaker 2: Was good.
Speaker 7: You know, I think that they wanted it to be
Speaker 7: a good option for kids to exercise and things like that.
Speaker 7: But now I feel like it's spiralless out of control
Speaker 7: and they're trying to get it back somehow, and I
Speaker 7: feel like they might not be able to get it
Speaker 7: back at this point because it's just gone. But you know,
Speaker 7: I understand why they were trying to do it, but
Speaker 7: you know, it's it's very unfortunate because guys are jumping
Speaker 7: into the portal also, and then you hear horror stories
Speaker 7: too that you know, guys are feeling that they are
Speaker 7: more than what they really are. They get into the
Speaker 7: portal and then they just get stuck in that portal
Speaker 7: and then they might have to come back to that team.
Speaker 7: And then now you know, the administration and the team
Speaker 7: and the coaches are looking at you like, well, wait
Speaker 7: a minute, why should I even you know, invest in you,
Speaker 7: you know, when you decided to go into the portal.
Speaker 7: Or another situation too WITHOL with the college coaches, is,
Speaker 7: you know, instead of the developing younger players, why don't
Speaker 7: I just go into the portal and just get a
Speaker 7: rough diamond that I can develop, you know, and an
Speaker 7: upperclassman that's had some success, you know, playing at their
Speaker 7: respect to school and I could plug him into this
Speaker 7: type of system and get the best out of them.
Speaker 7: Why should I even develop? So there are some issues
Speaker 7: that need to be worked out. Hopefully they get worked
Speaker 7: out soon.
Speaker 5: All right, Jerry, one more to let you go, and
Speaker 5: we really appreciated here on Bears Weekly with Jeff and
Speaker 5: Tom Jerry Azuma. The trivia question of all trivia questions,
Speaker 5: who scored the last touchdown at Old Soldier Field before
Speaker 5: it was torn down and rebuilt into the current stadium.
Speaker 8: The answer would be Jerry Azuma.
Speaker 5: And it's picked six of Donovan McNabb the thirty nine
Speaker 5: yard touchdown return and that one divisional playoff against the
Speaker 5: Eagles quarterback by our own Jim Miller before he was
Speaker 5: injured by Hugh Douglas. Sadley and Wow, That's something that
Speaker 5: I bet a lot of folks would not have that answer,
Speaker 5: but you remember it vividly long ago, and you were
Speaker 5: on the five team, you got hurt in that game,
Speaker 5: and then you know the six they go to the
Speaker 5: super Bowl. So there's a lot there in our final
Speaker 5: question here as you got a taste of the Super
Speaker 5: Bowl run one five and then they go on O six,
Speaker 5: how much regret did you have that you were not
Speaker 5: able to continue or forced to retire because of your injuries?
Speaker 5: And uh and then the final cap for who you
Speaker 5: who you're picking on Sunday.
Speaker 7: You know what, looking back at my career, I have
Speaker 7: nothing bad to say about it. I mean, it was
Speaker 7: an incredible time to be alive. It was a fantastic ride.
Speaker 7: When I got into the league, I thought I'd be
Speaker 7: a running back and they were like, nope, You're going
Speaker 7: to be a defensive back. So I got into a
Speaker 7: situation that I had. I had no clue what was
Speaker 7: going on, and everything was just happening one hundred miles
Speaker 7: an hour. But the good thing is that I played
Speaker 7: with some incredible guys on defense.
Speaker 2: I mean some.
Speaker 7: Incredible guys on defense, so that they made the transition
Speaker 7: easier for me. So I don't regret any period of
Speaker 7: time that I played with the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 2: So it was a fantastic time.
Speaker 7: I played with some incredible guys and really loved the
Speaker 7: fan base. I'm still in Chicago, so Chicago is home.
Speaker 7: So it has brought me an an incredible life. But
Speaker 7: when we're talking about the Super Bowl this time the
Speaker 7: forty nine Ers versus the Chiefs, man, you know, I
Speaker 7: didn't think that the Chiefs were going to be able
Speaker 7: to go to the Buffalo Bills and beat them, but
Speaker 7: they did. And then they went into Baltimore and then
Speaker 7: beat them decisively. And I bet against them basically, I said,
Speaker 7: you know, they're not going to be able to do this.
Speaker 7: I just think that it's too much for them. But
Speaker 7: they went in there, Mahomes was able to do his thing.
Speaker 7: The defense of the Chiefs has really stepped up tremendously,
Speaker 7: and I think that that's going to be the tipping
Speaker 7: point of this game.
Speaker 2: And then you know their head coach, Andy Reid.
Speaker 7: He's really done a great job of putting guys in
Speaker 7: the positions to make plays and win football games. And
Speaker 7: then you have you know San fran who is just
Speaker 7: loaded on offense and defense with talent, and Brock Perdy
Speaker 7: is doing a fantastic jobs just feeding his playmakers and
Speaker 7: letting them make play. So this is going to be
Speaker 7: an incredible Super Bowl. I am looking forward to it.
Speaker 7: I can't wait. In terms of like a prediction, I'm
Speaker 7: leaning towards the Chiefs. Definitely leaning because I don't want
Speaker 7: to get burned again. I think that's what it is.
Speaker 7: I just don't want to get burned again. Travis Kelcey,
Speaker 7: I mean, eleven targets, eleven receptions. I just don't understand
Speaker 7: how he gets open all the damn time, Like, come on, guys,
Speaker 7: like somebody.
Speaker 2: Get him, get him. And I don't know.
Speaker 7: If they're going to be able to cover him the
Speaker 7: way that they need to for this game. But you know,
Speaker 7: two defensive, really good, defensive, talented teams.
Speaker 2: We'll see what happens. But I'm leaning towards the Chiefs
Speaker 2: on this one. All right, that's all good? Thank you, guys,
Speaker 2: love being.
Speaker 8: On coming back.
Speaker 5: Jim Miller rejoins the program here AESPN one thousand and
Speaker 5: the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 1: Excus Bears Weekly with a fort of the Bears for
Speaker 1: twenty three years on the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 5: The segment of Bears Weekly brought to you by Athletico Physical.
Speaker 5: There be visit Athletical dot com to request it in
Speaker 5: clinic or virtual deployment and start feeling better tomorrow. Jeff
Speaker 5: and Tom and Jim Miller from Vegas at the Super Bowl.
Speaker 5: How's it been out there?
Speaker 4: Jim?
Speaker 3: Crazy as you can imagine. Jeff, Today's probably the busiest day. Obviously,
Speaker 3: more the you know, the stars guys that are in
Speaker 3: town to enjoy. If that's the reason, why is can
Speaker 3: I Tonight is the honors party, but it's picking up
Speaker 3: steam brother, And I'll tell you what Vegas from all
Speaker 3: the acts that are here, Like you two played at
Speaker 3: the Stratosphere last night. That was a big show in town.
Speaker 3: But pretty much every place is got a show and
Speaker 3: everybody's having a great time.
Speaker 5: What's the takeaway overall about having a Super Bowl there?
Speaker 5: I mean, you got entertainment built in as it is.
Speaker 5: What's your takeaway of that place having a Super Bowl?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think they're going to pull it off. Basically,
Speaker 3: both teams are staying about forty five miles outside of
Speaker 3: the city. You know, both the San Francisco forty nine
Speaker 3: ers in Kansas City. They didn't even want the players
Speaker 3: around it because, like you said, it's basically one big
Speaker 3: party of that's going on. Everybody's enjoying it. There's a
Speaker 3: ton of events that are that are scheduled downtown, and
Speaker 3: you know, as the NFL always does, they kind of
Speaker 3: go in the city, they take it over. There's banners everywhere,
Speaker 3: everything's about the game and all the promotional aspects of it.
Speaker 3: But I think overall it's gone off without a hitch.
Speaker 3: You know, they really have done a nice job. And
Speaker 3: even through NFL employees like imagine me here. You know,
Speaker 3: I'm here because we're part of the NFL, and you know,
Speaker 3: basically I'm a part of the league employee with serious
Speaker 3: being a partner with the NFL. We're not even allowed
Speaker 3: to gamble in the in the casinos. So the NFL
Speaker 3: is serious about it. There is an integrity aspect to
Speaker 3: it and that you have been forewarned, and from what
Speaker 3: I understand, everybody that I've seen has been abiding by it.
Speaker 6: Hey, Jim, who's the early fan base support, who's the
Speaker 6: dominating colors that you're seeing in the facilities or on
Speaker 6: the streets.
Speaker 3: I think it's pretty even although San Francisco travels well too.
Speaker 3: They've got a very big contingent because they've got rich history.
Speaker 3: They're going for their sixth Super Bowl victory as well.
Speaker 3: They've got a great presence in forty nine er fans
Speaker 3: have a lot of pride. But I'll tell you what
Speaker 3: Chiefs fans, with the role they're on, they you know,
Speaker 3: they want to be a part of history and what
Speaker 3: they're trying to accomplish. And here Patrick Mahomes is trying
Speaker 3: to play it down. You know that, hey, I'm not
Speaker 3: even halfway to reaching Tom Brady. But make no mistake
Speaker 3: about this, Chiefs fans know that they're part of something
Speaker 3: great here. This is kind of a mini dynasty that's
Speaker 3: going on, and they're kind of the villain. You know.
Speaker 3: When you look at NFL fans, they always want to
Speaker 3: see something new, new teams and things like that. You know,
Speaker 3: you look at the run the Patriots went on, and
Speaker 3: I think the when you look at the Chiefs right now,
Speaker 3: they're kind of the villain because they've been a part of,
Speaker 3: you know, thinking the Super Bowls that they've been in.
Speaker 3: This is their third one. Patrick Mahomes knows anything, doesn't
Speaker 3: know anything. Else other than playing in championship games for
Speaker 3: a six year career. That's pretty crazy when you think
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is, and so is this eleven and zero
Speaker 5: playing in domes with thirty three hundred passing yards, twenty
Speaker 5: six touchdowns and two interceptions. Yes, they will be playing
Speaker 5: inside on Sunday. Let's take a break. We'll break it
Speaker 5: down more x's and o's and get Jim and Tom's
Speaker 5: thoughts here on Bears Weekly on the ESPN one thousand
Speaker 5: of the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 1: This is Bears Weekly with a voice of the Bears
Speaker 1: for twenty three years, Jeff Jonik on the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 5: This segment of Bears Weekly is brought to you by
Speaker 5: IGS Entergy. Jeff jonniec top there. Jim Miller camped out
Speaker 5: in Vegas for the Super Bowl. Jim, give us a
Speaker 5: couple of keys to victory for whomever. Let's go Chiefs
Speaker 5: first and then go for the forty nine Ers. We'll
Speaker 5: give you and then no, we'll get Tom's keys as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think for the Chiefs. I agree with Jerry A. Zuma.
Speaker 3: The Chiefs have been playing awesome offensively from Week one
Speaker 3: all the way to the championship game in their victory
Speaker 3: over Baltimore. Think about Baltimore. They were averaging thirty four
Speaker 3: points a game at home in their building. Dude, they
Speaker 3: have held them to ten ten points, and see Spagnolo
Speaker 3: upped his blitzes. He was really blitzing to stop the
Speaker 3: run and it was so successful he said, let's keep
Speaker 3: it going. And so I think they're going to be
Speaker 3: very aggressive. They're a very good group. They're very versatile.
Speaker 3: I think they put Chris Jones more as a defensive
Speaker 3: end at times. And then I look at San Francisco's defense.
Speaker 3: They've been gassed as of late. You know, you look
Speaker 3: at the the you know, they beat the Detroit Lions,
Speaker 3: but Detroit Lions had one hundred and forty eight yards
Speaker 3: rushing at halftime. And Andy Reid has been having an
Speaker 3: uptick in terms of their carries to Pacheco Paticko's been
Speaker 3: get about twenty four carries a game, and then you'll
Speaker 3: factor in a couple of a couple of pass receptions
Speaker 3: as well. So they've been pretty solid on both sides
Speaker 3: of the ball. Although they're still not scoring a lot
Speaker 3: of points, they're averaging in the mid twenties on so
Speaker 3: it's gonna be key for them to ball control time
Speaker 3: of possession, and Patrick Mahomes was able to do that
Speaker 3: against Baltimore. You know, that was a high blitz team
Speaker 3: that led the league in sacks with sixty. He has
Speaker 3: not been sacked yet in the postseason and he has
Speaker 3: yet to have a turnover. He could break Tom Brady's
Speaker 3: record of over two hundred and twenty three passes without
Speaker 3: throwing an interception. As for the keys for the forty
Speaker 3: nine ers, I just think, you know, young brock Perty
Speaker 3: he struggled in half, you know, half the games, both
Speaker 3: games that he started here in the postseason, he basically,
Speaker 3: you know, the half didn't go right. One of them
Speaker 3: was due to weather. I think we understand that that
Speaker 3: where he didn't play well. But at the key moments
Speaker 3: in the game where they needed a game, when he drive,
Speaker 3: he was able to put it together. So I think
Speaker 3: a lot for that. You've got a veteran quarterback who's
Speaker 3: been there, done that. I think for Purdy, can he
Speaker 3: play a complete game because he's going to have to,
Speaker 3: because I think we all know four or five plays
Speaker 3: will cost you the game, and Purdy can't make the
Speaker 3: mistakes in their first two games, whether the division round
Speaker 3: or the Championship round, if he makes those type of mistakes,
Speaker 3: to me, San Francisco would lose.
Speaker 5: Tom Perdy against the Blitz. Cording next Gen stats has
Speaker 5: been his most productive led the NFL, with eleven touchdowns
Speaker 5: on passes outside the tackle box. So if Spagnola's gonna
Speaker 5: bring its pretty gonna answer the call.
Speaker 6: Yeah, But I don't care about the Blitz because it's
Speaker 6: gonna be Chris Jones. He's gonna get two sacks, He's
Speaker 6: gonna have two passes deflected. One of them is gonna
Speaker 6: result for an interception. It's gonna change a possession and
Speaker 6: you give the ball back to Patrick Mahomes. It's dangerous,
Speaker 6: but I'm gonna keep it on the line of scrimmage
Speaker 6: over there because they have some of the poorest offensive
Speaker 6: tackle play in playoff with the Kansas City Chiefs, and
Speaker 6: with no crowd noise, giving one team the advantage to
Speaker 6: get off on the defensive ends is gonna be immediate.
Speaker 6: So with Chase Young and Bosa, I think they could
Speaker 6: be a dangerous combo. So rather than you think of
Speaker 6: all this super star potential up and down the line
Speaker 6: of scrimmage and in the offensive backfield, I still think
Speaker 6: it's gonna be the defensive line. They're gonna be the
Speaker 6: biggest factors in the overall outcome of this game.
Speaker 5: I close my eyes, I see all this and I
Speaker 5: see Mahomes running for his life against Tampa Bay and
Speaker 5: the Super Bowl a couple of year when they thought
Speaker 5: they they had the cheak code to stop Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 4: The constant pressure.
Speaker 5: But I'll tell you, just like a Zuma said, he
Speaker 5: keeps if he keeps finding Travis Kelcey like that, you
Speaker 5: know that's trouble for the forty nine ers. My two
Speaker 5: cents is there's just something about this forty nine er team.
Speaker 5: I know the Chiefs have played extremely well, probably better
Speaker 5: than they have early or mid portion of the season.
Speaker 5: They're coming together, they've got the belief they've got the
Speaker 5: best quarterback. But there's just something about this Brock Prety
Speaker 5: led forty nine er team. And I'm thinking Kyle Shanahan
Speaker 5: will have something cooked up interesting for this Kansas City
Speaker 5: chief outfit.
Speaker 3: Our final thought, let me guess yeh. The one thing
Speaker 3: is the Iowa cyclose. Is that what Jeff Well, that
Speaker 3: would be.
Speaker 5: The Iowa Hawk guys and the Iowa State Cyclones. Don't
Speaker 5: get it mixed up, buddy, don't get it confused. Jim Miller, Tom, There,
Speaker 5: I'm Jeff Joniak our final segment when we return here
Speaker 5: on Bears Weekly on ESPN one thousand of the Bears
Speaker 5: Radio Network.
Speaker 1: This is Bears Weekly with a Voice of the Bears
Speaker 1: for twenty three years Jeff on the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 5: Want VIP access to every Bears home game, exclusive seating,
Speaker 5: sideline credentials, and more now available. Get the ultimate VIP
Speaker 5: fan package by visiting Chicago Bears vip dot Com. Jeff
Speaker 5: and Tom and Jim Miller at Vegas.
Speaker 4: Did they give you a nice hotel?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're at the Mandalay Bay so they blocked off
Speaker 3: basically Mandalay Bay and Dolano. So yeah, it's been great.
Speaker 5: I heard one of the hotels and I don't know
Speaker 5: which one. I think it's a big media hotel. He
Speaker 5: say it's haunted. This is the weird stuff. So the
Speaker 5: legend has it, it's haunted. And then you got the
Speaker 5: practice turf not up to snuff for the forty nine ers.
Speaker 5: The alarm went off early this morning, right, welcome up,
Speaker 5: fire alarm went off. I mean, weird things happen, and
Speaker 5: you know, these Super Bowls, it used to be okay,
Speaker 5: keeping an eye out for the player that does something
Speaker 5: wrong the night before the Super Bowl, but all these
Speaker 5: little things are popping up, Jimmy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and typically it happens. I've been, you know, at
Speaker 3: away games that I'm sure Tom has too, where you know,
Speaker 3: if a phantom alarm does happen, fire alarm and they
Speaker 3: didn't have to exit the building. But maybe maybe it's
Speaker 3: a little gamesmanship going on. Maybe was you know, somebody
Speaker 3: on the inside who's working for the resort that the
Speaker 3: forty nine ers are staying at that maybe is a
Speaker 3: cheaps fan, because that was pretty odd that that happened
Speaker 3: at about six in the morning out here, which I'm
Speaker 3: sure it didn't please a lot of the players.
Speaker 5: Tom would have been up at four, so he'd been fine. Tom,
Speaker 5: Anything weird happened the night before the Super Bowl to you.
Speaker 6: Uh no, because our hotel was getting picketed because of
Speaker 6: what was allegedly said Jim McMahon. So you had to
Speaker 6: find a safe entrance to go into because they had,
Speaker 6: you know, the people out there protesting. But again, our
Speaker 6: hotel back in the day was packed.
Speaker 4: Like it was.
Speaker 6: The Beatles were staying there, so you know, we all
Speaker 6: took it in stride and we had a lot of
Speaker 6: fun with it. So I don't think any of us
Speaker 6: were trying to hide from anybody or trying to, you know,
Speaker 6: make sure our entourage had all proper entrances.
Speaker 5: Jim, we got less than three minutes. I know you
Speaker 5: talked to a lot of folks this week and interviews.
Speaker 4: Did you talk to any Bears?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Today I talked to Khalil Herbert. I talked to TJ. Edwards,
Speaker 3: So they're both out here. You know. Obviously Khalil he's
Speaker 3: a big, big user of the Q collar and he
Speaker 3: wanted to promote the safety of the Q collar. He
Speaker 3: plays with, not a lot of NFL players doing. TJ.
Speaker 3: Edwards will just want to experience, you know. Obviously he's
Speaker 3: been to a Super Bowl. He's been there, done that,
Speaker 3: so he's just out here experience. It's in the moment again.
Speaker 3: So it was great to talk to them because they're excited.
Speaker 3: They were fired up about next year. They're already turned
Speaker 3: the page looking forward to twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 5: I saw some other Nicole Comet out there, DJ Moore
Speaker 5: out there. Of course they're all getting asked about the
Speaker 5: quarterback position. But tonight is as frankly, you know, your
Speaker 5: awards cover all things, but the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Speaker 5: From a Bear's perspective, it's going to be a Bears offseason,
Speaker 5: and it sounds like it's going to be a Bears night.
Speaker 5: And if in fact Steve Bigmichael Devin Hester, and Julius Peppers,
Speaker 5: who played four years here with the Bears, get inducted,
Speaker 5: it'd be awesome to see Jimbo Covert, the eighty five
Speaker 5: Bear starting left tackle and former defensive lineman at Sprinkle.
Speaker 5: The most recent editions class of twenty Erlacker in eighteen,
Speaker 5: Richard Dent, Tommy and eleven and Michael would join Peyton,
Speaker 5: Singletary Dent, Hampton and Jimbo from your Super Bowl team, Mike, Dick,
Speaker 5: Obvizy and Shrine as a player in the class of
Speaker 5: ninety eight.
Speaker 4: Hopefully Jay Hilgenberg's around the corner.
Speaker 5: Just the pride of that in their final minute, having
Speaker 5: all those Super Bowl Bears in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 6: Let's for not to forget about Dick Stanfeld great offensive
Speaker 6: line coach who was inducted in the.
Speaker 4: Hall of Fame.
Speaker 6: But listen, nobody deserves it more than Steve McMichael, and
Speaker 6: I couldn't be more proud if, in fact, they announced
Speaker 6: his name tonight as being one of the newest members
Speaker 6: in the Chicago Bear family, a part of the Hall
Speaker 6: of Fame. And I'm not denying that same feeling for
Speaker 6: Devin Hester. But Steve was a really special teammate of
Speaker 6: mine and it did a lot for me throughout the
Speaker 6: course of my career like he did a lot of
Speaker 6: other guys in the organization.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it should be something else and Jim Real Quick,
Speaker 5: Nick Alan Gretty could be the starting left guard because
Speaker 5: Joe Toney apparently not ready to go for Kansas City.
Speaker 5: Got to give a shout out to the Lincoln Way
Speaker 5: East High School product. I was a great wrestler, great
Speaker 5: offensive lineman at Ubai drafted by the Chiefs, and he
Speaker 5: did a really good job in the run game last
Speaker 5: weekend my opinion, or two weeks ago in the conference
Speaker 5: championship game.
Speaker 4: But what a thrill He's been to a couple now.
Speaker 5: But to start in the Super Bowl, you don't give
Speaker 5: many opportunities but a big one for him, Jim.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he sold it nicely for the All Pro Joe
Speaker 3: Toney and Hey, a lot of times he was lined
Speaker 3: up against Michael Pierce, who's about three point thirty for
Speaker 3: the Baltimore Ravens. Didn't stop them. They ran the ball
Speaker 3: very effectively against Baltimore. He did a nice job.
Speaker 4: Well, Jim survived the week. Enjoy the postgame.
Speaker 5: I know you're in the interviews with all those guys
Speaker 5: after the game. It's going to be fun for you.
Speaker 5: It always is. I don't know how many Super Bowls
Speaker 5: you've been a part of, now, do you have that number?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been a part of the eighteen in a
Speaker 3: row and they played in two of them, so basically twenty.
Speaker 3: So it's hard to believe. But all I can say,
Speaker 3: Jeff before we end, go site close, because that's where
Speaker 3: you're leading.
Speaker 5: That's Jim Miller, That's Tom Thayer. I'm Jeff Joniack. Good
Speaker 5: night everybody. Thanks to our producers and for you for listening.
Speaker 5: Out of our guest Jerry Zuma, good night, blecking up
Speaker 5: Dona our next, thank.
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