Ben Johnson isn't dwelling on the Bears' success in 2025

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Rahimi & Grote Show 17 min 3 speakers 7 chapters transcribed 6 months ago

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What does Ben Johnson think about the Bears' success in 2025?

Leila Rahimi 0:02

Rahimi Harrison-Grody, middays 10 to 2 on 104.3 The Score. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. And Ben Johnson spoke earlier today at the NFL owners meetings. And he had a lot of quotes, but none of them may be as powerful as this note that we got from Courtney Cronin. That was, uh, that was... It kind of runs in the same vein of Michael Jordan and Gail King from Jordan essentially saying he loves the game so much that he had to take a backseat. Ben Johnson is also taking it personally because here's what he has to say. As much as you loved the Bears' first playoff win in 15 years... Well, that's not exactly what Ben Johnson is thinking about. He said coaches will be hyper-vigilant to any complacency and entitlement after the success of last season.

Leila Rahimi 1:01

While he was happy to hear from fans and supporters, quote, for about a week, end quote, about how exciting the 2025 season was, he doesn't want to hear any more about how good the Bears were as they have moved on to 2026. And to that I say amen, Ben Johnson, because guess what? The majority of people who understand football are definitely on board with that sentiment. Ben Johnson has spoken, and while I understand his sentiment or trying to move on himself, I have bad news for you, Coach. You're going to hear about this game for the rest of your life.

How does Ben Johnson plan to avoid complacency in 2026?

Leila Rahimi 1:37

Because it was the Green Bay Packers, and it was the first playoff win in 15 years. And I do think that the head coach definitely needs to move forward because we've talked a lot about what he wants to improve on. But you can't escape that win. You just won't be able to. Until you get more in the playoffs, this is where you are. So I'm sorry, but people are going to keep bugging you about this and talking to you about you making them happy about the Bears for the first time in a very long time.

Marshall Harris 2:03

As the Bears reporter, I will keep that in mind with my lines of questioning to Ben Johnson out at Hallis Hall. But to Layla's point, I'll talk about a winning Bears season whenever I damn well please on this microphone. However, and I have done this many, many times, I've gone through the list of Bears winning seasons, which most of the time, most of the time in Bears history are followed by directly by, as Marshall is doing, the drop-off-the-table sign language there. It goes off the table. 2018, my last example, and you guys know how fond I was of the 2018 season. It dropped off the table in 2019 and subsequently for that entire Matt Nagy regime, except for the one weird-ass 500 playoff game against the New Orleans Saints.

Marshall Harris 2:53

Doesn't count. Doesn't count. That's fine. I am not going to argue that.

Leila Rahimi 2:56

The gas leaky.

Marshall Harris 2:57

But if that's the message to the players and to the coaches, then guess what? I am great with it because it sucks when you have so much hope after a winning season and then it's like, what happened? Where did it go? We're in the 6-3 loss to the Green Bay Packers on opening night after the 2018 season. No! So good for Ben Johnson, but bad for Ben Johnson because we'll continue to talk about winning seasons here on The Score.

What are the fans' reactions to the Bears' playoff win?

Leila Rahimi 3:24

There is a former SCORE employee who said that she got to serve Ben Johnson last week, and she posted Jenna Duddleston on her Instagram, and she said at the very end, she waited until the end, but she said, thank you for making me happy as a Bears fan and having the most fun I've had watching football in years. And you know what? It's been past a week, and I think Jenna should be allowed to have that conversation with Ben Johnson. So, yeah, as the media will comply, because that's typically what we do. It's diplomacy and whatnot. But he's going to hear about it from fans for eternity.

Marshall Harris 4:01

Yeah. He did a good thing for everybody.

Leila Rahimi 4:03

Okay. But I think his point that we need to focus on, what you just talked about, Mark. He understands what happens next and what could happen next, right? You either get better or you get worse. There is no in between when we're talking about forward progress for a football team. No, that double entendre was not intended.