👋 Good morning!

I can’t wait to see who’s on hand at Soldier Field this Sunday.

The Bears brought out Devin Hester and Brian Urlacher as honorary captains last Saturday. I think they flashed Vince Vaughn and Simone Biles on the videoboard, too.

Maybe Wilber Marshall? Maybe every living member from the 1985 Bears — the only Bears team to play (and defeat) the Rams in the postseason?

I don’t know who’ll be there, but I do know that place will be absolutely rockin’ regardless of the weather.

Bring it on.

– Patrick Norton

There’s A Tailgate.

WHERE?

Wabash & Cermak at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.

OH!

Full Details & Tickets

You’re So McVay’n

Matt LaFleur probably thinks this Rams-Bears game is about him.

But as Kevin Byard III said Wednesday, you “can’t be thinking about the Green Bay Packers this week.”

The Bears appear receptive to that message.

They’ve moved on and are solely focused on what’s ahead this weekend.

Rams head coach Sean McVay, however, seems intent on avenging his friend, LaFleur.

The History: You know that graphic of the 2013 Redskins offensive staff under Mike Shanahan? It included guys like his son and current 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and ex-Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.

Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower was their assistant defensive backs coach and a special teams assistant. Fired Falcons head coach Raheem Morris was the defensive backs coach.

Oh — and Sean McVay was in charge of their tight ends while LaFleur manned the quarterbacks room.

It’s a ridiculous coaching tree.

Fast forward to 2017, when the Rams, who’d fired Jeff Fisher after Week 14 of the previous season, hired McVay, then Washington’s OC, as their head coach.

McVay brought along his pal and Falcons QBs coach LaFleur as his new offensive coordinator. That arrangement lasted just one year before LaFleur took an opportunity to become the play caller for Mike Vrabel’s Titans offense.

That’s a lot of names. Here’s one more: Mike LaFleur. Mike is Matt’s brother. Mike is currently McVay’s offensive coordinator with the Rams.

Caught up? All right, let’s move on.
These Teams Don’t (Have A Reason To Not) Like Each Other: We’re all familiar with the handshake seen ‘round the world and Ben Johnson’s expletive-heavy postgame locker room speech, right?

It seems McVay is, too.

McVay, when asked if Matt LaFleur had chimed in to prep the Rams for the Bears, said: “What would you guess? We watch the tape, we do our work and, you know, Matt is a very close friend of mine.”

McVay then smirked, nodded and laughed.

The clip made its way around social media yesterday, but it just feels so manufactured and forced.

This is what happens when you get a couple of teams without a real reason to viscerally dislike each other.

There isn’t a bit of natural bulletin board material. Nobody’s taken any shots on the Bears’ side. Why would they? They’re the ones who used every word out of Green Bay last week as motivation.

The reality is it’s the NFC Divisional Round. There’s a trip to the NFC Championship on the line. That should be all the motivation anybody needs come Sunday.

Anyway…

The Thing Everybody Wants To Talk About Now: The Indiana state legislature introduced Bill 27 last night, establishing “the northwest Indiana stadium authority for the purpose of acquiring and financing certain facilities.”

The Bears released the following statement: “The legislation presented by the State of Indiana is a significant milestone in our discussions around a potential stadium development in Chicagoland's Northwest Indiana region. We appreciate the leadership and responsiveness of Governor Braun and Indiana lawmakers in advancing a framework that allows these conversations to move forward productively."

Can Dennis Allen's defense slow down Matthew Stafford, Rams?

Who Ya Got?

Flames 3, Blackhawks 1: Well, that’s not how I thought this one was going to go.

Nick Foligno opened the scoring 2:38 into the first period. Then the Flames scored on two of their next three shots, including a shorthanded goal to take the lead with 13:55 left in the period.

Connor Murphy crunched Joel Farabee on a nice open-ice check before winning a brief fight. Then Ryan Donato absolutely leveled Kevin Bahl after Bahl ran Oliver Moore.

Exciting stuff, but the Blackhawks lacked the offensive juice to knot things up before surrendering an empty-netter to seal the deal for the Flames.

Hey Now, You’re An All-Star: Nick Lardis and Kevin Korchinski were elected to the 2026 AHL All-Star Game on Thursday. Last year, Korchinski was named the AHL All-Star Game MVP after an electric four-point (1 G, 3 A) performance.

Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself: After appearing at the Blackhawks game on Monday and the Bulls game on Wednesday, Alex Bregman was officially introduced by the Cubs in a press conference at Wrigley Field yesterday.

Bregman said Thursday: “I think being here for the last few days and seeing how much this city loves its sports has been awesome.

“Actually, my father and I and uncle did a Bulls, Blackhawks and Bears (trip) in 2016 or so, in a three-day time-period. They were jealous they weren’t at the games these last two days. The city of Chicago loves sports. They love winning. Hopefully, we can win a lot for them.”

Bregman is also expected to attend Sunday’s NFC Divisional Round matchup between the Rams and Bears at Soldier Field.

We Hardly Knew Ya: Former Cubs right fielder Kyle Tucker reportedly signed a four-year deal worth $240 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers last night. The deal includes opt-outs after the second and third year.