Ted Phillips had no intention of doing so.
He sat out that Zoom call with the Chicago Bears 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 president of the struggling Bears. .
But he said it. And it was perfect.
“Have we fully understood the quarterback situation? No,” Phillips said after an 8-8 season in 2020. “Did we win enough games? No, everything else is there.
That sums it up, doesn’t it?
For decades, Chicago’s quarterback woes led to numerous losing seasons for the Bears. Since 1966 (the first year of the Super Bowl era), the Bears have had 32 losing campaigns compared to 19 winning campaigns.
The list of starting quarterbacks during this span 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 before him, promises to be different. But he is different. He will be the No. 1 overall pick. He was the consensus best QB in college football. He can be This One instead of another.
Chicago has heard it before.
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Can Caleb Williams make Chicago forget the Bears’ sad history at QB?