Ben Johnson’s passionate Week 13 speech after Eagles win should hype Bears fans

Long-suffering Chicago Bears fans are a justifiably cautious bunch. After years of failed head coaches and starting quarterbacks, Bears Nation had no choice but to keep the bumpers up after the team’s 8-3 start.

Let’s face it, it was impossible not to start believing the chatter about this team being nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Some analysts called them frauds, even going as far as to cite advanced analytics that claimed the Bears were the worst 8-3 team in modern history.

As a result, Week 13’s Black Friday game against the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles meant more to this team than the average 12th game of a regular season. For the Chicago Bears, it was their opportunity to prove they are a legitimate playoff contender that must be taken seriously down the stretch.

And then the game happened. And the Bears beat the living hell out of the Eagles. Chicago’s backfield duo of D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai ran for 255 yards and became the first pair of Bears running backs to eclipse 100 rushing yards in the same game since 1985.

We know what happened in 1985.

Indeed, the Bears still have a long way to go before Super Bowl visions can dance in fans’ heads. But for one week? Man, this team looked great.

But what makes this Chicago Bears team truly special goes beyond the on-field play. The culture that Ben Johnson has built inside Halas Hall is something Bears fans haven’t experienced in 40 years. Yes, another callback to that Super Bowl team, the one with a cast of characters who had so much belief in themselves that they recorded the legendary Super Bowl Shuffle. They called their shot because they bought in; they believed.

And if you need video evidence of how much Ben Johnson’s Bears believe in his leadership, look no further than his incredible post-game speech, which led the city of Chicago to receive a free hot dog for his bare-chested reveal.

Come for the @ChicagoBears victory speech, stay for Ben Johnson going tops off to fire up the squad ? #BlackFridayNFL pic.twitter.com/3mo7nHmUdf

— NFL on Prime Video (@NFLonPrime) November 28, 2025

Ben Johnson is everything Chicago Bears fans hoped for

Chills. Goosebumps. Whatever physical reaction you get from that video, it’s shared by every Bears fan in the country.

Moments like that are uncommon. Coaches don’t win locker rooms over easily; they must earn their players’ respect. Johnson has done all that and more.

It’s been 15 years since the Chicago Bears won nine of their first 12 games. It’s been a lot longer than that since this team had a coach as inspirational as Ben Johnson.

“Just really proud of everybody involved,” Johnson said after the game. “Short week, we really haven’t had one of those yet as a team. I thought the coaching staff did a great job putting a sound plan together. We knew it was going to be a race trying to get everything in and kind of harping on the guys that the details were going to be the difference here this week and the team that made the least number of mistakes was probably going to win this game. Fortunately for us, we felt like that fell in our favor.”

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