The Chicago Bears continue to heal old wounds with former players.
For several years, the Chicago Bears’ franchise has not had a good relationship with its former players. Many of them have felt jilted by the organization and overall feel like their presence was more of a burden than anything positive.
When Ryan Pace took over as the Bears’ general manager, one of the things he mentioned was improving the team’s relationship with their alumni. They’ve smoothed things over with Brian Urlacher. They made a very classy gesture having Matt Forte and Devin Hester retire as Bears. The move they made with Zach Miller bringing him back this season was all class.
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The Bears continued to mend those fences earlier this week. The Bears invited 20 former players to come to minicamp and watch practice and then had an alumni cookout for them afterwards.
Some of the players that were at minicamp were Nathan Vasher, Johnny Knox, James Thornton, Marcus Robinson, Jay Hilgenberg and Bob Avellini.
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It’s not only great that the Bears had this event for the alumni, but it was who they invited. You didn’t see Brian Urlacher, Mike Singletary, Dan Hampton, or Devin Hester at this event. Sure, you want to have good relationships with your hall of fame caliber players, but the Bears have already done a lot to make sure the all-time greats know they are welcome around the team.
The Bears invited good players from the past, not fantastic players. They invited players that had key roles on past teams, but by no means were they stars. These are the players that are easy to forget. Younger fans have probably never heard of former tight end James Thornton, and if he didn’t have the nickname, “Robocop,” older fans would probably have forgotten him. Former QB Bob Avellini was under center for the team just before Jim McMahon. Avellini left on very poor terms with the team and has spoken publicly about that, but yet he was back at Halas Hall and at the cookout as well.
These type of gestures, whether they come from Pace or new coach Matt Nagy, are wonderful. It’s all positive PR for the team, it’s a free set of knowledgeable eyes that might see something or suggest something for the team, and it’s great for the fans to see some of the players from their childhood or ones who spark memories back around the franchise.
This was great to see and it was even better that it wasn’t the elite players from the past. The new Bears’ front office continues to make the right decisions for this franchise both on and off the field. Let’s hope 2018 is a good year for the franchise. It’s been a great one off the field so far, now let’s hope the results on the field are just as good.