Ben Johnson broke new ground on Black Friday when he tore off his shirt in the post-game locker room to celebrate with his Chicago Bears players. The idea came up weeks ago when The Wiener Circle restaurant promised free hot dogs to all patrons if the head coach did such a thing. Johnson never promised anything. By that night in Philadelphia, most people had forgotten about it. The celebration was a huge surprise and received a raucous reaction from both the players and fans at home.
So why? What finally compelled Johnson to do it?
Part of it was the obvious motivation. He wanted to amp up his team and felt it would be a great moment for the fans, as it was on national television. However, he admitted there was another, more selfish reason.
"Well … Yeah. It was a spur-of-the-moment deal, I guess. I figured the sooner the better. Because I'm not in the weight room much anymore. So this thing keeps getting a little worse the further we go along in the season. … It was good. I hate to draw attention away from our players. But the intent was to bring up the city of Chicago and hopefully give them a little excitement. Because they are a big part of this journey as we're going through this season also."
Any normal person can completely relate to this. The last thing you want is to show off your body to millions of people when you're not in great shape. Johnson felt that if he was going to do it, time was running out. To his credit, he still looks plenty fit. Mission accomplished.
Ben Johnson remains a smart, calculating individual.
There is no reason not to take him at his word. With the holiday season approaching, his physical shape was likely to soften a little bit. Still, it doesn't feel like a coincidence that he chose that moment to do it. He knew how big a win that was over the Philadelphia Eagles. It was on the road against the defending champions. It was on national television. The players sense the immensity of the moment. Ben Johnson had no intention of letting it slip by without providing an exclamation point.
The Bears have momentum unlike anything seen since 2018. They're starting to fire on all cylinders. Johnson is at the heart of it all, knowing which strings to pull and when to pull them. Chicago hasn't seen a coach of this savvy in a long time.
