The Bears don’t have a playoff game to lose on Sunday, but that won’t stop me from watching the Chiefs and Texans and feeling like a loser.
I feel like I’m going to my ex-girlfriend’s wedding by watching Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson meet in the playoffs while my favorite team is trying to rally support around Mitchell Trubisky.
The Bears are at home on Sunday, their season officially over a few weeks ago after finishing 8-8, but in reality, it ended in early October when it was clear Trubisky had regressed beyond the point of being salvaged. Now they’ll have an open afternoon to watch the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Houston Texans and pull their hair out after every highlight play by the quarterbacks who the Bears passed on.
I tried to tell myself I wasn’t going to play the what-if game anymore with Mahomes and Watson. It’s an exercise in futility. No matter how many times I ask myself what Bears General Manager Ryan Pace must have seen in Trubisky to take him over those two quarterbacks, I’ll never get an answer that satisfies.
Mahomes and Watson won’t magically be transferred to the Bears.
That’s what makes Sunday’s Divisional Round game between the Chiefs and Texans so brutal as a Bears fan.
This is a decision that will haunt the franchise for decades.
These two quarterbacks are the ones who got away.
The Bears should have done more to show more interest when they had a chance. They blew their opportunity when the team didn’t have a pre-draft dinner with Watson. That’s malpractice by Pace to not at least split some potato skins with the quarterback who led a last-second comeback vs. Alabama to win the National Championship.
Every Sunday, Monday, Thursday or playoff Saturday when Watson invariably makes a play that has everyone talking about until the next Wednesday, I can’t help but be even more upset.
The Bears didn’t realize the special persons who were right in front of them.
Mahomes is living his best life with Andy Reid, Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill and an organization that knows how to consistently contend for the playoffs.
As a Bears fan, I feel like I’m scrolling through my ex’s Instagram when I watch the Chiefs and marvel at the latest Mahomes moment.
There’s never going to be a moment when the relationship status changes for Mahomes or Watson. Those guys are going to be lifers with their organizations. That’s what smart teams do when they get franchise quarterbacks. The Bears wouldn’t know anything about that because the charter franchise of the NFL hasn’t had one since Harry S. Truman was in office.
Part of me blames myself. I could never be able to treat Mahomes or Watson as good as their current teams can. They’d never reach their full potential here. Maybe it’s time I officially turn the page and move on with my life.
New year, new me.
Nope. That’s not happening. Not when these two are going to be competing for trips to the Super Bowl for the next 15 years. The Bears may have seven or eight different quarterbacks over that span. Making Sunday even worse is the nightcap with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers playing the Seahawks with a trip to the NFC Championship Game on the line.
I want to tell myself things will get better. There is plenty of other quarterbacks in the sea. Hey, maybe the Bears will be so bad next year they can get Trevor Lawrence?
Then we can finally put to bed the Mahomes-Watson stuff. Otherwise, until the Bears find a quarterback watching what they do on the football field is going to be pure torture for fans who can’t stop wondering about what could have been.