Ten years ago, I taught kindergarten in South Chicago. At the start of class every day, one of my 32 students would pick a cheer — a sort of collective pump-up moment before breaking out into reading groups. The class favorite? “Good. Better. Best.”

You see, long before Bears head coach Ben Johnson’s post-game videos captivated a nation, “Good. Better. Best.” was an elementary school bop — a true anthem that ambitious charter schools turned into regular programming. Indeed, at times, the educational reform movement took a bit too much inspiration from the U.S. military.

But I have to say, the cheers worked. The shared positive reinforcement and drive to improve powered 5-year-olds to believe in themselves, learn to read and treat others with kindness. Over the past year, I was heartened to see those same words ignite a team and a city to believe again.

If we could draft human emotions, my first pick is ready: belief. It’s infectious and intoxicating. You know in it your head but deeper in your heart. It’s a rare feeling in life — and an even rarer feeling as a Bears fan.

For decades, we’ve been so conditioned to reject hope and expect that which we know so well: losing, pain and watching Devin Hester highlights when we’re sad. After the first two games this season, the narrative was already back: same old Bears.

But messages matter, and for once — thanks to Johnson — we had one that was bigger than football. Johnson is a perfectionist, the type of control freak who holds the whole class late because one kid forgot a pencil. His eyes burn through our televisions. When he speaks, he offers a master class in communications: the art of being real while offering a true vision for a better tomorrow.

Johnson was able to weather the early losses because he told us what we saw and also was able to articulate where the team was going: too many penalties for a squad brimming with potential; a quarterback who flashed brilliance but wasn’t putting it all together; and a man who took responsibility for his own actions. For once, we weren’t being told the economy was great when everyone was having a hard time.

Then the Bears beat Dallas — Caleb Williams’ first great game. They followed it up with a game-winning drive and Josh Blackwell field goal block to win in Las Vegas — a game we as fans had watched over and over again for years (but with a sad ending). Then the miracles multiplied.

The unlikely wins just kept happening. Jake Moody’s game-winning field goal in Washington; the Colston Loveland touchdown in Cincinnati; the Caleb tiptoe against New York; the post-Thanksgiving tush push-forced-fumble against Philly; the DJ Moore walk-off against Green Bay.

After each of those wins, we watched the team celebrate with Johnson. But this time, we as fans got the same message as the team. Good. Better. Best. To paraphrase: “Keep working hard, keep improving, keep believing. This team is special. This city is special. You are special.”

Turns out when you hear that message every week, and the messenger means it, your Sundays and Mondays and life in general feel so much better. Johnson’s effectiveness is that his message resonates not just with his team — but with everyone in a city and country where belief has been chastened; where the most powerful make us feel powerless; where heartbreak and inhumanity lurk in too many places. He asks us to believe in a team, in a city, in each other.

When we believe, good things happen. We put foam cheese graters on our heads. We paint our nails orange and blue to be like Williams. We reach out, as I did, to my Whitney Young High School friends scattered across the Bay Area to manically catch up as we watch the Bears mount a historic playoff comeback against the Packers. We gather the next week for another exorcism: Williams’ 50-yard pass off his back foot in the final minute to Cole Kmet, coolly catching the dreams of an entire city like a center fielder on a July afternoon.

Bears tight end Cole Kmet catches the tying touchdown on fourth down in the final seconds of the fourth quarter in front of Rams safety Quentin Lake (37) in an NFC divisional playoff game Jan. 18, 2026, at Soldier Field. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

The Bears lost that game. It was heartbreaking. But maybe we left that game and this season slightly better people: with changed minds, coming to terms with a previously impossible belief in a team we thought we knew so well.

In a world that feels a bit broken right now, belief is a gift. To believe in the Bears is to believe the broken can be corrected. As we continue into 2026, may we hold on to that feeling on the lakefront and far, far beyond.

Charlie Stanton is a speechwriter based in Berkeley, California, and a proud Chicago native.

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https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/23/opinion-chicago-bears-season-caleb-williams/