Naturally, coach Ben Johnson’s fingerprints are all over the 2025 Chicago Bears. That apparently even includes the halftime show.

On Sunday, Johnson’s high school buddy and college roommate will be the halftime entertainment at Soldier Field. That would be country music star Chase Rice.

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The story behind Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson’s ‘good, better, best’ victory chant

Johnson and Rice both grew up in Ashville, N.C., and played football at A.C. Reynolds High School. Johnson was the quarterback on the school’s 2002 state championship team.

They both went on to play football at North Carolina. Rice was a linebacker for the Tar Heels, while Johnson was a walk-on quarterback. The two have remained friends in the years since, even as their careers have taken them on different paths.

CBS cast Rice on the reality TV show “Survivor” in a season that aired in 2010. That same year, Rice released his debut country album, which kickstarted a music career that led to multiple No. 1 country hits and a half dozen headlining tours.

Johnson, meanwhile, pursued a career in coaching beginning with a job as a graduate assistant at Boston College in 2009. He moved to the Miami Dolphins as an assistant in 2012, where he met future Lions head coach Dan Campbell. Johnson took a job with the Lions in 2019 and worked his way up to offensive coordinator prior to landing the Bears head coaching gig last year.

Now Rice will be playing halftime as his buddy coaches in the biggest Bears game in 15 years. The Bears and the Los Angeles Rams will kick off at 5:30 p.m. Sunday from Soldier Field with a trip to the NFC championship on the line.

Last summer, Johnson attended Rice’s show at The Salt Shed. In December, Rice was at Soldier Field as a fan for a game against the Cleveland Browns.

That concert at The Salt Shed in June may have sparked Johnson’s “good, better, best” phenomenon because Rice and his band do the chant before they go on stage at every concert. The chant dates back to their days playing high school ball at A.C. Reynolds. Johnson first did it with his team a few months later, and it has since taken Chicago by storm.

So while Johnson will be busy giving his team a pep talk at halftime — and Bears fans hope they’re not trying to rally their way out of another big halftime deficit — his friend will be keeping the fans entertained while they wait for the second half.

A framed photo at their alma mater, A.C. Reynolds High School in Asheville, N.C. on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025 shows linebacker Chase Rice, now a country music singer, who was a teammate of Bears coach Ben Johnson when they were roommates at North Carolina. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/17/chicago-bears-chase-rice-halftime-show/