Because as of now, that’s the only month during which there is no unofficial league holiday.
That playoff party kicked off after a wild regular season took us from just after Labor Day until just past New Year’s Eve.
For Chicago Bears fans, it means a first peek at the roadmap that awaits new coach Matt Eberflus, second-year quarterback Justin Fields and a revamped roster.
Like all NFC teams this season, the Bears will play nine games at home and eight on the road.
As coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Smith lost his initial return to Soldier Field 21-13 in 2014 before suffering a 26-21 loss to the Bears at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., the following year.
Smith coached the Bears for nine seasons, compiling an 81-63 regular-season record with three playoff berths and a run to Super Bowl XLI during the 2006 season.
You remember last year, right? Two more Rodgers victories over the Bears, including a Week 6 triumph at Soldier Field in which he yelled to Bears fans: “I own you! All my life! I own you! I still own you!” Ouch.
Nagy, in fact, lost seven of eight games against Rodgers, who has beaten five Bears coaches, six Bears defensive coordinators and eight Bears starting quarterbacks.
Admittedly, this is a selfish plea from a sports writer who, just once, would rather not run his Thanksgiving morning 5K on a treadmill in the desolate fitness center of a hotel near the Detroit airport.
Outside of the Lions and Cowboys, who as a tradition play on Thanksgiving every year, no NFL team has been featured on the holiday more than the Bears, who have played 37 times.
The last time that happened was during the 2006 Super Bowl season when the Bears downed the Giants 38-20 in Week 10 and beat the Jets 10-0 the following Sunday.
Of the four other quarterbacks drafted in the first round in 2021, Fields could face three of them this season: the Jets’ Zach Wilson, the 49ers’ Trey Lance and the Patriots’ Jones.
The Bears, under former general manager Ryan Pace, engineered an aggressive trade up to draft their quarterback of the future last year, giving up their first- and fourth-round picks in 2022 plus a 2021 fifth-rounder to leap from No.
Inevitably, every quarterback from the ‘21 class will be compared against the others for years to come.
Jones also had a more impressive rookie season, helping the Patriots to the playoffs while throwing for 3,801 yards and 22 touchdowns.
Since the NFL began playing only division games in the final week of the regular season in 2010, the Bears have played their finale on the road against the Vikings seven times.
Still, there was the ice-rink game in 2010, played at TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus a week after the Metrodome roof collapsed.
