Normally, the deep-sixing of the NFL preseason schedule would be cause for celebration. Nothing makes a man contemplate the state of his pathetic life quite like the fourth quarter of the fourth preseason game. Watching coaches scream at players you’ve never heard of and will never hear of again is a cry for help.
But this year, we in Chicago looked forward to preseason games more than would be considered healthy by mental health professionals. That’s because a very public quarterback competition was supposed to take place between Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles. Bears coach Matt Nagy, ending his too-cool-for-school approach to preseason games, finally admitted after the 2019 season that perhaps Trubisky wasn’t as good as the pile of superlatives he had been piling on his quarterback might have suggested.