When the Chicago Bears defeated the New England Patriots, 46-10, to win Super Bowl XX, it was regarded as a chance for Chicago to be a perennial contender in the NFL.
That was the case for a few seasons, as Chicago made the playoffs five times in six seasons after winning the Super Bowl, but bowed out before the Conference Championship Game in four of the five. Since 1994, things have gotten even more dire, with the Bears making just seven playoff appearances in 30 seasons and having only one back-to-back occurrence in 2005 and 2006.
Due to the level of hype, strong play, and a cast of characters around the Super Bowl XX champions, a portion of the Bears fanbase has been unable to move on from the franchise’s lone Super Bowl victory.
On Tuesday, HBO released the trailer for the upcoming season of Hard Knocks, which will feature the Bears. The trailer heavily focused on the franchise’s nostalgia instead of the current squad, which 670 The Score host Danny Parkins wasn’t a fan of.
“I’m really pumped for the show. I just don’t care. I don’t want that. To me, this is such an exciting time for the Bears. And I get why they’re doing it. Charter franchise, selling it to the masses, bringing back, hopefully, some degree of history and care and legacy. But I don’t want to see anything about Brian Urlacher. I don’t want to see Mike Singletary. I don’t want to see it” Parkins said Tuesday on Parkins and Speigel.
It’s easy to see Parkins’ point as it relates to Hard Knocks, but, as co-host Matt Speigel went on to note, the team’s history, particularly its quarterback ineptitude, lays the groundwork for how much quarterback Caleb Williams will mean to the squad.
“You don’t want to hear about Bears quarterback history?” Spiegel asked. “Like you’re going to get a heavy dose of that probably early as they lay the foundation for everything about Caleb Williams that you’re going to see. Guess what? It’s part of the story. It’s a massive part of the story…They’re the starter franchise of the NFL. What do you expect?”
But Parkins was unmoved, adding, “I don’t know if a national audience cares about that. I don’t want Devin Hester. or Dan Hampton. I think they’re just pandering to the Bears. Like, okay, here’s your first trailer. Look at all your great history here.”
Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Chicago Bears premieres Tuesday, August 6 on HBO and streaming on Max.
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