Thanks to Caleb Williams, the Bears are the NFL’s new test dummy for oversaturation

· Yahoo Sports

The NFL is ready to make the Chicago Bears one of its marquee attractions again.

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And understandably so, after a renaissance 2025 season marked by Caleb Williams' heroics and Ben Johnson's magnetic charisma. They are a hot ticket. Through the NFL's leaked-out schedule release, the Bears are a centerpiece, one of the league's hopeful tools to sell the professional game to the widest possible audience.

To be clear, that is not normal for the Bears' customary standards. Chicago is not used to this sort of mantle. Decades of futility have dampened local expectations as the Bears have turned into a perennial bottom-feeder. No one takes them seriously. They are supposed to be an afterthought at best and a punchline at worst, not a thrilling entity that receives top billing.

But the Bears are popular. That makes them an untapped well of potential attention and ratings galore. A cornerstone-of-the-league Bears team is one of the NFL's modern white whales, a voyage that hasn't really seemed realistic most seasons. It's pretty hard to promote a mediocre team, after all, let alone to interrogate any questions about whether that effort is worth the trouble. That's precisely why the Chicago will play both on Thanksgiving Day on the road against the NFC North rival Detroit Lionsand on Christmas Day play host to the organization's classic antagonist, the Green Bay Packers.

Those are two holiday special slots usually reserved for the NFL's cream of the crop. You know, the teams showcasing some of the most entertaining football, the teams that will have every last drop of spectacle wrung out of them like a wet dish rag.

The Bears, with many envisioning Williams and Johnson taking them to the stratosphere, are now one of those teams. They have expectations, a whole-hearted belief. For the first time in years, there is a real enthusiasm for what they could be capable of. Few have ever seen the Bears with a star quarterback. This is all a new frontier that has yet to be pioneered.

As some Bears fans feel, that's just the Williams Effect:

It's not as if the Bears haven't been sold plenty by the NFL before. The city of Chicago's status as the third-largest media market in the United States gives the Bears a ravenous fanbase that the NFL accommodates by default, handing them a handful of national television slots every year, regardless of how good or bad the Bears actually are. They've "earned" that status as much.

But the championing has never been to this degree. No, no, no. The Bears are now viewed as a necessity, not an ancillary side show.

As some Bears fans feel, that's just the Williams Effect:

So, get ready to see the Bears everywhere. If they live up to the hype starting this season, get ready to see them promoted and emphasized all over the internet. Get ready to see them plastered all over the place in the early portions of the fall, shoved in our faces. Get ready to shift your mindset about their primetime games, instead, projecting excitement at the terrific show they could put on with a healthier, more sustainable brand of football. Get ready to see them in the background at your holiday gatherings, glimmering on a TV playing at a volume loud enough to be heard but not loud enough to override any ongoing chatting and gabbing between your aunt and cousin.

The NFL is making a bet on Williams' Bears becoming one of its most valuable cash cows. This coming holiday season might only be the start of its oversaturating mission centered on Chicago.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Bears with Thanksgiving and Christmas games is egregious NFL overstep

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