Monday, December 30th, 2025, as we celebrate the dawn of a new year, the year 2026, and listen folks, 2025 was a massive year in my life. Not only the transition of the De Beers Blog brand, a brand which I cultivated and developed and built for 20 years, never made me rich, but made me a lot of friends, made me something of a commodity in the industry. I am so proud of the work I've done for 20 years, and I'm proud of the work I'm gonna continue to do. I really do believe having experienced this season with Ben and Caleb doing the things they have done, I really believe that this team and this fan base is kind of void of a truly passionate, authentic voice. Like Mark and Tom do a great job on the radio, but that's a different structure and different kind of show. I wanna be a voice that you see a Bears game. You hear a Bears piece of news, and your first thought is, oh, I wanna hear what Jeff has to say about this. Oh, man, he's gonna go off on this tomorrow, or he is gonna be elated when you hear him tomorrow at noon. I believe what Mike Francesa is doing right now, and you can check out his pod, is a structure for that. He's doing that for New York Sports. They're short podcasts. They're not hours long, tape study, all that. He just reacts, and I think there is an avenue for that in this landscape, in the Chicago Bears specific landscape. So I'm talking to the guys at Bakri. We're developing how that will look and feel. I don't think we're gonna get it ready for the post-season here. I just don't think we have the time, and I don't really wanna rush it, and I want it to be consistent. It doesn't necessarily have to be daily or a chore, but I want you to have a podcast feed where you see those updates come and you go, oh, 10, 15 minutes, this will be great, and I'll work guests in. I'll have people involved and try to make it interesting. I'll do a pick segment for the NFL season. We'll do some fantasy stuff. I'll work that stuff in, but I'll make them short, economical, but really entertaining. I think there's something worth developing because I think next season, there's gonna be a massive hype train pulling through training camp. Off the Bears and off my own stuff for one second, man, as someone who loves film, loves the cinema studies, that writes about it, basically getting my PhD in it, I don't know how the Oscars are gonna do an in-memoriam this year, or I should say, how are they gonna do an in-memoriam of clips and pictures on a screen? How can you truly recognize the impact on American Hollywood cinema of Rob Reiner, of David Lynch, of Robert Redford, of Diane Keaton, of the countless people we lost in 2025? How can you memorialize them in a 10-minute or a three-minute segment? I don't know how they do it. I hope for the Oscars' sake, they actually take the time to celebrate these people. I would far rather see that show spend an hour celebrating Rob Reiner and Robert Redford than listen to Timothee Chalamet give a best actor Oscar speech for a movie we're all gonna forget in three years. So that's my little Oscar bit. Let me talk now about where we are as we hit the end of the year. And I wanna use a word that I was using all night on Twitter during Bears-Niners, the amazing Bears-Niners game. I want to use a word that every Bears fan needs to have right now in their arsenal, perspective. Perspective. You cannot come away from last night's game in San Francisco and not believe this team is one, one of the most entertaining football teams the league has seen in a generation. They are quite simply box office. Every single game these guys play is a thrill. And we've been desperate for that for so long to anticipate every time they play. I couldn't wait for that game to start last night and I didn't want it to end. It was pure entertainment for however long, God, it felt like five hours. And that in itself is a blessing that Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams have given us. They are capable of the worst play, the best play. They're Rory McIlroy. And at the end of the day, they win way more than they lose. And even when they lose, they've got the ball in their hands at the end of the game. When is the last time the Bears played a game where they either didn't win the game or have the ball in their hands to win the game? Right at the end. The Baltimore game? This season has been remarkably entertaining. And I was very telling that, you know, Bill Simmons and Sal do that great podcast that gets the lines every week. And they do a recap of the games of the week. Their recaps tend to be very weak because they admit it. They watch like eight, nine games at once, which I'm telling you is not possible. You see nothing. But they usually really have their eyes on the night game, on the Sunday night game. And I could hear it in their voices when they came on the air. They were genuinely impressed by what the Bears were able to do in that environment. That's a tough environment to play. And folks are coming around to it now that this team is not a fluke. They're not lucky. They just do this every week. This is who they are. And they don't have the horses on defense. So they're gonna be, if they're gonna make a post-season run, and they're capable of doing that, it's gonna be shootouts. The better teams are gonna dice them up. Number two, number one is they are box office. Number two is what I just started talking about there. Don't write this team off. Because right now I know there's fans out there saying, their defense isn't good enough. Their defense isn't good enough to make it to the Super Bowl. Did you watch the team on the other side of the field last night? The San Francisco 49er defense is good enough? I mean, what are we talking about, folks? They can make a run. They can also get beat in their first playoff game. But I say the same thing about the Niners. The Niners are more than likely gonna beat the Seahawks next week and be the one seat. But do you trust that Niners defense to win multiple playoff games? They didn't look like they had any chance to stop the Bears last night. That game would have gotten it. If they played another two quarters, both of those teams would have been in the 70s. Everybody is flawed in this league right now. Everybody. I watched every snap of Panther Seahawks yesterday. That Seahawks offense was horrific. Horrific. Sam Darnold threw about 10 passes that could have been picked. Jalen Hurst didn't complete a pass, I felt like, in the second half of Eagles-Bills. And the Bills defense isn't any good. And those right now, by the way, are like your one and three seeds. The team, the team that wins the NFC South is going to be a bad football team. I still favor the Rams to get through this conference and make it to the Super Bowl. I think they're the most complete team, but they've got to go on the road three times to do it. So folks, I'm just giving you the heads up here. Don't write off anything for this season. Yes, they are not going to go out there and beat somebody 24-0. They do not have that kind of team. But they also now have a team that can go out there and win 34-31. They have a team that is not turned off by being down 14 points. Matter of fact, they seem to thrive off it. They don't quit, and they have a legit firepower offense. Their offense is the best offense in the history of this organization. I am not being hyperbolic. Think back. 2001, they had a hot streak. 2006, they started really strong, if you remember. Early in that 2006 season, they were lighting people up. By the end of the season, they were not. Then you had Rex Grossman blaming New Year's Eve for the last regular season game. This is the best offense in the history, history of this organization. And because of that, they've got a shot. And because of that, we are going to enter 2026, not the season 2026, the calendar year 2026, with a chance to win it all. It won't be pretty, but let me tell you something. It's going to be damn entertaining. And we have Ben, and we have Caleb to thank. Stay safe tomorrow night if you're going out. Do not drive drunk. Ubers are everywhere. Make a plan. Don't risk your life or the life of somebody else. Driving drunk now is inexcusable. There's always an option. Take it. Bear down.