The Chicago Bears are one of the only two charter members of the National Football League still in existence (the Arizona Cardinals are the other). The team dates back to 1919 and joined the NFL upon its founding the following year. The franchise began life as the Decatur Staleys, a company team for the A.E. Staley starch company in Decatur, Illinois. In 1921, the Staleys franchise was sold to George “Papa Bear” Halas, who moved the team from Central Illinois and renamed them the ‘Chicago Bears’. The Bears’ first home field was Wrigley Field, better known as the ‘friendly confines’ of baseball’s Chicago Cubs. In fact, Halas’ inspiration for the ‘Bears’ nickname was the Cubs baseball team. Halas chose the Bears’ iconic colors as a homage to his alma mater, the University of Illinois though he made his team’s colors somewhat darker.
The Bears were a powerhouse in the pre-merger NFL winning eight league championships. The final decade before the merger produced some of the Chicago Bears’ greatest players including linebacker Dick Butkus, Gayle Sayer and Brian Piccolo. Halas would serve as the team’s head coach until 1967, and he remained as the front office head of the team until his death in 1983. In 1970, the Bears moved into their new home at Solider Field and took their place in the NFC following the NFL/AFL merger. Chicago struggled throughout the 1970’s with the main highlight being the rushing prowess of the late Walter ‘Sweetness’ Payton, who went on to break Jim Brown’s record for career rushing yardage.
A year before his death, George ‘Papa Bear’ Halas hired former Bears’ linebacker Mike Ditka as head coach. Unfortunately, Halas wouldn’t live to see the Bears’ greatest success. In 1985, Dikta led the Chicago Bears to a 13-1 regular season record and a Super Bowl championship. The 1985 Chicago Bears are famous for the unctuous rap song ‘Super Bowl Shuffle’ but are also considered by many NFL experts to be the greatest team in league history. The Bears haven’t won the Super Bowl since though they did return to the game as NFC Champions in 2006 losing to Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.
The Chicago Bears have always enjoyed a wide following nationally and internationally, and the 1985 team only enhanced their mainstream appeal. Over the past ten years, the Bears have lost some of their appeal as a TV product but they still appear on national broadcasts with regularity. Fans looking to watch Bears football game online will have more difficulty than those looking for TV broadcasts. The NFL’s TV network partners offer little in the way of live game streaming. The NFL’s official website does let fans watch Bears video highlights online but has virtually no live digital content. A Chicago Bears live stream is available to subscribers of the NFL Sunday Ticket premium cable package, but the service is expensive and its digital platform notorious for poor performance. It’s much easier to find a Chicago Bears live radio stream thanks to broadcast network flagship WBBM AM & FM. Live game audio is available on the WBBM website as well as the Chicago Bears team website.
The best option is to watch Chicago Bears online free. There are numerous live sports streams available on the Internet featuring every sport, league and team imaginable. The NFL is especially easy to find due to it’s national and worldwide popularity. Finding streams is made easy by websites such as Wiziwig, Stream2watch, Roku Player or Google Chromecast. No matter how and where you watch the action you won’t miss a play of Chicago Bears football all season long!