We love our hidden gems, don’t we?
The burn marks on the bell tower of the Gold Coast’s St. James Cathedral, a remnant of the Great Chicago Fire. The Wooden Alley in the Astor Street District on the Near North Side. A beef from Johnnie’s, served just so. A magical surge from Buckingham Fountain seen through the eyes of an unsuspecting visitor on a perfect summer evening.
And, now, Luther Burden III. He spews big plays and touchdowns, don’t you know.
“Man, it felt great,” the rookie wide receiver said after coming out of nowhere with one of the plays of the NFL’s early season in the Bears’ 31-14 win against the Cowboys. “I’ve been itching to get to the end zone, man.”
His voice inside a celebratory locker room suddenly building …
“I love the end zone, man!”
And then — delirium:
“I love it!” he roared. “Ahhhhh!”
Everything changed for the better for the Bears Sunday at Soldier Field. And even if that’s a gross overstatement of the truth, it felt for few hours that it was so. The feeling was a good one. It had been awhile.
What made it so intoxicating was that the young offensive talents who give this organization and this fan base whatever hope there is to latch on to rose collectively to the moment.
A week ago, after being pantsed 52-21 by the Lions, the Bears (1-2) seemed splintered in a million directions. An 0-3 start might have been a low point to match any of the agonizing, off-putting ones in recent years.
But that was before 23-year-old quarterback Caleb Williams threw touchdowns to four different receivers against the iconic — if inept — Cowboys. Before 23-year-old wideout Rome Odunze took another step forward as the team’s No. 1 receiver. Before Burden, a second-round burner from Missouri, ran under an all-out bomb on a 65-yard, first-quarter flea-flicker for his first NFL touchdown on a day when he became the Bears’ youngest 100-yard receiver in a game since 1933, according to ESPN.
“It’s crazy, man,” Burden said. “I can’t even explain it.”
What did he see on the biggest play of his life as Williams’ heave soared through the air?
“I think I saw a touchdown,” he said.
As Burden celebrated in the end zone, busting out the “Crimson Crane” pose popularized by his friend Jameson Williams at Alabama, it looked almost too good to be true. The Bears are allowed to have someone like this? Burden and Williams played a year of high school ball together in St. Louis. Williams, a few years later, has blown up with the Lions and last week hit the Bears with a 64-yard TD. Suddenly, it’s not that hard to envision Burden making an impact like that here.
Rookie tight end Colston Loveland flashed first-round, No. 10 overall signs, too, though his time on the field was short-lived. Williams targeted Loveland on the Bears’ first offensive play and found him for a 31-yard gain — his first career chunk play — to jump-start their next possession, leading to the game’s first touchdown. The 6-6 Loveland got popped by linebacker Marist Liufau early in his route but regained his footing, took in the pass and needed a couple of Cowboys to drag him down.
Sheer poetry: As Loveland rose to his feet, he had to wrestle with a clump of grass and dirt that was wedged into his facemask. According to the official manual, that’s when a Bear becomes a Grabowski.
Loveland had to leave the game in the first half after taking a hard hit to his hip and didn’t return. After, he told the Sun-Times he was “fine” and still wanted to talk about that mess in his mask.
“I loved it,” he said. “At a lot of colleges, you’re not fortunate enough to play on grass. It makes you think back to high school and everything. This is fun. This is football. This is a special environment. Yeah, this is great.”
For Loveland, it’s going to take some doing to prove the Bears should have drafted him where they did. The tight end who went after him, Tyler Warren to the Colts at No. 14, already has 14 catches for 193 yards and was only the second tight end ever with 150-plus yards over his first two games. The first was the Raiders’ Brock Bowers, the first tight end selected (13th) in 2024.
The third tight end taken this year, the Jets’ Mason Taylor in the second round, is off to a fast start. The sixth tight end taken, Browns third-rounder Harold Fannin Jr., has had a major impact. As far as production, Loveland is behind all of them.
But if this offense works? The ball will find him.
“I know it will,” Loveland said.
We should count rookie coach Ben Johnson among the young guys who delivered actual hope on Sunday. Two games into his career, Johnson had already blown one lead and already been blown out. He’d already been shown up by his former team, the Lions, and found himself questioning his players’ work ethic.
Then the Cowboys came to town and Johnson the offensive play-caller was in full effect.
The Bears are allowed to have someone like this, too?
That’s a good feeling, like a fountain sprung to life.
Been awhile.