Kevin Warren AND George McCaskey join to talk Bears stadium, Ben Johnson and more!

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He's with his family and enjoying spring break. So the only reason I don't have a guest co-host on this episode is because I had a chance to sit down with Kevin Warren and George McCaskey yesterday in Phoenix before I flew home from the owner's meeting. So yes, the weather's a little bit different here. It's not sunny. It's very rainy today. So yeah, thank you for welcoming me back. But those interviews are going to take up a big portion of this show. We'll discuss some of the things around those interviews. Tuesday's episode, by the way, pretty big week for us here at Hogue and John's and CSGO. So if you missed it, make sure you go back and check out Tuesday's episode because we have both Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson on that show. Kevin Warren and George McCaskey on this show. So thank you to the Bears for facilitating all four of those interviews and getting us loaded up here on a lot of great content on these shows this week. So Tuesday's episode was more of the football side of things, kind of like the state of Bears football. Today's more about the state of Bears business. So if you missed that stuff, make sure you go check it out. And yeah, we usually, we probably talk about, I don't know, 90% football on this show, but every once in a while, especially when it comes to the owner's meetings, it's really called the NFL annual meeting where they touch on a ton of different things. It is good to check in on the business of things, which right now has a lot to do with the stadium. Obviously. And I've been kind of waiting to talk to Kevin Warren for a long time, sit down with him and go over a bunch of things, including some of the design things that we've talked about on this show. We've sort of taken a stance on some of those things. And I talked to him directly about it. So you're going to hear some of that plus George talking about the Packers rivalry, Ben Johnson, all of those things. But before we get into those interviews, the, I thought the, maybe the biggest, most relevant immediate news that came out of Arizona this week was that the, this whole comp pick saga that's really been going on since the Falcons hired Ian Cunningham back what in January now, this thing is not dead yet. The Bears are still fighting for these picks are making their case. And what we learned down in Arizona was that recently George McCaskey, Kevin Warren and Ryan polls flew to New York city and made their pitch to the league office and explain their side of things. Just to quickly, if there's a handful of people that don't really know what's going on here, I mean, there's part of the Rooney rule when you have a minority candidate, in this case in the front office, somebody underneath the general manager that becomes a general manager for another team, or if you have a assistant coach that becomes a head coach for a different team, that team that lost that coach or that general manager since what I think 2020 or so has been awarded two compensatory third round picks over the course of two years. And in this case, because the Falcons named Matt Ryan, their president of football, which wasn't really a position that existed in the NFL until the Falcons made it a position. In this case, Ian Cunningham going from assistant GM with the Bears to general manager with the Falcons, the league has said that because he is not the primary football decision maker, the Bears aren't getting those picks. And I think that there's a, there's still an argument to be made there on who's actually making the primary football decisions because the Falcons are pretty much on record of saying it is Ian Cunningham. Matt Ryan has said as much that the GM job has not changed. And the last GM, Terry Faun, no resulted in comp picks for the team that lost him. So it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense even from that standpoint, but where the Bears are coming from. And this is where I'm going to play you some of the stuff that we got with George and Kevin yesterday down in Arizona. You know, regardless of the titles that are out there being thrown out there in Atlanta, the whole spirit and reason for the rule developing a minority candidate and allowing that or helping aiding that person to be promoted and get a bigger job in the NFL is the whole point of this thing. And that's really what their argument is. So I thought both Kevin Warren and George McCaskey did a really good job yesterday. We got a chance to talk, just so you understand, we had a chance to talk to them more in a group setting and outside of just the interviews on the side with each outlet, which is what you're going to hear later on in the show when I had a chance to talk to both of them. This is from the group setting. We'll start with, let's start with Kevin actually. Kevin Warren both made their case. I thought both did a good job of making their case, explaining their side of things. So this is what Kevin Warren had to say about the whole comp pick situation. Yeah. I mean, one of the things, I think we have to start with the positive elements of this in Cunningham. And a lot of this goes to, you know, commend George McCaskey and the family is that he afforded Ryan Poles an opportunity back in 2022 to actually create a position for an assisting general manager. Ian comes in, had an opportunity to accept the general manager job early in his career. I didn't feel that he was quite ready to be able to do that. And over the last couple years, we collectively as a franchise have leaned into him from a, you know, personal performance coach to him being responsible for player development, sitting in, being involved on salary cap meetings, player performance. So he really grew. And to see a young black man come into the Chicago Bears after four years, then get a job to go be general manager of the Atlanta Falcons under great ownership and Arthur Blank and the leadership they have there. So we're excited for Ian and his family. That being said, you know, we were notified by the league at that point in time a couple weeks ago that their stance was that we would not be awarded compensatory picks. We have been in communication with the NFL in regards to see if you know what further conversations can be had, you know, from that standpoint. And so we do feel we want to be good members and good partners in the NFL. And we're happy for Ian. And we'll see where all of this is ultimately resolved from that standpoint. So to clarify, are you still pursuing, even though the league put down their decision when they put the compex out of the Monday-April 3 agency, are you still trying to get a change in their mind, get the compex for this year, next year? Yeah, I wouldn't say change their mind. I think we're trying to just follow up with them, just a normal protocol within the NFL to send in a response to say that we feel that, you know, we deserve the compensatory picks. And we understand all the different issues that are going on with the league. And so I'm sure ultimately we'll hear something back here sooner than later. Thanks guys. Thank you. Thank you. Of course, they are, you know, they are trying to change the ruling though. And, you know, I think rightly so. I mean, you hear specifics, I mean, very specific things that the Bears did, including which some people may have forgotten, creating the position of assistant general manager for Ian Cunningham in the first place, which was not a position that the Bears had. And, you know, I just, well, here, I have my thoughts on how this actually should be handled, but let's hear George's case too, because George did a good job as well of stating the Bears case. And this is what he said. We think what we did is what the league wants every member club to do. We identified diverse talent. We recruited him. We created a position for him. We allowed him access to the general manager role to work hand in hand with Ryan polls. We allowed him to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes. We gave him supervisory duties. We gave him training. We made him ready to be a general manager in the NFL and he's getting his opportunity and we're thrilled for him. What George McCaskey just explained there and described was exactly what the whole point of this is. Like the Rooney rule isn't perfect. At times it's controversial. At times it's uncomfortable, which is what Ryan polls and Ian Cunningham even acknowledged back at the combine when they talked about this. Like the idea that anybody even needs to be incentivized to, you know, aid the promotion and growth of minority candidates. But it should be pointed out and celebrated to that the Bears have been among the teams that have been, you know, most progressive, I think in expanding diversity efforts. Even before Kevin Warren got here, George McCaskey used to be on the NFL's diversity committee. It's now the NFL's diversity, the I committee, essentially Kevin Warren serves on it now. They're very involved in this stuff, not just with the Bears, but in the league, which is an interesting wrinkle to all of this as well. So it feels very odd and I think it's probably especially frustrating for the team here with everything that they've done to then sort of be singled out as the team that isn't rewarded by the rule in this situation for something that's not their fault. This is a, the issue here is that the Falcons have a unique structure that hasn't been in place before. Now there's been similar versions, but Matt Ryan himself being, you know, I think a former quarterback is more of a, you know, football guy than a business guy being at the top created confusion here. And I do think it's something that beyond the Rooney rule does need to be addressed by the league. And I'm sure it was discussed in some parts at the animal meeting this week in Phoenix, because just beyond, you know, the Rooney rule stuff, there does need to be some guidelines to how front offices can be structured in terms of just how teams communicate with each other and things in the league communicating with these teams as well. To me, this is simple though. The Bears fulfilled their, it's not obligation, but the whole point of the Rooney rule, they do a tee here, right? So why should they be punished here if there's confusion over structure? I think if you're the NFL and you're worried about setting a precedent here or ramifications down the road that you can't predict right now, how are teams going to structure their front offices going forward? Even conspiracy theories, which I think in some cases are fair, fair to talk about, it wasn't the case here, but will teams structure their front offices in the future to prevent a rival, perhaps a division rival from getting those picks? Like these are all part, I think part of what the league is worried about, but that's not the case here. So give the Bears their picks, reward them for what they did here, and then clarify it. They could do whatever they want. Like, you know, that then sets them, change the rule after that, change the wording, make it more clear. But in this case, it's very clear Ian Cunningham going from assistant GM to general manager, he has more responsibilities, it's a bigger job. I'm sure he's making a lot more money. And the Bears did all of the things here that is the reason why in past cases, the team losing that employee to a different team gets compensated for it with the draft picks. Seems pretty clear in this situation. So we're running out of time. The draft is three weeks from right now, as I'm talking to you. And I don't know if they come to some compromise where it's just one third round pick. Maybe there's no pick this year and it ends up applying next year. There's a lot of different things they can do. And maybe the Bears just get no picks. And that's that with this whole thing. But I guess we'll find out here in the next three weeks. All right, let's shift gears a little bit. I know people are tired about the stadium, but we have not heard Kevin Warren or George McCaskey talk, not only since the season ended, but since they sent out that open letter to fans back on December 17th, where they essentially announced that they were going to start looking at Indiana, I think a lot of people are still skeptical about how real Indiana is with the George interview later on in the show. We got into some things beyond the stadium, but this conversation with Kevin Warren, after all that is the biggest reason why he's here to get this stadium built. And I've been waiting for a while to talk to him about this stuff. So we got into a lot of different things from Indiana to some of the politics to design stuff as well, which we've talked a lot about on this show. Need a clear roof. Don't want it to look like a cookie cutter, a Legion Stadium. Again, all of that stuff addressed here in my sit down with Kevin Warren in Phoenix, Arizona. Kevin, really appreciate your time. Appreciate you. And I know you know that I'm very interested in the stadium stuff. So we've been waiting to talk to you about this for a while. Let's start with Indiana. So in the letter that you put out on the 17th of December, you mentioned that it was not about leverage, but you also mentioned that the state leadership of Illinois had told you we're not going to be a priority in 2026. I think it's fair to say that that's changed since then. And maybe there's been some progress with Illinois, but I guess the simple question, how real is Indiana? They're legitimate. I mean, this is, I am always focused on never having any business relationships that are leverage. I mean, if they're not real, then don't get engaged with them. So this is Indiana's real. And so it's been a pleasure working with them. They've been professional. They're hardworking. They're smart. They're diligent. They're focused. They have a great pace and the bears are a priority. Governor Brown is his leadership in this entire process has been outstanding. You mentioned this morning, 340 acres in Indiana. That's that Wolf Lake area, correct? Yeah. There are, that's more than the Orleans and Heights site, isn't it? Oh, yes. The Orleans and Heights is 326. Is the vision then similar, even with all the space? Yeah. The design is a little bit different. I mean, you have, there's some water around there, but I think the vision, underlying vision is similar to make sure you have a mixed use development. You have to create a game day experience for our fans. I think that's the, I mean, it's a different layout. But I think what it is, it's not a place where you just go and leave. We want to make sure we create a mixed use development. The economics are different, though. The funding of the stadium, obviously, financially, it seems like it's a pretty good deal for you guys. I guess what I'm still confused about, let's talk like concerts, for example, who gets that revenue if you guys don't own that stadium? Those are things that we'll work through. So what we're doing right now is active due diligence. Once we finish that, as far as ingress and egress, parking, transportation, some construction, final construction items, then we can really finish the term sheet in regards to that. We want to be a good partner. And then they have a good format, what they've done with the Indianapolis Sports Commission. They've done a good, and they got the final four this weekend. When I was commissioner of the Big Ten, we used to host our football games and basketball tournaments in Indianapolis. And one thing about it, they know how to put on events, and they have another NFL team there. So the format is the foundation, the structure is kind of framed out well. But once we finish up our due diligence, then we can finish up some of the any open items in the term sheet. I went and visited the area I've driven through there many times, too, just driving down. Many times we all go to Indianapolis. There's a lot of water there. Are there environmental concerns that you guys got to figure out, and whether or not you can actually build on that land? Yeah, we already have those answers back. We can. That came back. Yeah, it came. But their consultants are consultants. Those are all good. So we're good from that standpoint. Obviously important there. I want to shift back to Illinois if we can. I know we're a little limited on time, but Cam Buckner was on CHGO last week. He was pretty frank in talking about how he said this conversation between the state and the mayor started out as a mess. He said that it went from mess to movement, movement to momentum, and now it's somewhere between momentum and maturity, which would kind of be the end. Is that a fair categorization of all of it from your standpoint? I mean, yeah, I think leader Buckner, I read that quote, and it was interesting how he put that. I think the biggest thing, and that's why I think it's, you can feel you can feel. I mean, you hear at the league meetings, you can feel that this is real. And even here, Commissioner Gidell commented yesterday, they own it on the importance of timing. Timing is critically important. I mean, if we haven't learned anything this year, this war, what is done to the financial markets and the capital markets, and so those are concerns. I mean, this is a family, the McCaskey family, this $2 billion commitment is a private investment. This is not a family who sold a big business, and this is a real commitment. So we're constantly concerned about the financial markets, the capital markets, the cost of steel. So the sooner we can put all the political issues to the side, get something done, make a determination where we're building and start the construction progress, the better for everyone involved, and because our goal is to make sure we build a world-class experience for our fans. Well, in a second, I want to get into some of that world-class stuff because I'm kind of a stadium. I've toured US Bank Stadium many times, both in construction and post. Before we get to that real quick, I wanted to ask something because Representative Buckner also, both sides seem to be very clear that the Bears have paid their share on Soldier's Feet. However, he has brought up the idea that that cost that the state has really still has wouldn't be there if the Bears hadn't needed to renovate it in the first place. And there might be some sort of moral, I don't know if it's obligation or whatever, to still help pay that off. Where do the Bears stand on that idea? Has that ship sailed? Yeah, I mean, I think we feel we've been very clear public from that standpoint is the fact that from this $1 standpoint, we've paid our portion and some, but we will say, and George McCasky has said and I'll reiterate, is that we will honor our lease of Soldier's Feet from a financial standpoint. But we feel comfortable in regards to making sure from this $1 standpoint, because we don't control how those bonds were paid off for use or which ones were paid off first, but we've paid our portion as far as they've asked us to do and some. Alright, let's do some more fun stadium design questions here. Because one of my favorite parts about US mega stadium is the natural light that comes in. You did mention this morning that there would be the similar clear now, but there is a difference though, because the Vegas stadium, it's more like cloudy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and Minnesota's is clear. What do you guys envision between those two? I think there's a big difference. When that sun's coming through in the Vikings games. Yeah, there is a big difference. I mean, some of it they have, you know, what they call this fritting that they put on it. Las Vegas stadium is a little bit darker, I think, because the sun is so bright. And but we want to make sure our fans can feel the outdoor, you know, elements from a lighting standpoint, you know, which is critically important. So the roof will have some translucent capabilities, some, you know, the ETFE. But you don't know if it'll be fully clear. We haven't gotten that far as how much of it and what level of clarity, you know, that do we want to have. But those are the sighting things that we'll be able to talk about. So on that note, every once in a while, we see a rendering. And I know the architects had also did the Raider stadium. Where do those renderings come? Are those real renderings? I guess what should we be paying attention to in terms of what's actually real? Because I got to be honest, the last ones that came out, it looked awful. It just kind of looked like they were just... Some of that stuff is not us. I mean, it's interesting how people put together these data renderings. That's one of the reasons why once we can get all these political issues put to the side and make a determination where we're going to build, then we'll get back to designing our stadium, the interior and the exterior, and to be able to start construction. And with the target open it up in 2030. All right, last question because in interviews both with Representative Buckner and actually the mayor earlier, that was a couple months ago, they both sort of leave the door open every once in a while to the idea of Chicago not being dead for the stadium. Even somewhat open-minded as impossible as it might sound to actually sell that land to the bears. You spent at least like a year looking at Chicago as a viable option. Is there still a sliver of hope for the city or is that just dead? Yeah, what we feel strongly is that the best and only location in Cook County is in Arlington Heights. And we did spend a lot of time, energy and resources. And it was the right thing to do. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it again to make sure that we explored all those opportunities in Chicago and it just didn't work, it didn't fit. And that's a complex situation. So that's why we're focusing on Arlington Heights and Ham in Indiana and continue this process. And it'll be exciting to bring this to close. And then the fun stuff starts and that's the construction, design and the construction of the building. Well, I hope the next time we talk and we can sit down and maybe have some more of those conversations about the design. You know a lot about today, I've got to commend you on it. Yeah, you really do. So I look forward to it. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks, Kevin. I appreciate everything you do. All right. There's the conversation with Kevin Warren, down at Phoenix yesterday. Sorry, Carm. I mean, as much as he's clinging on to the sliver of hope that Chicago could still be in play, I think the Bears have been pretty clear on this at this point that they feel like if it is in Illinois, you know, it is interesting. They just say Cook County, you know, like for some reason we end out on another one or two year road and not knowing where it is. Maybe outside of Cook County, but within Cook County, it's only tonight. I think that's pretty clear at this point. Couple of notes before we take a quick break and then we got George McCaskey coming up. One of the news items in there is just the clearing up the concerns about the water at that Wolf Lake site in Indiana and him saying, Kevin saying that the environmental concerns have already been figured out. So that's, you know, assuming that's completely true, which I'm sure it is, that that's notable because there have been some people that really question if you can even build on that land. 340 acres. So the site is even bigger than the Arlington Heights site. So we're talking about a mega project with lots of other, I'm assuming we haven't really heard the details in the same way we've heard Arlington Heights, but you know, you're thinking residential, you're thinking about a lot of different events there, a lot of different things that they could potentially do in that area, which leads me to one of the, I mean, led me to one of the questions, big questions, I think, in all of this, if we're talking Indiana, who gets the money from all of the other things going on besides the Bears games? If it's actually Northwest Indiana sports facilities, association, whatever they're calling it, that is, you know, essentially funding the project. And Kevin said that that hasn't really been figured out. Like, you know, Taylor Swift comes to town and does a concert there. Who's getting that money? And I'll be honest with you, if the Bears can figure out a situation where they don't have to borrow, which we're going to get into with the George Vickasca conversation later, $2 billion to fund a stadium. And yet they're still able to get a ton of the revenue that they would get. Like some of these teams that own their own stadium, I mean, that's, it's just at some point from a business standpoint, and this is the, you know, kind of the state of the bears business episode. That is hard to turn down. It just really, it really is. I'm glad we talked about the roof. I don't know how many people care about that besides myself, but I promise you, whenever that stadium is built and Kevin's now saying opening in 2030, that would be four more years at Soldier Field, four more seasons at Soldier Field, potentially opening up in a new stadium in 2020 or 2030, we'll see. It keeps getting pushed back, obviously. The, I always tell people, go to US Bank Stadium in Minnesota, if you get a chance, the way the sunlight comes in during those daygames, you, it really, more than any other stadium I've been to feels like you're outside. Stofi has a similar element as that too in Los Angeles. That is actually open air stadium in LA, but it has the roof over it to protect from elements. And that also gets in a lot of natural sunlight. The stadium in Las Vegas, which is the same architects the bears are using for this stadium. That's why that's, that's really relevant. I brought it up to Kevin that it's a similar paneling, clear paneling, but it's actually like clouded. So just think of it like a sunny day versus a cloudy day. When we were in that stadium this past season for the Bears Raiders game, it just, you feel, it feels like you're inside. It just compared to, you know, being in LA or being in a certainly more relevant Minnesota where you're actually inside, although Minnesota also has the side doors, these huge side doors that go up like seven stories that actually open so that they can let in natural air like in September when it's nicer or maybe some of the concerts and stuff in the summer. I don't know if the bears go that far because I'm sure that was really expensive and hard to maintain, but it all, it would be awesome if they could get that involved as well. But one thing clearing up, the renderings that we've seen clearly are not final by any means. So those renderings that were out there that basically just looked like the Raider Stadium, it was good to hear Kevin Warren say that that's certainly not the final renderings and who knows how real they actually were to begin with. And there was another comment he made in the group session about making sure that wherever the stadium is, Arlingtonites or Indiana, it feels like Chicago, which has been one of my points. John's on this podcast too. We are full agreement on this one. Like let's have some architecture that feels like Chicago, like the Vikings were able to do in Minnesota, like the, where it kind of looks like a Viking ship, like the stadium, the commanders are building in Washington. It just fits in with the nation's capital, the design, all the other iconic buildings that are in DC, things like that. So that was mentioned yesterday and I think that that's important. So I feel better about maybe what will actually be in the design. And like I said, at the end of that interview, hopefully we'll get another chance to talk to Kevin Warren about all that stuff once we get the politics and the site and all that stuff figured out. All right, we got to take our first break. When we come back, we'll also talk to George McCaskey about the stadium, but good news for those of you that are tired of the stadium, talk weekend and other things as well with him. That's coming up next, but first, whether it's on the field or in your financial life, the best teams win by delivering excellence at every level. And that's exactly what old national bank does. They believe that every play matters from everyday checking to longterm planning and commercial banking, old national bank is here to build momentum and help you move the ball forward. It all starts with the plan tailored to you by professionals that you trust from simple tasks to bigger financial moments. 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George, appreciate your time today. First thing I want to start with, with the stadium conversation. The, I think everybody is sort of trying to wrap their minds around the idea of the Chicago Bears potentially playing outside of the state of Illinois. For you personally, did that take a little bit? I mean, we heard what you said this morning, but did that take a little while for you to even wrap your mind around? Not really. I mean, it's in the Chicago land area. It's in what the NFL defines as a home territory. It's closer to Soldier Field than Arlington Park is. Like I said, I think Bears fans will adjust. Even if there were a new building right next store, it would require an adjustment. It's different. When Soldier Field was renovated, it required an adjustment. But people get used to things. The mayor of Hammond suggested that you guys might be actually interested in like your practice facility being there. You guys just invested so much money in the house hall. Is that real or would you guys still be in Lake Forest just playing the games in Indiana if you ended up going down that road? We'll be in Lake Forest for the foreseeable future. Last week, Cam Buckner, Illinois representative that's been very involved in all the conversations in Illinois, was on our show on CHGO. He was involved in the Wrigley renovations too. Your ties with the Cubs, well known. But he brought up how the Cubs never threatened to leave and how the Bears could learn something from the Cubs. I'm just wondering with all your history tied with the Cubs, I know you pay attention to all those things. How much has the Cubs did with Wrigley, those renovations? I realize it's a completely different situation. But how has that informed any of this that's played out over the last few years and the decisions that you guys have made? I suggested to Tom Ricketts the other day that we come back to Wrigley. He was not in boost by that idea. They've done a great job there. We've tried for three years to convince people that the project in Arlington Park would be great for the entire state of Illinois. And when we were told that it wasn't going to be a priority, we thought the best course of action for the Bears and for Bears fans was to expand our search. He also said, camp Buckner last week, said that the land you purchased in Arlington Heights that you guys probably purchased it for maybe a hundred million dollars more than it was worth. Is that true? I don't know. I remember when I bought my first house and my realtor had a little pad of note paper. And on the note paper was a caricature of an old man stooped over. He's walking with a king. Yeah. And the caption said, the young man who waited for the price of land to go down. You know, this is a valuable piece of property. It's in a great spot. And however it is developed, it's going to be very beneficial to the entire region. The timing of how that all played out, though, has that complicated this at all? The fact that you guys purchased the land before kind of securing the tax certainty and all those things. Well, we didn't control the timing of the purchase of the land. Churchill Downs had its own timetable in making the land available. Some things don't always fall into place exactly as you would like them to. But I don't know that we could have said to Churchill Downs, hold off, let us secure these other things and then we'll proceed with the purchase. They have a responsibility to their shareholders. And so they were acting in their shareholders' best interests. So, you know, it became available and we bought it. Ben Johnson, just first year obviously went really, really well. I think he's the fifth head coach that the Bears have hired since you took over as chairman. What did he show you in year one, including the ways in which he helped galvanize the city, everything you guys were experienced, all those highs and even some of the lows? What did he show you that gives you so much confidence that he is going to be here and be the guy that's here for a long, long time? Leadership, vision, intelligence, innovativeness, intensity, toughness. You know, if you look at his performance as a game manager and all of the other things that a head coach is required to do administratively, you wouldn't think that he was a first year head coach. It looked like he'd been doing it for quite some time. The way he embraced the role and the way the city has embraced him, it's been very gratifying to see. The Packers element of it, it sure feels like the rivalry is back. I mean, I grew up in this city and I've experienced it, certainly experienced the domination Green Bay had recently. How much did you enjoy that this year? And not only just the wins, but also what your head coach infused back into the rivalry? Well, for 30 years they've had the upper hand. So, to see what appears to be finally a turning of the tide has been very rewarding. It's a great rivalry, 100 years plus. And they have the three elements that I think are necessary for success, outstanding general manager, outstanding head coach, outstanding quarterback. And we think we have those three ingredients outstanding general manager, outstanding head coach, outstanding quarterback. And I think it's going to be a lot of fun to watch in the years to come. That was the last thing I was going to ask you, your quarterback, what did you learn about Caleb Williams in the last year? That he's marvelously fun to watch. That he is incredibly gifted. And you saw with Caleb too, the city embracing him, that we're never out of it. Call whatever you want. Iceman, Houdini. He wants to be great. He's willing to do what it takes to be great. And this is a decades long search for a quarterback. And we think we finally got him. Well, we certainly hope that's the case. Hope we continue to get better with Ben Johnson next year, George. Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. All right. Thank you. That's a pretty significant comment there at the end. If you really think about it, you know, the owner acknowledging what we all know, it's been decades long. I mean, franchise long search for a franchise quarterback. And he thinks like a lot of us do that the Bears finally have their guy in Caleb Williams. So thank you to George Kasky for sitting down. I want to address a couple quick things. One is who is cam Buckner? I saw some people in the comments asking that because I did ask. So Cam is an Illinois representative, 26 district who that includes soldier field. And he's been very, very, very involved in these discussions with where the Bears are going, where they're headed and then direct negotiations with the Chicago Bears. So he's very relevant in this. He also worked for the Cubs during the period of time where they were renovating soldier, excuse me, Wrigley field. So that's why that came up. But also it's because he was on our show last week, not this show, Hogan Johnson was on C.H.G.O. Bears. Great interview by Mark Harmon from the other side of this that I encourage you to go listen to if you missed it. So if he's going to come on C.H.G.O. and say some things, and his perspective was, I thought, very, very interesting and relevant, then, you know, it's our job to get the Bears perspective on some of those things that were that were said. So that's why I asked both of those guys questions regarding comments that Cam made last week on, on C.H.G.O. I got a couple other thoughts on just where things stand right now and then also more footbally things from the owners meetings. Just some final thoughts, some things about media and TV as well. These are all sort of issues that get addressed at the owners meetings. So we'll do all of that coming up, but I hope you enjoyed the conversations with Kevin Warren and George McCaskey and thanks to the Bears for facilitating those here on Hogan Johnson. So we are not done yet. Got a few more items coming up next, but first, it's good to have our friends at Sunnyside dispensary back on the show. They are here to elevate your baseball season. Baseball is back. I went to the Diamondbacks Tigers game while I was in Phoenix. Sunnyside is your home for judgment-free shopping. They have a crazy selection with over 100 different strains to choose from with easy online ordering and in-store pickup wherever you're at in Illinois. Sunnyside has a location for you. You've probably seen them driven by the one maybe in Deerfield on Milwaukee. They have spots as far south as Champaign as far north to South Beloit, right before you're about to head into Wisconsin. Stop in the store nearest you for expert guidance from their staff. They got locations in the city as well. Head to their website for only the best under the sun, including 50% off your first three online purchases. Enter promo code HICHTO at checkout to qualify Sunnyside dispensary. Only the best under the sun, only for 21 plus or Illinois medical card holders and still clinging on to basketball season. If you want to get to a game, the Game Time app gives the advantage back to fans. It's the hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences and just a few taps. It's incredibly easy to use. Honestly, when I just want to go check what ticket prices are, I go on the Game Time app because it's the best way to just pop up all the zone deals, all the different seats. 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One quick nugget coming out of the George McKasky interview was something that I just didn't believe at all when the mayor Hammond mentioned that the Bears might even be interested in moving their practice facility to the site in Indiana. That just seemed hard to believe it. George McKasky did say they're going to stay in Lake Forest for the foreseeable future. Again, they put a lot of money into the house hall basically doubled the size of it just like six, seven years ago now. So all right, let's check it out on our way out of here. We are checking it out sponsored by Old National Bank. Every play matters whether it's on the field or in your financial life. The best teams win by delivering excellence at every level. Old National Bank where relationships and results matter. Remember, FDIC. A couple of stadium items on the way out. So just checking out where things stand right now. So it's April 2nd as we're doing this show. The legislative session ends at the end of May. They're on a little bit of a break right now. They come back soon and it's crunch time. Like they got to figure this out in Illinois and the Bears have a viable option in Indiana if they don't. So what's in the way of this? So there's this pilot legislation, this mega projects deal and unfortunately, this bears stadium part of it, which includes getting their tax certainty that they need and want. And also the infrastructure from the state is tied to the statewide bill that would have ramifications that are very, very different from building a stadium. We're talking to a company moving to Peoria, even farther, Edwardsville, like all of Illinois is a massive state. It borders Kentucky down there. And so you pass legislation like this. What are the ramifications of this? And the reality is right now that the concerns from state lawmakers on this pilot is not, it doesn't have to do with the Bears. Like everybody seems not fully everybody, but most people seem to be on board with the idea of the Bears are getting their tax certainty, they're getting their infrastructure, they're paying for their stadium. Everyone's cool with that. With the one exception of the city politicians that including representative Buckner that, you know, still would like to see the Bears help out the city, which we'll get into in a second because that has to do with getting the votes necessary to pass this legislation. But in terms of the actual pilot concerns, those have more to do with the ramifications in other areas of the state. The idea that a very small school district could be negotiating taxes with high powered lawyers from a massive corporation, things like that, if that makes sense. In terms of what the Bears are willing to pay off on Soldier Field, Kevin Warren has made that very clear, including on this show in this interview. They feel like they've paid off their share. Now, are there other things they can do to help the city programs, initiatives, youth football, give back, all these things. I think that's stuff that still needs to be figured out. And my understanding really hasn't been addressed to this point in the negotiations. So there's a lot to figure out there. There's very limited time. I also thought George McCasky's comments in the bigger group session with us yesterday about being risk adverse as a family. I think we know that about the McCasky's. The idea that they would be borrowing $2 billion and the risk that comes with that is a factor in all this. I mean, they're willing to do that in order to build the stadium in Arlington Heights, but like I said earlier, they have this other deal where they can get concert revenue and we don't know that for sure. But what does that revenue in Indiana potentially look like in a situation where they wouldn't have to borrow the money? From a business standpoint, that matters. So that's everything from the stadium, I think, wrapping up from Arizona. I have a few other items that have more to do with football that came out that were more NFL things. One thing, no more Monday Night Football double headers. I didn't necessarily dislike them because I'm never going to turn down more football. I do think the league, though, is heater-ing a little bit at times. I'm diluting Sundays too much. You put a game on any night, I'm probably going to watch it. The business part of it of continuing to spread the product out, taking it to new markets internationally, more games at more times, it certainly helps grow the game, which continues to grow and grow and grow and grow. And the money he's pouring in. But the heart of the NFL has always been NFL Sundays. So you don't want to dilute that product too much. Everybody loves sitting down in front of their TV or TVs if you're fortunate to have a multi-TV set. I've been watching a bunch of games on Sunday. But Monday Night Football, I don't need two games on. Again, I didn't necessarily dislike it. It did seem a little forced. And I do commend the NFL. They try things, they recognize when they go too far sometimes or something doesn't work, and they fix it. So going back to one Monday Night Football game, I think it's probably a good thing. There were a couple of rule changes. It was not a very eventful year when it came to rule changes. If you go to last year's owner's meetings, there were very heated discussions about push-push, legitimate arguments breaking out. Wasn't Jason Kelsey brought in to make the case? There were some fireworks in the room. None of that happened this year. The rule changes in this year were relatively boring. The highlights, you can now onsite kick at any time, which a couple of years ago, you had to be trailing and it had to be the fourth quarter. Last year, they changed it to you just had to be trailing. You can onsite kick at any time. Now you can onsite kick at any time. And the, I think the impetus for that is really when you have a personal foul following a touchdown, you kick off from the 50. I mean, half these, you know, with the new kickoff rules, you're giving up field position 35, 40 yard line half the time anyway. Why not onsite kick? Why not try it? You know, and that's another play that can continue to make the game exciting in those situations. So I like that. This came up in the bare season a couple of times last year. This idea of kicking off from the 50 and intentionally kicking it out of bounds. Remember, one time they failed to do that. It came up a few times in the NFL last season and they did change that rule to take the incentive out of kicking it out of bounds from the 50, because most people didn't realize till last year that that rule is actually, you know, most people think you just kicked the ball out of bounds. Everyone knows that's a penalty. It comes out to the 40. Well, in reality, it goes 25 yards from the kickoff spot. So if you're kicking off from the 50 and a touchback takes you to 35, kicking it out of bounds puts it to 25, you kick it out of bounds. They've got rid of that loophole. So a little thing there, but it did apply to the bare season a little bit last year. I think we had one super chat before we get out here and it was just Alex the Bears fan, 1989, going back to the comp pick idea with $2 saying only the bears would be screwed over this. I don't know if it's only the bears, but it does, it does feel, does feel unfair that it's the bears in this spot considering all of the things that they've, they worked on with, with diversity and equity and inclusion. So like I said, draft three weeks from today, we'll see what happens with that if there is a ruling. And maybe, maybe they'll say it would be huge. It's a good way to end the show. So right now the bears have four picks in the top 89. If they were awarded a comp pick at the end of the third round, it'd be right around 100. So you're talking about essentially having five picks in the top 100 ish depending on where they slot that pick. Six picks in the top 129 because they have a fourth round pick coming from the Rams right now. Five picks around the top 100. Six picks top 129. People are maybe frustrated the bears didn't do more for agency. That is how you reload a lot or roster through the draft, higher picks hit on those picks, right? And that's something that Ryan polls and the scouted staff still needs to do a better job of, especially in the third round is hitting on some of those guys. So we'll see where that goes. Next week, John's is out on his vacation. We will have some guests, some guest co-hosts just like he did when I was out. And we will get off of all his bears business stuff for a little bit, but this show was necessary today. Thank you for everybody that sat here listening through it. Watch it hit the like button on the way out. A lot of good stuff. Go back and check it out. Ben Johnson, Ryan polls, George McCaskey, Kevin Warren all on the show in the same week. Thank you again to the bears for making that happen. And make sure you become a diehard use code johns J A H N S. She'll get $36 intro offer. He's on vacation. I got content coming. 10 bears things will be dropping early next week from the owner's meetings. And we have another mock draft, even though he's out, Hogan, John's mock draft, 3.0 will drop next week as well. So great time to become a diehard. You get 20% off all merch, all events, all the time, plus a free T shirt when you sign up. Merch like this hoodie. I'm wearing today the Hogan, John's hoodie. Check it out. We will definitely shift the conversation towards more football, more draft stuff next week, basically over the next three weeks, leading into the draft is been draft season for a while, but we're going to go all in from this point on again. Thank you for watching, listening, hit the like button, subscribe, send the link off to a friend, write and review the podcast. Appreciate each and every one of you will continue to keep the conversation going as well on C H G O bears at 1pm. Talk to you later.