Picking Bears for the Super Bowl

My Super Bowl 50 pick is 90 percent Bears related. Of course I know that my favorite team from the windy city is not going to be the team representing the NFC in the big game this Sunday, but a few players and coaches on the Carolina Panthers are related to my beloved, therefore I want to see them win.

Panthers head coach Ron Rivera not only helped the Bears win Super Bowl XX, but he was also an assistant coach as well.

When Rivera was Chicago’s Defensive Coordinator, during his second season with the team (2005), the defense was ranked second in the league and reached the second round of the playoffs. The next season, they reached the Super Bowl.

The Bears defense was really competitive under Rivera; however the team failed to extend his contract.

I love my Bears, but they make dumb decisions. Letting Rivera go was one of them.

Another Bears mistake was trading current Panther, Greg Olsen away.

Olsen was the Bears first round pick in 2007 and he was a monster. He’s six-foot-five and is one heck of a tight end.

He was traded away to Carolina for a third round pick in the 2012 draft, which eventually would be traded to Miami for Brandon Marshall.

I was upset at the time they traded Olsen for a draft pick because he was (at the time) the best receiving tight end the Bears had in the team’s recent history.

Another player on the Panthers’ roster is Charles Tillman, who was one of Chicago’s greatest cornerbacks in the team’s history (in my opinion).

Though I understood the reasons, my heart was broken when the Bears opted not to resign him in 2014. When you fail to complete multiple seasons due to various injuries, chances are your team will not resign you.

Right now Tillman is watching games on the sideline, injured. I would still like to see him get a Super Bowl ring, even though it’s with a another team.

Jared Allen, currently a defensive end with the Panthers, had been a Bear last season and at the beginning of this season, but switching from a 4-3 to 3-4 defense I guess the team didn’t love Allen enough to keep him. Now he’s about to play in his first Super Bowl. Yikes. The final score will be 38-21, in favor of Carolina.