The Bears’ far-flung tour across the Chicagoland area for a stadium site is back on as the National Football League team said it is now turning its attention to Northwest Indiana amid stalled political progress in Illinois.

In an open letter released late Wednesday, Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren said the lack of progress on a planned domed stadium and mixed-use development on team-owned land in Arlington Heights, Ill., is forcing the franchise to expand its search, including across the state border. The Bears are seeking $855 million in public funding, targeted toward infrastructure, for a project set to cost at least $5 billion—itself a reduced ask of taxpayers that previously had exceeded $2 billion.

“We need to expand our search and critically evaluate opportunities throughout the wider Chicagoland area, including Northwest Indiana,” Warren wrote. “Our fans deserve a world-class stadium. Our players and coaches deserve a venue that matches the championship standard they strive for every day. With that in mind, our organization must keep every credible pathway open to deliver that future.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has long been a skeptic about providing public funding for a Bears stadium. More recently, though, his state has been a target for aggressive, and highly controversial, immigration enforcement by the Trump White House, bringing the governor’s focus further away from the stadium issue. Pritzker has also pushed for the Bears to pay off existing debt of more than $500 million that remains from a 2003 renovation of Soldier Field.

“Suggesting the Bears would move to Indiana is a startling slap in the face to all the beloved and loyal fans who have been rallying around the team during this season strong,” Pritzker spokesman Matt Hill said in a statement. “The governor is a Bears fan who has always wanted them to stay in Chicago. He has also said that, ultimately, they are a private business.”

The Bears’ newly expanded view into Indiana recalls a wide-ranging search it took during 2023 and early 2024 that covered at least seven other locales in the Chicago area, mostly in the Illinois suburbs. The push down into Indiana would present sizable travel challenges for many of its fans and the team itself. Gary, Ind., for example, is 65 miles from the team’s current headquarters in Lake Forest, Ill. Gary is also one of the most economically challenged areas in the entire country, with roughly a third of its population living below the poverty line. 

Warren insisted the new focus on Indiana is “not about leverage,” in Illinois, but it’s hard to see the situation otherwise. The team’s letter references that the Bears “have been told directly by state leadership [that] our project will not be a priority in 2026, despite the benefits it will bring to Illinois.”

On-Field Contrast

The rising conflict between the Bears and Illinois is happening as the team is in the midst of a breakthrough season on the field. The team is currently 10–4, is leading the NFC North division by half a game, and is already assured of its best season since at least 2018, with potentially more to come. 

A Saturday home game against the Packers, the team’s archrival and closely trailing Chicago, is set to be one of the biggest games in the Bears’ recent history. Fox will show the game nationally in prime time. 

“We are building a championship organization worthy of you,” Warren wrote.

In the midst of an already banner National Football League season for Amazon, the streamer is about to show arguably its biggest regular-season game ever.

Amazon will stream on Thursday Night Football a massive showdown in Seattle between the Rams and Seahawks, marking its first game since picking up the exclusive TNF rights in 2022 that it will have two teams with at least 11 wins each. The NFC West division rivals, both 11–3, are ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in betting odds to win Super Bowl LX, further showing the sizable competitive stakes in the game.

“It’s a big one. They all are at this point of the season,” said Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, the current favorite to win this season’s Most Valuable Player award. “Obviously, we know we’re playing a team that’s had a ton of success this year. … This is what you love playing NFL football for. It’s a quick turnaround [from Sunday] to get this one going, which is sometimes difficult, but we’ll be ready to rock and roll.”

Is 20M Reachable?

With such a compelling matchup, the question for Amazon is whether it will beat its Dec. 4 game between the Cowboys and Lions that averaged 19.4 million viewers, setting an audience record for a regular-season NFL game on Amazon. Viewership from the U.S. East Coast could be diminished because of the West Coast clash, but that also might tilt watching patterns later than normal TNF peaks that often occur in the second quarter of games.

For the season, Amazon is averaging 14.92 million viewers on TNF, up 13% from last year. The season also includes a 21% viewership increase on Black Friday for a high-profile game between the Bears and Eagles. 

The clash between the Rams and Seahawks contrasts heavily with an upcoming Christmas night game on Amazon between the Broncos and Chiefs. That game saw its luster fade significantly due to Kansas City being eliminated from playoff contention and star quarterback Patrick Mahomes sustaining a season-ending knee injury. 

The Rams, the No. 1 seed in the NFC, have already clinched a playoff spot. Los Angeles also won the first of two regular-season games against Seattle, prevailing 21–19 back on Nov. 16 at SoFi Stadium. Thursday night’s rematch at Lumen Field is expected to be played in rainy and blustery conditions.

Ex–Ohio University head football coach Brian Smith had a four-month relationship with an undergraduate student, new records show.

The university placed Smith on leave on Dec. 1 and fired him Wednesday after the first-year head coach led the Bobcats to an 8–4 record this season.

New documents obtained by a Front Office Sports public records request show two letters sent by university president Lori Gonzalez to Smith and his lawyer, and another message sent by the attorney back to the school. The first letter from Gonzalez, dated Dec. 12, is a notice of intent to fire Smith; the second letter is attorney Rex H. Elliott’s response on Tuesday; and the third letter is the official termination letter, dated Wednesday.

In the notice letter, Gonzalez lays out the university’s reasons for firing Smith. She says that he triggered a for-cause firing in several ways, including:

• “Participation in extramarital affairs, including one with an undergraduate student, to which you have admitted”
• “Repeated use of alcohol in your office, in violation of university policy”
• “A public appearance during which you smelled strongly of alcohol and were intoxicated in your demeanor”

The school had previously been tight-lipped about Smith’s situation. Smith’s attorney told the school’s public TV and radio station, WOUB, three days after the coach was put on leave that they still hadn’t received a formal reason for the decision. The silence led to widespread speculation and criticism from student media.

Gonzalez wrote that Smith’s extramarital affairs including the relationship with the student triggers clauses in his contract that refer to a potential firing for any “disrepute, scandal, and ridicule” that reflect poorly on the school.

In response, Elliott wrote that “Coach Smith didn’t participate in an extramarital affair and you know it,” saying the coach and his wife had been separated since earlier this year. The two finalized their divorce earlier this month. “Coach Smith did not hide the relationship, and even his now ex-wife didn’t accuse him of engaging in an extramarital affair,” he wrote.

Elliott said Smith met the student “at an establishment in Athens” and didn’t know she attended the university, but the two were in a “perfectly appropriate consensual adult relationship.” He wrote that the woman did not work in the athletic department and Smith ended the nearly four-month relationship in early November. The letter says OU does not have a policy barring employees from dating students.

The university president claimed in her letter that Smith admitted to athletic director Slade Larscheid that he “carried on an affair” at the on-campus Ohio University Inn, where he was spotted by a parent of one of his football players. 

Smith’s lawyer responded that the claim was misleading because Smith was living at the inn following the separation from his wife. The coach told Larscheid that he saw the parents while with a 41-year-old woman he was dating after the student, according to Elliott.

Gonzalez also cited Smith’s drinking in her letter, saying his contract bars him from drinking “as to impair” his duties. Elliott said that this claim has “no relationship to the truth” because “Coach Smith has never been inebriated at an OU event.”

Gonzalez also cited a violation of university policy: drinking in his office, for which Smith was reprimanded last month. In his response, Elliott wrote that coaches were toasting victories after home wins “with Bourbon provided by your husband to Coach Smith in his office.”

Elliott also wrote about other instances of university employees drinking on campus, including when an associate athletic director invited Smith to the office of a faculty member who offered him bourbon, and all three of the men drank together.

All told, Elliott wrote, “There is zero basis for a ‘for cause’ termination and Coach Smith intends to vigorously pursue litigation should OU continue down this reckless path.”

In Gonzalez’s Dec. 17 termination letter, she wrote that she “reviewed and considered” Elliott’s response, but the university still “has ample cause” to fire the coach.

Read the documents here:

• Dec. 12: University President’s Notice of Intent to Terminate Employment
  
• Dec. 16: Response Letter From Coach Smith’s Attorney
  
• Dec. 17: The Termination of Employment Letter