How the Bears and Eagles accidentally formed the NFL’s best situationship

If you’re a Philadelphia Eagles fan and you make fun of how terrible the Cowboys are, Cowboys fans say, “Wow, you can’t stop talking about us. We live rent-free in your head.” That’s not the case. It’s actually just fun to dance on graves. A twisted version of that is happening right now. 

The NFC East and the NFC North play each other this season. So far, the Chicago Bears have swept the NFC East teams that they’ve played, and the Eagles have beaten both the Packers and the Vikings… and now both teams are at the top of their divisions. 

There’s a budding, yet perverted, partnership between the Birds’ and the Bears’ fans. Some people will see that and poo-poo it. Those people are partially wrong, but definitely anti-fun.

A handshake, for now, between Philly and Chicago

Typically, finding common ground with the fans of another team as early as Week 11 is very soft. Those fandom-partnerships are typically reserved for Week 17 and 18 games. Games where if Team A beats Team B, then Team C makes the playoffs. That means Team C and Team A’s fans are all rooting for the same thing… That’s kind of where this whole thing was conceived, back in Week 17 of the 2018 season.

The Eagles were playing in Washington, while the Bears were playing the Vikings. If the Bears won that game, the Eagles would make it to the postseason… and that’s exactly what happened on the back of Jordan Howard's 109 rushing yards and two touchdowns. 

Seven days later, the Bears' season came to a hilarious end with the Double-Doink against the Eagles in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. Whatever grace the Eagles found in Bears fans’ hearts was absolutely gone.

Then you go to the 2019 season. In Week 7, the Bears lost 36-25 to the Saints, while the Eagles lost 37-10 to the Cowboys. It was two really ugly losses to two really ugly teams. Pardon My Take came up with an idea to fix the two teams: combine their rosters and call them The Chilladelphia Beagles. If the name wasn’t that good, this wouldn’t be worth being brought up.

This 2025 version is a little different than the 2018 one (and definitely the 2019 one). The Bears have been the little brother of the NFC North for the last 5+ years, and the NFC East hasn’t had a back-to-back winner since the Eagles did it in 2003 and 2004. 

That means these teams are relative underdogs in their divisions, and any success that the two have against each other’s division is mutually beneficial: If the Eagles beat the Vikings, Packers, and Lions, then the Bears have a good chance to get out of the doghouse. The Bears have beaten the Commanders, Giants, and Cowboys, and now the Eagles have a chance to break the 20-year NFC East curse.

Chicago is tied with Detroit at the top of the NFC North with 6-3 records, and the Lions are heading to Philadelphia on Sunday night. The Eagles have an opportunity to help the Bears one final time until Week 13 by continuing their dismantling of NFC North offenses.

In addition to the actual schedule mechanics of it all, these two teams have shared a decent number of players and coaches. 

The most important guy they’ve shared is Vic Fangio, who was Chicago’s defensive coordinator from 2015 to 2018. They parted ways mutually, which is important. When Fangio got fired from the Broncos at the end of the 2021 season, Denver hired the doofus Nathaniel Hackett… who was fired mid-season. 

Player-wise, they’ve shared five of the Eagles’ Super Bowl winners: Nick Foles, Alshon Jeffery, Trey Burton, Jason Peters, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. There’s also Jordan Howard, D’Andre Swift, T.J. Edwards, and Matt Pryor. Those are just recent notable guys.

You’re also looking at guys from that 1985 Bears team, like Jim McMahon, William Perry, and Richard Dent. You also have to mention Mike Ditka.

My point is that, if you’re an Eagles fan watching a Bears game, you’ll see dudes that you’ve liked in the past. It’s not really the same case for a Bears fan watching an Eagles game, but you get it. 

So is it lame that Eagles and Bears fans have tied their blue and red bandanas together in a sign of gang unity? Kind of. Is there actual emotion behind it? Definitely. Will it come crumbling down when these two play each other on Black Friday? You betcha.

Don’t be a weirdo who dumps on everything they see online. It’s football, and this is a dumb-fun part of it. It’ll end in three weeks, and then you’ll rightfully get to dump on whoever you want, whenever you want.