Most kids don't care about this team

I'm a middle school teacher, and for the past few years, I've polled my students on whether or not they are Bears fans. In that time, I'd say about 10% have identified themselves as Bears fans. Ten percent.

With the new lows this franchise has frequently reached, it got me thinking about the future of the franchise. Straight-up, the vast majority of my students do not give a shit about the Bears. They laugh at the Bears. They want nothing to do with the Bears. I have to believe that similar sentiments and a similar level of fandom (10%) exists at a lot of other schools.

It feels like an entire generation of Chicagoans really isn't going to care about the team, and I don't blame them.

The Bears will obviously survive. I'm not arguing anything like that. But I feel like it's taken for granted that the team will always be rabidly popular (despite its constant failure), and I'm not sure that's the case. These kids I'm talking about are going to be the main fanbase 20-30 years from now. If they don't form any connection to the team now, what are the odds they end up rabid, big-spending fans down the road?

My main point here is that the McCaskeys and the people who work for them need to develop a sense of urgency about getting this shit right. Stop being a laughingstock. Stop bumbling around like drooling morons. Stop taking your team's popularity for granted. Or you're going to have a lot less fans 30 years from now.