Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Adam Hoge: Bears, Illinois officials are rowing in same direction on stadium talks

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote were joined by CHGO host Adam Hoge to discuss the latest developments in the Bears' stadium search as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is now taking a more active role in the matter. Hoge also detailed how the Bears handled practice Thursday to help hide who will start at quarterback against the Jets on Sunday.

Adam Hogg says Adam Hogue, Bears Insider. What's up, everyone? My name's Adam Hogue. Host of the Hogan John's podcast. If we ever wondered what it would be like if Ben Johnson ever had the chance or the ability to go out there and play quarterback in his own offense, that's the closest thing to that we'll ever see is what we saw last night. Case Keatom, he calls Ben Johnson a brother.

They clearly have his bond. And he's basically the player coach. and he goes out there and leads the bears to victory. Adam Hogue. Adam Hogi or Hogg, excuse me, I don't know how to pronounce the last name. With Rahimi and Grody on 1043 to score. Yes, sir, you are listening to a four seasons heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer, and electric football Friday presented by your local four dealers and advent, along with Layla Rahimi.

I am Mark Grody. We are Rahimi and Grody on 1043, The Score. And yes, we are always happy to have Adam Hogue. join us here on the score. He is, yes, the host of the CHO Bears and Hogue and John's podcast. And Adam is joining us on our video stream to watch Adam, search the score, Chicago on Twitch and YouTube. How you doing, Adam? Thanks for coming on, buddy. I'm good guys. Grody, Layla. I don't know. My mind's kind of on the white socks, though, to be honest with you. Oh, and we're going to focus.

Yes, we're going to focus and stay football driven here. Well, I did hear you and Karm talking about the white socks a little bit. I think I heard you say the socks just, you're just stressed. You're stressed watching the socks. No, that is the one team I like go full meatball on still in my life. There's no denying it. And he was making fun of me because I was really mad that in the first inning of that game the other day that they only scored four because at the base is loaded and they didn't get that extra hit. And I'm like, I'm telling you, Karm, it's going to be a problem.

and he was like, oh, they're going to be fine. And then you know what? In the end, he was right. The Astros only scored three. Yeah. Okay, real quick. I do need to chill out a little bit. Okay, real quick.

And then we'll go hardcore football because people are tuning into here Hogue's football thoughts and stadium thoughts. We're going to get to all of that with Adam Hogue. Who do you want to see start for the White Sox tomorrow? It's tomorrow. Holy cow, it's tomorrow. I know.

Wow. That snuck up on me, too. tomorrow at noon. Davis Martin? Yeah, let's go with this. just no more openers, even though it worked. I don't like the opener thing. Hagen Smith is out.

Okay. Well, he would pitch three innings, I guess. Wait a second. No, hold on. What? Here's what I do you go, guys. Wait, no. I just saw this announcement.

Stand by. Merkin an hour ago said Hagen Smith is starting game one for the socks. Holy cow. There it is. Oh. How do you like them apples? I mean, it did work the other day. Three innings.

We're really good. Did anybody check and see if Sam Antanachi is alive? Like the socks have supposedly arrived on the field in Cleveland. I just, we need to know. Is he all rashed up, are you saying? Because he's allergic to champagne? No, no. I just think they got a little crazy.

Oh, because he was drunk. Yeah, they had a good time in there. Yeah. Well, we'll try to confirm that. We've confirmed Reagan Smith. No. And you know what, Adam, you've been through enough. You deserve to be distracted by the White Sox.

At least for a day. What the hell? What are we doing if not? Even though I did just say, I don't love the opener. Hagen Smith has been awesome. And he's exciting. He's a young player. Like the Bears have a lot of these young players.

So we can ride with that. I can ride with that and accept that in game one. And I'm weirdly, this is probably a bad thing because I was actually pessimistic about the Astros series. I'm weirdly optimistic now because I felt like they actually managed to get some rest. while also winning two baseball games this week. Because the rest thing with the pitching was what worried me the most. They have a great bullpen, but they're all tired.

And now they somehow managed to survive in advance while also nobody pitched more than once all week. That's great. That's really good. No doubt. They're fresh. Obviously, Cleveland is fresh. And maybe they've had too much rest.

I love those angles. They've been sitting around too long. They're not going to be ready to play. We'll have a little more White Sox talk later here on Rehemi and Grotie. But we've got to get to the football with our guy, Adam Hogue of C.HGO and the Hogan John's podcast. And I'm looking at an article that you wrote here. We were just talking about the stadium, Adam,

and it says why Roger Goodell and Pat Ryan's involvement could save the bears in Illinois. Explain further on that. Say more on these heroes, if you want the bears in Illinois, on the heroes that could be Roger Goodell and Pat Ryan. Well, you know what? What's really stood out to me, guys, and what went into that story is actually months of reporting. That goes back all the way to when they didn't get the legislation they needed at the end of May.

In the conversations I had actually in just the days and the weeks that followed, you know, the latest stadium debacle, which is what that was at the end of May, there was weirdly a lot of optimism coming from the Illinois lawmakers. despite the fact that publicly the bears were like, we're going to Indiana now. All the focus is on Indiana. And the reason for that optimism was the fact that they actually were able to pass legislation in both the House and the Senate.

It just wasn't the same legislation and they weren't on the same page. But they all felt like, hey, we can't come together and pass something here. We just need better direction and communication from the bears themselves. and that was the sentiment. I know Brendan Moore was on the morning show today too and expressed the same thing and he's well more connected than even I am with everybody involved in this on the Springfield side.

But, you know, he expressed the same thing. It's just they needed better direction, better communication from the Bears and Kevin Warren just wasn't that guy. It just, they had to have somebody else represent the Bears. So entered, enter Roger Goodell and Pat Ryan. Now the first time Roger Goodell's name was mentioned to me was literally, I think, the day after they didn't get the legislation. It might have been June 1st.

Okay. And like watch. Roger Goodell is going to get more involved here. This is not the NFL's first rodeo with this stuff. And it was pointing out to me that before Roger Goodell was ever commissioner of the NFL, he handled stadium business. He was, this is like, this is what he did. This is his baby, stadiums. And so he, and this is not the first time.

and it won't be the last time that the NFL has had to get involved in either relocation, whether that was the Rams going to L.A. or some of these stadium situations. And so it was kind of like hitting that red button and being like, all right, it's time to call Roger, get him involved. And then the Pat Ryan thing became even more interesting, which is the first time I heard that was, I think, back in July. And I just didn't know really if this was leading any progress. That's why yesterday was significant to me, the fact that they're going to actually release a statement coming from the governor's office, pointing out specifically who is at the meeting, because that's been a little bit unclear in all this. Who's actually doing the talking? Who's actually representing the Bears? No, no, no. This is who's exactly in this in-person meeting and who's not in the meeting as well. And that notably, of course, being George McCasky and Kevin Warren. So will it lead to actual legislation? We'll see. But it certainly seems like the right people are finally.

in the same room. And as one source put it to me yesterday, rowing the boat in the same direction, which has not been the case during this entire five-year saga. It finally seems like they're starting to get on the same page there. And I do think that that is significant. So November 17th is the next date to watch guys, because that's when the veto session begins down in Springfield. Well, and it's funny because we're still getting a lot of comments on our text line. Oh, you know, J.B. didn't get this done. I don't know how many times I have to say this, and I have no dog in this fight, but Pritzker was very annoyed. The pilot bill didn't pass. He pointed out that in the majority of states in the nation, they have something like that, a bill that will be a payment in lieu of taxes, and that that bill was supposed to help the state of Illinois.

So everybody thinking that this was somehow on Pritzker, that wasn't the case either. He wanted that bill to go through. the city of Chicago had a block. The senators from the city of Chicago had a block. We tried to ask Brendan Johnson about it. What was the city's role in the pilot bill failing? And that that wasn't communicated. He didn't answer in that.

And when I asked him. So I think it's important to note here that it seems like the governor's office has wanted to get something done on this for a while, but it was the bear's fault that they didn't have anything to present yet. The fact that it's not the McCaskies are worn, that's a bad side if you're looking for adults in the room and those two aren't a part of the adult group yeah look the blame game in all of this we can go on in circles and circles and circles and circles and all of it my answer to that has always been that there's been parts on both sides that have

been problematic i mean when it comes to that pilot bill i think you know you're you're right i mean the governor's been for that and they and and they've wanted to see that past on the other hand If you go into the specifics on what they ultimately agreed on and passed in the House, it was written in a way that there were too many unknowns and it was kind of opening it up Pandora's box for all these other areas of the state that we admittedly here in this giant city of Chicago sort of forget about. And so it just left a lot of people in the Senate uneasy. And ultimately, that's why that stalled that last week in May.

So, however, then they came up with some. something that was actually very similar to what's going on in Indiana right now. And then they couldn't get communication from the Bears on if they even wanted that or not because Kevin Warren wasn't down there. By the way, Karen Murphy did go down there at the urging of some lawmakers that week. So it's not like the Bears weren't represented. I know it's been out there a lot. They were. But still, we all know Kevin Warren was the guy.

Or George McCasky. You know, and regardless of who was there and who wasn't, the communication just wasn't good. enough. And so that's why it's stalled out then on the other side. So yeah, we could do the blame game forever. I think what's important here now is there is pressure because what the pivot did happen in

Indiana, it is there. Are they stalling right now? Yeah, probably. I think they are. That's pretty much obvious. And now we can see if the right players who can actually communicate. And that's the thing about Pat Ryan. And then we can talk football too. But the Pat Ryan thing here is significant because he knows

how to play the game. He knows, he has these relationships. He has these important business and political relationships in this state, which Jerry Rinesdorf does too. I've had his name come up to me a bunch of times and all this and being like, yeah, look, for all Jerry's faults and the fans might not like him, he knows how to get things done when he needs it from a business standpoint for his teams in this state.

And that's what Kevin Warren has failed at so far since he's been the team president. And Pat Ryan, I would compare him more to Jerry in terms of knowing the right people. And obviously, I don't think the timing, by the way, is a coincidence that this is all kind of coming out. It is the morning of Ryan Field opening in Evanston, the actual physical stadium guys. It's real. It was built. And his name is on it. Yeah.

We'll get the football here in a second. The last thing I'll say is, like, I agree with you. Like, we could do a whole three hours if we want with people calling it. and blasting Kevin Warren and George McCasky. Get it right. It's like replay review. Just get it right. We're moving forward now.

Okay, the right guys are in place. The right faces, the right bodies are in the meetings now. So at least even the bears aren't going to say it. A concession has been made, and that's good. This segment with Adam Hogue is being brought to you by Advent. Breathe well, Live Better. Visit advent knows.com. Let's get to the football, Hogue.

specifically, I think it was you, I definitely heard talking about this. The practice yesterday, in the name of secrecy, can you describe to our audience how sort of intense they were at making sure the media got the heck out of the practice in a timely fashion yesterday? Yeah, so typically we'll watch stretching and then there'll be, I actually don't know this specific time off top of my head, but, you know, a decent amount of time, maybe 10 minutes, somewhere to, it sounds about right.

At least somewhere around 7, 8 minutes after the stretching, I would estimate, where they're actually running individual drills. And, you know, it's enough time that you're not rushed. They got done with stretching yesterday and made the announcement 90 seconds. You got 90 seconds here. And then you're getting kicked out of the Walter Payton Center because they were inside yesterday with all the rain. And it was literally 90. seconds. I mean, they were counting it down.

I love it. 30. They're down to 10 seconds left. I don't remember that ever happening in all the years. I've been out there for this short period of time. And I think the reason for that, at least from what I could tell with my own eyes, honestly, guys, I was watching Kyler, I was like, I was trying to get some video of Kyler, not even the quarterbacks.

And I got one outstanding video, maybe even award winning of him punching one ball out. Nice. One rep in this one individual drill. Guys, we got one rep from Kyler Gordon. But in reality, if you looked over where the quarterbacks were, they were just running through this like ball carrying gauntlet with all the running backs.

Like it was very clear they did not want anyone to see anyone throw a pass. Of course. In this time period. And then we were kicked out of there. So do I even know if that's legal based on the media rules? I'm not even sure. I also don't really care that much. Right.

That was interesting. And a departure I've thought because honestly, since Ben Johnson has gotten here, I have not found him to be an overly paranoid coach compared to some of the other ones that we've had. But I also understand that there's weeks like this where you want to play the game with your quarterbacks and not let the other team know. And then who knows, maybe 20 minutes from now he'll actually just announce who the starter is going into Sunday. We'll find out. Yeah, there was a lot of gamesmanship.

But as we talked about too, Adam, what concerns me almost more because I know Tyson-Bajun's game and I know Case Kingdom's game is that the left, tackle situation is a problem. Like we saw what happened when Theo Bedaic came in in relief of Braxton Jones. That is as concerning to me as anything. Yeah, certainly. On the other hand, I would point out

that while they don't have the blue chip player like the quarterback room does in Caleb Williams, I do think it's similar in that they, it is nice that the bears have probably three reliable options when Ozzie Chappelle is healthy, which he's getting closer to healthy.

when I say reliable options, I'm talking about guys that you can trust to start a game and win a football game with. And there's certainly ways to help that weakness. And the Bears have essentially had to do this now for a season plus, now into the second season with Ben Johnson, where they're pretty strong at, they're really strong at three other spots on the O line. They're strong enough at center. And then, yeah, they have this weakness over on the left side that they've had to manage.

But I think that they've, for the most part, successfully managed. that. I don't think they view Theo Benedict as somebody they want to have to start the rest of the season. But I do think that they trust him to spot start. And certainly they've trusted him in these first few games to come in and play the second quarter for Braxton Jones as they try to manage

that knee. Now obviously he had a setback in that game and aggravated it further and now it sounds like he's going to miss more significant time. So if I had to guess maybe look, Theo's going to start this week. the big question I think will be, is Ozzy able to dress and basically move in the Theo's role

for at least a week or so where he's the swing tackle and the backup if he has to go out there? And then ultimately, between those two guys, who do I think that they would trust more to be the quote unquote full-time starter? If needed, I think that they would probably ultimately move to Ozzie Tripillow. But it is nice to have all of those options. Not to mention your nuclear option, which is what they had to do in the playoffs. and that's move a Hall of Fame left guard and Joe Tuny over to left tackle, which isn't the worst nuclear option to have

at such an important position. Yeah, no, it's not. And Jordan McFadden's name was mentioned because he was part of that as well against the Rams. Our segment with Adam Hogue is brought to you by four seasons, heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer, and electric. For all the right reasons, call 866 four seasons. Adam, you were filming the right person.

I would have been doing the same thing if I had been there in the Walter Payton Center watching Kyler Gordon. What do you think about the whole situation? you think that that man plays at Green Bay a week from the Sunday? Man, that's a good question because I think what's part of this, though, I keep coming back to this, Grotie, the first press conference of training camp, before we even knew that Kyler was going to be out for as long as he was

and ultimately reached the point where he wasn't even with the team for the first couple weeks of the season, they said on that first day that Kyler Gordon was going to have to earn his position back and basically compete for the starting nickel job whenever he got back out there. That was back in late July. It is now October and he just got out there for the first time yesterday and an actual practice and it's just back in the building for the first time this week. So that kind of tells me that we need to slow play this a little bit. Now could he potentially be active and be somebody that can still help? you. I don't know. I just think there's a lot of, it's more than just the health. I think there's some

feelings involved. I think there's a lack of trust involved that he's got to earn back. Do I think he ultimately can earn all that back? Yes. But I just don't know that we should rush it. On the other hand, the amount of injuries that they continually seem to have could be the one thing that that rushes. And I also think when we're talking about good football players who are highly paid and he is highly paid. It is quick for coaches to forgive a player if they come back and they look pretty good and they stay healthy. But that's ultimately, however this plays out, the staying healthy thing with Kyler is going

to be the big thing. So it's probably a long way of me saying, I have no idea. This thing has been so weird. It's been so weird from the start. I don't know when he's going to come back. But I will say it's obviously a very good sign that he's back in the building because that was weird for him to actually leave the team for a couple of weeks, had me pretty concerned.

So he's back. We'll see where it goes. But obviously we know he can't play this Sunday against the Jets. Well, and I think your point about when he is actually healthy, is he even the guy to start with? That's really probably the question that may vex the Bears coaches even more. So, yeah. I agree with that.

Well, guys, I wouldn't. Yeah. And Tyreeks got to be healthy too. Yeah. But I don't think he's done anything to lose his spot yet. And certainly Maliki. as a rookie who's been, yeah, he's had some, a couple rookie moments. I know they've referenced some communication errors this past week,

but he's done more than enough to me, for me, to stay out there, whether that's inside or outside. And him having that versatility means that this is almost, to me, I almost view this more as a Kyler versus Tyreek conversation, even though they play different positions, than it is Kyler versus Malik Mohamed, because I feel like either way, Malik Mohamed can be on the field because he can play a play

spots. Adam, we have to let you go, but the reason we have to let you go is because we're going to talk about the White Sox with Steve Stone. So I think that that is justified. Thank you, sir. We appreciate you. Yes, I would definitely trust Stoney's opinions on this team more than myself. And ours, yes. I'll just be yelling in the background and enjoying it and joining it as much as I possibly can. But you guys have a great weekend. Thanks, man. That is Adam Hogue. You can follow him on X at Adam Hogue, H-O-G-E, is the way the last name name is spelled, host of C-H-G-O-Bairs, and the Hogue and John's podcast. And yes, we are talking white socks and guardians next. Hagan Smith is the socks starter in game one tomorrow and noon.

We'll talk to Steve Stone all about it here on Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3, the score.