Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Geoff Buchholz breaks down latest on talks between Gov. JB Pritzker, Bears

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote were joined by WBBM political editor Geoff Buchholz to share the latest on the talks between Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the Bears regarding a new stadium.

Rahimi Harris and Grotie. Middays 10 to 2 on 1043 The Score. Warren chose not to be in that meeting. And indeed they had instead one of their other leads who's been in every conversation with us as well. She's terrific representative for them. And we trust her. And we had eight people in that discussion involving the legislators, involving the governor's office, involving the bears and their representatives. So, again, lots of progress, but a surprise this morning to wake up and see that statement.

That was J.B. Pritzker yesterday after the Bears decided to postpone their meeting with the ILGA regarding an infrastructure bill for Arlington Heights. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 The Score. And we go out to our hotline. That is where we find WBBM News Radio political editor, Jeff Buckholtz, who is right now joining us from, Oak Park where an event held by the governor just wrapped up. Hi, Jeff. Hey, Layla, how's it going today? Good to be with you here. We appreciate having you on. What is the latest from what you observed, because we understand J.B. Pritzker did speak about this issue today. Yeah, he did. He was here at Oak Park and River Forest High School talking about a legislative initiative he has about

cell phones and schools, but of course, reporters can't be stopped if they have a question they need to get to him. And today the question really was about the Chicago Bears and the status of negotiations there. The governor told us that, uh, indeed there have been conversations back and forth at sort of a high staff level between the Bears, uh, and the governor's people. And a lot of those conversations have been apparently sort of walking back that statement that the governor, uh, has talked about. He first mentioned it yesterday, uh, when he was with reporters down in Collinsville. The statement from the Bears that talked about how the proposal that passed the House committee yesterday, setting up the stadium authority, was like the most significant development in their search for a new stadium, and they were committing to finish and due diligence. The governor, as you heard yesterday, and he said it again a little bit today.

His nose was a little bit of joint that the Bears' statement would have talked effusively about Indiana and the work that's been done there, but said nothing about the three. hours of talks that they engaged in in Illinois, and the fact that the Bears asked the Illinois leaders to put off consideration of the property tax measure that the Bears say they need for the Arlington Heights property. A lot of the conversations today, according to the governor, over the last 24 hours, have been the Bears saying, well, we didn't mean that we're moving to Indiana, and we really only did that, we only put that statement out to mollify, was the word the governor used. The state of Indiana, which has made noises that they didn't really want to move forward with this unless they got some kind of a commitment from the Bears organization.

And that statement apparently represented that. So I guess a lot of the conversation has been happening now was, well, what we really meant was blank. And what we really didn't mean to suggest that we're moving to Indiana or whatever. And the governor again repeated that, you know, he's willing to help with infrastructure and he's not opposed to the, it's called the pilot bill, the payment in lieu of taxes bill. This would let the bears lock in long-term property tax rates for Arlington Park to head off what some estimates suggest would be a property tax bill on that property of between $100 and $200 million. But that the state is really not going to spend money on a new stadium for the Bears and also said that the Bears, should consider affordability as they think about their ask because, as the governor pointed out,

a lot of people can't afford to attend a bearskin. Okay, so Jeff, just to make this clear, when you say Molify, you mean appease. So the bears made that statement to appease the work that they had done with Indiana, and they're walking it back when it came to the statement that they issued yesterday? I can't, I mean, I suppose if I had a dictionary in front of me, Leila, I would be able to sort of parse the difference between peas and mollify. I'm going to stick with mollify because that's the word the governor used, and I don't want to put words in his mouth.

But he certainly is creating the impression or is telling us that at least privately, the bears have been trying to soften the statement that they made, which I would admit is, you know, is probably, there are gaps in that statement from the bears that are probably big enough to get Cole commit through if you work hard enough. But thank you. I've been working on that. It's good.

But it seems as though what the governor is trying to communicate is the bears haven't packed. And there isn't, at least at this moment as of what time is it, as of 1234 in the afternoon on Friday the 20th of February,

there's not some like, you know, late night move like the Colts out of Baltimore to try to, you know, scurry across the state line. So, I mean, we'll see. We haven't heard independently from the Bears about that. And so it remains to be seen whether they're genuinely going to walk that back, although I don't believe, and I haven't checked my inbox recently, I don't believe that bears have issued any additional statements beyond what they said yesterday. They have not, to our knowledge again. That's Jeff Buckholz. He's the WBVM News Radio Political

editor just getting done with an event this morning in Oak Park where Governor J.B. Pritzker spoke and talked about mollifying. Let me give you the definition of mollify. Apease the anger or anxiety of someone. I'm just giving you this straight off. That's the dictionary.com edition. So appeasing is there and it's when you know someone's upset, you try to get them back to where you want them to be back on the rails, if you will. And I get it because the bears are clearly playing both sides of this. They're playing Indiana and Illinois. And I would argue they're playing Indiana to get the best offer they can from Illinois, because I think their intention is still to build in Arlington Heights. I get all that. My question for you is,

having monitored this situation, do you feel like Governor Pritzker understands that this is all just part of negotiation, or are they indeed taking any of this personally when I say the governor and also the representatives from around the state as they deal with this issue of trying to keep the Bears in Illinois? I asked the governor today if he felt the Bears were negotiating in bad faith, because you're absolutely right. They are playing mom against dad here, and I'll let you all decide who's who is this scenario. But they are definitely playing the parents against one another in terms of how to get the best deal. And the Bears, you know, we talk about the,

you know, the connection of the Bears to the Chicago area and certainly the McCaskey family has deep roots here. The fact is the Bears are a business. They are, the governor pointed out today, a $9 billion business. So clearly they're going to operate in what they believe to be their best interest. And when I asked the governor if he felt like the bears were operating in bad faith, he said, look, negotiations are hard. Sometimes these things happen. Or people say things, and then you end up kind of walking them back.

And, you know, I think we're still committed to getting it done. We still think Illinois is the best place for the Bears. And he said this yesterday, and he said it again today. we are waiting to hear what the bears would like to do now. So it's very much in their, you know, sort of in their purview right now in terms of what happens from here. Makes sense. Jeff, I just want to use the word mollified too, since both my partners did. I want to make sure that I was able to use that word as well.

It's very midday show. Nice work, Rodie. I appreciate that. Drawing on your political knowledge, I asked this question. out loud earlier, because I don't know the answer to it. We all know, obviously, some of this is a public relations game for Governor Pritzker. So I'll just ask the question. What is worse for the governor now and for potentially other political ambitions?

What would be worse for him? The tax payers having to pay more or losing the Chicago Bears to the state of Indiana? I believe you are referring, Grody, to the widely held belief that Governor Pritzker is going to seek an office other than the governorship of Illinois. That would be correct, to mollified my statement. Yes, that would be correct. Good job. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

So the, and that's an excellent question, and believe me, there's been tons of speculation about that. my personal feeling is that people hate taxes but they love football more so i think the um i do think that it would be difficult for j b pritzker to seek a higher office or certainly he would have to have a way to explain in a run for higher office why he was the governor who let the Chicago Bears, the Chicago, Illinois Bears, and he described them. Go to Indiana. On the other hand, our colleague Brandon Eisen was out in the loop yesterday talking to people about what they thought about a potential move to Indiana.

And most of the people that Brandon heard from kind of pinned it on the bears. It remains to be seen if indeed the bears and the bears and up hying to Hammond. It remains to be seen how much blame the state takes for that. I mean, some people, a lot of the people I talk to seem to think that Pritzker would definitely wear the, you know, the satin bears jacket for this one. But I have a feeling that the bears come off not looking great to the fans. And surely the McCaskey family, which is, I mean, they're smart people.

Otherwise, you know, they wouldn't have gotten the success, the business success. that they have them out of this team. Certainly the McCasky family is aware of the risk involved here. And I do think that it would be something that the governor would have to explain, but I also think there's a lane for the governor if it gets to that point to say, look, we had a limit to what we were willing to do. This is a hard time in the economy right now. A lot of people in the state of Illinois are hurting.

The bears wanted too much from us. Go enjoy Wolf Lake. Wow. Well, we appreciate your time, and thank you for doing so, Jeff. This has been very informative, as usual, and we all learned a new word today. If that's what I bring to the folks at 104-3, the score, I'm happy to help. Hey, we're just trying to live in the FM world like you guys have been for years. We're new at this, so we don't understand your world.

You used to do reports for them on FM. Oh, that's right. I did do sports updates over there. I believe it was when Jeff was at the producer desk. By the way, you're awesome, man. Your reporting is terrific, and you're so good at rip. Like, you were an awesome producer, and now, like, you are spectacular at what you do. You sound great, and I love the information.

Thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate that, brother. Thank you so much. I'm just trying to be the politics to English translator, and any day I can do that is a good day. Well, you did it today for us, Jeff. Thank you so much. Thanks, Jeff. You can hear the latest on our sister station, WBBM, of course.

Jeff is the WBBM News Radio political editor, kind enough to take some time to tell us the latest. And now our show is brought to you by the word mollify. Yeah, to be clear, I want to make sure everyone, I didn't know what mollify went meant. I just wanted to. Oh, did somebody come at you? No, I didn't know. I said appease, and then he said, well, I don't know, you know, mollified appease are two different words.

And then Marshall busted out dictionary.com. I just want to make sure people understood. And I understood where Jeff was coming from in this world, man. Like if he uses, if the governor uses the word mollified, don't use the word of peas. It is a mollifying situation. Well, previously the report said, Indiana asked the bears to say that. So that's even more pointed. But either way, I don't know how you don't look at this and think that sounds like a walkback.

I don't know that it's a walk, I think they're just negotiating with Indiana and they're negotiating with Illinois and they're doing what it takes to keep both. party's heavily interested. You're talking about the bears walking back their statement from yesterday, Lela? Is that what you meant by that? It sounds like you're having to soften the effects of that statement quite a bit. Well, but the second sentence of the press conference talks about doing the due diligence, and they had to clarify that. Yeah, and I didn't even think it needed clarification.

I was like, I think the due diligence is letting them have the breathing room to be able to like, hey, yeah, I, your friend did see me on a date with another girl because we're not exclusive yet. Right, that is the correct interpretation, the interpretation that Illinois won. wanted, or that the bears, excuse me, wanted to have out there was, you've still got time. The bears are dating, and they're not even in an exclusive relationship, but people are acting like somebody's already put a ring on someone's fingers. Because somebody bought a ring.

You buy the land. The ring is there, but no one's been, the ring has not been given to anyone. Before we get into extended metaphors on. Where's all my single ladies? All the single ladies. Put a ring on it. Craig Counsel talked about Pekro Armstrong to our. afternoon show ahead of this Cubs game we've got in just over an hour right here on the score.

So let's listen to what he had to say next.