Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - JB Pritzker, Roger Goodell meet about Bears stadium without Kevin Warren present

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote discussed the latest developments in the Bears’ stadium pursuit.

Rahimi and Grotie. Appreciate all the flowery comments there. Midday, 10 a.m. to 2 on the score. Score. Does this mean mob and dad are arguing? Or Kyle Tucker's talking about his injury? I'm sorry. I feel like I'm about to go on the Raging Bowl.

Because this is the Great America song. That's where my brain goes. I understand where your brain goes there. The Kyle Tucker injury. Yeah, Lord, that's playing in the background. And then the Cubs went like 6 and O in the Vanga Bus era. Do you remember that? remember that. You guys know the Great America guy. Am I the only one who's in on that reference?

I know. I know him as the Six Flags guy. Yeah. The old guy. The old ball guy. That's right. Yeah. Welcome back to Rehemi and Grotty. On 1043, the score. I am staring down a story right now from Capitol News, Illinois, written by Brendan Moore, who actually was on the score today on the Hahn-Payton show. And the headline is, all the right players at the table. Pritzker talks Bears Stadium in CNI exclusive. Here's the dealio. Here's the thumbnail for everybody. Governor J.B. Pritzker said there were, quote, all the right players at the table Thursday. That'd be yesterday. As he sat down with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Chicago Bears minority owner, Pat Ryan, and key state legislative leaders to discuss keeping the team in Illinois. Quote, this is from Pritzker. I think it was a helpful meeting,

close quote. Pritzker told my colleague, Ben Stolensky, and I in an interview in his Loop campaign office Thursday afternoon, saying, action, quote, should happen in the fall veto session that begins next month. Also in the

meeting, as I mentioned, was Ryan, who is a Bears part owner and board member with a net worth of nine billion dollars, according to Forbes. Ryan, the retired CEO of Aon, is the primary funder of Northwesterns, $875 million new Ryan Field,

which opens tonight, incidentally, cats against the cats, the lions tonight against Penn State. Go cats. So I guess the... Also cats. That's right, cats. Fishbane a little bit later on today.

Yeah, yeah. Big day. I imagine he's probably going tonight. But no Kevin Warren, part of the meeting, Layla, no George McCasky, part of the meeting. Oh, you mean the guy's saying the sole focus part?

Grady, what were you going to say? I like your gesture there. Oh, no, I was just going to say that that's sort of what we latched on to when we talked about the story that Kevin Warren wasn't there. And apparently hasn't been around for three months in terms of being a key part to the stadium. The phrase, when the governor says, all the right players are at the table.

And the players don't include the team owner and then the president of the team. And instead includes the one board member who's not in the McCasky family, who does indeed know how to run a stadium project. Yeah. And then also includes the NFL commissioners. Is that not a sunned moment? And I love it. Like that is, that is shade upon shade.

Yeah, but this is. If your job is to be part of, is to help get the team of stadium. And that is the phrase that was used by the entity you want to get money and help from. And when people say, oh, they're not asking for state money. They are. When you ask for a tax break, that's, that's what that is. So don't, don't, don't parse the words here. They're asking for help from the state.

So therefore. That is not how you want to be talked about if you're not at that table. I do. My biggest takeaway, though, is good for the Bears, good for whoever made the decision to put Pat Ryan in a forward spot to, I don't know if he's, like, running this thing now. He should. But the fact that they have allowed this to occur and that it has been made public, I think is good. I think it's good. And we can critique Kevin Warren all we want,

but all I'm looking for is for them to adjust and to allow this thing to go forward in whatever direction forward is going to go. I do think there needs to be some accountability held here because. Like Kevin Warren should be punished? No, just that people should be held accountable. Well, hasn't he been? Haven't we been slamming him every chance we get? I don't slam Kevin Warren on everything. But I do. No, but on the stadium is what I'm saying. Has he not been held, he's been held accountable every day. But I do think that this makes me look differently at any Bears messaging that comes from Kevin Warren and George McCasky, even more so than it already did. When we devote time and effort and you guys devote calls in time to talking about how the

bears, quote, sole focus, end quote, was Indiana. When the whole time, whole time they're talking to the state of Illinois politicians and even acknowledge it that day. Sure. And then on the other side of it, Mike Braun's out here saying, welcome to Indiana. And now all the right players are at the table to get a stadium deal done at the place where they bought the land. Yeah. Well, I think it was interesting, too. We got a break. We'll get to Adam Hoag, who actually wrote a whole story on the stadium so we could definitely ask him about it.

If that's part of it with Hogue here in just a second. But as it was put with the writer of the story this morning, and this is correct, because I've heard the same thing, that Pritzker has never been the biggest impediment to the Bears. So it's the state legislature that is being strong, if you want to look at it that way. It was the state senators out of Chicago, yes. Exactly. Yeah. Pritzker wanted that bill to pass.

And there is an election coming up, too, in case people don't know, in five weeks down the road. So how crazy does anybody want to get when it comes to political season here? Let's bring in Adam Hogue next. We will talk about the bears and jets. Like I said, he wrote a whole story for CHGO about the stadium situation as well as we bring in Adam next here on Rahimi and Grotie on 1043, The Score.