Culture

‘Sell the team!’: Bears fans vent their anger in home finale of calamitous season

Published

12 months ago

December 28, 2024

CHICAGO — With two minutes and 14 seconds remaining in a horrendous game against the Seattle Seahawks, the fans seated in the United Club of Soldier Field started to chant.

“Sell the team!”

The Chicago Bears decided to punt after fourth-and-inches from their own 39 turned into fourth-and-5 following offensive lineman fill-in Jake Curhan’s false start.

“Sell the team!”

But wait … the Bears called a timeout. They changed their mind. They wanted to go for it.

After all, what did the Bears have to lose but another game in another lost season for the NFL’s charter franchise?

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The chants, though, started again.

And they spread.

“Sell the team!”

The only thing that seemed to stop them was what quarterback Caleb Williams did in the game’s waning moments amidst more clock mismanagement by the Bears.

On fourth-and-5, Williams escaped an all-out blitz from the Seahawks and connected with receiver DJ Moore over the middle for a 14-yard gain. Three plays later on third-and-14, Williams eluded more pressure from Seattle, took a hit to his throat from linebacker Boye Mafe and completed a 15-yard pass to rookie receiver Rome Odunze.

But the chants would return.

Williams threw an interception over the middle on the Bears’ final offensive play against another all-out blitz by Seattle. Quarterback Geno Smith then took a knee for a 6-3 win for the Seahawks on “Thursday Night Football.”

“SELL THE TEAM!” chants broke out from Bears fans at Soldier Field tonight.
🎥 @jacobinfante24 pic.twitter.com/ErHL3deV9X
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) December 27, 2024
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The fans who decided to stick out such an ugly game the day after Christmas let chairman George McCaskey and his family hear it again. Their chants grew louder — angrier.

“Sell the team!”

As always, things can and will get worse for the Bears. Fans have gone from chanting “Fire Nagy” to “Fire Flus” to “Sell the team,” which, according to some longtime observers, is a new one from the home crowd. The Bears’ losing streak stretched to 10 games. The only thing missing is the Green Bay Packers’ annual pummeling of the Bears.

And that likely comes in the season finale at Lambeau Field.

Williams tried to blame himself for what transpired against the Seahawks. He’s right in thinking that he can play better, especially with the Bears defense delivering its best game since the dismissal of coach Matt Eberflus. Williams was 16-for-28 passing for 122 yards. He was sacked seven times. His interception-free streak ended with his final throw. It was one of his worst games this season and it came on national television.

“I didn’t play well enough,” Williams said. “I didn’t help put the team in a good position to win, a better position to win, and that’s what it is.”

Williams pointed to the “stupid” sacks he took against the Seahawks. He’s been sacked a league-high 67 times this season.

“I’ll definitely take the heat for this one because of some of the situations that I put us in,” he said.

Caleb Williams did not complete a single pass beyond 6 yards downfield until the final drive of regulation in the Bears’ TNF loss to the Seahawks.
🔸 Under 10 AY: 15/17, 107 yards (+4.5% CPOE)
🔸 Over 10 AY: 1/9, 15 yards, INT (-27.2% CPOE)#SEAvsCHI | #DaBears pic.twitter.com/4pr4JU2jsm
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) December 27, 2024

But it’s still unfair to expect the rookie quarterback to overcome everything this calamitous season has provided. He needs to play better, but he’s trying to pull himself out of a hole he didn’t dig. His first NFL offensive coordinator and head coach were fired during the season, which is something the Bears had never done before this year. The team will be searching for its sixth head coach under McCaskey soon enough.

The “sell the team” chants Thursday at Soldier Field came just four days after Detroit Lions fans filled Soldier Field in their Honolulu blue and watched their team roll to a 34-17 win. A day later, Packers fans chanted “The Bears still suck” on “Monday Night Football” as their favorite team routed the New Orleans Saints at Lambeau Field.

Williams was asked about the fans’ chants and frustrations.

“This is my first year,” he said. “Their frustrations go way longer back than I’ve been here. My job is to go out there and win games. We don’t focus on the outside noise. Fans, they’re going to cheer and maybe boo sometimes. You can’t react to that. It’s not something we react to. We have a job to do. And sometimes you don’t do so well on the job some days and some days you’re pretty consistent, some days you play a great game.”

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Williams’ best play Thursday night was negated by a penalty in the second quarter. On third-and-10 from the Seahawks’ 17, Williams scrambled to his left and fired a touchdown pass to Odunze in the end zone. Curhan, who played in place of injured starter Teven Jenkins, was penalized for holding. The Bears settled for a 42-yard field goal by Cairo Santos.

They never scored again.

Williams remains the most appealing thing about the Bears, but he desperately needs help on and off the field with coaching. His development can’t be derailed by this abysmal season.

And the Bears, being the Bears, haven’t broken him — yet.

“Frustrating, annoyed, but learning, I would say,” Williams said. “I definitely think that this is going to be good for me. Excited about this last game and then excited about the future.”

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

Culture

Video: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

Published

23 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Video: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

new video loaded: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

To capture Jane Austen’s brief life and enormous impact, editors at The New York Times Book Review assembled a sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness she has brought to our lives.

By Jennifer Harlan, Sadie Stein, Claire Hogan, Laura Salaberry and Edward Vega

December 18, 2025

Culture

Try This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen

Published

3 days ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Try This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen

“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.

Culture

Revisiting Jane Austen’s Cultural Impact for Her 250th Birthday

Published

3 days ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Revisiting Jane Austen’s Cultural Impact for Her 250th Birthday

On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.

Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”

With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”

How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.

By ‘A Lady’

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)

Where the Magic Happened

Janice Chung for The New York Times

Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.

An Iconic Accessory

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.

Austen Onscreen

Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.

Jane Goes X-Rated

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.

A Lady Unmasked

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”

Wearable Tributes

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.

The Austen Literary Universe

Elizabeth Renstrom for The New York Times

On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)

A Botanical Homage

Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.

Aunt Jane

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.

Cultural Currency

Steve Parsons/Associated Press

In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.

In the Trenches

During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”

Baby Janes

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.

The Austen Industrial Complex

Elizabeth Renstrom for The New York Times

Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.

Around the Globe

Goucher College Special Collections & Archives, Alberta H. and Henry G. Burke Collection; via The Morgan Library & Museum

Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.

Playable Persuasions

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.

#SoJaneAusten

The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.

Bonnets Fit for a Bennett

Peter Flude for The New York Times

For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.

Most Ardently, Jane

The Morgan Library & Museum

Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”

Stage and Sensibility

Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.

Austen 101

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”