Ben Johnson’s message to Bears employees on his first day: ‘This is exactly where we wanted to be’
Ben Johnson walked into the lobby area at Halas Hall clapping his hands and was answered with thundering applause from his new coworkers.
“Everyone get back to work,” the new Bears head coach quipped in a video posted by the Bears on social media.
The statement elicited plenty of laughs, including from Johnson himself. He was walking into the main area of the Bears facility as the newest employee of the team and wanted to deliver a message to the organization and stress how perfect the situation was for him.
“This is exactly where we wanted to be,” Johnson said.
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But he also knows it’s not all roses and praise.
“This is going to be a challenge,” he told them. “I’m well aware of that. I know what this division is about and this is exactly where we want to be.”
Johnson was pretty familiar with Chicago after spending the last six seasons in Detroit as an assistant coach, including the last three as offensive coordinator. Over those final 3 years, the Lions were 5-1 against the Bears.
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As the 38-year-old begins his new gig and tries to return the Bears to prominence, he stressed how important it was for everyone there to contribute to a turnaround for Chicago’s NFL franchise — it’s not just Johnson himself who will do it.
“We’re going to go after this thing, and it’s going to take all of us in this room,” Johnson said. “It’s nothing more important than that locker room and us serving that locker room and those players. They need to feel that from us every single day.
“And if we do that, the wins are going to come. The playoffs are going to come.”