LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Antwaan Randle El has core memories from being a young Chicago Bears fan, and he can recite them at a moment’s notice.

The Super Bowl Shuffle. The Fridge. Playing Tecmo Bowl using Willie Gault and Dennis Gentry. Raising the Lombardi after ’85.

He took that nostalgic trip Thursday afternoon while standing behind a podium at Halas Hall, wearing a Bears hoodie to represent his current employer. It also was the Riverdale, Ill., native’s favorite team growing up.

Standing there, in that moment, Randle El took it all in.

“It is pretty cool,” the Bears assistant head coach and receivers coach said in the press conference. “I can’t express how much it means to be back. Growing up watching the Bears and rooting for them, it’s great to be here representing this team. I’m excited, but I’m thankful more than anything else.”

He drives to see his parents twice per week. He has family all around the Chicago area and still feels the love from all he accomplished as a football, basketball and baseball star at Thornton Township High.

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Randle El adores this area. Chicagoland loves him right back.

“There’s a comfort level here that most people in these positions don’t have,” Randle El said. “It’s a blessing for me, for sure.”

Location isn’t the only safety blanket around here. So is coach Ben Johnson, who worked with Randle El in Detroit and brought him to the Bears with a new title as assistant head coach. While Randle El still will work a ton with the receivers — a position he played in the NFL for nine seasons — he has additional, bigger-picture responsibilities.

That made the Bears an excellent next step in his coaching career, and he hopes to progress into a head-coaching gig. Learning from Johnson has helped to this point, a cadence Randle El hopes to continue with bright mind he trusts.

“The relationship is good, and I know we’re about some of the same things,” Randle El said. “I think I mentioned it (at the podium) what we expect, the detail in our offense, the detail in our defense and the way it should look (is the same). It’s not going to always be perfect, but even with our offense and the different minds we have in the coaching staff and in that room, some things will change, but the core is the core. And when you know you’ve won in the certain way, how do we keep that intact?”

That’s important to keeping this good thing going. The job and the opportunity to work from home has been great. Being at Halas Hall has provided all the feels, even from the moment he got here.

“I had to try not to because I wanted to get focused and locked in, but it just catches up with you,” Randle El said. “It wasn’t weird, it was just like, ‘Man, this is really happening. This is it.’ I wouldn’t say sentimental; it was just so cool. This is it. That’s as far as it went. Had to shut it off, kind of get focused, because, like I said, we have a lot of work to do.”

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