At 5 o’clock in the morning, an alarm sounds in a modest home in a modest suburb of Chicago. Virginia McCaskey, the 93-year-old owner of the Chicago Bears, arises and follows the same routine she has had for more than three decades. She gets ready for church.



After a short drive, she takes her regular seat in the front pew for a 6:15 Catholic mass. It is an appropriate place for her to sit, because for her entire life, she has had a front row seat to watch the National Football League unfold.



To the daughter of George Halas, it was unquestionably the will of God that in 1925, she went along on the Red Grange Barnstorming Tour and subsequently witnessed every significant event in Bears history. From the T-formation to games being streamed on Twitter, McCaskey has seen it all.



The Bears matriarch has never talked much publicly. After years of requests, she finally acquiesced to her first extensive interview.



She was not even three years...