The Lions had just beaten the Cowboys in the final game of the 2006 season. Mike Furrey had 11 catches for 102 yards, giving him 98 receptions and 1,086 yards for the season, unthinkable production for a player like him.

No Caffeine, Please! The Mike Furrey Story

Wearing navy blue and orange, Champ Kelly moves between two fields as the Bears practice for the 2020 season. Danny Trevathan jogs by. It was Kelly who lobbied general manager Ryan Pace to sign the inside linebacker when Trevathan was a free agent in 2016.

At the age of 57, John Harbaugh is in a Zoom meeting with Lamar Jackson. Harbaugh is not a quarterback specialist and never has been an offensive coach, but he is talking offense with his quarterback. They are watching tape, and he wants to know why Jackson was dropping back so quickly in one game compared to another. Harbaugh explains why it’s so important that Jackson throw more consistently outside of the numbers. He tells him he needs to learn more about how defenses are designed.

It was Jack Daniel’s. Or Maker’s Mark. Whatever. There was a lot of it. And it was mixed with Xanax, as it had been many times before. Hayden Hurst had recently completed his freshman football season at South Carolina, but still was carrying the yoke of a failed baseball career. Getting high until he blacked out was a part of his routine.

He escapes here, where it’s easy to forget what should be forgotten. When he walks into his home, he will be carrying a cooler full of mahi-mahis on ice, and not a worry or care.

This is where Ryan Tannehill is now: somewhere near the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic on his boat, Going Deep.

How Ryan Tannehill Turned It Around

MORE STORIES

Dan joins host Pat Boyle and Hub Arkush, Dan Hampton and Dave Wannstedt for a weekly look at the NFL in-season.

Dan joins the boys on 670 AM in Chicago in the 6:00 hour on Wednesdays to talk Bears and NFL.

Dan and Doug reveal the principles that guided Doug through the ups and downs and tough times of his career, and what it took to become a champion. Fearless captures Pederson's coaching and leadership philosophies and reveals the brilliant mind and indomitable spirit of a man who has entered the pantheon of great coaches. Available at Amazon.com and bookstores everywhere.

Fearless: How An Underdog Becomes A Champion

You might think you know it all about the Bears, but there is plenty of new material here, some of it coming from more than 15 hours of interviews with team matriarch Virginia McCaskey, who spoke at length about her team for the first time in her 96 years. She also provides the forward to the book. There are sections about the draft, rivalries, how the 1985 team was built, the characters and many of the greats like Halas, Payton, Butkus, Sayers and Ditka. Co-author Don Pierson and I provide an all-time Bears team, and a list of the top 100 Bears of all-time. This book celebrating 100 years of Bears football is unlike anything previously published.

You might read Dan’s NFL stories at The Athletic. He writes NFL

features and Bears stories for them. You might have read his book

with Don Pierson: Chicago Bears Centennial Scrapbook. You might

have read his New York Times best-seller Fearless: How An

Underdog Becomes A Champion, with Doug Pederson.

May­be you remember reading him at Bleacher Report,

Sports on Earth, in the Chicago Tribune, in The Sporting News

or in the Chicago Sun-Times.

You may have heard him on WSCR. He is one of the station’s football

experts. You may watch him on Pro Football Weekly on TV.

Dan has been covering the NFL for more than 30 years. His first NFL

interview came in 1980 with Doug Plank, who taught him how to lead

with his head. He has covered more than 500 NFL games in more

than 60 stadiums, including venues in London, Germany and Sweden.

He has sat in the press box for 33 Super Bowls. He has come to know

some fascinating people, from Joe DiMaggio to Adrian Peterson. He

has had in-depth strategy talks with many of the game’s most

accomplished coaches, including Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh, Jimmy

Johnson, Jon Gruden, Mike Martz, Pete Carroll, Mike McCarthy, Jim

Harbaugh, Buddy Ryan and Mike Ditka.

Along the way, he served as a pool reporter at six Super Bowls, getting an exclusive look at the participants’ practice weeks prior to the game. He watched two teams run their drafts from inside their war rooms. He went behind the curtain at the Senior Bowl and scouting combine to observe team player interviews. He was named one of 48 members on the Pro Football Hall of Fame board of selectors, one of nine members on the seniors committee and one of 25 members of the Blue Ribbon Centennial committee. He is a longtime voter for Associate Press NFL awards and all pro teams. He was elected vice president of the Pro Football Writers of America.

He had a bit role as a reporter in the Mark Wahlberg movie Invincible. He did promotional work for the country band Lonestar.

He is a cancer survivor.

Dan was given the Dick McCann Memorial award for long and distinguished contributions to pro football in 2013. His name is written on a plaque in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Here is the story Dan wrote when he received the McCann Award.

Here is an interview with Dan from when he won the McCann Award.