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Matt Forte Talks 2024 Bears and His Dream Flag Football Team for 2028 Olympics

Iain MacMillan from Stacking the Box spoke to Matt Forte to talk all things 2024 Chicago Bears

By Iain MacMillan

Jan 3, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte (22) runs off the field after the NFL game against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field. The Lions won 24-20. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 3, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte (22) runs off the field after the NFL game against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field. The Lions won 24-20. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports / Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
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Just a few hours before the Chicago Bears faced off against the Houston Texans in the NFL Hall-of-Fame game to officially signal the start of the preseason, I got the chance to talk to a Bears legend, Matt Forte, about a number of topics.

Of course, I wanted to start by asking him about his thoughts on the Bears this upcoming season. There is a ton of excitement surrounding the Bears, but also plenty of new faces on the roster which may lead to a bit of an adjustment period. He just hopes that the adjustment period doesn't last too long.

"In the eight years that I played in Chicago we had five different offensive coordinators so we switched offensive systems every other year pretty much. When you do that, you have to get your timing down, you have to get new players who you're not used to playing with, you have to get that down as well. There's always an adjustment period so (training) camp is for people to be there and to do that in the offseason and we'll see how that works."

He went on to say:

"I'm hoping that it happens sooner than later because those growing pains kind of add up early in the season and you don't want to drop a couple games that you might have could have won".

I then asked the former Bears running back if he thought their expectations were too high for this season, given the amount of new faces on the roster.

"The expectation has to be high, if it's not then, you know, I don't think they have the right mindset going into this season, so then the Bears themselves should really be expecting to do above and beyond what even by everybody else is kind of expecting out of them."

After asking him about how he thought the Bears stacked up in the NFC North this season, I had to know if it felt weird knowing the Detroit Lions were the team to beat in the division now after decades of always being a basement dweller.

He laughed and responded with "All that means is that we're being old and you see the time shift", which couldn't be more true.

With the Olympics being the talk of the sports world right now and flag football officially being an event at the next Summer Games in 2028, I finished the interview by asking him to give me his dream starting five offensive players for Team USA. These are the players he gave me:

  • Patrick Mahomes
  • DJ Moore
  • Tyreek Hill
  • Justin Jefferson
  • Bijan Robinson

That sounds like a pretty solid starting five for a flag football team to me.

Be sure to check out the full interview above. We also talked about how the Bears stack up in the NFC North this season as well as his relationship with fellow Tulane running back, Tyjae Spears.

Matt Forte is teaming up with Smirnoff ICE to bring some noise and SURPR-ICEs to Chicago.

Fans can meet Matt and Smirnoff ICE in Wrigleyville on Friday, August 9 for some SURPR-ICEs to cap off summer. Follow along @mforte22 and @Smirnoff to learn where he’ll show up throughout the weekend!

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