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This year’s Pitchfork Music Festival kicked off Friday in the West Loop, where thousands of festival-goers converged in Union Park.

A nearly 15-year-old summer tradition typically set in July, Pitchfork Fest organizers canceled last year’s iteration due to the pandemic and pushed this year’s back to September, citing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Friday’s festivities were happening amid the nation’s rising COVID-19 cases, the recent reinstatement of an indoor mask mandate by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the recent COVID vaccine mandate for city workers by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the recent return to schools for Chicago Public Schools families and the addition of all 50 states to the city’s travel advisory.

In the months and weeks leading up to the festival, Pitchfork announced its own COVID protocols, similar to those announced by venues and other festivals in the last few months. Festival-goers are asked to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test obtained within 24 hours of each day they attend.

Organizers also recommended and encouraged attendees to wear masks “except when actively eating or drinking.” Signs were posted at entrances to emphasize the message. A line for the festival had stretched down Ashland Avenue by noon Friday, as a majority-masked crowd waited to be let in.

Security checks vaccination cards on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival on Friday.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Among those masked and waiting in line before the gates opened was Anna Ives-Michenver of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The 21-year-old had already flown in from the East Coast for Lollapalooza in July and decided to make the trek again for Pitchfork. She said it was important for her to experience concerts in person.

“It means a lot. That’s pretty much the one thing that I really love to do — is go see live music. So not being able to see live music for a year and a half was awful,” she said.

Further down the line was 23-year-old Chicagoan Gabriel Schubert, who said they’d been to several festivals this summer, including Lollapalooza. Schubert said they felt comfortable with the way summer festivals had been taking COVID precautions, although they ended up contracting the virus while in Iowa for the Hinterland Music Festival in early August.

“Funny enough, I actually got COVID while I was in Iowa. But you know I quarantined and everything — feeling all good now,” Schubert said. “If you’re vaccinated, it’s not as bad. Not as horrible. You’re not gonna go to the hospital, probably, fingers crossed.”

A sign asks people to wear a mask when shopping at a popup art fair on Day 1 at the Pitchfork Music Festival.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

By the time the gates opened around 12:25 p.m., some people continued to wear their masks as they stepped up to security checkpoints for what amounted to a slow, steady flow of fans. Many would do away with masks as they ventured further into the festival grounds.

Security checked proof of vaccination or testing and IDs multiple times, before sending festival-goers on to another lineup of security checking bags and frisking, while Pitchfork volunteers scanned tickets and handed out schedules.

To 20-year-old Andrew Lindaas, of Madison, Wisconsin, the process seemed thorough, noting security checked proof of vaccination and IDs more than once for many fans moving through the line.

Haley Leonhard (left) of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and Andrew Lindaas, of Madison, Wisconsin, pose for a photo at the Renegade Craft Show popup at Pitchfork Music Festival.Matt Moore/Sun-Times

“They checked the vax card a lot,” Lindaas said in between checking out vendors the Renegade Craft Fair popup inside the park. “It was better than most establishments I’ve been into that do require that.”

Artists like Philadelphia’s Hop Along — who performed Friday — have enacted their own COVID precautions for their shows, which mostly align with Pitchfork’s. Before heading out on tour last week, the band shared on their social media they would be requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter their shows, and requesting audience members to wear masks.

“Please don’t be the unmasked person in the center of the front row,” the band wrote in a recent Instagram post, saying their lead singer “doesn’t want to have to call people out every night.”

For 29-year-old Ben Stevens, a five-time Pitchfork goer from Dayton, Ohio, the festival felt like “a going away to the summer months” and a chance for fans to support artists who have struggled through canceled tours and show dates.

“I think that people are appreciative,” Stevens said, “because they know a lot of the artists have canceled shows and canceled tours, and this is an opportunity for you to see a lot of artists in a little bit of time.”

It’s just important for fans to remain safe and respectful of the protocols, Stevens added.

“I’m hoping that people will follow the rules and realize that there’s less for us to enjoy so let’s really enjoy the things that we can enjoy.”

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Providence Park, home of the Portland Thorns, is set to host its third National Women’s Soccer League championship game on Nov. 20, the league announced this week.

As one of the largest venues (capacity 25,218) in the growing league, it’s easy to see why the NWSL painted it as the perfect place for the title game.

But this arrangement is an epic fail on the league’s part for multiple reasons, the primary one being the illogical start time of 9 a.m. Pacific time.

“Obviously we want the final to be televised,” Red Stars midfielder Danny Colaprico said. “We feel underappreciated because we want to play at a time that works for our bodies.”

Players and coaches typically have their team meal four hours before kickoff.

Sticking with that routine would mean players arriving at Providence Park at 5 a.m. This is not just incredibly inconvenient, it’s unhealthy. Two of the biggest factors for players’ recovery are nutrition and sleep, and neither seems to be a priority here.

The game will be live on CBS, but some players have said they would rather the game not be televised if it meant a better start time.

In so many ways the league shows signs of evolution and growth. In 2022, the league will welcome Angel City FC and a team yet to be named in San Diego.

NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird and the league began negotiations with the NWSL Players Association ahead of the 2021 season to develop its first-ever collective bargaining agreement. The NWSLPA’s main priorities are seeking stability, equity and longevity for its athletes.

But the league had not lived up to its commitment to create a better league.

The championship game is one example.

When the NWSL announced its broadcast partnership with CBS Sports that included CBS airing four games, including the championship, it was exciting. National broadcasts are not something players or coaches take for granted, especially on networks that don’t charge fans extra to watch.

But the partnership covered only 14 of the league’s 120 games on CBS or CBS Sports Network. It is hardly beneficial when only 11.6% of regular-season games are broadcast on a major network while the rest are available only on streaming services.

CBS will broadcast college football all afternoon on Nov. 20, which accounts for the NWSL’s early kickoff time. Still, the reason doesn’t justify it.

Coaches and athletes that make up the professional women’s sports landscape are often quoted as saying an iteration of “you can’t be what you can’t see.”

A 30-year study by USC and Purdue published in March in SAGE Journals found that 95% of total television coverage focused on men’s sports in 2019.

The media landscape is asking for more readers, viewers and followers for women’s sports before they’ll invest in more coverage. But how can women’s sports expect to compete with men’s sports when they are getting only 5% of the total television time?

The NWSLPA launched a social-media campaign this year called #NoMoreSideHustles sharing the reality of what many players in the league have to do in order to make a living wage.

The players association estimates that one in three of its members make the league’s minimum salary of $22,000 a year. In comparison, the average salary for senior roster non-designated players in the MLS is $398,725.

Players in the league have side jobs that include babysitting and coaching. The Red Stars’ Sarah Gorden has modeled during her NWSL career to supplement her income.

The movie ”Field of Dreams” made the phrase “If you build it, he will come” universally known. The movie’s popularity turned into a prime-time baseball game on Fox last month featuring the White Sox and the Yankees. The game was so successful Major League Baseball announced the game will return in 2022.

Can you imagine if women’s sports leagues were part of an equitable media landscape?

They might be able to earn a living wage.

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LAS VEGAS — A year ago today, under a heavy anesthetic fog, veteran Vegas bookmaker Dave Sharapan marveled over a glorious reunion with his late father, Elliott, amidst the greenest of grasses and the bluest of skies.

It was pleasantly warm, light brilliant. They sat on a bench.

You look great, the eldest of Elliott’s five children repeated maybe 100 times. Known as “Big E” all over Green Tree, in suburban Pittsburgh, he was fit and trim, beard typically well-manicured.

“Big E” in mid-1970s glory, nothing like those final unfair days of early 2013.

Meanwhile, three hours after Sharapan had first struggled to talk or manipulate his phone that Friday, neurosurgeon Dr. Garet Zaugg delicately went about trying to save Sharapan’s life at Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center.

Zaugg had begun the embolectomy by inserting a micro-catheter through a tiny incision in Sharapan’s groin, easing it along the femoral artery and, ultimately, through the carotid to snag, with a stent, the perilous blood clot in his brain.

In his deep subconscious, Dave was conveying to “Big E” his disappointment about getting laid off, his concerns about this pandemic, his three daughters …

“Big E” calmed Dave, saying, You ready to go?

“Well, no. Jess and the kids need me. Come with me. They miss you, too.”

“I can’t. But I gotta tell you, stop grizzling!”

“Big E” was Jewish. In Yiddish, “grizzling” means bitching, complaining, moaning or whining, or any such combination.

“What?”

“Stop. [Bleeping]. Worrying. Everything will be OK. Tell everybody to stop worrying and go for it. Love ya. See ya later.”

“Big E” vanished. Sharapan shook his head violently. He awoke. He lay on a gurney, tentacles of wires and tubes everywhere. The dark room felt like a meat freezer. He shivered, touching his cold forehead with his cold right hand.

“I thought, ‘Wow, I’m dead.’ “

NOBODY KNOWS …

Today, the 51-year-old Sharapan is very much alive, omnipresent in the sports-betting industry. He feeds more than 16,000 Twitter followers (@SportsbkConsig) with pithy and prescient gambling insights.

He’s part of a hit podcast, “Cash Considerations,” and MLB Network is among several outlets that tap him, on its “Bettors Eye” show, for his expertise and easy nature.

His larger-than-life persona pops when Circa displays those segments on its mammoth Stadium Swim display. That grin and one of his hundreds of baseball caps recently filled that 41-by-135-foot, 14 million-pixel LED screen. More than 5,400 square feet of her husband’s mug.

Dave Sharapan appears on Circa’s Stadium Swim display, a 41-by-135-foot, 14 million-pixel LED screen.Provided

“I teased him the same way I’m sure his dad would have, but it was a very proud moment,” Jessica said. “He’s finally doing what he loves, talking about sports, and he loves being on the camera.

“And literally, since the stroke, he hasn’t shut up!”

“Big E” would steer Dave onto his eventual career path. He had left Penn State with a broadcasting degree and ESPN dreams, but the spreads and odds beckoned as he worked in his dad’s discount store.

He’d make bets and sometimes run the -local bookie’s shop. In 1997, he was offered a gig in Curacao, the Dutch island off the coast of Venezuela that’s part of a Caribbean bookmaking haven. Sharapan was 26 and full of doubt. Friends and relatives dissented, except “Big E.” As usual, he simplified an ordeal. Go. If you don’t like it, come home. If you do, we’ll visit.

For 18 months, Sharapan served customers, concocted odds and learned the lingo — “Wisky” for Wisconsin, “Bobby Mo” for Robert Morris — that would form his vocational foundation.

In Vegas, he’d work at the Golden Nugget, M Resort, Cosmopolitan, Venetian and William Hill. He developed a mantra.

“Nobody knows [bleep],” Sharapan said. “You have to listen to what people are saying and root through the bull …”

He dabbles in futures action and certain in-game situations.

“It must be done, ideally, for entertainment. For 96% of the people, that’s what it is and should be. But, yes, there are definitely aspects that have the potential to lead to very bad things.”

DON’T WORRY

A nurse rushed to Sharapan as he awoke yelling, arms flapping, that fateful Friday. She said, “We weren’t sure you were going to make it.”

Dr. Zaugg couldn’t believe he was talking. “What I saw usually takes people out,” he told Dave. “You are a walking, talking miracle. Where the blood clot was … it was bad.”

Four days later, on Sept. 15, Sharapan walked out of the hospital and into the grateful tentacles of Jessica and daughters Kylie, Kelsey and Kendyl. Jessica said he’s happier, living much more in the moment than worrying about what might happen in 15 years.

He hesitates relating the profound events of one year ago to anything divine. With a Catholic matriarch, Sharapan grew up celebrating Chrismukkah. At 24, he quit attending Jewish services with “Big E” when he sensed the rabbi yelling at, not talking to, the congregation.

On Curacao, he revered the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, the sand-floored, bright-yellow building that was consecrated in 1732 and is the oldest surviving synagogue in the Americas.

The oddsman believes he simply defied very long odds.

“When I need a reminder, it’s always there. Little stuff that used to really upset me, none of it matters. If I can help one person, anyone, to kind of not worry, that’s what I’m supposed to be doing right now”

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Dwayne Hagel still remembers the one time his son briefly thought hockey might not work out.

It was summer 2018. His draft rights relinquished by the -Sabres, Brandon Hagel was about to start his fourth year in -Canadian juniors without any clear path to playing professionally afterward. He needed a backup plan, so he started looking at college classes.

“He was in a bad spot there, he thought, and I thought, too,” Dwayne said. “A scout from Buffalo really wanted to sign him, and it didn’t happen. He did talk to me at one point and said, ‘Dad, maybe I’ll just take some classes.’

“I said, ‘Brandon, just don’t quit. Live your dream while you can. Just keep working at it.’ And the rest is history.”

Three years later, Brandon is more than just a pro hockey player.

The 23-year-old forward proved himself an important contributor on the new-look Blackhawks with his inspiring 2021 breakout season, perfectly timed with the final year of the entry-level deal he inked in fall 2018. He then cemented his future by signing a three-year, $4.5 million contract this summer.

The native of Morinville, Alberta — a small town 20 miles north of Edmonton — doesn’t like to make a big deal about his success.

“I was happy we were able to get it done,” Brandon said matter-of-factly last week about the extension. “We were on the same page … on the term stuff. We both wanted it, so it went pretty smoothly in that direction.”

But back home in Morinville, Dwayne is flooded by pride and emotion every time he describes the impact of Brandon’s meteoric rise on himself and their community.

“There’s always guys texting me, or you run into them everywhere I go in town, and they say, ‘Oh, yeah, we’ve been following Brandon. He’s doing so good,’ ” Dwayne said. “It’s always nice to hear, ‘Can I get that signed? Can I get this signed?’ And I say, ‘Yeah, I’ll give it to him when he comes in.’ It’s pretty special to be his dad.”

Brandon Hagel (right) was finally able to visit his dad, Dwayne (left), at home in Canada again this summer.Photo courtesy of Dwayne Hagel

It became clear early on in Brandon’s youth hockey days — Dwayne estimates it was at around 10 years old, during Atom hockey — that he was far more talented than his peers. His pro potential was first mentioned when he was 15, during an exit interview with his coach after totaling 58 points in 37 games in Midget hockey.

His impact never was measured best through points, though. The same tireless work ethic that endeared him to Hawks fans last season already had blossomed by the middle of his teenage years.

“At a young age, I always told him to play both ways: ‘You’ve got to skate back,’ ” Dwayne said. “But I really think he got his work ethic because he loved the game so much. He wanted to be the first guy back. He wanted to be the first to the puck. He always wanted to do the drill first. A lot of it is just the compete level inside him.”

At the time, the thought of Brandon making the NHL was still a little too absurd for Dwayne to imagine.

“I thought maybe he’d get a scholarship or something, get his school paid for,” he said.

But on March 11, 2020, with COVID-19 about to take over the world, Brandon made his NHL debut. His family was in attendance at the United Center’s last pre-pandemic event.

“Even now, I get a little emotional,” Dwayne said, pausing between each sentence to gather himself. “It was a father’s dream, and more importantly, it was his. He did it all. It was the most amazing thing. It was like the birth of a child.”

The frequency of Brandon’s hockey milestones accelerated quickly after that.

His first trip to Europe was a two-month stint last fall with Thurgau of the Swiss league. In the spring, he increased his career NHL games-played total from one to 53, ending up as the Hawks’ fifth-leading scorer (with nine goals and 15 assists). Shortly after, he made his second trip to Europe and first appearance for a Canadian national team, winning a gold medal at the World Championships in Latvia.

“I never really had that opportunity when I was younger. I never got invited to those type of things,” he said. “To be able to do it at the pro level, after playing a full season in the NHL, is incredible. I wouldn’t have asked for it any other way.”

Hagel has worked on improving his strength and finishing this offseason.AP Photos

This summer, Brandon finally was able to relax and spend time at home with his family.

But Dwayne — like any dad would — wished it was longer because Brandon’s eagerness for the coming season prompted him to return to Chicago on Aug. 20, more than a month ahead of training camp.

The extra training time has been valuable, particularly with his biggest goals this offseason: adding muscle and improving shooting.

“I’ve been hearing it pretty much my whole life, that I needed to get stronger, and it’s something I really wanted to pin down this year,” Brandon said, estimating he has gained six or seven pounds.

The one knock on his altogether stellar play last season was his inability to convert chances. Regression helped him in the second half — he finished the year shooting 9.9%, right around league average — but he feels he could take better advantage of his opportunities next season.

He’ll need to re-earn those opportunities first. The Hawks’ additions mean there will be more NHL-caliber forwards in camp than jobs available, so a few inevitably will lose out. But Brandon, as usual, isn’t daunted.

“That’s a really good aspect to have on a team: You work for everything you get,” Brandon said. “That’s one of those [mantras] I went off growing up. I’ve had to earn my spot on basically every team I’ve been on. I’ve been down that road plenty of times. So it’s really exciting.”

When the regular season finally rolls around, Dwayne is planning three or four Chicago visits to see his son in action.

It’s still surreal for him to watch Brandon play in the NHL, and it’ll be even more surreal in person. But he’s most proud of how his son’s success and recent payday haven’t affected his industrious attitude whatsoever.

“People say to me, ‘What is it like to see your kid out there?’ ” Dwayne said. “And I say, ‘He’s still my kid. Nothing has changed. Other than that he’s wearing a Blackhawks uniform.’ ”

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Looking back on it, Arturas Karnisovas wasn’t messing around.

Addressing reporters on a May afternoon, the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations admitted his disappointment about the team again missing the postseason — and also promised change was coming.

“We place expectations on our team about winning games,” Karnisovas said. “I like that every game down the stretch felt like the playoffs and constant pressure to grow. Unfortunately, we didn’t handle it effectively or consistently. In that, I see tremendous room and need for growth and improvement.

“We will continue being aggressive in our efforts to make this team better, whether that’s through trades, free agency or the draft. We will not settle for mediocrity here.”

What followed were sweeping roster changes.

How sweeping? Look at the box score from the Bulls’ 20-point loss to the Hawks in their season opener last Dec. 23.

Lauri Markkanen (21 points that evening) was sent to the Cavaliers in a sign-and-trade late last month. Starting center Wendell Carter Jr. never made it past the trade deadline in March, shipped off to the Magic with reserve Otto Porter Jr.

Chandler Hutchison, Daniel Gafford, Thad Young, Garrett Temple, Luke Kornet, Tomas Satoransky . . . gone, gone, gone, all of them.

To put in perspective how serious Karnisovas was when he said he wouldn’t settle for mediocrity, only guards Zach LaVine and Coby White are left of the core he inherited when he took the job in April 2020.

Is it a sign he has no patience, or an indictment of just how poorly the old regime handled a rebuild that started in 2017?

Fall camp is just over two weeks away, and on paper, the Bulls’ four-year playoff drought — their longest since the Tim Floyd era, when they went six seasons without a postseason appearance — should be coming to an end.

But that doesn’t mean Karnisovas is done. If there’s one thing he has shown so far, it’s that he won’t rest until the team is back to contending. Not a sixth or seventh seed, not a quick visit to the postseason for a round or two, but becoming a threat in the Eastern Conference, which the Bulls haven’t been since coach Tom Thibodeau’s ouster in 2015.

What does that mean for the reimagined team Karnisovas is about to roll out?

Rent, don’t buy. Every player will be under close watch, and judging by what Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley have shown in the last 17 months, so will the team’s staff. Billy Donovan and Karnisovas have as good a relationship as a head coach and an exec can have, but you’d better believe Karnisovas wants to see Donovan get the most out of a talented roster. If young players such as forward Patrick Williams and White don’t make jumps from last year, expect some replacements among the development staff.

Then there’s LaVine, who has been given a fellow All-Star in center Nikola Vucevic (acquired at the trade deadline), plus defensive-minded guards Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso and veteran scorer DeMar DeRozan (all acquired this summer). LaVine is due a big payday after this season. The expectation is he’ll get it from the Bulls — if the team has a strong showing.

But if they’re still mediocre in Karnisovas’ eyes? Don’t be so sure LaVine is a Bull next season.

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Dalton, who turns 34 next month, is in his 11th season. | Getty

Is Dalton perfect? Hardly. Has he ever been great? The mixed answers speak for themselves. But he brings plenty to the table that Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles didn’t, and he’s an ideal tutor for rookie Justin Fields.

There’s something steady about Andy Dalton. And while steadiness is hardly exhilarating, the Bears have been craving it at quarterback for decades.

After a decade of everyone — especially the Bengals — trying to decide whether Dalton was a franchise quarterback, the critics have a list of all the things he isn’t. He’s not mobile, he’s not an awe-inspiring deep ball launcher and he’s not even close to his prime.

But he’s also not inexperienced and skittish like Mitch Trubisky or reckless and erratic like Nick Foles.

While most of the NFL would yawn at the opportunity to sign Dalton, the Bears pushed past other teams to do it. If they couldn’t trade for Russell Wilson, Dalton was at the top of their list in free agency. They fought off at least the 49ers, if not others, to sign an almost-34-year-old who spent last season as a backup for the Cowboys.

Dalton will start the season opener Sunday at the Rams and is a placeholder for the Bears as they get first-round pick Justin Fields ready for what they hope will be a Chiefs-like ascent to championship contention. But, for better or worse, they’ve never been willing to concede this season as merely filler while everyone waits for the Fields era.

They believe they still have a playoff-caliber defense and they just need a quarterback who won’t waste it.

Enter Dalton. He has taken 8,407 snaps over over 148 games (playoffs included) and seen every imaginable defense. He has led 27 game-winning drives. The Bears say he made exactly one mental mistake in the entirety of the preseason. He’s not perfect, but nothing shakes him or sends him into panic.

“At this position, pressure comes from all different angles,” Dalton said. “You still have to be even-keeled through the whole thing. I wouldn’t necessarily say just in [football], but I pride myself on just always being steady and a guy who’s unwavering in everything.

“When you’re talking football, it’s understanding when you can get the ball out of your hands and when you can hold on to it a little bit longer.”

The Bears, especially coach Matt Nagy, trust Dalton in that regard more than any of their recent quarterbacks. Nagy won’t say it because he has no inclination to criticize Trubisky, but overseeing the offense with a quarterback of Dalton’s competency is a much easier job than trying to guide Trubisky through it.

Nagy saw the difference after just a few weeks of offseason practices. In June, he said of Dalton, “When the quarterback already knows what the defense is doing, he can play faster than others. I hope we all understand what that means for a vet versus a young guy.”

The Bears hope it means the difference between their offense meandering the last two seasons and clicking under Dalton.

Dalton won the Bengals starting job as a rookie in 2011 — he was almost 24, compared to Fields coming in at 22 — and played well enough to help them reach the playoffs with a top-10 defense. It was a fortuitous draft class for the Bengals as they picked up future star wide receiver A.J. Green at No. 4 overall and Dalton at No. 35 early in the second round.

But it never amounted to significant success. The Bengals were in the top 12 in scoring defense each of Dalton’s first six seasons and Green averaged nearly 1,200 yards over that span, but topped out at 12-4 in 2015 and couldn’t get past the first round of the playoffs.

Dalton was at the center of that 2015 success with the best statistical season of his career: 25 touchdown passes, seven interceptions, 250 yards per game and a 106.2 passer rating. He broke his thumb late that season and missed the playoff game against the Steelers — a two-point loss.

Everything slid after that.

Dalton’s passer rating plunged to 91.8 the next season, and that’s the last time he’s broken 90. He drifted into the club of constantly debated quarterbacks like Joe Flacco, Alex Smith and Ryan Tannehill. Are they great? No one ever seems to know for sure, which effectively answers the question.

The Bengals fired coach Marvin Lewis after going 6-10 in 2018, then bottomed out at 2-14 the next season as Dalton posted a career-low 78.3 passer rating and were ready to move on without him. They released Dalton and drafted LSU quarterback Joe Burrow first overall in 2020. The two will face each other for the first time when the Bears host the Bengals in Week 2.

Dalton seemed to think that was the end of his run as an NFL starter. He signed a one-year deal with the Cowboys to back up franchise quarterback Dak Prescott, who had never missed a start before last season. After Prescott went down with a season-ending ankle injury in Week 5, Dalton filled in with 14 touchdown passes against eight interceptions while averaging 197.3 yards for an 87.3 passer rating over 11 games.

“I wasn’t expecting to play,” Dalton admitted. “I was expecting just to sit back and watch how he prepares, help him out as best as I could and help the team win games in that role.”

It’s a major plus for the Bears that he’s willing to think that way, because the month after he signed on as their starting quarterback, they asked him to take a part-time job on the side: The vital mentorship of Fields.

The combination of fans’ disappointment in ending up with Dalton after the Wilson talks fizzled and their frenzied anticipation of Fields put Dalton in an incredibly uncomfortable position. All of Chicago is waiting for Fields to finish his studies and kick Dalton to the bench for good.

And not once has Dalton seemed bothered by it.

“It’s something he relishes,” Lewis told the Sun-Times. “We had good talks two years ago, and he knew these kinds of situations may be in his future. The kind of person he is and the strong faith that he has, he will mentor Justin Fields.

“His intellect, his awareness and how he goes about preparing. He is incredibly smart and has a great grasp of the opponent by Tuesday at lunch. He doesn’t have the arm strength that Carson Palmer has, for example, but he gets it done with all the other tools he has. He’ll be great for a young quarterback to watch.”

The Bears hope that’s true in more ways than one. They want Fields to learn from Dalton throughout each week regardless of who’s starting, but their dream scenario is that he spends the season making meticulous observations from the sideline as well while Dalton navigates a variety of obstacles.

Considering what the Bears need from Dalton on the field and behind the scenes with their prized rookie, he was the best choice among the realistic options. They couldn’t afford to give up two first-round picks like the Rams did for Matt Stafford or take on a massive contract like the Colts did in landing Carson Wentz. Ultimately, Dalton was the right guy at the right price, and he might just be enough to make the Bears viable offensively.

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Bears coach Matt Nagy doesn’t want his players to live in the past. That’s not easy in a city that canonized the 1985 champions. Or while playing for a franchise whose most prolonged success came in the 1930s. Or when you’re compared to a defense that, just three short years ago, was the best in the NFL.

“Clearly, that 2018 team and defense was something special,” second-year cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “And I feel like we’re tired of hearing, ‘When can we get back to that?’

“It’s about being who we are and playing tough, sound, physical football each and every week. And that’s how we attack practice. That’s how we attack everything we’re doing. So just trying to get back to that and kind of take that doubt out of people’s minds about what type of defense we are.”

Even outside linebacker Khalil Mack, the best player on the 2018 defense, is tired of the comparison.

“You’ve got to understand, it’s a new year, new team, new possibilities and new goals,” he said. “You continue to set goals for yourself, so you’re supposed to get better. Ultimately, that’s what this year’s all about. Looking forward to getting better with this new group we have.”

This season might be the Bears’ last chance to recapture the magic. It starts Sunday night — ironically, against the Rams, who had the NFL’s best defense last year with an average of 18.5 points allowed. The Bears were tied for 13th at 23.1.

Their connection to 2018 is growing fainter by the year. After they traded cornerback Kyle Fuller and let defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris walk this offseason, six players remain from the unit that played in the opener three years ago at Lambeau Field: defensive linemen Eddie Goldman and Akiem Hicks, inside linebackers Roquan Smith and Danny Trev-athan, safety Eddie Jackson and Mack. That number figures to be even smaller next year. Hicks is in the last year of his deal, and the long-term futures of Trevathan and Goldman seem murky.

The Bears don’t have a single position coach left from 2018. Only one defensive coach remains in the building: new coordinator Sean Desai, who was a quality-control coach under former coordinator Vic Fangio three years ago.

Still, 2018 hangs over the team.

“That’s what we keep hearing as a defense, and that’s all they keep showing us, so it’s like, we’re tired of that,” Jackson said during training camp. “Now it’s time to get back to how we know how to play.”

When Chuck Pagano retired in January, Nagy interviewed nine defensive coordinator candidates. He chose Desai because of his connection to the 2018 defense but also because of his ability to move beyond it. Nagy wants to revive two things from that season: game-changing plays and swagger. The team hopes Desai can play to individual strengths the way Fangio did.

Desai has changed the culture “100%” from when Pagano was in charge, Johnson said. Players have ownership of the defense and hold each other accountable.

Veterans trying to explain the 2018 team to younger players describe the same thing: a tight-knit culture, from how hard they worked to their choreographed on-field celebrations.

“I think it starts off the field,” Mack said. “Getting more personal with guys. Understanding what’s going on with COVID and all these different protocols, but us getting that closeness back as a group off the field is going to be beneficial to us.”

So will takeaways. Last year, the Bears tied for 25th with a combined 18 fumble recoveries and interceptions. In 2018, they had twice as many and led the league.

“They all played together, they trusted each other, and they had fun doing it,” Johnson said. “And made a lot of plays.”

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