The Bears roster isn't the only thing at Halas Hall that's sporting a new look after receiving a makeover this offseason.
The walls in the hallways of the team's training facility in Lake Forest are now adorned with motivational sayings accompanied by catchy graphic art.
In the hallway just outside the locker room, the words "Chicago Tough" are emblazoned across a mural of the city's skyline. A few feet away near the door that leads to the practice field, there's an image of the Super Bowl trophy and a picture of Soldier Field along with the words "Obsessed to be the Best."
First-year head coach Matt Nagy collaborated with general manager Ryan Pace on the project.
"We're building a culture," Nagy said. "No matter where you go or who you're with, I think it's important that you have that foundation and people have a direction. The players, the coaches, everyone in the building gets to see it every day. It's not something you see just now and then; you see it all the time. The biggest thing was to constantly remind them every day what the direction and the message is."
Other motivational messages read "Bear Down: To Exert Full Strength and Concentrated attention; and "The Most Powerful Weapon on Earth is the Human Soul," with smoke appearing to come out of the letters. There's also a large photo of George Halas covered by motivational words such as "passionate, family, energy, respect, character, tough and loyalty," among others.
Nagy hopes that Bears players see the motivational sayings so frequently that they become a permanent part of their mentality.
"You'd like to get to a point where they're thinking about it on their own," Nagy said. "They hear it and see it so much that they might be driving home thinking what are the 'whys' behind it, what does it really mean. It doesn't mean anything if you look at it and just see words. What's the 'why' behind every one of those? For every player and every coach, their 'whys' are going to be different, and that's what makes it so cool."
Nagy's favorite message is a simple one. It reads: "Be You" and is accompanied by the Bears logo.
"We all have different personalities," he said. "Outside of the core values that we have as a team—being a good teammate, doing things the right way—everyone has some different things that makes them special. Your strengths that you have might not be a strength for me and vice versa.
Another message on a wall that Nagy shares repeatedly is "Obsessed to be the Best."
"That is an important one," he said. "It's a reminder when they go out to practice or they're going to the weight room. We always want those guys leaving that hallway to see that. It's understanding what they're doing on a specific rep, how to stretch the right way, how they listen to their coaches. And away from the practice field and their coaches, are they putting in the extra time on their own? That's being obsessed."
Near the defensive meeting room, there's a huge black-and-white photo of the famed 1985 Bears defense that includes Hall of Famers Richard Dent, Dan Hampton and Mike Singletary as well as William Perry, Otis Wilson and Leslie Frazier.
"It was a dominant defense and it was a defense that won the Super Bowl," Nagy said. "We wanted to do it in a black-and-white deal to where it's almost faded in time. We're going to create our own identity and we're going to have our own culture for that defensive room. But that's just a little reminder of what can happen when you are obsessed, in that particular scenario as a defense."
