Robert Quinn’s impact on the Chicago Bears was so much more than football

LAKE FOREST – Roquan Smith’s tears at the Halas Hall podium Wednesday were a rare glimpse into the human side of sports.

As Smith was speaking with members of the media, news spread that the Bears traded Robert Quinn to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick. Smith, overcome with emotion, had to cut his media session short.

Trades happen in sports all the time. Fans are often shielded from, and immune to, the human side of the story. No doubt, tears are shed. Usually those tears are shed behind closed doors. Wednesday was one of the rare times it happened in the public eye.

It might not sound like much to replace a pass rusher who had only one sack in the first seven games, but Quinn was so much more than that to this team.

“You let your emotions flow, you wish them well and it’s not business as usual,” Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams said Thursday. “I hate that word, where you go, ‘Hey, it’s business as usual.’ No, it’s not. We still have a job to do, but we’re going to miss him on a personal level and a professional level.”

That statement alone indicates what Quinn meant to this team. Many football coaches would say the old cliche: next man up. The Bears must do that, of course, come Sunday, but the trade has clearly affected the ecosystem of this locker room.

Quinn said his goodbyes at Halas Hall on Wednesday. By Thursday, he was already in the building with his new team in Philadelphia. Over the last two years in Chicago, Quinn became one of the heartbeats of the Bears. He had 18.5 sacks last season, a team record. He was a Brian Piccolo Award winner, given annually to a player who exemplifies courage and and loyalty. Ahead of this season, he was voted a team captain.

Ask anyone at Halas Hall and they’ll talk about how much they respected his approach. Quinn has played his entire career with a benign tumor in his brain. When doctors found the tumor in high school, Quinn wasn’t sure if he had long to live. That medical scare has impacted every day of his life. When people ask how he’s doing, Quinn will frequently say things are good because “I woke up today.” And he means it. That is life through Robert Quinn’s eyes. Football is important to him, but it’s not life and death.

“You see a guy like Rob, that’s always his answer,” veteran safety Eddie Jackson said. “There’s never been a moment where he came in and he’s been down or angry. It’s always in a cheerful mood. It’s always positive about everything.”

When Quinn signed with the Bears in 2020, he had one of the worst seasons of his career – totaling only two sacks. He never let that lack of production affect his approach. His teammates saw that.

When Williams stepped in as defensive coordinator, Quinn was one of the first players to buy into what Williams and Matt Eberflus were preaching. Quinn had no reason to embrace the new regime. They traded away Khalil Mack and it would’ve been reasonable for Quinn to ask out, too. Instead, he showed up to the first day of training camp and did everything the coaches asked of him.

“Whenever you come in as a new coach, new coordinator, to have one of the older guys be on board and to echo your messages and to echo it in the locker room and on the practice field, that’s a big deal,” Williams said.

Quinn was a guiding force, especially for the team’s young pass rushers. Ever since he was drafted in 2020, third-year pass rusher Trevis Gipson has grown accustomed to learning from Quinn.

Rookie fifth-round draft pick Dominique Robinson saw a lot of similarities between himself and Quinn. Both are quiet, lead-by-example-type guys. Robinson said he made sure to thank Quinn before he left for Philadelphia.

“I loved him for everything he did for me,” Robinson said. “[I told him] that I was blessed to be able to sit back and watch him and develop a little bit and learn from him because he’s, honestly, he’s going to be a Hall of Famer at some point, I truly believe that, and hopefully he gets a ring to be able to add on to what he’s done.”