On Tuesday November 11, the Lake Forest Academy Spectator’s reporters boarded a Caxy van and made the five minute drive over to the Chicago Bears’ practice facility at Halas Hall to learn about the team’s media production process.
Halas Hall serves as both the practice facility and headquarters for the Chicago Bears organization. On site there are four outdoor practice fields, one indoor practice field, offices for coaches and team executives and a full media suite – among other features.
When students arrived at Halas Hall, they were greeted in the lobby with the Bears’ 1985 Lombardi Trophy on display. There was also memorabilia outlining the history of the team over the years. Students were then brought through a hallway with conference rooms to the media wing of the building.
The first location that students visited in the media area was the on-site TV broadcast studio. This studio contains a broadcast desk for the Chicago Bears network – a commonly used spot during training camp for discussing team news. The studio also contains the set for “1920 Football Drive,” the Bears’ YouTube show that is released multiple times throughout the season. Seeing this part of Halas Hall was the favorite part for Chris Frekko ‘27, as he got to sit at the broadcast desk. “You just see the team on Sunday and don’t think about the process behind it,” Frekko said. This was really a theme throughout the tour, as students grew to appreciate the larger entertainment business behind the on-field product. Later on in the tour, students saw the control room, with a window peeking through the wall looking into the studio from above. Inside was lots of audio and lighting equipment necessary for running TV broadcasts.
After seeing the broadcast room, students were brought up to the press conference room, where reporters ask coaches and players questions during the offseason and after practices. Here, students had the opportunity to meet and ask questions to two staff writers for the Chicago Bears online publication.
Larry Mayer and Gabby Hajduk, the two writers, talked to students about how they started their careers in journalism and then opened the floor to questions. Mayer has been with the team for more than 25 years after beginning his career at another local Chicago sports newspaper that covered both the city’s professional teams as well as high school sports. He talked about how his job has changed over the years with the advent of digital media and how now more than ever, writing for the Bears is a year round affair. In the past, consumers were more used to waiting for content to come out when the news did. Now, social media and digitization has made fans expect more regular updates published with even more consistency, increasing the strain on writers like Mayer. The offseason has also lost the meaning behind its name. While it used to be a real break for content related to the team, more recently interest across the league in free agency, the draft, and training camp has soared, giving the writers more to talk about in the times outside of game day. Especially when a team is performing poorly, the offseason can be even busier than the routine of the regular season, as fans look at rookies and new coaches coming in and want to learn about how the team will move forward.
Hajduk has been a recent addition to the staff; this is her third season writing for the Bears. She mentioned that she likes to cover special achievements and stories outside of just the game of football, especially those that are not often talked about. This enables Bears fans to get to know the players and coaches as people and rounds out the profile of the Bears’ writing compared to Mayer’s more analytical, game-focused reports. Spectator reporter Maya Tafolla ‘27 said that she really appreciated hearing that the Bears like to focus on these types of stories, the ones showing “the more human side of the players.” Just before LFA’s visit, Hajduk wrote a story on Brittain Brown, a recent elevation from the practice squad who found the end zone for a touchdown in his first regular season action in over two years against the Bengals on October 9. The story focused on what this moment meant for Brown and his family after a rocky start to his NFL career. Hajduk mentioned how writing directly for the Bears organization is different from writing for an outside source, because their reporting must usually be somewhat positive about the team. These more personal stories can help put this positive spin on a game, even if the final result wasn’t what the Bears had been hoping for, because they can focus on interesting or good aspects within the lives of Bears players.
The Bears have shared a backyard with LFA for nearly 30 years since the team moved from their original facility near Lake Forest College in 1997. From LFA’s turf and soccer fields, the tops of the goalposts at Halas Hall are visible. Sometimes when the Bears are practicing, music from their practice can be heard over the bushes on campus. This connection is what enabled LFA to have this unique opportunity. It is unlikely that the team would have allowed other high schools to tour their facility, but the unique proximity of LFA made the partnership possible. The Spectator hopes to be able to continue this partnership in the future through “The Bears Take” podcast and potential trips in future years.