1928 Chicago Bears Season

The 1928 Chicago Bears season was their ninth regular season completed in the National Football League. The club posted a 7-5-1 record under head coach George Halas, earning them a fifth place finish in the team standings, their worst record to date. The season had its high points, including two shutout wins over the crosstown rival Chicago Cardinals, a shutout win over the defending champion New York Giants, and convincing victories over Frankford, Dayton, and Pottsville. However, two losses each to Detroit and the eventual champion Green Bay Packers made 1928 a disappointment to the normally contending Bears. Chicago's problem was the old guard was aging with Joey Sternaman, Paddy Driscoll, and George Halas all now in their early 30s, but not enough new talent was on the team to compete. Also, the Bears were now faced with an equal number of away games as at home, whereas in the early 1920s almost all their games were at home as they drew much larger crowds than most other teams. The pace of playing 3 games in 8 days around Thanksgiving, then a standard practice—the Thanksgiving game was not a substitute for the Sunday game but just an extra game, also hurt the veteran Bears down the stretch as in previous years. Joe Sternaman and William Senn starred on offense with 4 and 5 touchdowns each. Sternaman also shared kicking duties with Driscoll. The passing game became more important and the Bears scored 11 touchdowns via the air, versus 13 on the ground. This was a league-wide trend, foreshadowing the ascendancy of Don Hutson and Sammy Baugh of the 1930s.