Chicago leads the NFC North again. Discover what the world looked like, from gas prices to pop culture, the last time the Bears sat atop the division.
Rejoice, Chicago Bears fans, your team is now leading the NFC North after beating the Minnesota Vikings 19-17 on Sunday.
The Bears held onto the lead after the Detroit Lions lost 16-9 to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football. Detroit had the tiebreaker over Chicago after beating the Bears 52-21 in Week 2.
The last time that the Bears were first in the division through Week 11 was in 2018, the first year of the Matt Nagy era. The quarterback at the time was also a second-year player, as Mitchell Trubisky started under center for the Bears.
Hopefully, this season doesn't end the same way 2018 did. Chicago's infamous double doink loss to the Eagles in the NFC Wild Card game that year ended the Bears' season with a 16-15 loss.
The world was very different in 2018 compared to 2025. Here's what was going on when the Bears last had the top spot in the division after Week 11.
For starters, the average price for a gallon of gas was $2.60. That number is $3.22 in 2025.
The hit song by Lil Nas X, "Old Town Road," hadn't been released yet. In the streaming world, the show "Game of Thrones" hadn't released its final season yet. The eighth and final season of the show was released in April of 2019 instead.
The Bears' current starting quarterback, Caleb Williams, was a sophomore at Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C. He would go on to play for Oklahoma before transferring to USC and winning the Heisman in 2022.
For anyone interested in gaming, the PlayStation 5 hadn't been released yet. Gamers had to wait two more years until it came out in 2020.
When it came to who was coaching the Chicago Bulls at the time? That would be none other than Bulls' legend Fred Hoiberg. Hoiberg played for the Bulls from 1996-2005, before becoming the franchise's head coach in 2016. He left the Bulls for Nebraska in 2019 and still coaches there to this day.
The Marvel lovers will enjoy this. The top movie in 2018, according to IMDB, was "Avengers: Infinity War."
Some things are better left in the past, especially when it comes to the double doink. Here's hoping Chicago will have a much better season than 2018, or the sanity of Bears' fans everywhere may be on the brink of collapse.
The Bears kick off Week 12 against the Pittsburgh Steelers at noon CT on CBS.