Report: Bucs Play At Bears On “Sunday Night Football” Nov. 8
May 14th, 2026
Bucs will play under the lights in Chicago.
Well, we know when one game is.
“This Joe” hoped upon hope the Bucs would open the season in Chicago, since it appears Bruno Mars is forcing the Bucs to open on the road.
The Bears are one of the Bucs’ road opponents and knowing the miserable Chicago weather — as the late humorist Lewis Grizzard once typed, “Chicago has two seasons: Winter and the Fourth of July,” opening the season in Chicago would be dodging a bullet.
But it appears the Bucs got a crummy deal. Joe once served seven years working in that town — hated it. Hated the climate. It seemingly never got warm. The traffic? Cops regularly pulled you over on fishing expeditions and the parochial nature of the locals added to the, um, charm.
A former co-worker there told Joe that annually, around Halloween, Chicago has some of the worst weather of the calendar. And guess when the Bucs play in Chicago this fall?
A week after Halloween.
Per Aileen Hnatiuk of WFLA-TV Channel 8, the Bucs will face the Bears Nov. 8 on Sunday Night Football, seen on NBC.
Given the expected rotten weather and Todd Bowles’ sterling record in primetime games, Joe is already dreading the trip to the Second City.
Joe vividly remembers the night the Bears retired both Dick Butkus and Gayle Sayers’ jerseys. It was Monday Night Football, Oct. 31, 1994, against the Packers. It looked like the game was held in a tropical storm. Complete downpour. Wind was ridiculous.
The only way to tell it wasn’t a tropical storm was the temperature was 40 degrees.
May 14th, 2026 at 12:06 am
The Bucs pretty much never win in Chicago, and they pretty much never win in primetime, so it’s actually a good thing to get both out of the way in the same game.
Said the same thing last year when the schedule was released and it showed the Bucs playing in primetime at the Rams.
Some things are just the way they are, and this is as surefire of an L as it gets.
May 14th, 2026 at 12:28 am
Mark the tape Rod has picked it.
May 14th, 2026 at 12:29 am
Good game to drink heavily the whole day and pass out before kickoff.
May 14th, 2026 at 12:41 am
I’ve only been to Chicago once and it was fun. Went to a Cubs game. Heard some great Blues. The food was amazing. The Bears suck though. GO BUCS
May 14th, 2026 at 1:19 am
Fun town to visit. Really fun. Excellent food town.
Not fun to live — unless you have wads of cash and don’t mind wearing a coat from Labor Day weekend through early June.
May 14th, 2026 at 1:28 am
I was hoping for a September game, but early November sounds better than late December.
May 14th, 2026 at 5:28 am
There’s something very bad that happens when Todd Bowles has to play a night game … we lose. Not always, but most of the time. Since 2022 in night games …
o 2022: 3 Wins – 2 Losses (plus 1 Playoff Loss)
o 2023: 0 Wins – 2 Losses (plus 1 Playoff Win)
o 2024: 0 Wins – 4 Losses (plus 1 Playoff Loss)
o 2025: 1 Win – 3 Losses
Gives us a 4 Win – 11 Losses record in the regular season under Todd Bowles, plus 1 Win-2 Losses in the playoffs. And over the last 3 years it’s even more abysmal (1 Win – 9 Losses) in the regular season. Coincidence? Gotta agree with Rod; stats like that say … ‘this is as surefire of an L as it gets’.
May 14th, 2026 at 5:38 am
The early Nov. weather should be between 40 – 60 deg. so unless there is a storm should not be too much of an issue.
Now playing in primetime is another story and this one
will unfortunately probably be an L. seem like they
never win in primetime.