By Sam Reeves

If you haven’t been keeping up with the NFL this season, you may be surprised to find out that the Chicago Bears are in the playoffs. A very interesting result given what has transpired the last few seasons at Halas Hall. The Bears hired a new head coach, Ben Johnson, who has brought a whole new culture and demeanor to a Chicago Bears organization that has been lacking direction for several years. At the time of this blog, the Bears are currently 11-5, vying for the #2 seed in the NFC with a win against the Detroit Lions or a loss by the Philadelphia Eagles. This season has featured a lot of 4th quarter heroics from QB Caleb Williams and forcing timely defensive turnovers. However, the X-Factor the Bears have is not in the organization at all. It’s a quaint restaurant found in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood: The Wieners Circle.

The Wieners Circle has been putting out promotions throughout the Chicago Bears’ season for patrons to be given free hot dogs. The criteria have varied from in-game stats to post-game celebration antics, providing free hot dogs for the Chicago faithful. Not only have the players bought in, but the coaching staff (through the media’s questions) also bought into some of the fun ideas being put out there.

The Wieners Circle took to social media early in the season to challenge QB Caleb Williams to throw for 4 touchdowns in a single game, and they would give away free hot dogs. So on September 21st, 2025, against the Dallas Cowboys, Caleb Williams delivered. Then the Wieners Circle made good on that promise.

Several news outlets, social media influencers, blogs/podcast media, and Caleb Williams’ dog, Supa, were all out in force to cover the incredibly generous promotion. People were lined up for several blocks to get a free hot dog. If you have never been to The Wieners Circle, just know you’re going to be welcomed with kind words and maybe even a hug when you go to order your food. This promotion seemed to bring a buzz to the fans of the Bears that hadn’t been there in a while. They then decided, this one worked, so let’s try another one.

The Wieners Circle again took to Twitter/X and provided the next context for a hot dog giveaway. They want an offensive lineman or Bears’ defender to score on a designed play. To this point, that has yet to happen, but hey, week 18 is still out there!

Then the uh, most out there, promotion was brought to the table. This time, it’s not X’s and O’s based.

The players were here for it when asked about it by the Chicago Bears’ beat writers. Ben Johnson was taken aback by anyone wanting to see that. Ben Johnson is a very reserved and focused coach. Getting him to do something as silly as take his shirt off after a win is quite the challenge. Fast forward to “Black Friday,” the Chicago Bears defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, and lo and behold: free hot dogs for the city.

The national media ran with this story for weeks, we had people taking their shirts off waiting in line for free hot dogs, cosplayers of Ben Johnson, it was a TIME. The Wieners Circle put an RFK brainworm into the city of Chicago, but in a good way. You’d think a shirtless Ben Johnson would be all they needed to stop promoting, right? Hell no. Now it’s on the defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen, to feed Chicago.

Dennis Allen is in his first season as the Bears’ defensive coordinator, and despite being at the bottom of the league in yards allowed, this defense leads the league in turnovers. Which is pretty damn impressive given the patchwork they’ve needed to use all season with injuries. The Bears did not beat the 49ers, but they did get a pick-six on the first play. However, this was not enough to make Dennis Allen do the Macarena. Hopefully, there is still enough time.

Now that we are ending the regular season this Sunday, The Wieners Circle is going to have to put out a new promotion for the playoffs (or Super Bowl), to motivate the team through a hopefully long playoff run. They are the masters of promoting on their own, so I won’t try to give them ideas. I just can’t wait to see what they come up with. If you are in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, make sure to stop by The Wieners Circle and grab yourself a nice hot dog from a friendly staff who will never judge you on what you order. Thank you for reading, and go Bears.