The devotion of longtime Chicago Bears fans was on full display Sunday afternoon as they steeled their nerves ahead of a decisive playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams and celebrated a surprising winning season outside Soldier Field. Wearing a furry hat with a fake bear head that rested on top o f his own, Ridvan Alka beamed with pride at his cargo van wrapped in the team’s iconic navy blue and orange. Inside, the vehicle is outfitted with a full-size bar and a flat-screen television that pulls down from the ceiling. It can still fit 12 people. Though the Des Plaines family has been tailgating home games for decades, it was only this season that Alka debuted the custom van — and it felt like “the right year,” he said with a laugh. “We’re going to the Super Bowl!” When there is no home game, they have road-tripped to every away game, even those out west: “Vegas, San Francisco, Washington, you name it,” said Alka. “We’re there.” Ridvan Alka, left, laughs as he tailgates outside with friends outside of Soldier Field before the Chicago Bears play the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC divisional playoff game on Jan. 18, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune) It’s a sentiment that extends to whatever the future portends for the team’s home base, which has been in limbo since the franchise began planning for a new stadium three years ago. The move has stirred up conflicting feelings among Chicagoans and suburbanites alike. Arlington Heights officials are pushing Illinois lawmakers to help the suburb land an agreement for a new stadium, while Indiana lawmakers introduced a bill to draw the team across the state border. “We’ll follow them,” Alka said matter-of-factly. He took a beat to join other tailgaters in booing and heckling a pair of Los Angeles Rams fans who walked by. “We’ll follow them there, everywhere. We drove all the way to San Francisco. You think I won’t drive to Indiana?” More fans on Sunday echoed a similar passion. They’d follow the Bears to the end of the world but preferably to the Super Bowl. Michael Dibartolomeo has been flying from Dallas to Chicago for every Bears home game over the past two decades. On Sunday, he donned a long, neon orange beard, blue face paint and an orange Mohawk wig — his game day uniform the last 30 years. All the traveling and dressing up “is worth every penny,” he said. “I don’t have any other loves like I do the Bears,” Dibartolomeo shrugged. An elementary school teacher, he has a classroom that is decorated, like him, in team spirit from floor to ceiling. On Friday, before yet another return to Chicago, he taught hundreds of his students to sing “Bear Down.” He said he believes the team has what it takes to advance to the Super Bowl this year. “It’s a special year. It could happen,” Dibartolomeo said. “I really do, I believe it with all my heart.” The Sunday game followed a last-minute resounding win the previous weekend against archrival Green Bay Packers. It was the Bears’ first playoff victory since 2011. The optimism could be felt among all tailgaters in the stadium parking lots — especially at the self-dubbed Da Real Bears Tailgate Crew, whose pregame celebrations evolved from a small cooler into a barbecue with its own DJ set. Darrell B., left, and Anitra Smith dance and sing as they tailgate outside of Soldier Field before the Chicago Bears play the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC divisional playoff game on Jan. 18, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune) Friends Crystal Fitch and Shun T. Haynes have been the minds behind the crew’s Soldier Field tailgates for over 10 years. And they don’t remember a year quite as thrilling. “This season has been outstanding,” Haynes said. “I actually got the opportunity to travel to all the away games that we won, like, within the last minute. So it was amazing.” The friends said they would show up wherever the Bears’ home happens to be in the future, whether in the northwest suburbs or northwest Indiana. “Unfortunately, I would have to say,” Haynes paused briefly. “Hell yeah. Hell yeah.” “Now listen, if we had a preference, though, if we’re keeping it real, Chicago better do everything they can to keep the Bears right here,” Fitch added. “This is our advantage. This is where people want to come.” Against the Rams on Sunday night, Haynes said, the team would have the home advantage of Bear weather — including below-freezing temperatures and lakeside wind gusts. The game kicked off at 18 degrees with steady, light snow. Still, it was nowhere near the coldest game the team has played, which was December 2008 against the Green Bay Packers at 2 degrees — 31 degrees below normal. “Today, the fans are going to be the 12th man on the field,” he added. “No question,” Fitch pitched in. “And the weather is the 13th,” Haynes said. “So we have the upper hand.” [email protected] ...read more read less