“Bears are who we thought” is a riff on one of the most famous rants in NFL history, when Arizona Cardinals head coach Dennis Green shouted “The Bears are who we thought they were!” after a 2006 Monday Night Football loss to the Chicago Bears.

What the phrase means

In that rant, Green was saying that the Bears played exactly like the Cardinals expected: tough defense and special teams, shaky offense, not as dominant as their record suggested.

So when people say “bears are who we thought” now, they usually mean:

  • A team, person, or situation turned out exactly as expected, flaws and all.
  • Any hype or “crowning” of them as elite was overblown, because their true nature was already obvious.
  • The speaker feels a mix of frustration and “we knew this all along,” just like Green did at the podium.

Quick Scoop: origin story

  • The line comes from the postgame press conference after the 2006 Chicago Bears–Arizona Cardinals game, where the Bears came back to win despite scoring no offensive touchdowns.
  • Green’s full rant included: “The Bears are who we thought they were… Now if you want to crown them, then crown their ass! But they are who we thought they were! And we let ’em off the hook!”
  • The clip became a long‑running sports meme, referenced on TV, in articles, and in fan communities for years afterward.

How it’s used online now

Around forums and social media, variations like “they are who we thought they were” or short spins like “bears are who we thought” show up when:

  • A team collapses or underperforms in a predictable way.
  • A player, coach, company, or public figure behaves exactly in line with prior warning signs.
  • Fans want a dramatic, meme-y way to say: “Nothing new here, this is exactly who they’ve always been.”

People sometimes twist the grammar on purpose (“they will have been who we thought…” etc.) to make it absurd and funny, playing off how over-the-top the original rant felt.

Why it still hits in 2026

  • Sports and internet culture love short, quotable lines that capture a feeling of exasperated “I told you so,” and this one is perfect for that.
  • The quote taps into a broader idea: you can usually predict future behavior by looking at past behavior; people, teams, and systems don’t change that much.
  • For Bears fans in particular, it’s become part of the franchise’s modern folklore, tied to one of the wildest games of the 2000s.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.