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Why Bears fans, media are obsessing over Mitch Trubisky

Do Chicago Bears fans and the Chicago media have an unnatural obsession with the development and performance of quarterback Mitchell Trubisky?

Not when you consider it is near impossible to find a single player in the storied history of the Bears in which the team has made a bigger investment of assets and trust.

Before the inception of the NFL draft in 1936, George Halas' greatest leap of faith came at the end of the 1925 college football season when he signed Harold “Red” Grange to a 19-game contract for a combination of salary and a share of ticket revenue that worked out to $100,000.

It was an otherworldly sum at a time when good players were earning less than $100 a game.

However, that deal was aimed at saving and establishing the then five-year-old National Football League rather than building a Bears contender.

Since 1936, the Bears have had the No. 1 overall pick in the draft just twice: Tom Harmon in 1941 and Bob Fenimore in 1947.

But when you consider that by 1947 the Bears already had played in nine NFL title games between 1932 and 1946, winning six of them, those two No. 1 picks didn't have to bear the weight of the success or future of the franchise.

Other than Trubisky, the Bears had the No. 2 pick just twice, drafting quarterbacks Sid Luckman in 1939 and Bob Williams in 1951, but neither of those picks cost Chicago the third overall pick, two third-round picks and a fourth to acquire, like Trubisky.

This is why we spend so much time obsessing over Trubisky, both on and off the field.

Frustrating as it may be to many, it is going to be at the least another season-and-a-half or more to project just how good a thrower of the football and how big a winner Trubisky will be.

Like it or not, that's how long it takes.

But what we can see right now is just what kind of a leader and face of the franchise Trubisky is likely to be.

I asked him Wednesday how he viewed leadership and how he felt about it as a responsibility and commitment to his team.

“I think leadership is a very broad definition,” Trubisky said. “Everybody leads in their own way.

“I definitely lead in my own way, but the different things I like to do are, always be there for my teammates, just know that I've got their back no matter what and I'm going to lay it on the line for them every single day I come to work and on game day, so just always having their back and doing it with action.

“It's one thing to talk about it, but if you're consistently doing it on a daily basis, then you really earn their trust, and trust is another huge thing for me. So there's leadership, you can't just talk about it in one sentence. I can't answer it in one answer.

“It's taken ever since I've stepped into this building to earn the trust and respect of my teammates, and for them to want to be led by me and respect that, it takes a lot of work and it takes every single day, showing up consistently and doing it over a long period of time.

“It's something you're continuously working at and you're always trying to just have that respect level going up and up.”

Forgetting his outstanding performance last Sunday earning him his first Offensive Player of the Week Award, that in a nutshell is why Trubisky is so easy to root for.

While he comes across as a bit of an introvert and possibly even a little shy off the field, Trubisky is mature beyond his years when it comes to understanding the non-playing responsibilities of his job, including his leadership skills, competitiveness and work ethic.

It all paid off for him on the field Sunday against Detroit, and whether it will continue over the long haul remains to be seen. But Trubisky already appears to be well ahead of the curve concerning the mental aspects of the job.

• Hub Arkush, the executive editor of Pro Football Weekly, can be reached at harkush@profootballweekly.com or on Twitter @Hub_Arkush.

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