When it comes to football and sports in general, many people believe that playing with heart is one of the most important aspects that outweighs skill and talent. The heart to give it your all, go the distance, and do what it takes to win the game. Playing with heart is important, but taking care of your actual heart is even more vital.
That’s what former Chicago Bears long snapper Patrick Mannelly learned shortly after losing the most important game of his 16-year playing career. In the days following the Bears‘ disappointing 29-17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI, Mannelly’s mother passed away. “She had a sudden heart attack. She was away on vacation in Costa Rica with my dad and some family friends, and that scared the hell out of me,” Mannelly said in an exclusive interview with Bears Wire. That’s when he decided to take matters into his own hands.
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Mannelly discovered a history of heart issues in his family following his mother’s passing. “A lot of the men on her side of the family have died between 60 and 65 years old.” He decided waiting on the sidelines wasn’t an option for him and got involved with Heartflow, a groundbreaking heart care solution that uses artificial intelligence to detect and manage coronary artery disease (CAD).
Specifically, Mannelly is working with GAMEFILM to spread awareness for former NFL players regarding cardiovascular disease. Up to one in three former NFL players die from cardiovascular disease, and Mannelly wants to make sure those players are aware of this new technology. He is even working with his former teammates in a group text thread and encouraging them to get tested after going through the process himself.
“After I got my scan, I went right to them and said, ‘Listen, guys, sign up. It’s free. It’s easy. Let’s get it done.’ I’ve had former teammates that aren’t doing well and former teammates that I know have had heart issues. And what’s cool is in this text chain, we share all this kind of information back and forth about all sorts of stuff. Of course we’ll talk about the Bears and what’s going on and talk crap back and forth. But it’s really helpful to have this, and I just want to push it out there for former teammates, other people in the NFL.”
Mannelly wasn’t thinking about his heart health until midway through his playing career following his mother’s passing. “You think you’re Superman. You really do.” He’s hoping this not only helps former players but also those currently in the league as well. “It’s just an easy 20-minute heart scan.” For more information, visit Heartflow.com/Football.
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At some point during a special season, the conversation shifts from contending for a playoff berth to becoming a legitimate threat to win the Super Bowl. Fans and players alike go through it with a true belief that a title is within reach. That Super Bowl belief seemed to officially arrive for the 2026 Bears team following their decisive 34-17 win over the reigning champion Seattle Seahawks to improve to 6-2. They vaulted up the power rankings and are being discussed as a Super Bowl favorite.
Belief like that can be infectious, and Mannelly reminisced about when he believed that the 2006 team was destined to play in the Super Bowl. It turns out it was much earlier than Week 8.
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“Going into training camp in ’06, we kind of started that mantra that we’re a Super Bowl team, and I think that went a long way,” he said. “We knew we were pretty good. We looked across, you know, the locker room and saw the players that we had that were kind of coming of age, and that’s kind of what this Bears team is doing. But I think our moment started kind of in training camp. We knew that in 2005 we were pretty good, but we were young and just not ready for that stage yet. And in ’06, we just had a lot of belief, and there was talk amongst ourselves like we’re going to the Super Bowl, but I think that’s what’s going on with this team.”
Mannelly also credits head coach Ben Johnson for keeping the focus on the next game. “I love what Ben Johnson is saying, which is that ‘I hear it now, but that’s not what I’m preaching.’ But I guarantee you, inside that locker room, guys are like, ‘Shoot, we’re pretty good.’ Those last two wins kind of kind of put you up there, talking about a Super Bowl team. And that belief will go a long way throughout the rest of the season.”
Part of the reason for the Bears’ increased Super Bowl odds and discussion is because of the arrival of All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons. The Bears acquired Simmons from the Tennessee Titans in exchange for a package centered around two first-round picks. Following his Bears debut in Seattle, people think the Bears should have given up even more to land him in Chicago.
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Simmons’ arrival and impact reminded Mannelly of another star defensive player that showed up to Chicago—and it wasn’t Khalil Mack. “It’s like when we signed Julius Peppers,” Mannelly said. Even me being the long snapper, I felt it. I’m like, ‘Damn, we got a guy. This is good. This is a Hall of Famer.’ You knew he was going to be a Hall of Famer, and I kind of feel that way about Jeffrey Simmons.”
Peppers helped lead the Bears to the NFC Championship game in his first season after signing a lucrative deal in free agency and became the latest Monster of the Midway for four seasons. But Peppers was signed in free agency in the spring, while Simmons was a midseason acquisition. “It makes a big difference because it’s a confidence level,” Mannelly said regarding the impact a player like that can make. “It’s a belief during the game that that guy will make a play at some point to change the outcome or change a series.”
The Bears will go as far as quarterback Caleb Williams takes them, and he’s playing stellar football since returning from his hamstring injury. In his last three games, Williams has thrown for 806 yards and four touchdowns and has taken just eight sacks. He has been lethal from the pocket as he continues to get comfortable scrambling with the ball again and is playing the best football of his young career.
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It’s clear that Williams has taken a step, but to Mannelly, the quarterback is taking leaps. “He took a step from Year 1 to Year 2, but I feel like Year 2 to Year 3 is just twice or three times more. He’s taken complete ownership of the offense. You talk about an elite quarterback; it’s a guy that can run the huddle pre-snap and then dissect the defense and make the right decisions. And he only has one interception through eight games. I know he hasn’t played them all, but that’s incredible.”
Like most Bears fans, Mannelly has dealt with his fair share of poor quarterback play. From total busts like Cade McNown and Shane Matthews to erratic gunslingers like Rex Grossman and Jay Cutler, he’s seen the struggles up close. Williams is showing him that he’s the complete package. “We knew his skill level with his arm, his legs, and all that kind of stuff, but now his brain is catching up with all that, and that’s probably the biggest thing that’s excited me.”
You will never get Mannelly to take anyone over kicker Robbie Gould when it comes to trusting someone to make a clutch field goal, but he has plenty of respect for what Cairo Santos has done for the Bears. Especially lately.
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Santos made one of the biggest kicks of his career back against the New England Patriots when he drilled a career-long 58-yard field goal to extend the Bears’ lead that would ultimately be the difference in a 30-24 win. And it came shortly after he doinked a closer attempt. Mannelly was very impressed with not only the kick but also the decision to stick with Santos at the very end. “I’ll tell you what. The balls that Ben Johnson had and for Cairo to say, ‘I’ll go out and make that 58-yarder’ after he missed the other one, that was huge. That said a lot about him.”
In his seventh consecutive season with the Bears, Santos is having his worst season when it comes to field goal percentage. He’s converting 76.5% of his attempts, the lowest in at least eight games in his career. The 35-year-old is still the team’s most accurate kicker, however, with an 87.3% field goal percentage, which is two points higher than Gould (85.4%). But Mannelly knows who the gold standard is. “I love Cairo, but Robbie’s my guy. Robbie never missed a playoff kick in his career. You’re talking about clutch. That insane.”
The Ben Johnson era has already treated fans to multiple classic regular season games, from the back-and-forth tilt with the Cincinnati Bengals to the walk-off DJ Moore touchdown against the Green Bay Packers. But there is no two-game stretch quite like the one back in 2001 when safety Mike Brown scored game-winning defensive touchdowns against the San Francisco 49ers and again vs. the Cleveland Browns as part of the Bears’ magical 13-3 season that came out of nowhere.
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Mannelly had a front-row seat to those games, which took place 25 years ago almost to the week, and still marvels at what took place back then. “I’d never seen anything like that,” Mannelly recounted. “We knew Mike Brown was a great player, but for him to do that in back-to-back games and the way it happened against two teams like that, it’s just incredible. What that did to me personally, I think what it did to a lot of our guys on that team, was instill belief. That anything can happen in the fourth quarter, whether you’re down 21 or whatever the point differential is. And we talked about it on that team from that moment. We never thought we were out of it in the fourth quarter.”
Both games had elements of what the 2025 Bears did under Johnson. They overcame major point deficits and odds to battle back and had iconic plays to finish the game off. The Bears were down 28-9 in the third quarter against the 49ers, and down 21-7 with just 30 seconds left against the Browns. They managed to win both, with Brown putting the finishing touches with game-sealing interceptions. “It’s just that’s an iconic moment in my mind of Bears memories,” Mannelly said. “You just pinch yourself. You can’t believe you’re on the field and that you were a part of it. Yeah, it was truly amazing.”
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Patrick Mannelly talks heart health, Bears season, Cairo Santos & more
