As the Chicago Bears and 22-year-old quarterback Caleb Williams hope to make it to the Super Bowl in February, their counterparts in the Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association Chicago Bears and 58-year-old quarterback Jeff Yackley, of Lemont, have the same goal.
The NFL Bears officially begin the process Sunday at Soldier Field against Tennessee. The GLASA Bears – a competitive wheelchair team sponsored by the Chicago Bears – began its process Aug. 25 when it won its own USA Wheelchair League Tournament outside Wintrust Financial Center in Rosemont.
That makes the GLASA Bears eligible for the Move United-sponsored Super Bowl, which will be part of the NFL’s Super Bowl festivities in early February at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Yackley thinks going 5-0 in the Rosemont tournament, allowing just seven points total in those games, will help his team get a bid.
“We’ve been hankering for it,” he said. “This is our year that put us in that realm of being considered for qualifying. We have the talent and winning this tournament should help.”
Only two teams are selected for the Super Bowl, and tournaments run through October, so Yackley anticipates hearing an announcement in early November.
The tournament in Rosemont also featured teams sponsored by the Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Chargers, New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Whether the team makes it to the Super Bowl or not, winning the tournament was a huge accomplishment.
“It’s taken us a couple of years to get there,” Yackley said. “It’s exciting to me, anyway. I thought the excitement years would be over for me but fortunately I’ve been able to get back into it. No complaints.”
Yackley said he was the only member of the team from the south suburbs — others reside in north and western suburbs.
He is also involved in adaptive sports in softball and basketball.
Yackley is a Downers Grove native and in 1996 was involved in an accident in Frankfort, when and his future wife, Julianne, were on a motorcycle and collided with a pickup truck.
He suffered permanent damage to his left leg and has a case of foot drop after the accident separated his hip from his body.
Julianne had suffered injuries but she landed on top of Jeff after the impact, so her injuries were not as severe or as long lasting, Jeff said.
Jeff, who was active in sports at Downers Grove North and the College of DuPage figured his days of athletics would be over but many years later he discovered adaptive sports. Even though he is decades older than some of his peers, he has been making up for lost time as a three-sport athlete.
“My children are older than half of the kids playing adaptive sports,” he said. “But the Lord blessed me with athletic ability to hang and contribute in a competitive way.
“He’s been good to me to allow me to play all of this time.”
Playing quarterback is challenging because in wheelchair football, Yackley estimates that 98% of the plays are passes.
“You need to be accurate, and you need some durability,” he said. “If you play five games, you are passing 50 times a game, that’s a lot of tossing.
“You also have to have people who can get down the field a little bit, and catch a football in a chair.”
And, like any smart quarterback, he appreciates his offensive line.
“Our best three linemen could probably play for any good team as wide receivers, or anywhere on the field,” he said.
“For lack of a better term, I can smoke a pack of cigarettes back there with all the time I have to throw. I can pick and choose who I want to throw it to. That’s a huge, huge benefit.”
Yackley, a golf director at the Links of Carillon in Plainfield, appreciated the support from the Bears.
He said members of the team were invited to Bears training camp and will be invited to some games as well. Ex-NFL players made appearances at the tournament.
There is preliminary talk about a postseason scrimmage between the Bears and the GLASA Bears in wheelchairs. Nothing is close to being formalized, but Yackley is all for it.
“It will give them a perspective of playing the sport in a chair,” he said.
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
