David Yoon

Case Keenum has been in the NFL since 2012. Until Monday night, his two kids had never seen him play a game. Not one. Not ever. Here is what he said before kickoff. "It means everything. It's incredible because we always say 'Keenum's can do hard things.' So we'll do some hard things tonight. And hopefully I can show them tonight how it's done." He is 38 years old. He was the third quarterback on the Chicago Bears depth chart. Caleb Williams was ruled out. Backup Tyson Bagent went into concussion protocol. So the job fell to the guy nobody expected to take another snap in his life. It had been 1,009 days since Case Keenum started a regular season NFL game. The last one was Christmas Eve of 2023 with the Houston Texans. His son Kyler was born in November of 2019. His daughter Cadence was born in April of 2021. Which means Case Keenum has been an NFL quarterback for every single day that either of his children has been alive, and neither one of them had ever seen him play a game. Cadence was two years old the last time he started one. He arrived at Soldier Field carrying what looked like a paper sack, dressed like a man on his way to a parent teacher conference. The internet had a wonderful time with it. Somebody said his wife must have packed him a lunch. That wife is Kimberly. The family calls her the logistical ninja, because she is the one who has packed and unpacked their whole life through the Houston Texans, the Rams, the Minnesota Vikings, the Denver Broncos, Washington, the Cleveland Browns, the Buffalo Bills, Houston again, and now the Chicago Bears. This is also the man who threw for 19,217 yards at Houston, which is still the most in the history of college football, and then went undrafted. Then the game started. 24 of 34. 247 yards. Two touchdowns. No interceptions. Not sacked one time. Eight yards to Luther Burden III in the first quarter. Forty one yards to Kalif Raymond in the third. Then in the fourth he kept it himself and walked it in from a yard out. Three touchdowns from a third string quarterback. Chicago Bears 27, Philadelphia Eagles 7. When it ended he walked off hyping up the crowd in the north end zone, and the whole stadium stood up for him. And then came the part nobody could have written. Keenum went out to do his postgame interview on the SportsCenter set. His daughter came with him. Five years old, out on that stage next to her dad, waving at a stadium full of Chicago Bears fans who were still standing there cheering for him. Fourteen years of practice squads and backup jobs and new cities and moving trucks. He said it himself when he signed here. More than knowing how to get hit, he knows how to get back up. The first NFL game his kids ever got to watch, their dad won it, and he scored three times doing it. Keenums can do hard things. For more stories like this, follow us on any platform @thesportsontap