Two guys and a truckload of history with the Bears
The Bears take 12,000 pounds of equipment with them when they travel. Meet the man who has been driving the truck for 30 years — surviving cancer and a heart attack along the way. It’s a moving story, from Ditka to Nagy ... and everywhere in between.
Where to start with the story of 68-year-old Ken Miller and his right-hand man, Bryan Carlson? Miller’s first season as the official mover of Bears equipment, back in 1989 when Mike Ditka was still manning the sideline? The heart attack Miller suffered in Foxborough before a Bears-Patriots preseason game in 2016? Or how about all the Bears he — and Carlson — have moved into new homes? “He wanted to get in the truck and help,” Miller says of Jay Cutler. Rich Campbell’s story on two of the Bears’ biggest — and strongest — fans,
The 68-year-old man and the 350-pound trunk come through the doorway together and start up the ramp, one dominating the other. As if that weren’t enough, three boxes of Gatorade powder sit atop the trunk. Ken Miller’s need for efficiency outweighs the cargo.
It’s approaching 2 p.m. on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. In less than 48 hours, the Bears and Lions will kick off in Detroit — 316 miles and a holiday rush hour from the Halas Hall loading dock.
Miller is bent at the waist with both arms extended, slowly but steadily pushing the navy trunk on wheels from the Bears equipment room toward the 40-foot semitrailer he’ll use to haul an estimated 12,000 pounds of supplies and equipment to the game.
“This,” Miller says, “is nothing compared to carrying a dresser down a flight of stairs.”
He would know. As the owner of Meyers Movers, Miller has helped move the Bears to and from games and everywhere in between since 1989.
Somewhere on his 30-year ride from that first training camp in Platteville, Wis., to this weekend’s trip to East Rutherford, N.J., Miller became part of the Bears fabric.
His company has moved every coach since Dave Wannstedt and every top personnel executive since Mark Hatley. Meyers’ Rolodex of player clients spans from Anthony Adams to Chris Zorich. Many of the names are familiar. Singletary and Dent. Cutler and Hester. Pace and Nagy.
“Ken is kind of like family,” said Tony Medlin, the Bears’ venerable head equipment manager. “What he does for the Bears, he goes over and beyond. It’s his dedication, the way he always goes about getting it done right. He knows exactly what we need, and his role is just as important as everything else.”
The move to Detroit is the eighth of 11 scheduled for road games this season. The NFL doesn’t stop for holidays, and neither do Miller and his crew.
The Bears bring their uniform gear — helmets, pads, jerseys, etc. — on the team plane, but most of their equipment and supplies travel to most road games in Miller’s truck.
And the Bears use tons of stuff for just one game.
Towels, jackets, shoes, thermals, medical supplies, collapsible training tables, football equipment, coolers, etc.
The most random item? Probably the pair of blue, metal stools. They’re only 2 feet tall, but offensive line coach Harry Hiestand and defensive line coach Jay Rodgers like to sit low to talk to their players on the bench.
Having Miller drive all that stuff saves players an uncomfortable wait on a tarmac after a game while the plane is packed. It also allows United Airlines to charter the Bears a smaller plane.
Miller’s passion for the work and the team has kept him lifting, pushing and driving through some recent health potholes. He had radiation for prostate cancer in the spring of 2016. Then he had a heart attack on the job at the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium in August that year.
The latter is a heck of a story, part of the library Miller and his crew have amassed over countless miles and hours working for the Bears and people connected to the team.
Like when they moved Jim McMahon and rode with his pet gerbils in the cab so they wouldn’t freeze in the trailer.
Or that time an old lady in Green Bay flipped off Miller after seeing the big Bears logo on the truck.
Or when they moved coach Matt Nagy from Overland Park, Kan., in June, and one of the crew members mentioned to the former Eagles assistant that he’s an Eagles fan.
Nagy immediately dug into a box and gave him autographed photos of Michael Vick, LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson.
This move to Detroit should be more routine than colorful, but that’s never a certainty. As Bears players do their walkthrough to prepare for the Lions, Miller and his crew roll the last laundry tub onto the truck.
Miller climbs into the cab and settles in behind the wheel with his mini-cooler full of Diet Coke and oranges. Bryan Carlson, the Meyers Movers sales consultant and Miller’s top lieutenant on Bears jobs, buckles in shotgun. They roll over to the Payton Center, where the team is practicing. One last item must be loaded.
Finally, the Bears are done using the JUGS machine. It goes in the trailer, and the door is locked. At 2:57 p.m., the truck growls past the Halas Hall security gate.
Miller is back on the road.
Tuesday p.m.
They’re stuck on the Edens.
Miller and Carlson will have the luxury of a police escort after meeting the team plane at the Detroit airport Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday, though, it takes two mind-numbing hours to go the 40 miles from Halas Hall to the Chicago Skyway’s open road.
Miller likes to drive halfway to the destination two nights before the game, so Battle Creek, Mich., is the stopping point after nearly 4½ hours. Three tractortrailers are parked together behind the Quality Inn near the FireKeepers casino, but Miller insists on parking his in front where it’s better lit. A hotel staffer reluctantly acquiesces.
Miller and Carlson get cleaned up, trading their navy hoodies and Dickies pants for dinner attire. Miller wears a pine green Ralph Lauren cowl neck sweater and black pants to the casino. His full mustache befits a man who has devoted his life to lifting heavy objects.
Dinner is strategically located at the Dacey’s Taphouse bar, where Miller can play three-card video poker. He orders the Cuban sandwich and his go-to cocktail, Diet Coke and Bacardi Limon. Carlson, 45, gets the short-rib tacos and a dark craft beer. Now it’s story time.
Miller flashes back to Sunday afternoon, Aug. 14, 2016. The Bears flew to Providence, R.I., for two practices with the Patriots in Foxborough, Mass., before playing them in an exhibition game that Thursday.
As Miller drove to the stadium from his airport rendezvous with the team, he felt too cold with the air conditioning on. Too hot with the window down. His shirt became soaked with sweat. He had pain in his jaw and left arm.
He tried to snap himself back to normal by walking around the stadium. “Miller, you don’t look so good,” Medlin said. Minutes after a Bears trainer took his pulse, he heard the sirens.
Three of Miller’s arteries contained blockages. The heart attack required a stent to be inserted that night and two more inserted when he returned to Chicago five days later.
When Miller was hospitalized in New England, Bears Chairman George McCaskey visited alone. He asked Miller what he was going to do.
Miller broke down crying.
“I just feel so loyal to this team,” he recalled saying. “I want to be here when we get good again.”
McCaskey assured him it was coming. Then he told Miller to get back to Chicago instead of working the game and driving the truck. Less than three weeks after the heart attack, though, he moved the Bears to Cleveland for the preseason finale.
“I was more worried about him living than working because he pushes himself so hard,” said Linda Miller, Ken’s wife and business partner. “It was pretty scary. He really hasn’t slowed up much since then.”
That’s because he’s magnetized to the work and the team. The games, the jobs and the relationships are everything.
Like when they moved Cutler and his family.
“Jay was great,” Miller said. “He wanted to get in the truck and help.”
“The hardest-working Bears player we’ve ever moved,” Carlson added.
They’ve moved Cutler three times, in fact. Each time, the quarterback carried stuff out to the truck at the same pace as the movers. Carlson once encouraged Cutler to take it easy by saying Tom Brady wouldn’t be so eager to help. That only strengthened Cutler’s resolve.
And, as it turned out, he isn’t just the hardest worker. He’s the biggest tipper too.
Miller was always partial to Olin Kreutz. Maybe it was because Miller himself was an honorable-mention all-state center at Addison Trail High School. Maybe it was because no one was happier and more effusive than Kreutz whenever the Bears won.
Miller’s admiration goes all the way to the top of the organization. His company moved Virginia McCaskey into her brick ranch home in Des Plaines.
“She handwrote me a note,” Miller said, “about what a great job the crew did.”
After dinner, Miller wanders out into the casino in search of a hotter table than his video poker machine. Finding none, he turns in.
After all, he doesn’t drink coffee or energy drinks on the road. He has never smoked. He relies on one thing to stay alert.
“A good night’s sleep,” he said. “Just go to bed.”
Wednesday a.m.
Moving the Bears is a logistical labyrinth of pick-ups and drop-offs. Miller and Carlson run into twists all the time.
Miller says it’s better to be early and wait than late and in trouble. Sure enough, they arrive at the Ford Field loading ramp to find another truck parked in front of the Bears locker room. They wait 75 minutes to unload.
For this move, Miller has dialed up the everyman game plan: He called able-bodied family. Miller’s brother and nephew help unload the truck. For their trouble, they get tickets to the game.
Three Lions employees help the group carry coolers and push trunks into the visitor’s locker room. They appreciate the freedom to help.
When the Packers visit, they prohibit Lions movers and equipment guys from entering the room. They’ve also been known to bring a giant rug with the “G” logo to make it feel more like home. With the Bears in town, there are none of those shenanigans.
Moving has always been a family affair for Miller. His maternal grandfather was William Meyers, who started the company in Elmhurst in 1926 hauling coal and ice.