The spotlight
n his 107th day as a Bear, Khalil Mack FaceTimed with Deion Sanders. You ball, you get the call. That’s what Sanders’ weekly Sunday segment on NFL Network promises. And on Dec. 16, Mack certainly had balled, recording 2½ sacks on Aaron Rodgers in a 24-17 Bears victory that clinched the NFC North title.
There was the “Back Sack” with Mack helping smother Aaron Rodgers by spinning into him and thrusting his back and butt weight into him until the Packers quarterback fell. And there was another display of Mack’s quickness and aggressiveness in the fourth quarter when he blurred past right tackle Jason Spriggs and dived to bury Rodgers again.
What a fitting way to seal the division championship, with the Bears’ new star mauling the two-time MVP quarterback who had spent the last decade giving Chicago recurring nightmares.
Still, if Mack was in the mood for a raucous celebration, he certainly wasn’t letting on. First, in a five-minute interview scrum, he downplayed his championship satisfaction, insisting there were far bigger goals to chase.
Then he sat down and somewhat reluctantly chatted with Sanders. Wearing a white T-shirt with a brown knit cap pulled over his ears, Mack didn’t want the praise Sanders was determined to shower on him.
Sanders: “Khalil Mack, baby. I’m only calling you because you ballin’. It has to feel good knowing that you come over there and change the whole thought process not only of this team but of this defense, man.”
Mack: “Man. You could say that, man. But these guys have been putting in work. Just coming in I wanted to be a part of greatness. And that’s what it’s been.”
Sanders: “How far can this team go, man, right now — this Bears team, offensively as well as defensively?”
Mack: “Everybody gets on here and says sky’s the limit, man. But we’ve got to just keep stacking these wins. Learning from wins. And yeah, you’ll see it down the stretch. We’re not really gonna talk about it. We want to be about it. And that’s what it really is for me.”
One day, Sanders and Mack may be fraternity brothers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But their deportment couldn’t be any more different. Sanders always has been a marquee on the Vegas strip, flashy and loud and all about the glitz. As an eight-time All-Pro cornerback, he tormented receivers and quarterbacks then danced and trashtalked excessively to commemorate the big moments.
Mack? He’s more like a UPS driver, determined to get his job done efficiently and methodically without needing any fanfare.
“I love the way he carries himself,” Nagy said. “He’s a guy who does it all with his actions. He doesn’t need to be all rah-rah.”
All season, Mack has seemed somewhere between annoyed and embarrassed with the increased spotlight. Chicago is new turf with a much larger media horde than Oakland ever had, with a brightly lit stage that Mack never experienced at the University at Buffalo.
That has created an odd dynamic with one of the league’s most exciting stars not wanting to be the face or the voice of this fun-filled Bears renaissance.
The accolades. The praise. It all makes Mack fidgety.
“You’ve got to shake it off,” he said. He shimmied his shoulders, as if every bit of media attention makes him feel like he’s walking into a spider web.
“I don’t like it,” he said. “It’s just being me, man. … If you get caught up in people saying you’re good and people saying this or that, good or bad, it can kind of wear on you. Or it ‘ll make you feel like you’re better than what you are.”
As interview obligations go, Mack prefers to do the bare minimum required by league policy — a once-a-week demand that the Bears edge rusher prefers to fulfill on Friday afternoons when the media crowd is thinnest. And occasionally the 27-year-old superstar makes a concerted effort to avoid even that.
“I do know his reluctance,” Nagy said. “I also know that none of it is malicious. He just doesn’t like the attention. He doesn’t want it. There are a lot of people who don’t like the light shined on them.
“Unfortunately, when you’re that good of a player like he is, people want to know more about you. That comes with the territory. And I think he understands that and is getting better with that.”
Teammates describe Mack as an alpha. But they’ve also been struck by how modest he can be, how he seems somewhat shy when it comes to outside attention.
“Humble dude,” Trevathan said. “Being around the league, you see other guys of that stature who hold themselves in high regard. Khalil doesn’t. Work-wise, he has that high standard. But being around the guys, he fits right in. His fellowship has been impressive. And he truly wants to share his accolades with us. He wants us to be involved.”
In early October, when the Fox pregame show sent Charissa Thompson to Lake Forest to do a feature on Mack’s instant impact, the outside linebacker wouldn’t agree to a sitdown unless teammates Trevathan, Akiem Hicks and Kyle Fuller could join him.
“That’s him being Khalil Mack,” Trevathan said. “And that’s all he has to be for us. Now the young guys can see a guy who has so much pressure on him, who is held to higher expectations but is always so humble and so hard-working.”