NFL Insider Tom Pelissero Is on Bears Watch. And NOT the Ones in Chicago!

Tom Pelissero has covered training camps, trade deadlines, and quarterback derbies. On this particular day, the NFL insider was covering the possibility of getting mauled by a grizzly.

When Rich pulled up Pelissero's Zoom window and asked the obvious first question, where in the world is Tom Pelissero, the answer came back from the Canadian Rockies. Pelissero admitted he had misjudged the weather. The temperature read 49 degrees, but with the sun beating down on his head it felt like 80, and he was already planning to shed a layer.

Rich noted the show had reached a genuine first. In roughly 15 years, the crew had never conducted an interview with a guest who could realistically get mauled by a grizzly mid-answer. Pelissero leaned into it. Every shop in town, he said, sells bear shirts, and all the local art is photos of bears. His response to the wildlife enthusiasm was blunt. "I don't want to see a bear. I've seen like four goats. That is close enough to nature for me." He figured he was safe for the length of the interview, given that he was up and above the trails, but he was not taking chances.

The studio offered survival tips of varying quality. TJ was told to keep the camera rolling in case the moment arrived. The consensus advice was to get big and yell, though Pelissero was skeptical of the official guidance. His wife had told him that if a bear appeared on the trail, the move was to stay completely still. Pelissero was not buying it. "That sounds like bear propaganda," he said. "They want you to think just stay still and then they'll come over and maul you right in the face." Asked about fight or flight, he did not hesitate. He is not fighting the bear. It is going to be all flee.

Rich had one more idea. If a bear does turn up, Pelissero should simply stare it down, the same way Bears head coach Ben Johnson stared down the reporter who placed a phone on his podium without a do-not-disturb setting. Pelissero wondered whether the Ringer would set the bear off, but allowed that a very special one might.

By the end, the well-wishes were pointed in a hopeful direction. Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Pelissero, reporting from the wild and hoping the next bears he encounters are the ones at an NFL training camp.