Arts & Entertainment
No, Chicago Bears Coach Matt Eberflus is Not a Beekeeper. ‘Hard Knocks’ Sets the Record Straight
Tuesday night’s finale of HBO’s “Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Chicago Bears” finally put to rest a rumor that’s been buzzing around Matt Eberflus for months.
No, the team’s head coach is not a beekeeper.
“It would be cool if I could do that, but I'm a little busy,” Eberflus said. (Busy as a ... bee?)
So where did this story come from?
It took off this past spring when reporter Kay Adams shared a picture of a bottle of Eberflus Apiary honey on social media.
“Learn something new every day,” Adams wrote.
learn something new everyday. @ChicagoBears #bears pic.twitter.com/Hv6g0tRYpK
— Kay Adams (@heykayadams) May 6, 2024
Other media outlets picked up on Adams’ tweet and ran with it — everyone from ESPN Radio’s David Kaplan to a Chicago Bears Facebook fan page to The Score’s “Parkins & Spiegel Show,” the last of which declared "Matt Eberflus is both a beekeeper and a favorite for NFL Coach of the Year."
In an August preview of "Hard Knocks" for NBC Sports Chicago, Alex Shapiro wrote, “With any luck we’ll get a look at the head coach in full beekeeping regalia, tending his hives.”
The whispers grew even louder when an eagle-eyed viewer of “Hard Knocks” spotted a bottle of the Eberflus honey sitting on a table during an early episode of the series and posted a screenshot to Reddit.
“Am I reading this correctly?” the contributor wondered about the label.
Yep, commenters said, Eberflus is a beekeeper who makes his own honey. (In true Reddit fashion, the conversation quickly disintegrated into an argument over whether all bears like honey or just Winnie the Pooh.)
It took five episodes for “Hard Knocks” to get to the truth.
Camera crews visited Eberflus and his wife Kelly at their Lake Bluff home. The property, the couple said, already had an apiary when they bought it and they agreed to keep the bees.
“It’s been great watching them, observing them and also getting the honey. We harvest the honey out of there,” the coach said.
Kelly, quickly interjected: “But he doesn’t do it.”
“I have a beekeeper,” the coach cut in, finishing her thought.
Viewers do get a glimpse of said beekeeper in the “regalia” Shapiro had hoped for, checking the hives while the Eberfluses watch from a safe-ish distance.
Cue the coach swatting one of the insects away from his head.
“I had one buzzing the tower there,” he said.
Contact Patty Wetli: @pattywetli | (773) 509-5623 | [email protected]
