Bears fans have spoken and many of them can’t stomach #FeedDaBears.
The NFL and Twitter announced hashtag emojis for all 32 teams on the eve of Thursday’s season opener, but the Bears have been been incorporating their designated slogan in tweets since Aug. 26.
The Bears worked with the league to pick #FeedDaBears as its hashtag, and plan to use it periodically this season along with other hashtags, a Bears vice president of communications Brandon Faber said via email.
Many people on social media took an immediate dislike to Bears’ phrase and several other team hashtags.
“#feeddabears makes me almost as uncomfortable as #skol,” tweeted Fox Sports 1 “Garbage Time” host Katie Nolan, alluding to the Vikings’ slogan.
ESPN the Magazine writer Mina Kimes added, “you couldn’t pay me to say “feed da bears” out loud in a public place.”
“Which is worse #FeedDaBears for @ChicagoBears or Guaranteed Rate Field for the @whitesox ?,” asked Twitter user John Kunst.
Some fans adopted the phrase while others questioned the team didn’t use the time-honored “Bear down.”
The University of Arizona registered the word mark in October 1988. “Bear down” has its own symbolism within the Wildcat community.
Before “win one for the Gipper” became a famed, deathbed rallying cry, former Wildcats quarterback John Byrd “Button” Salmon urged his coach to pass on a message to his teammates shortly before he died from his injuries from a car crash in 1926.
“Tell them … tell them to bear down,” Salmon said. The phrase spread on campus and was painted on the roof of a gym. “It’s kind of taken life of its own,” said Alixe Holcomb Gustafson, director of trademarks and licensing at the University of Arizona. “Our fans love it, our alumni love it. … it has so much value and meaning for us.
“From what we take it as a meaning, it means, bear down and get it done, in a football context. Bear down, give it your all especially since at the time the Wildcats weren’t very good,” she laughed.
plthompson@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @_phil_thompson
