Shameka Leach isn’t old enough to remember the Bears winning the Super Bowl, but she’ll be watching this year’s championship game in person after she was named the 2023 Bears fan of the year.
“I actually get to go to the Super Bowl,” Leach, 42, told the Chicago Sun-Times.
The NFL Fan of the Year contest — which was developed in collaboration with all 32 NFL teams and began in 2020 — aims to highlight fans who have a deep connection with their team, inspire others and bring together families, friends and local communities.
Submissions were judged based on an applicants’ inspirational stories and community spirit, as well as their passion, enthusiasm and fandom for their favorite team and the NFL.
In addition to her relentless support of the Bears, Leach was picked as the team’s nominee because of her “significant community involvement in her hometown ... as well as her dedication to the club’s community initiatives,” the Bears said in a story posted on their website.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Leach said. “It’s like all of your efforts, all of your time, all of your free love to your community. ... All of those emotions just bottled up in one.”
Leach started doing community events with the Bears about six years ago, she says. She did “huddle events” with the Chicago Food Depository and also planted trees in the community for one event.
She also volunteers with the Pro Football Retired Players Association and works with former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver James Loving to run Loving Tomorrow’s Kids, a football camp for children every June in southwest suburban Robbins.
Loving and Leach grew up as neighbors in Robbins. When Loving moved out of state and struggled with running the camp, he turned to Leach for help, and she instantly began planning.
“This young lady just took care of everything,” Loving told the Sun-Times. “The T-shirts and food were ordered, she had the programs all lined out. Within two days, we had 100 kids sign up.”
Leach has also done extensive community work off the field. She serves as a commissioner for the city of Markham, put together concerts at the Country Club Hills Amphitheater, worked with the Special Olympics for more than two decades, has given scholarships with the Robbins Alumni Association and is part of a number of other community programs and organizations.
Her fondest memories of the team come from the community service she has done with them.
“To see my team, off the field, giving back to the community is my best memories of them,” Leach said.
Leach grew up watching Bears games with her father and brothers — a tradition she continues with her family for some games at her father’s Country Club Hills home after they attend church.
Rivalry games between the Bears and Green Bay Packers are most sentimental to Leach and her family.
“We always had this family rivalry,” Leach told the Sun-Times. “We would always talk trash or talk crazy the morning or weekend of the game, and then whoever lost, their [side of the] family had to wear the opposite jersey.”
“The Packers and Bears games had the same feeling every time,” Leach said.
She was in attendance at the Bears 100 Celebration Weekend in 2019 and got to meet Bears owner Virginia Halas McCaskey.
Leach found out she was picked as the team’s fan of the year Oct. 22 at Soldier Field during the Bears’ matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders.
She thought she was there to be a referee in a flag football game involving mascots at halftime.
As halftime came to a close, Leach was announced as the Bears fan of the year in front of more than 60,000 people.
After finding out, Leach said she told herself “not to have a heart attack on this field.”
“It was a lot of emotions,” she said. “You don’t want to never get recognized for something that you love to do. However, when somebody do recognize you for what you love to do, it’s an amazing feeling.”
Leach and 31 other fans were selected as their respective team’s fans of the year and nominee for the NFL fan of the year. They were given an all-expenses-paid trip, including two tickets and a VIP experience to Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11 in Paradise, Nevada.
During Super Bowl weekend, one of the nominees will be recognized as the NFL fan of the year.
Leach follows such past Bears fan of the year recipients as Destiny Blackmon, a nurse who was on the front lines throughout the COVID-19 pandemic; retired CT technologist Paul Videtich; and Make-A-Wish volunteer Corey Schieler.
To vote for Leach, visit nfl.com/FanOfTheYear. Votes will be valid until Feb. 7.
“I’ve never seen an NFL player do more than what she’s doing,” Loving said. “That needs to be recognized.”
