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Similarly, some Bears fans figure to feel a certain level of disappointment when they realize Rick Smith, the former Houston Texans GM and executive vice president of football operations, never interviewed here. Smith, according to one league source, privately expressed interest in learning more about the Bears’ future plans as early as December, before it was known what exactly the organization planned to do with then-GM Ryan Pace or team president/CEO Ted Phillips.

“I feel like I’ve always been the guy where it’s like, oh, he’s a Midwest guy, we don’t know how good he actually is,” Priester said. “Being from the Midwest, you don’t get the same publicity as maybe some of the warmer-state players. And then once people started to talk about it, it got to me a little bit, so I just need to reel it back in and I feel in a much better place going into this spring training.”

Agent Joel Segal told ESPN in 2013: “In dealing with Omar, you always know what you are getting. He’s going to be prepared, he’s going to be forward, he’s going to be tough. He’s always going to be willing to listen to you even if he doesn’t agree with you. You better be prepared because he’s on top of his business.”

“For me, as for everyone, the pandemic was sort of something that stopped time and accelerated it,” he said. “It meant that I had a lot of hours at home. I took a year off from school, I was working a couple different jobs, but I was also spending a lot of time doing some pretty deep introspection and trying to reconnect with a part of myself that I didn’t sort of always feel connected to. That ended up with me coming out at the beginning of 2021, first to family, then to close friends, extended family. My team.