Under pressure Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson left NFL viewers deeply unimpressed by his aggressive staredown in response to a question by CBS reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala.
The Bears were losing 14-9 against Las Vegas Raiders when Johnson stopped to speak to Kinkhabwala after the halftime interval was over and the third quarter was about to begin.
As she teed up her question to Johnson by saying ‘your offense has struggled’, he interrupted and said: ‘They haven’t done anything, you’re right.’
Kinkhabwala replied: ‘So, what did you tell them to get things going?’
‘That wasn’t our brand of football,’ Johnson said. ‘We’re capable of a lot more and so we’re hitting the reset button here at half time and we’re going to come back and establish our identity here in the second half.’
Kinkhabwala continued: ‘Do you need to change what you’re doing?’
Ben Johnson gave a tense interview to Aditi Kinkhabwala during Bears vs Raiders
Kinkhabwala spoke to Johnson moments before the third quarter started on Sunday
Giving a cold stare back at the CBS reporter, which he held for a few moments after his final comment, Johnson said: ‘I don’t know. You think so? We’re going to be just fine.’
Fans immediately picked up on Johnson’s gesture and said it gave them a bad feeling.
‘Absolutely immature by him. Aditi deserves better,’ one fan wrote on X, while another tagged Kinkhabwala in their reply and said: ‘He was completely out of line for that.’
A different viewer posted on X: ‘That Ben Johnson interview didn’t sit right with me.’
Joe Schad, who covers the Miami Dolphins for Palm Beach Post, posted: ‘I don’t like this one bit from Ben Johnson with the reporter Aditi.’
The announcers on CBS picked up on what they called a ‘menacing stare’ from Johnson and that he appeared to be ‘a little intimidating’ towards Kinkhabwala.
But whatever Johnson said to his team at the interval clearly had a huge impact. The Bears fought back to down the Raiders with a 25-24 victory.
Josh Blackwell blocked a 54-year-old field-goal attempt by Daniel Carlson in the final minute to make sure the day ended in victory for Johnson and his team.
The Bears fought back from 14-9 down to beat the Raiders and move to 2-2 for the season
But Johnson was clearly unimpressed by what he had seen from his team in the first half
The win cemented a moment of history for the Chicago organization, too. The Bears became the second team to win 800 regular-season games, joining the Green Bay Packers, who had 812 going into Sunday night´s game at Dallas.
But NFL Analyst Chase Daniel, meanwhile, clearly thought nothing of Johnson’s moment of controversy.
He shared the divisive clip moments after the Bears won, saying: ‘And this is the moment where the Bears turned it around! Huge road win…Ben Johnson is changing the culture there.’
Johnson took over as Bears head coach during the offseason and after Sunday’s win his team are 2-2 following their Week 4 showdown.
They have a bye week next week, meaning they return to action on October 13 against Washington Commanders for Monday Night Football.
That game will be shown on ESPN, not CBS, so Johnson won’t have an immediate reunion with Kinkhabwala.