Holiday Touchdown A Bears Love Story Final Image Assets
Lyndsy Fonseca (center) plays Avery, a reporter from New York City who wants to write an article about a woman attending her 500th Chicago Bears football game. The woman, played by Marsha Mason, agrees, but only if her grandson serves as Avery’s ambassador to Chicago for the holidays.
©2026 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Elizabeth Sisson
Talk about a Sweet Home Chicago.
“Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story” is like a game plan where the coaches write down the first 15 offensive snaps in advance, and the team follows that script to the letter. It’s a predictable, time-tested, winning formula, with few surprises and a high degree of safety.
Filmed during the blistering heat of July (kudos to the actors and extras wearing their winter layers), this third entry in the “Holiday Touchdown” franchise (after Kansas City and Buffalo) brings the Hallmark recipe to Chicago. Look, we know this material isn’t going to have the profanity and scorched-earth emotional content of something like “The Bear” or “The Chi.”
With solid direction from Dustin Rikert, this is a warm-hearted, eggnog-laced version of Chicago during the holidays, where it’s all about the open-air holiday market, singing Christmas karaoke, getting together with family — and rooting for the Bears to beat those Packers. As such, it’s a lovely slice of comfort viewing, with excellent production values, fine work by the talented cast, and exactly the kind of ending we’ve come to expect and appreciate from the team at Hallmark. (Disclosure: My sister, Laura Roeper, was the prop master for this film.)
“Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story” kicks off with a prologue set at Soldier Field on December 19, 1971. With archival footage of Dick Butkus and Bobby Douglass as the backdrop, a young woman named Darlene (Heidi Musec) meets up with a young fella named Bernie (Nathan Adams Stark) for their first date. They fall in love — and fall in love with going to Bears games.
Cut to present day, with “This Christmas” by Donny Hathaway on the soundtrack, and we’re at the Irish Nobleman Pub in West Town. The Bears game is on the TVs, but that doesn’t mean much to the New York-based freelance reporter Avery Clark (Lyndsy Fonseca), who is in town to visit her mother, Jody (Barbara Alyn Woods), and her stepfather, Ron (Khary Payton), who run the bar.
Holiday Touchdown A Bears Love Story Final Image Assets
(From left) Former Bears defensive tackle Dan Hampton, Barbara Alyn Woods and Bears tight end Colston Loveland appear in “Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story.” Woods plays Avery’s mother, Jody, who runs an Irish pub in West Town.
©2026 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Elizabeth Sisson
Here’s how little Avery cares about football: She pulls out a copy of Edna Ferber’s 1921 novel “The Girls” and reads it under a portrait of Saint Ditka himself on the wall. A handsome young pub patron named Matt Donnelly (Robert Buckley) tries to make headway with Avery; noting her choice of reading, he observes, “Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle’ not festive enough?” Good one, Matt!
While in town, Avery stops in to see her ex Shaun (Eric Lynch) at the fictional Chicago Herald newspaper — and she walks away with an assignment to write a profile of Darlene (remember Darlene from the prologue?). Darlene is now a widow (and now played by the fantabulous Marsha Mason), and she’s about to attend her 500th Bears game. Could make for a fun feature story, Avery surmises.
And get this: Darlene’s grandson, who has been lobbying the Herald to write a story about her, is a Chicago firefighter named Matt Donnelly. That’s right, the same guy who tried to make headway with Avery at the pub!
Holiday Touchdown A Bears Love Story Final Image Assets
(From left) Robert Buckley (who plays Matt Donnelly), Bears tight end Cole Kmet and Bears head coach Ben Johnson appear in “Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story,” a Hallmark movie out Oct. 17, 2026.
©2026 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Jacob Funk
Time to follow that Hallmark playbook, with a very Chicago-centric recipe. Darlene agrees to spend time with Avery and keeps inventing excuses for Matt to come along as well, leading to idyllic scenes showcasing the city’s unique profile, including a cruise on the Fred A. Busse Chicago Fireboat.
We get a tailgating scene at Soldier Field, a cornhole tournament against the backdrop of the holiday market and a charity event at Halas Hall. There are a number of cameos from real-life current and former Bears, notably Coach Ben Johnson (a natural onscreen), Colston Loveland and Peanut Tillman. (When Darlene meets Tillman, she calls him “Mister Peanut.”)
Holiday Touchdown A Bears Love Story Final Image Assets
Marsha Mason (center), with Tamera Mowry-Housley (plaid shirt) and Abraham Benrubi (Santa), is Darlene, a woman attending her 500th Chicago Bears football game in “Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story,” out Oct. 17, 2026.
©2026 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Elizabeth Sisson
Everyone knows Avery and Matt are meant for each other before Avery and Matt know they are meant for each other. We also know there are going to be a few tearjerker moments and some oh-so-mild conflicts, such as Avery still adjusting to her mother being remarried to Ron. (Spoiler alert: He’s the nicest man in the world.)
Lyndsy Fonseca as Avery has an All-American charm and a natural presence; I could see her carrying a network TV series. Robert Buckley is from California, but he brings a Midwestern Hugh Jackman persona to his role. We believe him as a good-guy Chicago firefighter.
Then there’s Marsha Mason, who has been a treasure since her blazing-star days in films such as “Cinderella Liberty,” “The Goodbye Girl” and “Chapter Two” in the 1970s. Mason brings such warmth and energy and depth to the role of Darlene that you’d be thrilled to be sitting next to her at a Bears-Packers game, even in the lakefront cold of December.
Richard Roeper is the Sun-Times’ former movie critic and current contributor.