Country star Chris Stapleton will play his largest local headlining show to date when he hits U.S. Bank Stadium on April 6.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Nov. 3 via Ticketmaster. Citi cardholders have access to a presale that starts at 10 a.m. Oct. 31. Neither the venue nor the promoter announced ticket prices. Lainey Wilson (“Things a Man Oughta Know,” “Heart Like a Truck”) and Marcus King (“The Well,” “Blood on the Tracks”) open.

Initially known as the songwriter and frontman of the SteelDrivers, Chris Stapleton established himself as a solo star with the release of his debut, “Traveller,” in 2015. Not only did it go platinum six times, it helped Stapleton fill a few shelves with awards. The 45-year-old Kentucky native has won eight Grammy Awards, 10 Academy of Country Music Awards and 14 Country Music Association Awards.

His best-known include “Tennessee Whiskey,” “Broken Halos,” “Nobody to Blame,” “Millionaire,” “Starting Over” and “You Should Probably Leave.”

In July, Stapleton released “White Horse,” the first single off his fifth solo album “Higher,” which is due out Nov. 10. He co-wrote the song with Semisonic’s Dan Wilson, who has won Grammys for his work with Adele and the Chicks. Stapleton opened for George Strait in 2021 and headlined Xcel Energy Center in 2017 and 2022.

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Every week of Darnell Wright’s rookie season, there has been social media examination of how the Chicago Bears first-round pick is faring — clips of him plowing a path in the run game with his athleticism, holding his own to allow quarterback Justin Fields time and, yes, getting beat by veteran pass rushers.

But the film of Wright’s performance against the Las Vegas Raiders and two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Maxx Crosby on Sunday was unusual. For several plays in the Bears’ 30-12 victory, it looked like Wright was keeping Crosby away from backup quarterback Tyson Bagent with the use of only his right arm.

Wright dealt with a left shoulder injury all last week in practice, and coach Matt Eberflus said he pushed through pain to help a Bears offensive line that paved the way for 173 rushing yards and allowed just one sack of Bagent. Eberflus commended Wright “for gutting it through,” even if it didn’t look pretty at times.

“To do that against arguably one of the best edge rushers in the league, he’s a dog,” offensive tackle Larry Borom said. “Everyone knew he was dealing with something. But for him to gut through it for the team, that speaks everything.”

Wright’s status this week is worth monitoring closely as the Bears prepare to face the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night at SoFi Stadium. Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa will be trying to get after Bagent, who is expected to make his second start in place of Fields.

Wright was present for practice Wednesday at Halas Hall but didn’t participate as he recovers from the shoulder injury and a new issue with his toe. The Bears have designated left tackle Braxton Jones to return from injured reserve after he was sidelined five weeks with a neck injury.

They also have Borom, who filled in for Jones and could take over for Wright at right tackle if needed. Ja’Tyre Carter is another option at tackle. Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said they’ve “explored a bunch of different options” with the positions in flux.

Eberflus said the Bears will measure Wright’s “functionality” and strength in practice to see if they’re up to par for Sunday. If Wright is healthy enough to play, Mack would be the latest in a series of good pass rushers the rookie has faced. If he isn’t, he’ll miss the continuation of growth opportunities from his first two months in the NFL.

Those challenges have taught the 6-foot-6, 333-pound Wright plenty about what he has to learn — and who he wants to be as a player.

“The main thing I’ve learned is the room for error is a lot smaller,” Wright told the Tribune earlier this month. “You can still get away with some things, but it’s a lot, lot less than previously. And there’s a long way for me to go to be what I see myself as being.

“It would have been weird if I came in and was just as good as anyone. I don’t think I would want it that way. I mean, it would be cool, but it would be kind of weird.”

A ‘vast’ difference

Of all the players Wright has tried to stop this season, from Shaq Barrett to Danielle Hunter to Crosby, the one he said gave him the most eye-opening welcome to the NFL was Chris Jones in the 41-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

On third-and-6 in the first quarter with the Bears at the Chiefs 36-yard line, Wright found himself against Jones one on one. Jones slid by Wright on the outside and took down Fields for an 8-yard loss, forcing the Bears to punt.

“I realized the difference in how good some players can be. Like the difference between me and him is so vast,” Wright said. “After that game, I realized, OK, when I can get to the day when I can block someone like him easily and not need any help or not need any type of special treatment … that’s when I was like, OK, now I have a clear goal — to be that good.”

The Bears have seen a lot of promise from Wright, the No. 10 draft pick out of Tennessee.

Offensive line coach Chris Morgan said Wright has been “everything that we thought he would be” when they were scouting him: smart, big, strong and driven.

Wright’s natural gifts start with a rare combination of movement skills and size, according to Borom and guard Teven Jenkins, who called him “one of the most athletic tackles I’ve been around.”

“It hurts me to say because I want to be that athletic tackle too,” Jenkins said.

The most impressive thing he does?

“It’s got to be the way he pulls,” Jenkins said.” He comes around the edge and still has that same speed, doesn’t slow down and is still able to actually block his defender. You can see his recovery ability on pass (protection). … I’ve never seen someone his size get the whole spin — come back around, spin and pick up his block again. It’s crazy.”

But Wright also has had a lot of learning moments like the one against Jones as he tries to develop consistency.

Wright has given up five sacks this year, according to Pro Football Focus, and he also has five penalties, including three false starts.

After the 19-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 6 — a rough day for the Bears offensive line — Getsy noted two of Wright’s mistakes.

Getsy said Wright didn’t finish a block on Hunter during a Fields scramble that resulted in Fields’ thumb injury. And earlier in the game, a Wright mistake contributed to a Fields interception. The rookie didn’t execute the call from the center and picked up safety Josh Metellus on the outside, leaving running back D’Onta Foreman inside to block Hunter, who pressured Fields.

Jenkins said such mistakes are part of the process for a rookie offensive lineman.

“Just don’t be afraid to make mistakes,” Jenkins said. “My first game, when I came in on ‘Sunday Night Football’ (in 2021 against the Green Bay Packers), I gave up two strip-sacks to Preston Smith. Those things will happen. I had to go learn from them and grow from them. And I did. Hopefully he gets those lessons.”

For Wright, the lessons are a continuation of growth that really took off a couple of years ago in college.

Figuring it out

In 2020-21, amid a snowball of distressing circumstances at Tennessee, Wright wasn’t sure if football was the path for him.

The COVID-19 pandemic altered his college experience at the end of his freshman year in the spring of 2020. The Volunteers returned to play 10 games in the fall, but they went 3-7, became the subject of an NCAA investigation for recruiting violations and fired the coaching staff by January 2021.

“Just my first experience, thinking I’m going to be in college and I’m going to have this good career and then we start out with all of that, I’m like (a teenager) at the time,” Wright said. “It was at that point I was thinking maybe football is probably not the thing. Just because things weren’t going that well. I wasn’t playing great and also with what was going on with the team.”

But as Wright settled in with a new coaching staff, led by head coach Josh Heupel and offensive line coach Glen Elarbee, he began to regain confidence in himself and his path.

Fewer distractions also allowed him to grow in his knowledge of the game. Heupel said in the spring that Wright went from being a “very young football player” in his fundamentals and football IQ to a dominant player who made first-team All-SEC as a senior.

“I feel like I gained a little bit of my confidence back, or at least a little bit of, ‘Yeah, this is my thing,’” Wright said. “Just getting that fresh start, a little reset my junior year. And then somewhere around my senior year was when Coach Heupel sat me down and was telling me, ‘Yeah, you could probably play at a high level. You just have to stay consistent and get better.’”

Now, with another reset in his career, Wright is looking for that improvement at the next level.

One of his favorite plays this season wasn’t one of those splashy viral run-blocking clips, such as when he bowled over Washington Commanders cornerback Emmanuel Forbes Jr.: “He’s a smaller guy, so that’s expected to happen.”

It was during the Denver Broncos game when Wright got the offensive line into the right call and “didn’t have to rely on them telling me what to do.”

“I was fending for myself and helping out the team,” he said, “instead of just being somebody that has to get the call from someone.”

When Getsy was asked about Wright’s growth, he pointed to Wright “figuring out his game, figuring out the system, figuring out how to play next to somebody.”

Morgan said the questions Wright asks and feedback he provides are different than they were three months ago, when he was just beginning training camp. Morgan cited improvement in what Wright looks at presnap and his understanding of how he can better break down an opponent and how an opponent is breaking him down.

Jenkins said he has seen a more vocal Wright as he settles into his new home.

“Sometimes he was hesitant to ask the question, and now you can see him asking the question and he’s getting more involved,” Jenkins said. “He’s not afraid to speak up in meetings. He’s getting out of his shell for sure.”

‘This guy likes football’

Wright has seen the talk on social media. He knows the comparisons are bound to be made, given the circumstances.

Jalen Carter, at one point projected to be the first defensive player selected in this year’s draft, dropped to No. 9 amid character concerns stemming in part from his pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing in connection with a fatal crash in January.

The Bears owned the No. 9 pick, but they opted not to draft Carter. General manager Ryan Poles traded back one spot in exchange for a 2024 fourth-round pick from the Philadelphia Eagles, a more veteran team perhaps better equipped to help a young player such as Carter grow. The Bears took Wright at No. 10.

Carter has had early success with the Eagles, totaling 3 1/2 sacks, two forced fumbles, five quarterback hits and 13 tackles. If that success grows, some Bears observers are bound to ask “What if?” — even if the Bears had good reason to pick Wright over Carter.

But that won’t bother Wright, who trained with Carter before the draft.

“He’s a great player,” Wright said. “You couldn’t have gone wrong with picking him. … I’ll never talk bad about somebody.”

Wright is more focused on his own path, overseen by Morgan.

When the Bears drafted Wright, they told of the predraft workout Morgan conducted with him. It was a grueling physical and mental test that helped convince Poles that Wright would be a good addition to an offensive line in need.

Wright said his relationship with Morgan worked off the bat because they were honest with each other.

“You might get in the draft process and a coach may say, ‘I do this and I do that.’ But they may be exaggerating this or making it sound good,” Wright said. “Me and him were just brutally honest, like, ‘This is what I am.’

“If we’re honest with each other and we put our best foot forward, it’s going to work. We both just want to be great. Everything is in front of us right now — me as a player, him as a coach coaching me.”

Morgan appreciates Wright’s uncomplicated drive to get better.

“There’s not a bunch of other stuff with this guy,” he said. “This guy likes football.”

As Wright comes to understand what it takes to play at this level, he has kept his goals simple: improve every year and stay healthy.

The former requires the latter, even if he was able to gut through the Raiders game. So his health status this week and beyond will be big for the Bears and the rookie.

“As long as I’m getting better every year and staying healthy,” Wright said, “I know that will be a good outcome.”

()

Newly elected speaker Mike Johnson will swiftly face a test of his ability to resolve an intense intra-GOP fight.

A majority of the House Republican conference backs a provision in the food and agriculture funding bill that would ban mail delivery of abortion pills nationwide, with some hard-liners even pledging to oppose any version without it. But a handful of Republican centrists who face tough reelection bids next year say federal curbs on mifepristone, a widely used abortion pill, are “a non-starter.”

The impasse threatens to derail Johnson’s pledge to pass all 12 government spending bills while avoiding a shutdown. Government funding is set to run out in mid-November.

“If mifepristone stays in the bill it’s dead. If mifepristone comes out it’s dead,” said Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.). “So, until we solve that problem, we can’t get to the next one.”

Johnson told Republicans he wants the agriculture bill on the floor by the week of Nov. 13 — giving the new speaker little time to broker a compromise between his most vulnerable moderate members and his fellow staunch social conservatives. How Johnson proceeds over the next three weeks will provide one of the first looks at how he plans to navigate the pitfalls that ensnared his predecessor Kevin McCathy, and whether he plans to make good on his promises to protect the at-risk Republicans who helped the GOP clinch its narrow majority.

Johnson’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Republicans have punted multiple times since late July on what is historically one of the easiest appropriations bills to pass: funding for the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration. In September, former Speaker McCarthy threw in the towel after he, Whip Tom Emmer, and other top GOP leaders failed to win over those opposed to the abortion pill rider.

Tom McClusky, a longtime opponent of abortion rights who serves as the director of government affairs for the group Catholic Vote, told POLITICO he and other conservative leaders have been meeting since the bill failed on the floor in September with Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.), several New York Republicans, and other centrist holdouts to persuade them to back the abortion pill restrictions. Among the groups’ arguments: the Supreme Court may strike down the FDA rule allowing mail delivery of abortion bills as early as next year.

“We’re also telling them: ‘Look, you ran on a pro-life platform,” McClusky said. “You can’t say you’re pro-life and allow abortion drugs to be used so widely.’”

McClusky insisted these meetings have been fruitful.

“I’d be very surprised if the new speaker were to suggest taking it out at this point,” he said of the abortion pill provision. “Our efforts are better put [on winning over holdouts] than on backing down.”

But POLITICO confirmed this week that there is enough opposition to the mifepristone provision among Biden-district Republicans to block passage of the bill — if, as expected, all Democrats also vote “no” over its anti-abortion provisions, funding cuts and other GOP riders.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told POLITICO Thursday that nothing has changed since he voted against the bill last month.

“If there’s any provision in there that’s extreme, then I’ll vote against the bill — it’s that simple,” he said.

Asked about efforts by GOP leaders and anti-abortion groups to change holdouts’ minds he laughed and said: “Good luck with that.”

New York Reps. Marc Molinaro, Nick LaLota and Anthony D’Esposito all confirmed they remain opposed as well — with some arguing that the provision has no chance of passing the Senate and others arguing that abortion policy should be decided at the state level.

D’Esposito called the abortion pill language “a non-starter” and said he’ll work with House leaders “to ensure my constituents’ priorities are addressed in this bill.”

Chavez-DeRemer’s office also said she will vote against the agriculture funding bill if the abortion pill measure remains.

Republicans’ narrow House majority means that these five members alone could stop the bill’s passage. But even if Johnson agrees to strip the abortion pill restrictions out of the bill, he would almost certainly face blowback from the right.

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) told POLITICO Thursday he would only vote for the bill if the abortion provision is included, and is confident many of his fellow members of the Pro-Life Caucus would do the same.

“That’ll be one of his early tests,” he said of Johnson. “It is going to be important to many of us.”

Before his election as speaker Wednesday, Johnson said in a letter to his Republican colleagues that he wanted to create a working group to “address member concerns” with the agriculture funding bill. In addition to the fight over the abortion pill measure, former Agriculture Chair Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and a bloc of rural Republicans oppose the bill over steep cuts to key farm programs that GOP hard-liners demanded. Lucas, last month, said he thought the bill was “destructive” and indicated he would stand against his hard-right colleagues who he felt were controlling too much of the appropriations process.

“Sometimes you’ve got to stop the tail from wagging the dog,” Lucas said in an interview shortly after he helped defeat the agriculture funding bill on the floor in September.

Vulnerable GOP Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Andrew Garbarino of New York and Juan Ciscomani of Arizona all said they opposed the bill based on some of the drastic cuts to other key programs in the legislation, including for farmers and rural communities.

Even if Johnson manages to forge consensus on the abortion pill provision in the Agriculture and FDA spending bill, there are other appropriations pitfalls ahead. Over the summer and early fall, House Republicans tucked controversial measures into nearly every spending bill that would restrict abortion access, limit gender-affirming care for trans people, and slash funding for HIV prevention, contraception and global health programs.

McClusky said he and other abortion-rights opponents will be watching closely to see how Johnson defends these provisions, particularly “the granddaddy of them all: the Hyde amendment.” That longtime budget rider in the Labor-HHS spending bill bars federal funding for abortions.

Several centrist Republicans, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, said they took away from recent discussions with Johnson that he will aim to protect vulnerable members as speaker — after those members took a long series of tough party-line votes under McCarthy that exposed them to Democratic attacks.

But powerful anti-abortion groups that supported Johnson’s bid for speaker made it clear Wednesday that they expect him to deliver for them on federal restrictions on the procedure.

“We are thrilled by the election of Speaker Johnson and look forward to working closely with him to advance national protections for unborn babies,” said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser.