Chicago Bears fans searching for Luther Burden injury updates turns into show of support for X user in Australia

Chicago Bears fans are getting credit for something that happened thousands of miles away and may have helped save a life.

It all started during Sunday night's game when wide receiver Luther Burden left the field with a concussion. That moment set off a chain of events on social media all the way in Australia.

When Burden was walked off the field during Sunday night's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Bears fans immediately took to social media looking for updates on his condition.

However, one post in particular caught their attention.

A person going by "Yuri" had written —  "If I kill myself then I'm just no longer a burden."

The post started showing up in Bears fans' feeds.

One person responded rudely.

"Someone posted a mean-spirited tweet that said, 'Shut up, we are looking for burden injury updates,' and then Bears Twitter just piled on and said, 'Hey, that's not cool,' and everyone started being really positive with this person who goes on Twitter by Yuri," said Bears fan Chris Lobosco. 

The tone shifted, and the tweet went viral. Bears fans flooded Yuri with encouraging messages like "people love you. and now Chicago Bears fanbase loves you too," "life is worth living homie, I promise," and  "You are loved at all times. The lord is always with you. Bear down."

"It's increasingly common for people to post sort of their intense experiences to social media, suicide being one of them," said Jonathan Singer, a social work professor at Loyola University Chicago.

Singer says if someone has suicidal thoughts on social media, he would typically recommend people direct message them, but says this public outcry was helpful in this situation.

"What they did is they said, look, we don't know you, but by virtue of the fact that you exist on this planet, your life has value. We want you to stick around. We want you to stay."

"This person didn't even know who the Bears were," said Bears fan Jake Cooper.

And here's another unexpected twist — Yuri says they live in Australia and had never heard of the Chicago Bears.

"From what I know, they only had like a few followers, and within two days they have 10,000 followers," Cooper said.

Now they are followed by strangers in Chicago, who are sending them well wishes before their school tests, offering them tickets to a future game — overall welcoming them to Bears Nation.

"Normally, when you associate Twitter with anything, it's like negative. This is like one of the most positive things that I've ever seen associated with, like, especially sports Twitter, too, with there's a lot of negative stuff all over," Lobosco said.

A reminder that sometimes, even strangers on the internet can make someone feel a little less alone.

Singer says it's important to acknowledge that social media users are not responsible for saving a person's life when engaging with them online.

If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available at 988 24/7 - it is free and confidential.