Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1169907
44 n o r t h w e s t e r n f o o t b a l l • D I G I T A L P R O G R A M • N O R T H W E S T E R N v s . M I C H I G A N S T A T E "I admire his work ethic. I don't know if he ever sleeps," said Chris. "He will put his head in the dirt and work harder than anybody." As for Chris, one word continued to resurface when family members and coaches were asked about his personality. Self-described as "the most sickly competitive person I've ever met," Chris displayed those tendencies from an early age and honed them to the point where they served as the ideal complement for his love of football. Even though his mother acknowledged Chris, "lives, breathes and dies for football," she also mentioned his passion for volunteering that saw him serve over 400 hours at a local after-school program in high school. After passing up numerous scholarship offers to walk on at Northwestern, Chris heard plenty of people tell him he made a mistake and would never see the field. However, his coaches at NU gave him an opportunity to play and bet on himself, and Chris responded by foregoing his redshirt season and contributing immediately on special teams his first year. As a true sophomore, he appeared in all 14 games at linebacker this past season, starting four of them. "I have never met someone so competitive in my entire life," said Joe. "But with that comes hard work. He just wants to work hard to set himself up." Even though Joe and Chris are far from mirror images of each other, an elite shared mentality exists that helped propel them to academic and athletic heights that few ever reach. Coach MacLean gave credit to "their father's example and their mother's support" while also acknowledging Joe and Chris feed off their own success¬–not by celebrating it, but by looking for the next challenge. Their mother Nicola also offered some important insight into what got her sons to the positions they are in today. "We have a household where there's no quitting and no giving up," she said. "They have their own inner determination not to fail and are always trying to get to the next level." With Joe moving on to the world of finance after the 2019 season, these will be the final snaps the two oldest Bergin brothers take together. Even though the pair spent the better part of two decades competing over everything from sprints to shoveling snow, they remain each other's number one fan. Even with Chris cracking the rotation at linebacker while Joe remained a stalwart on special teams, all four Bergins dismissed any notions of jealousy or a sibling rivalry. Nicola said she now notices a distinct mutual respect between her two sons, one that began to develop in high school when they first took the field together and blossomed once Chris arrived at Northwestern. student-athlete spotlight