CHICAGO (AP) — Case Keenum started at quarterback for the Chicago Bears on Monday night against Philadelphia, his first regular-season game in almost three years.
Caleb Williams was inactive with a right hamstring injury, leaving coach Ben Johnson to choose between Keenum and Tyson Bagent. The 26-year-old Bagent returned to practice on Saturday and cleared the NFL's concussion protocol on Sunday.
The 38-year-old Keenum is in his second season with Johnson and Chicago after signing with the team in April 2025. It was his first regular-season action since he started for Houston in a 36-22 loss to Cleveland on Dec. 24, 2023.
Keenum has played in 81 regular-season games, including his NFL debut in 2013 with the Texans. He was 30-36 as a starter going into the matchup with the Eagles.
Williams left last weekend's 9-3 loss to Minnesota after he got hurt on a scramble midway through the fourth quarter. Johnson has said the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft is week to week.
Williams threw for a franchise-record 3,942 yards while leading Chicago to the NFC North title last season. He had 27 touchdown passes and seven interceptions.
Bagent was 5 for 9 for 54 yards after he replaced Williams against the Vikings. He was sacked by Dallas Turner on the final play of the game.
Bagent had a record-setting career at Division II Shepherd University before signing with Chicago in May 2023 as an undrafted free agent. He made four starts while appearing in five games as rookie, passing for 859 yards and three touchdowns with six interceptions.
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Chicago Bears quarterback Case Keenum warms up before an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Chicago, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Chicago Bears' Case Keenum warms up before an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Chicago, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Chicago Bears' Case Keenum warms up before an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Chicago, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
A leader of a secretive North Carolina religious group was sentenced Monday to two years of probation in a plea deal that dropped a felony kidnapping charge, more than nine years after her trial ended without a verdict.
Prosecutors said Word of Faith Fellowship leader Brooke Covington led a group of church members in 2013 who choked and beat a young man for two hours while they prayed to expel “homosexual demons.”
Covington, 68, pleaded to two misdemeanor charges of false imprisonment and simple assault Monday by entering an Alford plea, according to court records. It's technically a guilty plea in which defendants maintain they are innocent while acknowledging prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them at trial.
The judge sentenced Covington to 45 days in jail on the false imprisonment charge and 30 days for simple assault, but suspended them so she won't have to serve the time if she completes her probation. Covington also was ordered to complete 30 hours of community service benefiting children or young adults.
Covington's original case ended in a mistrial after the jury foreman brought his own research into deliberations.
Since then, the COVID-19 outbreak, a move to remove the original prosecutor that ended with the suspension of the law license of the attorney making the request, deaths or retirements of lawyers on both sides and handing the case to a new prosecutor in a new jurisdiction all delayed a new trial.
Both the new prosecutor and Covington's lawyer didn't respond to messages seeking details about Monday's hearing.
Matthew Fenner joined Word of Faith as a teenager in 2010 with his mother. He was at a service on the church’s compound in Spindale, North Carolina, when members including Covington started what the church called a “blasting” session on him, according to Fenner.
Covington said the session was no different than others, and she had witnesses prepared to testify they didn't see an assault against Fenner.
Word of Faith is a nondenominational Protestant church that was founded in 1979 by Sam and Jane Whaley in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains between Charlotte and Asheville. Members consider Jane Whaley a prophet.
In 2017, The Associated Press published a series of stories about Word of Faith that detailed former church members’ allegations of abuse. The AP spoke to dozens of former congregants around the world, listened to hours of secretly recorded conversations with church leaders, and reviewed hundreds of pages of law enforcement, court and child welfare documents.
Whaley has denied that she or other church leaders ever abused Word of Faith members, and said that any discipline would be protected by the Constitution’s freedom of religion tenet.
The church said the allegations made to the AP were false and made by “certain former members” out to target the church and that it does not condone abuse.
The case was turned over to a special prosecutor after Fenner’s lawyer Andrew LaBreche accused District Attorney Ted Bell of siding with Word of Faith in his handling of the case.
LaBreche said Bell didn’t investigate new evidence or witnesses and made a deal to drop the felony kidnapping charge against Covington.
Bell provided text messages and other evidence he refused to talk to Word of Faith members when they tried to steer conversations toward the assault cases to a special investigator who reported to Superior Court Judge William Stetzer.
The judge not only denied LaBreche’s request to remove the prosecutor, but in his order said LaBreche’s “repeated acts of dishonesty and the significant harm to the legal profession” led the judge to suspend his law license for three years. He also awarded Bell legal fees.
LaBreche is appealing the ruling, and his suspension has been delayed until his case can be heard.
Word of Faith had about 700 members in North Carolina a decade ago, but a sworn statement from a former church leader said membership had now dwindled to about 300 to 400 people.
The AP reported that the church controlled almost every aspect of their members’ lives, including who they married, what subjects they studied in school and whether they could go to college. Members were regularly slapped, choked and thrown to the floor during high-decibel group prayer.
The AP investigation also found that the church and its hundreds of followers controlled local law enforcement and social services, preventing fair investigations.
FILE - This image from video shows the entrance to the Word of Faith Fellowship church in Spindale, N.C., in 2016. (AP Photo/Alex Sanz, File)
FILE - Brooke Covington, a member of the Word of Faith Fellowship church in Spindle, N.C., leaves a hearing at Rutherford County Courthouse in Rutherfordton, N.C., May 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, File)
