Buzz Louder Than Ever On Growing Ryan Pace and John Fox Rift

Because I'm bored....

I looked up what I could find about the whole Pace v Fox thing. It all boils down to an appearance Chris Mortensen did on NFL insiders where he said:

“More than 30 days ago, I heard that Ryan Pace, the general manager, and George McCaskey, the chairman of the Bears, had decided they were going to take their top quarterback, who was Mitchell Trubisky. But they were not going to tell anybody. They were not going to tell their coaching staff.


My understanding is John Fox, the head coach, wasn’t informed until about an hour and 25 minutes before this pick.”


Thats it. No source, no 'I talked to someone at HH.." nothing.

From there it snowballed. First DJ Durkin (theatletic) put out a story quoting Mortensen, then Kevin Siefert (espn) did the same thing--both quoting Mortensen--they added nothing of substance.

From there bleacherreport, deadspin and everyone else put out their story sourcing Mortensen and Siefert. 

Mortensen tried to cover himself later by tweeting this:

John Fox very involved in #Bears draft process w Mitch Trubisky. Decision crystallized for GM R. Pace as scenarios played out early eve.

12:26 PM - 28 Apr 2017


Do I think Pace and Fox are in a lifelong relationship? Nope. I think Fox was brought on to counter Pace's youth and to provide the "Fox Second Year Bump. (c)" Didn't work and the needle is tilting back toward Pace. And of course I am using my MSU degree because none of this has ever leaked from multiple sources.

There are no multiple sources, just multiple stories based on one source.

sportsmockery.com/2017/04/new-information-reveals-pace-hid-trubisky-pick-from-john-fox/

First reference:

According to Chris Mortensen of ESPN, the Bears GM did not tell Fox or his coaching staff that the team would draft quarterback Mitchell Trubisky until 90 minutes before the action started.

It was on NFL Insiders:

“More than 30 days ago, I heard that Ryan Pace, the general manager, and George McCaskey, the chairman of the Bears, had decided they were going to take their top quarterback, who was Mitchell Trubisky. But they were not going to tell anybody. They were not going to tell their coaching staff.

My understanding is John Fox, the head coach, wasn’t informed until about an hour and 25 minutes before this pick.”

Of course he later tweeted this:

John Fox very involved in #Bears draft process w Mitch Trubisky. Decision crystallized for GM R. Pace as scenarios played out early eve.

12:26 PM - 28 Apr 2017

2nd reference:

D.J. Durkin of The Athletic then expanded on his comments. It seems the decision to take Trubisky was made back in March in an agreement between Pace and chairman George McCaskey.

If you read Durkin’s tweets, he’s referencing Mortensen.

Bleacher Report put out their story in a tweet:

Bleacher Report‏ @bleacherreport  Apr 28

John Fox did not know of Bears' plan to draft Trubisky until just hours before draft (via @mortreport, @seifertespn) ble.ac/2ptKfpk 

Note the references? Mortenson and Seifert

Here is the seifert tweet:

Kevin Seifert‏ @seifertespn  Apr 28

Wow. Per @mortreport, even @chicagobears coach John Fox didn’t know about plan to draft QB Mitchell Trubisky until a couple hours before.

Sieferts source? The Mortenson leak.

So already you have Durkin (Theathletic), Seifert, Bleacherreport, and sportsmockery all writing stories based on one tweet from Mortensen.