Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2017 6:34:04 GMT -6
Column: By George, only one guy really knows what's at stake in Bears-Browns game
David HaughDavid HaughContact ReporterChicago Tribune
Link:http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-spt-bears-haugh-20171223-story.html
On Christmas Eve in Chicago, where the Bears are the gift that keeps on giving us reasons to snicker, apathy threatens to leave one of every two Soldier Field seats empty for the home finale.
If the Bears beat the winless Browns in front of a sparse crowd, most will remember the stadium as half-full. But if they lose, many will swear it was half-empty.
It all will depend on one’s perspective, on the feeling Sunday’s outcome produces deep within and whether witnesses walk away from a meaningless game near the end of a hapless Bears season overjoyed, unhappy or indifferent.
Just guessing, but that is truest for Bears Chairman George McCaskey.
Nobody really knows how McCaskey views the game against the Browns. He can build it up to be as big as a must-win for general manager Ryan Pace and justify hitting reset again if the Bears suffer the ultimate indignity with a loss to an awful 0-14 team. Or McCaskey can dig in and trust Pace no matter what happens against the Browns, proceeding as most of us expect by firing coach John Fox and enlisting the Bears GM to find his replacement. McCaskey can defend the choice to go in either direction Jan. 1 but, given the chairman’s track record, predicting the actions of an impatient, occasionally impulsive decision-maker is a fool’s errand.
Put another way: History says nobody should assume the Bears will stop at changing head coaches if they lose to the Browns.
The Bears dropping eight of the final 10 games of the 2014 season pissed off Virginia McCaskey enough for her son George surprisingly to fire general manager Phil Emery, too, in a purge that included miscast coach Marc Trestman. What kind of response would the embarrassment of losing Sunday produce from the McCaskeys? Anybody who says he knows for sure is either guessing or lying. Even if the Bears prevail over a putrid Browns team, only McCaskey knows the toll a fourth straight season of at least 10 losses already has taken on the family that owns the franchise that now has missed the playoffs seven straight seasons.
Since McCaskey took over as chairman in May 2011, no coach or general manager he has hired has lasted more than three years. Eight months into McCaskey’s tenure, he dumped general manager Jerry Angelo in January 2012, replacing him with the eccentric Emery, who lasted three seasons. With the blessing of McCaskey, Emery fired coach Lovie Smith after a 10-6 season in 2012 and hired Trestman, who, as an NFL head coach, was a CFL legend. McCaskey tried correcting those mistakes in January 2015 when he brought Pace aboard as the league’s youngest GM and 60-something Fox, a forced marriage that never experienced bliss. The Bears have lost 33 of 46 games under Fox, and no player Pace has drafted or signed has been selected to a Pro Bowl.
Now what? In 110 games since the Bears appointed George chairman, they are 44-66 — and trending south. Virginia McCaskey turns 95 on Jan. 5. If she remains as engaged in Bears business as insiders suggest, she has every reason to wonder if the time has come for another major change at the top of the hierarchy. To consider if a different voice must be heard at Halas Hall before the Bears make any noise again in the NFC North. To acknowledge finally after so much futility that the McCaskeys don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to running an NFL team successfully.
As long as Ted Phillips stays team president, it will be difficult to believe the Bears understand how acute the problem is. The organization has a scarcity of football intellect and should shift Phillips, a trained accountant, into a business-only role to make room for an executive with enough NFL experience and acumen to complement the general manager. A franchise worth $2.85 billion, according to Forbes, can afford to create a senior-level position for a proven football guy.
The best argument to keep Pace as GM revolves around McCaskey’s quest for continuity, a desire that recognizes McCaskey risks becoming known as the chairman of the Chicago Browns if he continues changing executives and coaches with such frequency. Pace presumably bought himself time when he drafted quarterback Mitch Trubisky, whose promise as a starter represents the most positive development of 2017. It should be noted, however, that Trubisky got the playing time Pace hoped the quarterback could avoid as a rookie only because free agent Mike Glennon flopped. And wasting $18.5 million on Glennon leaves a giant blot on Pace’s resume, regardless of Trubisky’s progress. Should getting it right with Trubisky give Pace a pass on everything else he got wrong in building a roster devoid of difference-makers? Is hoping to avoid change a good enough reason to resist it?
Pace’s free-agent misses outnumber the hits but enough draft picks look like keepers to help balance the ledger. Being earnest and likable, if not accessible, makes Pace easy for McCaskey to endorse if he so chooses. On the other hand, if McCaskey chose to change general managers for the third time in six years, it would be hard to envision outrage.
The idea of Pace returning creates ambivalence. The thought of Fox coming back produces indigestion. The possibility of Pace leaving with Fox still could hinge on what happens on the lakefront between two of the NFL’s most futile franchises.
Bears-Browns tickets on the secondary market are going for $45, which is less than it costs to park in the North Garage. But only McCaskey knows what this game is really worth.
dhaugh@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @davidhaugh
David HaughDavid HaughContact ReporterChicago Tribune
Link:http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-spt-bears-haugh-20171223-story.html
On Christmas Eve in Chicago, where the Bears are the gift that keeps on giving us reasons to snicker, apathy threatens to leave one of every two Soldier Field seats empty for the home finale.
If the Bears beat the winless Browns in front of a sparse crowd, most will remember the stadium as half-full. But if they lose, many will swear it was half-empty.
It all will depend on one’s perspective, on the feeling Sunday’s outcome produces deep within and whether witnesses walk away from a meaningless game near the end of a hapless Bears season overjoyed, unhappy or indifferent.
Just guessing, but that is truest for Bears Chairman George McCaskey.
Nobody really knows how McCaskey views the game against the Browns. He can build it up to be as big as a must-win for general manager Ryan Pace and justify hitting reset again if the Bears suffer the ultimate indignity with a loss to an awful 0-14 team. Or McCaskey can dig in and trust Pace no matter what happens against the Browns, proceeding as most of us expect by firing coach John Fox and enlisting the Bears GM to find his replacement. McCaskey can defend the choice to go in either direction Jan. 1 but, given the chairman’s track record, predicting the actions of an impatient, occasionally impulsive decision-maker is a fool’s errand.
Put another way: History says nobody should assume the Bears will stop at changing head coaches if they lose to the Browns.
The Bears dropping eight of the final 10 games of the 2014 season pissed off Virginia McCaskey enough for her son George surprisingly to fire general manager Phil Emery, too, in a purge that included miscast coach Marc Trestman. What kind of response would the embarrassment of losing Sunday produce from the McCaskeys? Anybody who says he knows for sure is either guessing or lying. Even if the Bears prevail over a putrid Browns team, only McCaskey knows the toll a fourth straight season of at least 10 losses already has taken on the family that owns the franchise that now has missed the playoffs seven straight seasons.
Since McCaskey took over as chairman in May 2011, no coach or general manager he has hired has lasted more than three years. Eight months into McCaskey’s tenure, he dumped general manager Jerry Angelo in January 2012, replacing him with the eccentric Emery, who lasted three seasons. With the blessing of McCaskey, Emery fired coach Lovie Smith after a 10-6 season in 2012 and hired Trestman, who, as an NFL head coach, was a CFL legend. McCaskey tried correcting those mistakes in January 2015 when he brought Pace aboard as the league’s youngest GM and 60-something Fox, a forced marriage that never experienced bliss. The Bears have lost 33 of 46 games under Fox, and no player Pace has drafted or signed has been selected to a Pro Bowl.
Now what? In 110 games since the Bears appointed George chairman, they are 44-66 — and trending south. Virginia McCaskey turns 95 on Jan. 5. If she remains as engaged in Bears business as insiders suggest, she has every reason to wonder if the time has come for another major change at the top of the hierarchy. To consider if a different voice must be heard at Halas Hall before the Bears make any noise again in the NFC North. To acknowledge finally after so much futility that the McCaskeys don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to running an NFL team successfully.
As long as Ted Phillips stays team president, it will be difficult to believe the Bears understand how acute the problem is. The organization has a scarcity of football intellect and should shift Phillips, a trained accountant, into a business-only role to make room for an executive with enough NFL experience and acumen to complement the general manager. A franchise worth $2.85 billion, according to Forbes, can afford to create a senior-level position for a proven football guy.
The best argument to keep Pace as GM revolves around McCaskey’s quest for continuity, a desire that recognizes McCaskey risks becoming known as the chairman of the Chicago Browns if he continues changing executives and coaches with such frequency. Pace presumably bought himself time when he drafted quarterback Mitch Trubisky, whose promise as a starter represents the most positive development of 2017. It should be noted, however, that Trubisky got the playing time Pace hoped the quarterback could avoid as a rookie only because free agent Mike Glennon flopped. And wasting $18.5 million on Glennon leaves a giant blot on Pace’s resume, regardless of Trubisky’s progress. Should getting it right with Trubisky give Pace a pass on everything else he got wrong in building a roster devoid of difference-makers? Is hoping to avoid change a good enough reason to resist it?
Pace’s free-agent misses outnumber the hits but enough draft picks look like keepers to help balance the ledger. Being earnest and likable, if not accessible, makes Pace easy for McCaskey to endorse if he so chooses. On the other hand, if McCaskey chose to change general managers for the third time in six years, it would be hard to envision outrage.
The idea of Pace returning creates ambivalence. The thought of Fox coming back produces indigestion. The possibility of Pace leaving with Fox still could hinge on what happens on the lakefront between two of the NFL’s most futile franchises.
Bears-Browns tickets on the secondary market are going for $45, which is less than it costs to park in the North Garage. But only McCaskey knows what this game is really worth.
dhaugh@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @davidhaugh
