Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2018 11:37:20 GMT -6
When Fox was hired I think four things were needed:
(1) Someone who could get the locker fixed
(2) Someone who could coach young players up--a teacher
(3) Someone who wasn't welded to the 'old NFL'
(4) Someone who could get the fan base on his side (in general, there are always cranks like me who don't like anyone--present company excluded of course)
The Bears only were able to check one box with the Fox hire. The first one. I believe that Fox knew he was going to have trouble with #2 and #3 and that is why Fangio and Gase were brought in. Fangio did the best he could although he as well (IMO) was unable to ultimately get the DEF turned around. Too many fill in pieces, too many critical errors repeated game after game it seemed and no consistency. Gase was able to turn down the inner-Cutler in Cutler for that one season but then he left. When Gase left I think Fox's fate was sealed. Now there was no one on the OFF staff who could push back on Fox. I still believe that Loggains interview went something like this:
Fox: Log, you want to be OC?
Log: Yes!!
Fox: OK, but you got to do whatever I want.
Log: YES!!
I know others disagree but in today's social-media age, the exchange of information with media is not as important as the perception of those exchanges. Fox still operated under the idea that there are two newspapers in town and a couple of sports-radio guys. While the media rules might have seemed like a good idea at the time, there were very few media personalities and fans willing to put up with Fox being Fox after the first season. When White went down for the first time in OTA/TC his rookie season Fox stood up and lied about it. There was no need for that and it tainted every story on Fox thereafter. As the media's presentation of Fox changed (go back and look at the season 1 and see how the media tried to explain what Fox was talking about and compare it to now where they just post his comments and say something like: "WTF is Fox talking about?" These days Hoge/Jahns just play FOx clips and giggle, because they are finished with him flat out lying or dancing around questions) fans were able to see this across multiple media platforms, amateur bloggers and without any national reporters coming to Fox's defense the local perception of Fox fell. With Facebook/twitter/etc its vital for an organization to make sure the fanbase stays on board and Fox didn't give anyone any reason to do so. Now the organization is going to have to deal with this moving forward.