Make no mistake: Pace was the man in charge of landing Fox.

“Ryan was terrific,” McCaskey said Monday after Fox’s introductory press conference. “He led us in the process, he was very open to questions and ideas from Ernie (Accorsi) as a consultant,

Fair enough and here's my counter to it based on rumor, Ernie Accorsi's involvement, and precedent.  You have to think from the inside out on this not the outside looking in which is what this is.  The idea that they shoved Fox down his throat is overly dramatic and I never implied it happened like that.  That was just the radio dramatization of it and I think we all know that.  It's talk radio. It's intended to be provocative and overly dramatic.  It's not a calm forum for debate or no one would tune in.  It's DBS vs us.

First and foremost do you think you will ever read anything that ever says McCaskey announced the hire of Ryan Pace as the Bears new GM but admitted they persuaded him to hire John Fox as his HC?  That'll never happen and Pace would not admit to it either because it would weaken his case the future.

I see two very real possibilities here this one being most likely so it's the one I'll go with.

Accorsi was advising the Bears, that we know.  But Pace was also his recommendation for GM not Phillips' or GMcC's.  So it stands to reason that he wanted Pace to interview well and get the job.  Pace is young and has zero track record at a GM level.  He wasn't even NOLA's top personnel guy and the Bears had just fired another inexperienced GM who wasn't up to the job.  So to get them to accept Pace Accorsi has to do a selling job on two very conservative guys.

Accorsi's solution is to plant the idea of Pace the upcoming rookie paired with Fox the crafty old vet who was fresh off of four winning seasons and a SB appearance in Denver who can offset Pace's inexperience.  Accorsi either presents this idea to Pace prior to his interview or he presents it to whoever else may have been coaching Pace as the way to win over Phillips and GMcC and Accorsi will back that as his own recommendation as well.

So while it may have come out as Pace's idea it as actually pre-packaged by Accorsi's thinking as the best way to get it done and it all happened very quickly.  Almost too quickly to have not been some pre-planning involved.  Or to put it really simply in some way Accorsi suggests Pace pitch them on Fox as his HC choice and he's sure he'll get the gig.  A more experienced exec might have laughed at that suggestion if he had other ideas but Pace was not that guy and he wanted the job badly so he agreed without realizing what he might be getting himself into.

You can call that a conspiracy if you like but if you've been involved in as many interviews, selling jobs, and presentations as I have then we both know it's very often how things get done or not at all.  Hell we've done this all our lives even with our own kids like, it's OK for 14 year old Tim to go to the party and stay out 'til midnight as long as older brother Todd is with him and kinda watches out for him.  It's every bit as natural an occurrence in business too.

So.....that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.