He has never been mentioned for a HC job yet...coming off much better results than he's had here. And you can't just leave when you have a contract...thats not how contracts work.
No... you can't just leave... well you can if you quit... but the Bears will let him if they are asked if he can interview.
BTW... tell that to college coaches who leave at the drop of a hat Contracts are not as meaningful as they used to be.
Two different animals. College coaches all have buy outs in their contracts. If he quits he would still be under contract with us...we would have his rights and control whether he interviewed somewhere else and could potentially get compensation.
Pace could fire Fox at the end of the year, but I don't think it will happen. But you never know. It could. We are not privy to the information of what's really going on inside the Halas Hall bunker. I think you hit on a good point in that Pace is young and a rookie GM. Hopefully he will learn from his mistakes and get better. I still think he could turn out to be a good GM for us. I don't think he's a figurehead GM with no power. But hey, maybe his is. LOL, maybe they keep him tied up and gagged in the Halas Hall basement :-)
I would be fine if they fire Fox at the end of the season though... unless the team would make a big improvement this last quarter of the season.
I'm not going to have a stroke or heart attack over worrying about it. I control none of it anyway. This is my 56th season of Bears football. I've endured worse. And better years. It is what it is. I enjoy the good times. I'm sad when the team stinks. Actually right now I see a number of things that make me hopeful that this next season should be much better. Even if Fox is still the HC, the team should be much better next season. Only time will tell.
Sorry, I got lost in a time warp. For a second there I thought I was reading your post from the end of 2015
It might have been 2014. I get them confused
Yeah, some of us seem to be turning into the Cub fans of old with the "there's always next year" and "I see hope". I've never seen hope look like a bucket of turds before or smell like it either and the aroma coming from Halas Hall sure ain't roses and lilacs.
This has nothing to do with me only believing what Rosenrant says. Did you forget that I listened to similar excuses out of him when he coached here in Denver for four years. Excuses why he couldn't win in the playoffs no matter how much talent Elway kept buying for him. He even left town with the excuse on his lips that winning the AFCW should have been good enough when for the third year in four he lost his first playoff game!
With virtually the same Bronco team who won the 2016 Super Bowl Fox 1) got is ass handed to him in 2014, and 2) was one and done in the 2015 playoffs. So I don't care how much talent you give him if he couldn't win with those defenses and Manning as his QB what makes you think he'll win here? Jeezus Blue look at the facts will ya'? All your doing is parroting the talent deficiency his defenders are so where does that make you any different than those you accuse of parroting his detractors and I don't think we're anywhere near that talent deficient. Just poorly coached.
Where is this next man up mantra of his then? When key players go down or fail sometimes you have to create your own talent. Fangio has done a bang up job of that on defense but elsewhere? Where are the guys on offense stepping up? Do you like having a HC who pats a guy on the head who loses games and drops sure scores two weeks in a row saying he has a lot of "heart" when what he needs is better "hands". Can you imagine Halas or Lombardi saying that? Or even Belicheat or Parcells? LMFAO
Injuries? (convicted by his own words)
"Fox regularly says you can’t blame injuries because every team has injuries. Fox also says the NFL is a production-based business.That, then, invites hanging on Fox the 3-9 record that the Bears have produced. That Fox’s Bears have produced."
Fox also says the NFL is a production-based business. (convicted again)
When Cutler went down earlier in the year and Hoyer became his shining star that was his excuse for not assuring Cutler of his starters job wasn't it? So if you agreed with that theory then why should it not apply to the man who established it now?
It's all a bunch of crap and excuses and anyone who buys it is simply buying one more year of them when next year Fox still hasn't turned this team around like promised. This year WAS his second chance and it was worse than last year. Worse than they guy he replaced and in two consecutive years worse than all but one other HC in Bears history.
So who wants to be crazy enough to give him one more year to prove what we already know. We keep sending all the wrong guys packing around here. Fox is the one who needs to go.
Trust me Soulbrother I know you were'nt swayed by the ahole writers , you have the courage of ur convictions - but others were , just like they were when Cutty's knee was f'd in the playoff game he had to come out of . The " Manning " Fox was working with when they lost the SB , was a shadow of his former self , and was going up against a monster Seahawks team when they were at the height of their defensive powers .... do you honestly think they could have " made a game of it " ? Didn't Elway himself realize that their D needed to be better for them to win it , so he went and fixed it ?
Here's the thing : sounds like most are " sold " on our D - it's good enough for us to win IF we had any kind of an O right ? Most are " sold " on our center and 2 guards ( when they're healthy ) and we're sold on our RB ... so what's missing : A QB , our tackles , and our WR's , which = thee most important position on any team , the 2 most important positions on any o-line , and the most dangerous weapons on O any team has . It's HALF of what you need on O to be able to even COMPETE in the first place . Thus , we have 2/3's of whats needed to compete ( with the missing 1/3 being the most important chunk ) .
So it's Fox's " fault " he hasn't " won " with over-matched teams . Name me any other coach ( or coaching staff if we're being totally honest ) who have the ability to win in that situation ?
Blue they were the #1 offense in the NFL that year with Manning at QB and we were at least for a time #2. Manning was on his game that year and while Pete Carroll and his guys devised a defense to take away all of what Manning loved to do Fox spent the week giving his guys time off and running lackadaisical practices convinced his offense was invincible so they prepared nothing special to adjust to if Seattle had them bagged.
Sound familiar. Fox is an offensive moron and it shows up every time he has to deal with that part of his team. It's one of the reasons Elway fired him. He hired Kubiak to run the offense who actually does know what he's doing and a DC in Wade Phillips whose at least and equivalent to Fangio as a DC and then with a Manning who could barely throw any longer they did win a SB. If Fangio would have come to work for us anyway we'd have been far better off hiring Gase as HC than Fox.
This was all about having a vet HC to pair with a rookie GM and Fox is absolutely the wrong guy to have Pace apprenticing with. It's bad pairing and it has been from the start. It just took awhile to see it but boy it's as big as boil on your ass now and just as painful.
Yeah that season Manning had with Fox in the SB year was no good. He only threw for 5444 yards with 55 Tds, while completing 68% of his passes. But yeah too bad Fox had Manning when he was a shadow of his former self....or were you thinking of Kubiak who took Fox's team and actually had a Manning who was a shadow of his former self and won a SB.
I've actually thought Fox has done a decent job this year on game days and that's a little disappointing since I predicted he'd blow at least two games with poor clock management and terrible endgame decisions.
That really was a tail of two different teams though. Denvers defense that year was like the Seattle defense that Fox faced in the Super Bowl.
And Fox face it with the #1 offense in the NFL and a HOF QB who was still at the top of is game. I know what happened in that game Butkus and I know what Elway thought of Fox's preparation and lack of adjustments. Sound familiar? Now all your doing is tossing out excuses and I'm full up on those so sorry, no sale today.
The first part is very likely to be true. The second is nonsense and just one more reason why you'll all be saying a year from now that it should have happened. This is just a deja vu of the Mel Tucker deal when we all know he should have been one and done and wasn't.
What was the excuse then? Oh yeah, wasn't it Emery taking the fall by saying well he just didn't get him the right players. So what happened in year two? It was even worse right. Seen anything like that happening around Halas Hall lately after even more of an infusion of talent? And we've actually given Fox two years to show his mettle now, not one. But I'm hearing those same old we didn't give him enough talent excuses again. Bull crap. Good coaches win even with less than top drawer talent. The problem is John Fox hasn't done that with the Bears and he never has anywhere he's coached.
And yes the injuries are no more than an excuse and even Fox has said that himself. Of course he doesn't really mean it now and hopes you all and the owners will let him off he hook for it. There are other teams suffering with them just as badly but they aren't 3-9 because they've been better coached and better prepared each week to play. I don't how you can't lay that at the HCs feet. Who the hell else would you like to blame for it? The beer vendors? Injuries happen right? So where is this next man up system Fox touted so often and why isn't it working as well as he advertised? I think someone should be asking that shouldn't they? So I guess I will.
Most of you say you want to see a winning organization run in a manner similar to NE, GB, Baltimore, NYG, and maybe Pitt but how many of you are willing to hold those who run the team accountable for it? Not many it seems. If you aren't gonna hold them accountable at what point do you honestly believe that will ever happen. Why should owners spend the time, money, and effort to fix it if you'll support them regardless? This isn't about the Vegas line butkus this is about fixing a ****ed up dysfunctional team run by people who for over 30 years have proven to be incapable of running it well. That's the bottom line here not 3 wins, or 7.5 wins, or 6 or 4 or 10 or 11.
No one is paying me to write a rant column so I have no job to keep based on my readership. I'm just pointing out the facts that far too many Bears fans seem all to casual about and are willing to overlook. As long as you all keep doing that and Ted Phillips knows it too don't expect change. They don't have to change. Change is expensive. Change costs millions of dollars of Phillips and McCaskey money. They rather not spend that and not change and just hand you excuses they know you'll accept just like you already are because that's always worked well over the past 30 years. BOHICA y'all.
It's not nonsense. Organizations that are run like shit do the sort of thing you all are talking about. How many GM's and coaches have the Browns had? Doesn't seem to change much does it? How about Jacksonville? I maintain that I don't think Fox is here long term. I think he's gone after next year. I think he was brought here to bring some stability while the front office increases the talent level. Now would it be nice if that resulted in wins? Sure would, but again...injuries are REASONS. I understand Fox says they're not excuses...and he's right....because they're REASONS. To say injuries to key players is not a reason why a team would lose games is simply not logical. There is so much of a difference between the play of this team under Fox and the play of the team under Trestman and Tucker that the two really can't be compared. This team plays hard for Fox and Co. They compete to the end, but at the end of the day they don't have the talent to win. You can't be on your 4th QB who you signed off the street and REASONABLY expect to win a lot of games. You can't get defensive back play like we've had and expect to win many games. Now is this to say Fox hasn't done some things that were questionable? Absolutely not. But add all the shit together and Fox sin't getting fired this year.
As for your claim there are teams that are more injured that are better than us....OK...let's take a look. There are two teams that have been more impacted by injuries than us. The Vikings are 6-6 despite key injuries and the Packers are 5-9. Let me ask a question...before the season...would you agree those teams were more talented than us without the injuries? Then why the **** is it so surprising they are better than us with injuries? Should Zimmer be fired in Minny because they Vikings were Super Bowl contenders and now they're "under achieving"...because like you said...injuries aren't an excuse...right? Should McCarthy be fired for being 5-9 despite having the best qb in the game? I mean injuries aren't an excuse....right?
Let's cut to the chase here OK? Even with his longer term record McCarthy is on the hot seat because his teams have begun to decline despite having Aaron Rodgers while NE has not. That's the organization the Packers measure themselves against while at the moment we are being measured with the likes of Cleveland, Jax, Buffalo and other teams run by non-football owners. Do you enjoy this?
So whether Fox IS fired or not is beside the point for me. IMHO he SHOULD be fired and for more than just his pitiful record but I'm not gonna go through the exercise of listing all of his shortcomings and transgressions again. I've posted them at length so look 'em up if you like. It really won't make a damn bit of difference what any of you say. My mind is made up and it's quite fact based, not emotional.
The only sliver of a chance the Bear have of me supporting another year under Fox is if they do hire Bill Polian or an equivalent level NFL exec to run this team and he makes the decision not to make a change but puts some real policies in place regarding how things will be run and the results expected and holds those responsible for achieving them accountable. I don't care of no one else holds John Fox accountable right now, I will.
Pre game on 670 is talking about this now. And something interesting came up; this came out the same week that Fangio benched Amos and Bullard(Fox/Pace picks).
ah.... Well, that is something. Guess the boss gets to tell his coordinators who he wants them to play. I'd be pissed also. If I'm trying to light a fire and my boss is micromanaging me, then F him.
Well, do we have to look any further than Langford starting over Howard early this year and White over Meredith? How about keeping both Bellamy and Thompson who can't catch but can run over Mariani who seemed able to do both. And then there was the great QB mystery while Cutler was out but we still couldn't buy a win with Hoyer most games. Then Cutler returns and we blow Minny out of the water. That's just on offense.
On defense we had Floyd playing as a 3 down OLB while our best pass rusher from 2015 sat out and for whatever reason we seem to have seen far too much of Unrein this year who can only sack a QB if the guy runs right into him but Fox loves him. And we still don't know WTF we have in Fuller because he's been MIA since Sept. with a surgery that was supposed to keep him out two weeks according to Fox. Should I go on?
Now I don't want to lose Fangio any more than any one else does, however the guy is under contract. He can't go anywhere unless he is released from that contract. Let's all take a breath here.
If he gets offered a HC job you can bet he will leave... might also leave if published reports of him and Fox not liking each other...
Oh wait... they both denied that report so the media must be lying. I mean, why would Fox and Vic lie...
Correct or if he's offered an asst HC/DC position that also possible. The thing is if he ask to be let go and it's because he and Fox don't see eye to eye does anyone really believe we'll insist he stay contract or not. Of course not. They'll release him in a NY minute so take a deep breath yourself brother b.
That really was a tail of two different teams though. Denvers defense that year was like the Seattle defense that Fox faced in the Super Bowl.
And Fox face it with the #1 offense in the NFL and a HOF QB who was still at the top of is game. I know what happened in that game Butkus and I know what Elway thought of Fox's preparation and lack of adjustments. Sound familiar? Now all your doing is tossing out excuses and I'm full up on those so sorry, no sale today.
You watched that game right? You saw what happened? I watched it too...I saw players who didn't show up, including the QB of that #1 offense. You continually confuse excuses with reasons. This idea that teams can lose key guys to injury and just keep on plugging along and winning games when they're talent level isn't upper echelon to begin with is simply foolish and unrealistic. The Bears didn't have the talent level of the better teams in the NFL and now that they've lost talent you all still expect a winning season...thats just being a glutton for punishment brother.
Now, as I have said REPEATEDLY...I am aware of Fox's shortcomings as a coach, but I am also aware of his strengths. Good organizations don't run out coaches after two years. Look at any of the poorly run organizations in this league and you'll see teams that cycle through coaches. Fox was tasked with over seeing a rebuild...why are we acting like it isn't one all of a sudden?
Contracts are not as meaningful as they used to be.
