The Chicago Tribune ran an article titled “Bears Must Hire Future GM Now” in their paper today. From the article:
Angelo has a contract that runs through 2013, but those close to him know he has contemplated retiring before that deal’s up. He probably has thought about it even more during a difficult January when Bears fans surely have fantasized about his retirement
As any reader can see from the title of this blog, us Bears’ fans have definitely fantasized about his retirement.
The Bears have to do something smart and innovative. Until now the Bears’ offseason has been as unorthodox as their regular season was unsatisfying. Internally and externally, confidence has dipped even lower than it was the day they fired Ron Turner.
Hey we can all dream. Other than the short, sharp shock of trading for Cutler, the Bears have failed to give us a positive jolt for years. I don’t know about the quote saying that confidence is even lower than the day they fired Turner; from this guys’ perspective, firing Turner, a guaranteed loser with a career of failure, was definitely the highest note of a discordant off season so far.
It somehow took 27 days for the Bears to hire the right offensive coordinator, Mike Martz, who was out of football. They needed even longer to stumble onto a new defensive coordinator, Rod Marinelli, who basically accepted a promotion because nobody else wanted the job.
The Tribune gets this right – Martz took the job as a favor for his friend Lovie and Rod had to take the job because everyone else had fled. Now even terrible Angelo is thinking about hanging it up.
Good for the Chicago Tribune to finally start calling out the Bears for their inept off season moves. They should have been calling for their heads years ago, so we could have built some momentum, but better late than never.
Like everything else the Bears have done, the article jumps around from thing to thing with seemingly no real purpose. But that is OK, the fact that the Trib is calling the spade a spade is amazing, and we will take it. I would imagine someone will probably be losing their locker room access next year, but oh well.
There is no clear direction for this team besides convulsing and cost cutting. I am not very optimistic for next year, but I can always pray for the Adler pass instead of South Lot and the Mayor Daley/Drunk’n Idiot show. Ugh.
Pitchers and catchers pretty soon, and hope springs eternal for my beloved Brewers, which will be great to get my mind off the Bears.
So I hear the Bears are raising ticket prices again. What a bunch of crooks.
@ Fro,
Totally agree with you. Especially when the Bears have the inept team that they have.
Many people on my site have said the following and I will say it too: How bad can one be (Bears organization; Phillips, Angelo, etc.) at their job and still keep it? I know if I ever did bad at my job, you can be damn sure that I would be on the streets looking for another place to work in very short time.
Here’s the problem, Fro. Phillips et al ARE doing quite well at their jobs, if you define their jobs as “generating as much money for the Chicago Bears organization as possible”. At that, they have been nothing short of excellent, model employees. The Bears are and have been for a VERY long time one of the top draws in the NFL, one of the highest grossing teams in the entire league even though they play in the smallest capacity stadium in the NFL (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_National_Football_League_stadiums). And if they were to increase capacity by another 20k, then another 20k Bears fans will fill those seats, guaranteed. The strange thing here is that, when the Bears renovated Soldier back in 02/03, they actually REDUCED capacity by about 5,500 (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_Field), while raising prices tremendously.
Let’s face it. Phillips et al are not going away, as much as we’d all LOVE that idea. They’re making the McCheapskies far too much money to justify firing them. The only way that this group of idiots leaves the Bears is for the Bears to lose money in a fiscal year. As a ticket to the Bears is quite possibly the single hottest ticket in the entire city of Chicago, it doesn’t matter how much we boycott or stand-in Bears games, somebody will always be around to take our seats. About the best thing that can happen to this team and this organization would be a player’s strike after the CBA runs out. Second best would be either type of perfection (wins or losses). In the Wins case, we go down in history as one of the best. In the Losses case, everybody and their mother gets the axe and this organization starts fresh with people that actually know what they’re doing.
Here’s the problem, though. You and me and every Bears fan alive connects “winning” with “doing their job correctly”. However, it is my belief that the McCaskeys connect “doing their job correctly” with “making us craptonloads of money”. Which they’ve done quite nicely. They negotiated quite possibly the best, most insane lease out of any NFL team (and possibly any professional sports team in the world). They continue to make money hand-over-foot DESPITE reducing capacity at the League’s smallest venue by about 5,500. They built the greatest monstrosity that sport has ever seen, and they’re raised ticket prices again. And idiot Bears fans will continue to pay that money.
Hey, I’d like nothing better than to see Phillips et al shown the door to the poor house sooner rather than later. But everybody and their mother and their retarded infant can see the Bears won’t fire anybody ever.
The two best things that can happen to this franchise long term are, in order…
1) Perfect losing season. This would show the McCaskeys that their plan isn’t working and that everybody should be scrapped in favor of people who are actually competent in the business of winning football games.
2) Perfect winning season. At the very least, we’ll be around to witness one of the rarest feats in all of sports.