Bear Digest

Bears Manage to Turn Matt Eberflus into Sympathetic Figure

Analysis: Matt Eberflus is gone and the Bears have managed to turn him into a sympathetic figure even after Thursday's botched game because they couldn't properly fire him.

Gene Chamberlain

Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles let go of Matt Eberflus on a few hours after he did a press conference as if he was still the team's coach.
Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles let go of Matt Eberflus on a few hours after he did a press conference as if he was still the team's coach. / David Banks-Imagn Images
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Now Ted Phillips has company as a sympathetic figure in Bears history.

Poor Phillips had to go out on that fateful day in January of 1999 after the late Michael McCaskey botched the hiring of Dave McGinnis, Dave Wannstedt's planned successor as head coach. Phillips, sweating in the heat of camera lights, told everyone a company prepared story about how they didn't have McGinnis as coach after they told everyone they did. Everyone felt sorry for him.

A bit later a group of us reporters met McGinnis at O'Hare as he prepared to board a plane to hear his side of it all.

The Bears were laughingstocks for how that all went down and have never lived it down.

You had to feel sorry for Phillips when he was tossed out there the way he was, but at least now there is a situation just as embarrassing for the organization.

Now George McCaskey has egg on his face. So does Kevin Warren and so does Ryan Poles. They managed to do something they hadn't done before and fire a coach in-season, but they still managed to botch it.

A day after former Bears coach Matt Eberflus looked like a fool for not using his timeouts properly and costing the team yet another game, their former coach has emerged a sympathetic figure because the Bears botched his firing just like they did a hiring back in 1999.

The Bears trotted out Eberflus on Friday morning for a press conference via Zoom with media after the disastrous end to their 23-20 loss to Detroit, and he said he was proceeding like he was going to coach the team against San Francisco.

By 11:30 a.m. the report came out he had been fired. Embarrassing.

This is almost as bad and gutless as former coach Billy Reay getting a pink slip in the form of a telegram at home from the Blackhawks on Christmas Eve—happy Holidays courtesy of the Wirtz family.

Bears ownership just did what their team did on the field Thursday against the Lions. They missed a layup.

Surely they knew Ebeflus had to be let go after the game. They had to know last week or even the previous week after the blocked field goal with the Packers. If they didn't, they're dumber than they are cruel and thoughtless.

Ownership can't even make a firing the right way.

They could have simply said nothing and let the deadline go for Eberflus press conference, say it was delayed or make up some such story like they're good at, and then announced he had been fired. Instead, trot him out to talk to media, all a meaningless charade.

Back in February there was great concern being reported by those who had connections to the Caleb Williams camp that maybe they should refuse to go to Chicago like some quarterbacks chosen first overall in the past, namely Eli Manning or John Elway. They didn't do it but maybe they should have for Williams' sake.

Don't worry. Williams is taking note and when his contract expires in four years he'll have a chance to leave a totally inept organization on his own.

The Bears were a joke on Thursday and the national television audience got to see it. Eberflus' terrible handling of the late-game situation, Williams' mistakes and those of offensive coordinator Thomas Brown all combined to turn what should have been overtime or even a win into defeat.

It's happened four times now in the closing seconds, three times in a row. Of course Eberflus deserved to be fired. Anyone could see this. He should have been fired after the 19-3 loss to the pathetic New England Patriots at Soldier Field when the Bears hearts were obviously not in the game.

But no one deserves to be trotted out in front of the media, act like they're coaching the team and then find out a few hours later they no longer are coaching the team.

Several years ago, former coach Matt Nagy sat in a season-ending press conference and when asked told everyone nothing had been decided on any coaching staff changes for his assistants. Then he exited the room. Within five a few minutes of the time the door to the media room shut, a press release had been sent out listing assistant coaches fired or who moved on that day.

Nagy obviously knew and just lied to everyone.

This is how things operate at Halas Hall. Lies, indiscretion, bumbling and overall jilly-jacking.

The good thing about all of this is the nation's attention is fully focused on the Bears still as a result of that loss Thursday.

It should only add to their embarrassment and they deserve it.

Their dysfunction should be another thing for lawmakers to think about before forking out public funding to build them a stadium.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.