Bear Digest

Bears Put Their Dysfunction On Full Display One More Time

Analysis: The ineffective lack of decisiveness within the Halas Hall bureaucracy is in direct contrast to interim head coach Thomas Brown's attitude.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams is sacked and the Bears' chances vanish in the finish to Thursday's game, one reflective of this organization.
Caleb Williams is sacked and the Bears' chances vanish in the finish to Thursday's game, one reflective of this organization. / Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images
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The Bears trotted president Kevin Warren out in front of the cameras. He and GM Ryan Poles on Monday gave speeches usually reserved at Halas Hall for the end of every third or fourth season.

Two seasons in Marc Trestman's case.

Apologies, vows to do better. This alone shows the degree to which Poles failed, by hiring coach Matt Eberflus to begin with, because he brought them the first coach so bad they decided he had to go before the season ended.

The stink isn't all on Poles, though.

The major share belongs with George McCaskey, Bill Polian and Ted Phillips. They had a few other administrators tacked on for decoration but those were the major hands in hiring for a head coach the defensive coordinator from the Indianapolis Colts, someone without head coaching experience.

But he was a "leader of men" and had a nice anagram to describe his approach to tackle football.

THE HAND THOMAS BROWN MUST PLAY IN DEBUT AS INTERIM COACH

They forced three candidates on Poles, left him to pick Eberflus and everyone applauded themselves in another setup like in a communist election.

In the end, it's Poles left to absorb the blame because McCaskey did not hold a press conference Monday to describe how his attempt at bringing in a coach had failed, just like the attempt his late brother Michael made after the family unceremoniously dumped Mike Ditka.

Make no mistake, Poles is being held accountable now because he went to bat for Eberflus after last season. This was evident with undertones at the press conference in what Warren said.

None of this is going to fall on the head of Warren, and the undertone to Warren's half of Monday's press conference suggested he'll have no problem getting rid of the GM if this coach fails.

He put Poles into the prominent but dreaded "point" position for finding a new coach. This conveniently allows Warren to stay in the background and avoid the heat should there be any. Poles can go with another flop.

"One of the things I have prided myself on in my entire career is there are a couple different types of people," Warren said. "There are people who can find fault and there are people who can find fault and come up with solutions.

"One of the things I appreciate working with Ryan is that he is one of the people who will raise his hand and say, 'This is something we could have done better, but here are some solutions.' We're committed to doing that.' "

That's great, but the problem is you have to find fault.

It is a real luxury to be higher up in the Bears pecking order, and that's very important at Halas Hall.

However, Poles is the guy who will and should be held responsible for their next coaching hire. He'll have a huge pool to select from and maybe the best coaching candidates. They like to think so, anyway.

"When you look at the assets of the Chicago Bears–why I am so excited about this opportunity to work with Ryan in finding our permanent head football coach here is No. 1, we have the greatest fans I talked about earlier," Warren said. "They are passionate, I appreciate and embrace that passion."

It's always good to butter up the fans. It's even better to butter up the owner.

"Secondly is that we have a great tradition of the Chicago Bears," Warren said. "It is really special in all of sports. We are going to have plenty of salary cap space, we have a young talented roster, we have strong draft capital in the upcoming draft, and we have a quarterback in Caleb Williams who has shown he is very special–and in the right environment he can become even more special than he already has shown.

"The other thing I am grateful for is we have full support of the McCaskey family who has provided us with the resources–not only during the search but also once our new head coach is here to build an environment that will be a championship environment."

For now, Eberflus is gone, and Warren was left explaining the way the team let him hold a press conference 90 minutes to two hours before the firing, making him seem like the coach going into the 49ers game.

It was here that the real rot at Halas Hall was most evident.

The explanation was they had to deliberate first among the big three, Poles, Warren and McCaskey, before firing a coach who should have been fired after the disgusting 29-9 loss to Arizona. They let it linger so there were six embarrassments in all. And then they had to deliberate about something that should have been decided Thanksgiving night and then executed at 6 or 7 a.m. Friday at the latest. Any fan who watched that joke knew it. Jaylon Johnson definitely knew it in the locker room afterward.

HOW THOMAS BROWN SEES BEARS PULLING IT ALL BACK TOGETHER

REPLACING MATT EBERFLUS BEGINS AND ENDS WITH RYAN POLES

HOW A WEEKEND WITHOUT FOOTBALL AFFECTED THE CHICAGO BEARS

REASONS THOMAS BROWN RATES A SOLID CHANCE AT RETAINING BEARS JOB

“We always have debates, but again, from Ryan making the decision and talking to myself and George–debate is good,” Warren said. “I don’t want to call it any dissenting voices, but we had discussion.

"This was not a five-minute conversation. When you are talking about decision that you’ve made about not only individuals lives and careers–but we were very thoughtful."

Six straight weeks of free fall with one embarrassment after another was not enough to simply say he's fired. It needed to be run by the McCaskeys and debated.

There's your problem at Halas Hall. People who don't know anything about the sport are again debating and ultimately approving a decision by those who do.

And so it goes, over, and over and over. Even as they hire people to run the show, they get to make the decisions.

A few minutes later, interim coach Thomas Brown was describing for the press how he’s a decisive person.

“I can control my approach every single day,” he said. “What makes me decisive is I was raised by decisive decision makers. My mother and my father were decisive. My older sister, Nicole, was very decisive. I've been married for 16 years to a wife who is very decisive.

“I surround myself with decisive people. I believe in just the process of how you go about things and how you communicate and how you execute those when it's time to go execute.”

Forget Brown being interim coach. Put him in charge of the entire franchise, along with his wife and also Nicole. 

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.