Nothing to See Here Says Matt Nagy

Bears coach Matt Nagy says he meets regularly with Bears ownership and there has been nothing said to him indicating he'll be fired Thursday after the Lions game as per a Patch.com report.

USA Today

Bears coach Matt Nagy had to spend part of his Tuesday press conference refuting a report by Patch.com saying he has been told by the team he will be fired after Thursday's game with the Detroit Lions

The report was by Mark Konkol, a former Sun-Times reporter. There were no conditions attached with the firing story, such as if the 3-7 Bears were to lose their sixth straight game against an 0-8-1 Detroit team.

"That is not accurate," Nagy said. "I have great communication with ownership, with (team board chairman) George (McCaskey), (CEO) Ted (Phillips) and (GM) Ryan (Pace) but I have not had discussions."

Nagy said not talking this particular week with McCaskey, Phillips and Pace was scheduled for this week.  

"My focus right now is on these players and Detroit and that's it," Nagy said.

Konkol, who now works for Patch.com, has won a Pulitzer in the past and has some Bears management sources because his city news beat for years while with the Daily Southtown and Sun-Times included covering the construction of the new Soldier Field.

The team did not offer comment on the report.

The Bears have never fired a coach midseason.

Bears special teams coordinator Chris Tabor was the first person from the team available to media on Wednesday and called it speculation.

'My status is that we're going to go to walkthrough, then I'm going to go to practice and then on Thursday, I'm going to coach our tails off to win the football game," Tabor said. 'I don't know anything about that report. And reports are just reports to me.

"I have a job to do. So I'm going to stick to that job. That's not coachspeak. And I'm not trying to get fired up about the question. But we're going to do our job."

Chants of "fire Nagy," broke out in isolated parts of Soldier Field Sunday and since have been heard at United Center at a Bulls game.

Cary-Grove High School in northwest suburban Chicago issued an apology to the Nagys and Lake Forest High School after chants of "fire Nagy" broke out at a football game between the two teams. Nagy has a son playing for Lake Forest.

"I was there to watch my son play a football game. I was there to be a dad," Nagy said, who added he didn't really hear the chanting.

Nagy shifted the focus back to the game Thursday and said he hasn't yet addressed this report with players.

"The only thing we can do is focus on the now and try to do everything we can," he said.

Safety Tashaun Gipson saw now evidence of players being distracted and called it "busine

The conversations in the locker room haven't been anything such as that," Gipson said.

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