With the dismissal of Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace, the Chicago Bears are embarking on the next upheaval. But club leadership may end up standing in the way of real change – and insulting a club legend instead.

Munich/Chicago – The fact that head coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace were fired by the Chicago Bears after the 2021 season came as a surprise to few.

The team presented itself too one-dimensional in the past weeks and with only two playoff appearances – both ended with a loss in the first round – under Pace’s regime, it was also the end for the GM after seven years in Chicago.

With the Bears, one of the most tradition-steeped franchises in the league has been treading water for more than a decade and no longer seems to be able to build on its earlier successes. In the question of guilt, many fans are increasingly focusing on one name.

George McCaskey: The fish stinks from the head

As the eldest son of team owner Virginia Halas McCaskey, George McCaskey has held the reins at the Chicago Bears since 2011. He has also usually had the final say in the search for head coaches and general managers during his tenure.

The problem: Only a few people in charge within the franchise have a serious past in the NFL and football in general. A lawyer by training and longtime overseer of ticket sales in Chicago, McCaskey has an extensive business relationship with the Bears, but athleticism is lacking at every turn.

That he has to fear consequences in this despite the lack of success seems to be out of the question. Since there are four other McCaskeys on the board besides him and his mother, he basically enjoys fool’s freedom as chairman.

The people who report directly to him also have little to do with the sporting reality within the NFL. CEO and team president Ted Phillips, who has only made the playoffs six times in 23 years in the position and is considered highly controversial by fans, is one of McCaskey’s first points of contact.

Although Phillips is now kept out of almost all sporting matters, he is now also said to have a say in the search for a new coach and general manager. But that is not the only reason why many fans are feeling anything but a sense of optimism.

“Not a football evaluator, just a fan “

With the phrase “I’m not a football evaluator, just a fan,” McCaskey caused a stir at Monday’s press conference following the wave of dismissals. He may have promptly dashed the brief hope of change among many supporters.

Because instead of putting the sporting fortunes in the right hands, he will once again decide on the short- and medium-term future in Chicago – and this despite the fact that he has already proven several times that he is indeed not a “football evaluator”.

The future general manager will therefore report exclusively to him. What on the one hand may mean a lot of freedom for the new line-up, on the other hand stands for little transparency and a lot of solo work.

The sporting relevance of such fatal solo efforts was demonstrated by ex-GM Pace in the 2017 draft. Instead of selecting a franchise quarterback for the future in Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson, the Bears, on Pace’s advice, opted for Mitchell Trubisky, who has since joined the Buffalo Bills as a backup quarterback.

So instead of a complete shake-up at all levels, fans were put off with the next experiment in the ‘McCaskey and Phillips’ era. In a sport like football, where the connection between fans and franchise also defines the sporting reality, the Chicago Bears ship continues to sink. The tablecloth to their own supporters hangs by a thread.

Lost touch with reality

There’s been a lot wrong with Chicago management for years, Bears legend Olin Kreutz recently noted. The former offensive lineman took the field a whopping 182 times in 13 years for the Bears and is considered one of the most recognizable players in franchise history.

Nevertheless, McCaskey got carried away and publicly called the former Pro Bowler a liar. The latter stated that the Bears offered him an assistant job in 2018 to work with the offensive line. The officials allegedly offered him a salary of just US$15 an hour.

“I wouldn’t make something like that up. That’s just the way they run their business there. These are the things that simply have to change,” Kreutz told “The Score”. However, he said he was not surprised that the franchise would develop the way it did under this leadership.

Monday followed McCaskey’s response, “I’ve learned over the years to take what Olin Kreutz says with a grain of salt. He never tells the whole story,” he rumbled on. Harry Wienstand, who was O-line coach with the Bears at the time, on the other hand, confirmed Kreutz’s version.

In the end, it just shows how out of touch with reality the Bears officials are. To publicly attack such a beloved franchise legend shows little self-reflection and is only likely to turn fans against the McCaskey family all the more.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

With the hiring of Bill Polian as an outside consultant in the search for a new general manager, McCaskey did give fans reason to hope for real change. The latter is considered a real scouting legend in the league and is networked to the last office in the league. The only question is: how much does McCaskey listen to Polian? At the PK, after all, he knew how to quote from Polian’s book.

The candidates for the post of general manager, who were invited by the Bears for interviews, also promise more progress than regression.

Names like Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (Cleveland Browns) and Morocco Brown (Indianapolis Colts) in particular would stand for a clear rejuvenation and above all more diversity within the franchise. The fans’ favourite is former Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome. Since the new GM will also be in demand in the head coach search, the Bears could lay an important foundation here that will bring athletic success back to the “Windy City.”

Jim Harbaugh, who is still employed as head coach at the University of Michigan, is considered by many fans and experts to be the ideal candidate. Recently, the latter announced that he could imagine a return to the NFL. Harbaugh even once played quarterback for Chicago, was drafted in the first round by the Bears in 1987 and can identify with the franchise accordingly.

The decisive factor will be how much leeway McCaskey gives the newcomers within the club. If those in charge allow large-scale changes and new ideas to break up entrenched power relationships and structures, there will indeed be light at the end of the tunnel for Bears fans.

If the general manager remains an extension of the owners and the coach an interchangeable puppet with little influence, the Bears will remain in the endless loop of mediocrity.