According to multiple sources close to the situation, John Fox is not going to be fired before the end of the season.
Before this article begins, let me stress that I am not an NFL Insider, nor do I pretend to be an NFL Insider. I cover national sports for my full-time job and I cover the Bears and write for FanSided for an additional gig.
What my full-time job has afforded me is the opportunity to build up a few contacts around the NFL and around the Chicago Bears organization. These individuals are reliable people who have inside information that they choose to share with me from time to time.
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That being said, I have spoken with two people from inside the walls at Halas Hall that have assured me that John Fox will be fired (one said he is “99%” gone at the end of the year), but they did also state that he would almost certainly finish out the season.
The other contact passed along almost identical information. In fact, the second individual also passed along that Fox had a “not too pleasant” conversation shortly before his “I don’t give a rip” line about his job security.
The bottom line on the information was that the Bears have never fired a coach in-season, including Marc Trestman who lost the locker room completely, and as of right now, management/ownership has no plans to place an interim coach for the final four games (or less) of the season.
If the Bears felt they had a potential in-house candidate that they might strongly consider for the next head coach position, perhaps that mentality would change, but there appears to be no plans to keep anyone on this coaching staff in 2018.
Again, I am not an insider and I am not stating that John Fox will coach all remaining 5 games this season, but as we sit right now a couple of days prior to the San Francisco 49ers game, it’s been told to me by two people close to the Bears that there are zero plans to even consider removing John Fox before the end of the season.
Bears fans needn’t worry about Fox though. There will be a new coach manning the sidelines soon enough, just not before we ring in 2018.