Today marks the 2022 NFL Black Monday, and the Chicago Bears have fired Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace. This was supposed to be a great day and fans had hope for less than five hours before George McCaskey spoke to fans and media in a virtual press conference. That interview laid out the team’s new hierarchy but also proved to show just how backward and insane this organization is as a whole.
When we look at the team, the Chicago Bears have underperformed for decades now. We all sit here and watch the Green Bay Packers consistently win the NFC North, while we live in mediocrity fueled by a historic past that hasn’t been present in over 35 years. In fact, even going back to the 2006 Super Bowl run we have to flip back through 16 calendars. I sit here writing this asking myself, why?
Maybe Matt Nagy was right all along when he kept warning us, “we have to figure out the whys.” Maybe this was a cry for help and explaining that there’s no way that this organization will ever be consistently good and “why” are you still supporting them?
Chicago Bears fire Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace on this 2022 NFL Black Monday
Alright, that’s not the case, but this press conference was absolutely awful. I am shocked by the outcome and after 20-plus years of cheering and now covering this team, I don’t know why. I fall for it every time. They teased us that a hierarchical change was going to take place, but instead, everyone is literally staying in the same position at the top with one little quirk. Ted Phillips will step away from football operations and George McCaskey will take full control.
This sounds absurd, but it gets worse. The team is using Bill Polian as a consultant in deciding who to hire as the next general manager. This isn’t the absurd part and honestly, I have no problem with Polian being involved despite not being in the league for 10 years now. The worse part is that when asked, George McCaskey stated that Ted Phillips will still be involved in the hiring process.
Which one is it George? Is Ted Phillips really stepping to the side while you handle everything or is he still going to be sticking his nose in it? Guess what, it doesn’t matter. Neither are qualified as Ted Phillips is a glorified bean counter and George McCaskey is just a fan per his own admission.
The only underlying hope here is that the Chicago Bears do hire the best general manager and give him full football operations control as they say they will. The problem is, I do not trust them. I don’t trust them to not meddle. I do not trust them to make the right choice. Ryan Pace was hired after consulting with Ernie Accorsi, another respected name back in the day. Now, they are doing the same thing but just with different consultants. When will they learn?