7 thoughts following the Chicago Bears loss to the Lions
Chicago Thought No. 5: The Bears need to hire Kevin Warren ASAP
The big news came on December 30th that Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren has interviewed with the Bears to become the next team president as embattled Ted Phillips is nearing his retirement after this season.
Source: Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren has interviewed for the Chicago Bears' president/CEO job multiple times in-person and is among the finalists for the job. ESPN first.
— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) December 29, 2022
Warren has an impressive resume. He has worked front office roles with the Rams, Lions and Vikings, where he played a major role in the construction of U.S. Bank Stadium.
A Big Ten commissioner since January 2020, he helps lead the conference through a difficult pandemic period by extending a lucrative media rights deal worth more than $7 billion. CBS is now the new home of the Big Ten conference starting in 2023 and he shocked the college football world by welcoming west coast giants USC and UCLA to their conference.
He is also someone who has a history with Justin Fields. Warren initially canceled the Big Ten football season in 2020 as COVID continued to spread, which was not well received by head coaches and players. Fields led the movement to gather 300,000 signatures and forced the Big Ten to salvage the remainder of the season — five weeks after its cancellation.
It will be interesting to see if a distinguished professional like Warren holds a grudge against Fields still to this day for overturning his initial decision to cancel the 2020 Big Ten season.
If the interview did take place, Warren’s motive is unknown. Perhaps after invading Pac-12 to lure both USC and UCLA to join the conference in 2024, he is getting ripped for not respecting history and tradition. Or after helping Big Ten secure lucrative media contracts, he feels he has nothing left to prove in college football.
If the Chicago Bears can lure him out of Big Ten to be their next team president, it would be a huge coup. They need to gather support to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights, which may not be well received by residents concerned about how their tax money is going to be spent.
With Warren’s experience of building the U.S. Bank Stadium after years of failure, the Bears need to do everything to make sure he is their next team president. It would bring stability and credibility that this team has lacked for decades.