The Bears' Matt Eberflus era is officially over, but that doesn't mean we're going to stop gossiping about it!
In perhaps the least-surprising bit of news to come out from the Bears' decision to move on from their head coach in the middle of the season – for the first time in team history – a new report has some, uh, unflattering details about the final days.
RELATED: Fox's NFL pregame show absolutely torched Matt Eberflus for Bears' awful loss
According to a new, in-depth report from The Athletic, Eberflus lost the locker room way before the Bears' embarrassing Thanksgiving loss in Detroit. For most players, the final straw was actually the Hail Mary loss in Washington – and the fact that Eberflus didn't take a ton of accountability for his coaching mistakes immediately after. Things were getting so toxic that by the time that the Bears had lost their sixth straight game, players were openly yelling at him.
Bears players yelled at Matt Eberflus after Thanksgiving loss, according to new report
"According to multiple players and staffers in the locker room, some players were asking why Eberflus didn’t call a timeout. Other players got going, too ... Multiple sources added that the emotions were so high between the players and their head coach that Eberflus left the locker room immediately after his speech and the exchange with players. There was nothing left to say. It was a moment for this Bears team that would inevitably force chairman George McCaskey into something the franchise had never done before."
"Guys were furious,” a staff member said ... “The locker room was ugly. There was a lot of yelling.”
Even though there's plenty of shock value in "Bears players were yelling at their head coach," nothing in The Athletic's piece will probably come as much of a surprise to Bears fans or anyone following the team this season. Guys have been going on record with local media to air ... unsubtle? ... complaints about the coaching staff since about mid-October, so much so that it felt like he lost the locker room way before even the Washington game.
The good news is that the Bears have clearly learned that you can, in fact, fire a coach before the end of the season. Now they have six weeks to be a huge mess while actually-interesting football teams distract anyone from noticing. Progress!