ALREADY, WITH MCCARTHY IN PLAY, THE BEARS ARE BUNGLING A COACHING SEARCH

Caleb Williams is raving about Ben Johnson, 38, when McCarthy has been a playoff flop in Dallas at 61 and won his only Super Bowl in 2011 — which is why Jerry Jones doesn’t care if Chicago signs him

The future is Caleb Williams and wherever the Chicago Bears play next, most likely in Arlington Heights, where Subway still has a $6.99 meal deal on Euclid Avenue. The distant past is Mike McCarthy, who is 61 and could return as a toll collector on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. He hasn’t won a Super Bowl in 14 years, along with Aaron Rodgers, who shares the same gray facial beard.

And he didn’t win much in Dallas, which means he can fade away. Yet in the wayback world of the McCaskeys, McCarthy somehow could bring coaching guidance to Williams and championships to a team that hasn’t won a trophy in four decades. If general manager Ryan Poles is running the search lurch, he has contacted the Cowboys and asked to speak with McCarthy, who becomes a free agent next Tuesday. Does owner Jerry Jones want him back for a sixth season as head coach?

“I wouldn't want anybody coaching who didn't want to be here,” he said.

This appears to be Jerry’s squirrelly way of dumping a man he doesn’t want. Never mind that McCarthy sides with ancient history, saying Sunday in his homeland at AT&T Stadium, where he and the Green Bay Packers won in 2011: “I’m a winner. I know how to win. I’ve won a championship. I won a championship in this building. That’s who I am. We’ll see where it goes.”

Where it goes cannot be Chicago. Am I going to sit here and tell the Bears what they cannot do, each time a name surfaces, when they’ve messed up their last four coaching hires? Mike Vrabel isn’t coming. Ben Johnson, preparing for the playoffs in Detroit, is more likely headed to Jacksonville. Poles has raved about interim coach Thomas Brown, not a good idea. So, who? For all we know, Jones might have a direct line to Johnson, who would receive the money he wants and the established quarterback he wants in Dak Prescott, who must stay healthy. McCarthy won a few more than half his games with the world’s most valuable sports team, known for glitz and a cheerleader who was hit in the back of the head thanks to kicker Brandon Aubrey.

Let the Bears have him, says Jones, who will turn 83 this year and hasn’t won since 1996. In the playoffs, McCarthy has been a Dallas disaster. He went four times and won once, including a mauling by the Packers last year. He lost Prescott and finished 7-10, two games ahead of the Bears. No one knows what Jones is doing. “I'm in the wind just like you guys,” defensive star Micah Parsons said.

Knowing he could be seeking a job, McCarthy hired agent Don Yee. Poles and president Kevin Warren seem willing to work with him, knowing favorable money would be in a deal. At this point, McCarthy creates more complications by saying he wants to stay in Dallas.

“Absolutely. I have a lot invested here. And the Cowboys have a lot invested in me," McCarthy said. “And then there's a personal side to all these decisions. They all point the right direction. I think anytime you invest your time, energy, your belief, the connection you have, the relationships that are in place here, the understanding of what the organization can do and is willing to do, those are all positive attributes that you take into account.

“You know, absolutely, I'm a builder. I believe in building programs. I believe in developing young players. So, at the end of day, it is about winning, and you have to have those components in place to get this thing where it needs to be. I think we have a very good foundation here.”

Even crazier — and what are the Bears if something isn’t crazy — Williams spoke fondly of Johnson, who is 38. Who is better equipped to help him at 23: Johnson or McCarthy? Didn’t Rodgers turn on McCarthy before he was fired in Green Bay? Monday, Williams said, “I think during our game, I would sit back and watch and try and learn something while I watch. It was fascinating to watch because he always had wrinkles for counters and things like that throughout the game. I think he's obviously done really well, so it'd be cool to see how that all goes down.”

Who would maximize him? “Whether it's pulling me aside and saying whatever — having talks consistently," Williams said of his next coach. “Maybe having a list of things, we want to accomplish, myself first — that helps the team. From there help find ways to set goals. How ever it might work out, just challenge. Find ways to help better myself and better the team. Really excited about that. I would say any way, shape or form. I don't have an issue being challenged, I don't have an issue with speaking truth between the coach and I or whoever it may be. Whichever way it happens or shapes up is the way it goes.”

Of teams in the postseason, the Bears have asked to interview Johnson, Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores and Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. Never mind Vrabel, who is off to New England. Flores? Didn’t Tua Tagovailoa destroy him as a handler of young quarterbacks in Miami?

“To put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you (that) you suck at what you did, that you don't belong doing what you do, that you shouldn't be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven't earned this right, and then you have somebody else come in and tell you, ‘Dude, you are the best fit for this,’ ’’ Tagovailoa said on Dan Le Batard’s show. “How would it make you feel listening to one or the other, you see what I'm saying? And then you hear it, no matter what it is, the good or the bad, you hear it more and more, you start to believe that. I don't care who you are.

“You could be the president of the United States, you have a terrible person telling you things that you don't want to hear or probably shouldn't be hearing, you're going to start believing that about yourself. And so that's what sort of ended up happening.”

Forget Flores, who also is suing the NFL alleging racial discrimination. The Bears began their search in late November. All we do is take them apart, the NFL’s most common rant. Mike McCarthy? Isn’t he Matt Eberflus and Matt Nagy and John Fox and Marc Trestman? A title ring does not matter when babies that year are entering high school.

He once took change on the turnpike. In Chicago, for future reference among angry fans, there is a tollway en route to Arlington Heights.

###

Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.