WHO IS “A LEADER OF MEN” AS KEVIN WARREN TAKES OVER HALAS HALL FROM POLES?
Who? Really? Belichick, right? Marcus Freeman isn’t ready to be an NFL head coach, and if Kyle Shanahan leaves the 49ers, he might fit Caleb Williams as a quarterback whisperer like Ben Johnson
They demand “a leader of men” in the psyche of the next head coach. So, shouldn’t Chicago Bears executives be men themselves? Are they? What is a bro and a hombre in the loser’s world of Halas Hall? It’s soothing for a broken Ryan Poles, now overwhelmed in power by Kevin Warren, to tell receiver DJ Moore, “A leader of men is going to be in here.”
But Poles is the general manager once assuming “a leader of men” was Matt Eberflus, who thought Shane Waldron was a leader of men, both of whom were fired because they were too nice or proper. “We have a lot to be thankful for,” Eberflus said on Thanksgiving Day in a locker room prepared to maim him.
So that’s the hook of the crisis. The Bears need “a leader of men” when they have no idea how to hire such a beast. Warren is coming off as a phony in his first decisive point as president and CEO, claiming the vacancy is “the most coveted job in the National Football League this year.” He is the one, with Poles and chairman George McCaskey, who figured Eberflus was ideal for the position. Now that he’s long gone, why would anyone think Warren — in charge as Poles cowers — will find someone better when he’s helpless in trying to put a new stadium on the lakefront, in Arlington Heights or at the former Michael Reese hospital site, where everyone involved should seek emotional support?
A leader of men? Bill Belichick would fit but he cannot take these people seriously at 72. A leader of men? Mike Vrabel works, but he is coming off a mess in Tennessee when he was run off by owner Amy Adams Strunk and might balk at Bears leadership. Is Ben Johnson legitimate about taking a look? McCaskey hasn’t paid big money for a coach in his last five attempts, so what does he know about rewarding a man? Kliff Kingsbury is a leader of men who could look down at Poles, after Eberflus rejected him for Waldron’s job as offensive coordinator.
Kyle Shanahan? He has appeared in three Super Bowls and blown double-digit leads each time. The 49ers might send him on his way, and while Caleb Williams will impress a quarterback whisperer, does he want Chicago’s stress after dealing with tumult in the Bay Area? He might not be a leader of men as much as he settles into sulkiness.
This organization has fired five head coaches and three general managers since 2011. Any leader of mean customers might be asking if he’d be next. Would anyone have hope in Warren, who thrusted arrogance at his seat in the Fire Eberflus press conference? He said Monday, “We need an individual who has extremely high standards, who is tough, who is demanding, who is bright, who has attention to detail, who seeks and will win championships, who creates an environment of accountability, who’s creative, who’s intelligent, who’s a decisive decision maker, and who will represent the city of Chicago, all of our fans, this franchise, in a manner that is well deserved.”
That is a long-ass sentence. Next year will be the 40th straight without a Super Bowl championship. How about making the playoffs for once and winning a postseason game for the first time since 2010? Warren says Poles will lead the charge in finding a coach, which gives him leverage to remain in his job while removing Poles in three years. “From a final-say standpoint, I mean, ultimately, he’s the general manager,” Warren said. “But I think in working together, it’ll be very clear who’s the right person for the Chicago Bears. … We will work closely. We will together on a daily basis to make sure that we bring the best person to the Bears as our permanent head football coach. You have our word on that. It will be an exhaustive search. It will be organized. It will be diligent. We will do it the right way.”
What if they disagree? What if McCaskey makes waves? What if three bosses want three different people? “We’ll work that out,” Warren said. “I look at today as a first day for us to be able to go together. Let’s put the past in the past. Let’s start to go forward and work together because I don’t want to burn any energy on what has happened in the past. I’m confident we will work through it because the good thing about it is so long as we keep the center of our decisions what’s in the best interest of the Chicago Bears. It will become clear as far as who is the person to lead this franchise from a football standpoint, from a coaching standpoint.”
Said Poles, who looked the part of a 39-year-old who failed in his ‘Flus Juice efforts: “I’ve learned a lot over the last few years. I think the most critical thing is that I know from the roster that we have right now exactly what this team needs because of the core group that we have here. Before, that wasn’t really the case of understanding who is going to be here. It was a really tough situation to walk in to. So, knowing exactly the core of our team and what traits are going to help get that team to be a championship caliber roster.”
You’ll hear many names. The one that scares me is Marcus Freeman. Is he a leader of men? He wasn’t on the first Saturday of September, when the Notre Dame coach had to explain a 16-14 home loss to Northern Illinois when he was favored by 28.5 points. In 2022, his first season, he lost at home to Marshall and Stanford. Last year, he was bounced at Louisville and at Clemson. Explain losing to a Mid-American Conference school in his third year.
“That's the ultimate challenge. And every year presents a different challenge for us,” Freeman said. “That's why it took me a little bit of time to look back and say, ‘OK, what do we have? What do we have to learn from this game?’ Yeah, schematic things we've got to fix, but here's what's different about this one, is that we've got to handle success the right way. I know we'll get it right. We have the people in that building to make sure we get this thing where it needs to go.”
To his credit, the Fighting Irish spent the next 84 days correcting their ills. They have reached the College Football Playoff with 10 consecutive victories. Might they challenge Oregon or Texas for the school’s first national championship since 1988? “I’m proud of this group. It’s an honor to be a part of this football program with these guys, with this coaching staff and to see where we were to where we’re at now,” Freeman said. “It’s a testament to the trust in the decisions that those guys in that locker room and the coaching staff and everybody that helps have made. And this is what it’s all about, man. It’s the journey, right? There’s a journey, and you can’t let the highest and highs and lowest and lows deter you from what you need to do to reach your goals. And so it’s awesome. I’m excited. We’re going to enjoy this thing. We’ll worry about the future later.”
Gulp.
Yes, Freeman was drafted by the Bears out of Ohio State in 2009. He was cut as a fifth-round pick. He is not ready for the NFL as a head coach, but that doesn’t mean Warren — with his ties as a former Big Ten commissioner — might not wander in that direction. Remember, McCaskey was big on the leader-of-men premise when he fired Matt Nagy, saying, “They don’t have to like him, they don’t have to love him, but they respect him. So the primary quality we’ll be looking for in both the general manager and the head coach is leadership.” He found Eberflus.
This time, McCaskey refused to speak to the media while sitting with family members as Warren and Poles yakked away. But don’t ever forget him in the ongoing circus. Joe Brady, who coaches Josh Allen in Buffalo, could be a leader of men. He also might soar toward the Super Bowl, which would help matters. He is no relation to Tom Brady.
The Bears should dominate the condition of manhood. Brian Urlacher qualifies, but he doesn’t coach. Olin Kreutz qualifies, but he doesn’t coach. Kyle Long qualifies, but he doesn’t coach. Ditka, back in town, might work from his condo on the phone for a half.
The next few weeks should be curious. Perhaps Thomas Brown, who thought about serving as an interim head coach from an upstairs booth, will win once or twice with games in San Francisco, Minnesota and Green Bay and two at home against Detroit and Seattle. “No more divisions,” he said of team politics.
If nothing else, we will see Ben Johnson and Kyle Shanahan at work. You judge if they are leaders of men.
For now, does anyone know a urologist?
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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.