Bears Need to Fix Karma: Replacing Lovie Smith with Rex Ryan Would Be a Start

The Chicago Bears continue trying to find nice people to coach their team. They want a lovable, kind, quiet personality that "tries pretty darn hard" to get things done, one quarter of the season at a time.

The Bears are a talented football team. Linebackers Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs are as good a tandem as there is in the NFL.

Rookie running back Matt Forte put up historically good numbers as a rookie back. And in the secondary, youngster Corey Graham looked solid replacing Nathan Vasher down the stretch.

There are pieces to work with; this team is not lacking for talent.

But this is Chicago. In a city that spends March 1 to Oct. 30 staring at a history of bad karma on the North Side, the Bears have had issues of their own with negative mojo. Recently, Muhsin Muhammad said Chicago is where receivers' careers go to die.

The way Da Coach, Mike Ditka, left was a public relations disaster. And the fighting between the McCaskey family and coaches and general managers has been the stuff of legend; the greatest example of this was adding Heisman Trophy legend Doug Flutie to the roster while Jim McMahon was still going strong.

One of the biggest character feuds in maybe the history of sports was the daily collision between Ditka and his defensive coordinator, Buddy Ryan.

Ryan designed and implemented the 46 Defense, which was performed to historic standards by the 1985 Super Bowl Champion Bears.

But Ditka hated Ryan's popularity with the players, and they fought regularly. Their crosses were bad enough that, after the Super Bowl in 1986, Ryan left to become a head coach in Philadelphia.

The team knew Ryan was leaving and, in an unprecedented display of affection for a Coordinator, the defense carried Ryan off the field after the win while the offense carried Ditka.

Now, as the Bears have fired most of their defensive staff, perhaps there's a way for them to fix some of that negative history and improve their football team in the process.

One of the hottest names in the NFL right now as a handful of teams look for a head coach is Rex Ryan, Buddy's son. He's a fiery leader of a defense that has an eerily similar look to those 1985 Bears.

They will take the ball away at any time, anywhere, and they'll take your helmet off in the process if they have to.

I know the numbers are there for you to believe, on the surface, that Lovie Smith has been a successful head coach in the NFL.

But his lack of emotion has carried over into underwhelming seasons in which the Bears could have done significantly more than they have both in the regular season and January.

Perhaps the Bears should look into adding a new head coach. I know the hiring of Rod Miranelli, one of Smith's best friends, indicates that Smith's job is completely secure. But maybe it shouldn't be.

Maybe the Bears should look to their past to improve their future. Maybe they need to have another Ryan running their defense and, indeed, their team.