A Flag For the Chicago Bears, Jerry Angelo, and Lovie Smith

Although I tout the “fire Lovie” ideals, I believe changing our GM and all of our coaches is the way to go for this team.  If the Bears cannot get rid of Angelo or won’t, then they simply need to rid themselves of this coaching staff and hire someone who can stand up to or go against Angelo when it needs to happen. 

Angelo has proven two things—he is a poor talent evaluator (draft, free agents, own talent) and can be a competent GM. The problem is how and when they spend money; they have no problem rewarding their own players that spent years playing rookie contracts for under $1 million a year when it comes time for their contracts to expire, but won’t pay the big bucks to a free agent or a draft pick (I know we gave Cutler more money and gave Cedric Benson all that money but as a whole). 

I’m all for rewarding good play but when they give the big money to players like Nathan Vasher, who wouldn’t have been a starting player for a lot of the teams, it becomes a problem. 

Furthermore, I can sum Lovie up in one fancy word: Nepotism.  He constantly gives jobs to his Tampa buddies and to people that he likes, regardless of talent. 

Look at Ron Rivera. Can anyone say he wasn’t run out of town by Lovie and his Cover 2 defense?

The Bears had a top three defense the year before the Super Bowl, top five the Super Bowl year and then they let Rivera go. why? Some say it’s because he has aspirations of being a head coach, which I won’t disagree with. 

However, does a Wal-Mart employee quit their job when they have an interview with Kmart? I don’t think so, and I don’t think Rivera "left" because he wanted something better.

In reality, he left for two reasons. First of all, Lovie didn’t want him getting the credit when Lovie is the defensive guy. He had Babbich coaching the LBs and knew that Babbich would be his perfect coordinator. Lovie’s defense is Bob’s defense and someone like Babbich isn’t going to stand up to Lovie because he knows his years as DC was the pinnacle of his coaching career. 

The second reason is pretty simple; Rivera became a top DC in the league and Angelo/Philips/McCaskey didn’t want to pay top dollar for a coordinator or even a coach for that matter (Lovie was the least paid coach the year of the Super Bowl). End of story.

Being stoic in the NFL can be a good thing, especially for a head coach. However, when "your" way isn’t working or you simply don’t have the personnel to do things "your" way then adjustments need to be made, plain and simple. 

Those changes, however, never happen.  What happens is that Bears fans get to watch sloppy, poor play on Sunday and wait for Lovie’s press conference that will sound like this...

“We went out, we played our game plan and we came up a little short. We’re going to go back to practice and keep working on what we do and get our system back on track ... Rex is our quarterback.” 

In the current staff’s mind every team the Bears play has the best day in the history of their franchise and there was nothing they could do about the loss as the other team was that good that day.

Maybe it’s time to change some things up and make the defense and offense less predictable. On defense, they could try something other than playing about 10 yards off the line of scrimmage in coverage.

On offense, maybe they could stop chucking it up to Olsen 24/7 and try running the ball a bit more, and by run I mean not up the middle every time. Forte can run for 30 yards on a screen off to the side or a toss but we keep plugging this guy up the middle and it’s just not working.

Also, Jay will be the quarterback for the next half decade, at least. However, if he feels the need to throw three or more interceptions, maybe he could spend the fourth quarter on the bench (NOT permanently but just for the game); immediate reaction might be “you can’t bench a franchise QB!” but, didn’t Philly bench McNabb last year after a poor start? 

Didn’t the Eagles take A LOT of flak for this move? Didn’t McNabb start the next week, have a great game and ended up making the playoffs?  Isn’t McNabb currently in one of his best stretches since that benching? 

Trust me, if they benched Cutler for a quarter all that would happen is one of the biggest frowns Cutler’s ever had in his career; they would not be risking losing Cutler.

The Bears constantly appear inept because they are spineless from McCaskey on down.  Phillips job is to protect the bank, Angelo’s job is to build a team and Lovie’s job is to coach that team. 

Not one of those guys has any penchant for rocking the boat or doing something not “Bearsish” (outside of the Cutler deal, and I know I made up a word).

Since they haven’t won in over two decades, it might be time for someone inside of Halas Hall to realize that "business as usual" isn’t working and isn’t going to work, period.

They need change. Unfortunately, for the fans and the NFL as a whole (they would benefit if the Bears were good) the people they have in place are PERFECT Bears people; but I assure you, being a Bears person isn’t a good thing in football.