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Time to Move On

| November 14th, 2009

I had a dream last night that I was attending some kind of sports charity event at Radio City Music Hall and Jerry Angelo was giving a speech.  During the speech, they showed headlines of his accomplishments on the monitors throughout the place.  When he mentioned his “friend” Lovie Smith, I stood up and started booing. 

I’m telling you this because it’s important to verbalize – even if only over the magic box – one’s own levels of dementia.  And also because after a lengthy conversation with a particular New York City bar owner last night, I came to a conclusion. I think I want everyone fired.

That means Ted Phillips.  Jerry Angelo.  Lovie Smith.  Ron Turner.  The guy who parks the cars at Soldier Field.  I want them all fired.  Because I’m beginning to think that the 2010 Chicago Bears are not going to be better than the 2007-2009 Bears.  They have plummeted from the heights of a Super Bowl run into an organizational funk that has led to shoddy play-calling, mistakes on both sides of the ball and blown victories late.  They lack confidence and fire – which can be easily linked to their bland-faced, fireless head coach.

All that and worse.  The Bears are now something they should never be with the amount of talent on their roster.  They’re terrible.  That’s right, kids.  They’re awful.  They seem to select a different thing to be awful at each week but they are awful nevertheless.  They could enter into the 2010 season with the same regime, instituting a playoffs-or-bust mandate and reading Haugh’s weekly hot seat updates but what’s the point? 

The coaches are available now.  The real deal coaches who can stabilize an organization’s sideline and front office.  Mike Holmgren.  Mike Shanahan.  Possibly Jeff Fisher (my dream coach for over a decade).  Hell, even Super Bowl winners like Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden. (I’d be willing to take Gruden if only to get him out of the Monday Night Football booth.)  Guys who will relish the opportunity of coming to a team with this kind of history and fans, this core of offensive talent and a supremely gifted quarterback.  Holmgren made Favre a real football player.  Shanahan loves Cutler.  Fisher, though injured at the time, was a member of the 1985 club.  If the Bears play the waiting game with their leadership, they’ll end up with a second-tier assistant next year.  How many more decades of that can we really handle?

It is time to move on for the Chicago Bears.  Maybe they don’t realize it yet but I think there are a couple ballgames against Minnesota and one against Philadelphia that might prove the point.  Move on.  And save the 2010 season from becoming an ugly repeat episode of 2009.