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Why Haven’t the Bears Hired Any Coordinators?

| January 20th, 2010

I have decided, until further notice, I am no longer going to make checking the websites of the Tribune and the Sun-Times part of my morning ritual.  I don’t care about Carlton Fisk’s take on the steroids era or how many players on the Bulls have the flu.  I think, and I can’t prove this with any mathematical formula, the Chicago Bears are going to be the first professional football team since electricity to enter a season without anyone coordinating the offense or defense.  And that’s starting to frighten me.

Why haven’t they hired anyone?  Hell, why aren’t they interviewing anyone?  Can’t they at least parade some retreads through the front door at Halas Hall to appease a fan base that was promised immense change?  There has to be reasons the Bears are filling in positions on the offensive staff without a coordinator, continuing as they interview Mike DeBord for the tight ends job.  There has to be reasons they only mentioned Perry Fewell for the defensive gig and have gone dark since he left them at the altar.  But what the hell can they be?
Perhaps the rumors that Les Frazier is interested in joining Lovie Smith in Chicago are true but I can’t imagine Frazier – with a head coaching job right out his window – would leave the stability of Brad Childress’ recent contract extension.  The NFL has too short an attention span to consider out-of-work coaches.  Frazier may be coming to Chicago, don’t get me wrong, it just might be for a better job next January.
There are several quality assistants still in the postseason.  Dennis Thurman in New York and Alan Williams in Indianapolis, both African American up-and-comers on defense, would provide a spark to a complacent unit.  Bill Callahan would love the opportunity to take over an offense again and Joe Lombardi is considered one of the architects of the Saints’ passing attack.  If these guys are being considered, nobody is saying much about it.
And then there’s Mike Martz.  The job seemed headed in his direction until Bates and Clements stole his thunder.  If Martz were a contender for the job, why wouldn’t he already have the job?  It’s not like he’s had to change his phone number to ward off suitors.  It would make sense if Martz were somewhere in the shadows giving his seal of approval to these staff hires.  It would also make no sense whatsoever.
I wish there was an answer.  I wish I had a nice paragraph to finish this column up but I don’t.  There are no answers when it comes to our current leadership.  Just more questions…and questions…and questions….