I can’t get too pumped up about the hiring of a QB coach/passing coordinator. This offense is going to run the ball and then use play action to get Jay into space and let him fling the ball down the field. I also don’t want to restart the “should we pay Forte” debate. Forte will be a Bear in 2012. He’ll either be on a long-term contract or he’ll be making more than $8 million. Either way, he’ll be just fine.

The Super Bowl is coming and it should be paid the proper deference. Here is volume one of seven questions I have heading into Sunday as the NFL prepares to crown another champion that is not the Chicago Bears. (They are listed in declining order of importance.)

#7 Will either side make a play on special teams?

The Giants are only in Indianapolis because Niners backup kick returner Kyle Williams played one of the dumbest games a return man has ever played in a big spot. We often spend the two weeks leading up the The Big Game dissecting the x’s and o’s on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball but one muffed punt return or a well-timed onside kick or a return TD could dramatically alter the outcome. Neither of these teams has excellent specials so might one group surprise?

#6 Will short yardage failure/success make a big difference?

There are two teams playing Sunday. One has a running back bigger than most linebackers with a history of running over defensive backs on Sportscenter. The other has a quarterback who impregnated a super model and dumped her for another super model. Now if you had to guess which is the better team in short yardage, whom would you select? Brandon Jacobs has struggled so mightily in short yardage that Giants fans litter talk radio with calls for Ahmad Bradshaw in those situations. No quarterback in the history of football has been more effective as executing the quarterback sneak than Tom Brady. (Many note that it’s Brady’s ability to read how defenders line up that makes him so effective.) Their last Super Bowl meeting came down to a man avoiding a sack by half a foot and throwing a jump ball subsequently caught on the helmet of a teammate. Which inches will decide this encounter?

#5 When defenses go into nickel, who’ll run the ball better?

Mike Francesa on WFAN in New York has done a nice job drawing the parallel between this matchup and the Giants matchup with the Buffalo Bills following the 1990 season. In that game NYG defensive coordinator Bill Belichick spent most the contest in a “big nickel” look and dared the high-flying Jim Kelly Bills to run the ball. They did, quite effectively, but the Giants were able to avoid the big play that defined the Bills that year and dictate the terms of play. The 2011 Giants are statistically the best big play offense in the game and it would be surprising if Belichick did not employ a similar tactic.

The Giants have no choice. When the opposing offense is prolific with minimal use of the wideout, a defense is forced to use linebackers and safeties to concentrate on slot receivers and tight ends. The G-men know they can get pressure with just their front four so they’ll try and create confusing looks in the secondary for Brady. If the Pats go to the run, can they find success over the duration of four quarters?

The top four will arrive by Thursday morning…

Here are my reactions to Phil Emery’s introductory press conference at Halas Hall:

• Reverend said it to me (we spent presser on IM) and he was right. Emery was far more comfortable responding to questions from reporters than he was delivering his prepared statement. It took Emery some time to get through the emotion of the moment, I think.
• It was very evident that the awkwardness Jerry often displayed with the media will no longer be visible from the Bears GM. Emery basically told the press he won’t tell them anything and called out a reporter for forcing two question into a one question slot. I dig it. This media needs to be slapped and Emery seems like a guy ready to do some slapping.
• Emery seems like a tough boss. The guy who walks into your office and says, “You need to be better” and it hurts you profoundly to hear it.
• It sure sounded like Phil Emery intends to sign Matt Forte to a long-term deal.
• I don’t have a counter here but I’d bet he said “playmaker” 20 times. Take from that what you will but I think he was sending a clear message about getting Jay Cutler some weapons.
• Ted Phillips said he was looking for a GM to build the Bears through the draft and Emery made it clear the draft is going to be the focal point of the front office.
• Jerry Angelo often said strange things but reports were rampant that Angelo disregarded the opinions of scouts and relied on his own experience on draft day. Emery made it clear he is going to trust his men in the field.
• My favorite quote. “This is a big man’s game”
• Emery is going to build a scouting department that mirrors the Pats’ scouting department. Let’s hope they are as productive as the Pats scouts used to be.
• Emery is clearly most heavily influenced by his time at the Naval Academy. He mentioned all the GMs he’s worked with a few times but almost waxes poetic when he gets into his time at Navy.
• Bears fans will love this sentence: “I’m a very different person than Jerry”. When asked about whether his hiring is a sign of status quo at Halas Hall, Emery went out of his way to point out the differences between himself and Jerry Angelo.
• A couple writers kept trying to press Emery on the question of control, asking if he had full control. He handled the question with class by acknowledging his DOES have full control but repeating, “that’s now where my heads at.”

I liked the Phil Emery I saw in this press conference. He’s not a comic. He’s not Spalding Gray. He is a tough guy, a leader, organized and methodical. I’m excited to see what he does this spring.

The Chicago Bears will introduce their fifth GM in organizational history, Phil Emery, at a 2 PM CT press conference. I don’t expect Emery to go into much detail regarding a future plan but it’ll be interesting to gauge his initial dealings with the beloved Chicago sports media. (Including Brad Biggs, pictured above.)

You can watch the press conference live on ChicagoBears.com by CLICKING HERE.

You can listen to the press conference live on ESPN Radio Chicago by CLICKING HERE.

The Bears have reached an agreement to name Phil Emery their new GM. The choice, I believe, is a significant decision. Ted Phillips and the McCaskey family have made a decision to entrust their organization to a veteran leader with a terrific reputation in league circles. They had a few young guns to choose from (including DBB endorsed candidate Marc Ross) but they opted for a man who has been around the league a long time and who scouted for the Bears a few years back.

To read Dan Pompei’s column on Emery, complete with quotes from his current boss Scott Pioli, CLICK HERE. Here are a pair of quotes from the piece I particularly liked:

Here’s how former Tribune In the Wake of the News sports columnist Michael Holley described Emery in his book War Room:

“He worked at the Naval Academy for seven years, so he’s not a career military man, although he does sound like one: His voice is clear and commanding. … He’s got an iPad in front of him with his notes as well as reports from the scouts. His recall is impressive. … You get the feeling the iPad isn’t always necessary due to his ability to give historical playbacks from memory.”

And…

If the Bears hire Emery, he will have to be a good learner too. He doesn’t have much experience with the salary cap and contracts, pro personnel or sitting in an office.

“That was the knock on Thomas Dimitroff, Jerry Reese, Ted Thompson, Trent Baalke and a number of guys who have become successful general managers,” Pioli said. “He runs the scouting staff, and that is quite a responsibility.”

The last part is a key to the process. The Bears must make sure Cliff Stein remains in the fold moving forward. His expertise with the cap will be an asset to Emery’s renowned scouting skills.

CLICK HERE to read Phil Emery’s biography on the Kansas City Chiefs website.

My Two Pennies…

I don’t know a damn thing about Phil Emery and I think it’s difficult to judge members of a particular personnel department on the decisions of that department. I mean this in both a positive and negative way. Unless we are situated in the war room or general manager’s office of a respective organization on draft day and beyond we do not know who is responsible for what decision. Emery will now, for the first time, have his own front office. For the first time every decision made by an NFL franchise will bear his stamp. Let us hope his stamp will lead a few Super Bowl titles.

The Bears, beginning this week, will make the decisions to shape their football operations for the next decade. They do so from an uncommon position. Normally a team conducting the final round of GM interviews is coming off a dismal season; ready to rebuild without a corp of winning NFL players. The Bears are coming off a season that at 7-3 looked to have potential for a deep playoff run but suffered the slings and arrows of Caleb Hanie’s unprofessional understudy work. (If this were the olden days of theatre fans would have been permitted to hurl tomatoes or other vegetables at Hanie during his grotesque performance against the Kansas City Chiefs.) The Bears, right now, are a good team. So why is this the most important off-season in more than a generations?

• 2012 is on the table. Look at what’s happened this postseason and it is more evident than ever that getting into the tournament gives you a legitimate chance to win the Super Bowl. The Bears were a broken thumb from having a shot at the big prize in 2011 and they could have an even better shot in ’12 with a few savvy moves. (Wide receiver, anyone?)
• Success in 2012, especially postseason success, will also lead to another extension of Lovie Smith’s contract. One can criticize Lovie’s game management (clock, challenges, timeouts) but it is difficult to argue Lovie does not get quite a bit out of his roster. And for all the criticism of Lovie as game manager, it is hard to criticize his actual management skills. He has been unafraid to populate his coaching staff with other head coaches and subsequently the Bears have a top tier defensive coordinator, the best special teams coach in the world and an offensive coordinator finally in-tune with Lovie’s (and Chicago’s) preferred run-first approach. Tom Coughlin won the Super Bowl with the Giants in 2007. He didn’t win another playoff game until three weeks ago. The Giants and Steelers have proven stability is the model for prolonged success.
• The defensive talent of the Chicago Bears may not be old but it is aging. And for the first time in what feels like a century the Bears have draft picks over the first couple rounds. With Urlacher, Briggs, Peppers and Tillman moving into the twilight of their professional careers the new GM is tasked with re-inserting youth into the defensive roster.
• If Ted Phillips gets this GM hire wrong, it is not a reach to believe the McCaskey family might reassign their money-making CEO to a non-football role within the organization and move to overhaul the whole of football operations. Would they look to emulate the Jets and promote a man like cap superstar Cliff Stein? Would they look to emulate the Dolphins (Parcells) and Browns (Holmgren) and bring in a prominent football man to rebuild things? Failure by Phillips to hire the right man this week might lead to a new powers structure at Halas Hall.

There is no element of the Bears organization not at stake this offseason. The present and the future will converge as free agency opens in March and the new GM prepares for the draft in April. If Phillips hires the right man, the Bears could find themselves deep in next season’s tournament with a roster of young players ready to contribute in years to come. If Phillips hires the wrong man, the dominos may begin to fall with Lovie next January but the last domino will eventually be Phillips himself.

MIKE TICE WILL REMAIN OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR

Mike Tice was denied the ability to interview for the head coaching position of the Oakland Raiders as that organization’s newly hired GM Reggie McKenzie has decided to move on to his second round of coach interviews. Here are a pair of tweets from ESPN Chicago’s Michael C. Wright:

Tice told me: “I was disappointed I wasn’t able to complete the interview process.”

More Tice: “But let me say this: I’m very excited about the opportunity and the new position I have with the Bears.”

I never considered Tice a serious contender for the Oakland HC position but I’m certainly glad the he and Lovie Smith can now re-focus their attention on bringing in a coach to install/coordinate the passing game. (This all bodes well for a group of young offensive linemen who’ll now continue to hear one voice in their meetings.)

JASON LICHT & PHIL EMERY ARE FINAL TWO CANDIDATES FOR GM

I don’t know which would do a better job as Bears GM and quite frankly neither does anyone else. Both have been around the NFL bend and both have earned the right to take an organization’s lead. What follows are the basic bios for both men.

Jason Licht: Wikipedia

He played linebacker for the University of Nebraska football team as a freshman in 1989 and offensive guard in 1991 before transferring to Nebraska Wesleyan University, where he played defensive tackle from 1992 to 1993. In 1995, Licht was hired by then-Miami Dolphins scout Tom Heckert as a scouting assistant before serving as the Dolphins’ offensive assistant/quality control coach in 1996. He then spent the 1997 season working for the college scouting agency National Football Scouting and the 1998 season in the Carolina Panthers‘ scouting department. From 1999 through 2000, Licht served as a college scout for the Patriots before being promoted to national scout for the 2001. He then was promoted to assistant director of player personnel in 2002, a position he held for one season before re-joining Heckert, then the Philadelphia Eagles‘ vice president of player personnel, in 2003 as the Eagles’ assistant director of player personnel.^[1]

Upon Heckert’s promotion to general manager in 2006, Licht was elevated to vice president of player personnel, but was fired by the team in May 2008.^[2] In June 2008, Licht was hired by the Arizona Cardinals as a personnel executive.^[3] He left the Cardinals and returned to the Patriots as their director of pro personnel in February 2009.

Phil Emery: Kansas City Chiefs Website

A 31-year football veteran, Phil Emery enters his 14th NFL campaign and his third as the Chiefs Director of College Scouting. He previously served in the same capacity for Atlanta from 2004-08 before working as a regional scout for Atlanta leading up to the 2009 draft. Emery was an area scout for Chicago (’98-04).

The Garden City, Michigan native served as the Director of Strength and Conditioning Services and as an Associate Professor at the U.S. Naval Academy from ’91-98. He was responsible for the development, administration and supervision of all strength and conditioning activities for 4,000 Midshipmen. In ’96, his program helped the football team to its first winning season in 15 years.

Emery joined the Naval Academy after serving as the assistant strength and conditioning coach at Tennessee (’87-91). Prior to joining the Volunteers, he served as the defensive line and strength and conditioning coach at Saginaw Valley State (’85-87). He also coached the defensive line at Georgetown College (’84-85) after serving as the offensive line and strength and conditioning coach at Western New Mexico (’82-84). Emery began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Central Michigan (’81-82) after serving as a student assistant at Wayne State.

Education: Western New Mexico (M.A.T. ’83), Wayne State (B.S. ’81). Family: Wife – Beth; Child – April.

BEARS WILL NOT RETURN TO LONDON IN 2012

The only game on the NFL’s 2012 schedule to be announced thus far is the London game as New England will play at St. Louis on October 28. St. Louis has also signed a deal to play three consecutive home games in London starting next year, fueling speculation of their franchise being top of the list for an eventual move to the land of bad teeth and worse relations with the Irish.

Joe Paterno built one of the most prestigious and successful college football programs in the history of our country. He was a generous philanthropist, specifically in the State College area, and had a positive (almost fatherly) impact on the lives of every individual who spent a few years on the Penn State campus over the last fifty years. He preached – and there really is no better word for it – running a college football program “the right way”. As schools around the nation suffered sanctions and revocation of bowl eligibility for everything imaginable, Paterno continued to sport alarmingly high graduation rates for players and a relatively unscathed criminal record.

Then in 1998 Jerry Sandusky, famed defensive coordinator, admits to authorities he inappropriately showered with a young boy:

1998 — Penn State police and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare investigate an incident in which the mother of an 11-year-old boy reported that Sandusky had showered with her son and may have had inappropriate conduct with him. In a June 1, 1998, interview with investigators from both agencies, Sandusky admits showering naked with the boy, admitting that it was wrong and promising not to do it again, according to the grand jury report. The district attorney advises investigators that no charges will be filed and the university police chief instructs that the case be closed, according to the testimony included in the grand jury report from the police detective who investigated the incident.

After subsequently being informed by Paterno that he’d not be the next Penn State head coach, Sandusky inexplicably retired from all of coaching. His parting gift? Full access to Penn State campus and facilities. We are meant to believe the timing of these two decisions are mere coincidence. We are meant to believe also that the nation’s most highly regarded defensive mind simply walked away from football in the prime of his coaching career. We are meant to believe Joe Paterno made his decisions on Sandusky’s future without knowledge of the failed investigation into his devious behavior.

What happened next in the life of Jerry Sandusky is one of the most deceitful, grotesque and vile chapters in human history. Sandusky utilized his Second Mile charity to prey upon disadvantaged boys, dangling Penn State as the carrot before the horse, taking sexual advantage in the basement of his home, in Paterno’s football facilities and in Bowl week hotel rooms.

Mike McQueary saw Sandusky pinning a boy in the shower in 2002. Sandusky was reported in the president’s box at Joe Paterno’s historic 409th victory. October. 2011.

Here is the true sadness of Joe Paterno’s passing: we’ll never know what he knew. We’ll never know what he said to Sandusky in 1999, leading to Sandusky’s shocking retirement. We’ll never know know how he orchestrated the post-McQueary coverup that swept this sordid tale under the Penn State rug for nearly a decade. For the rest of our lives most will be forced to debate the legacy of a man who put the reputation of the institution he loves ahead of the safety and security of the most vulnerable children in his community. Those who believe he knew little and acted as he thought best will be supported by his only public statements having supported that opinion. Those like me who believe he knew all that transpired within the walls of Penn State will never have the opportunity to hear Paterno asked the questions he needed to be asked.

It is a tragedy, his death, but not because he died. His death is a tragedy because he leaves so much unknown behind.

The offenses and the defenses this week canceled each other out and it all came down to special teams. Seven of us will advance to the Super Bowl. Because most of us will have opposing offenses and defenses, there will be a series of tiebreakers for the game in two weeks.

THE FINALISTS

Jeff “Blogfather” Hughes

SidLuckman42

SC Dave

JimWoww

TheFifth

BigT

TheVoid

I shall see everyone in the next twenty-four hours as I expect the Bears to make an announcement regarding their General Manager position in the coming day or so.

Sorry I’m late.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS vs. Baltimore Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens have looked awful on the road this season and, to be honest, they didn’t look much better at home last week. If the Texans had Matt Schaub playing quarterback they probably win the game by a couple touchdowns. The Ravens defense still has names but outside of Ngata and Suggs up front, the rest of those names are looking hobbled by age (Ray Lewis) and injury (Ed Reed) and crappiness (Bernard Pollard). The Ravens don’t have a single player on their roster capable of covering either Aaron Hernandez or Rob Gronkowski. I think Brady keeps rolling and the defense allows some big yardage to Ray Rice but holds up in the red zone. Patriots 34, Ravens 16

SAN FRANCISCO 40ERS vs. New York Giants

The Giants offense has thrived on yards after the catch leading to basically a 70-yard touchdown catch every week. But there is no more sure tackling defense in football than the Niners. The Giants have thrived on their pass rush, not allowing quarterbacks to sit in the pocket and survey the field. But the Niners seem to run basically a one-read passing game and don’t allow Alex Smith to spend much time in the pocket. (Smith is also very quick to take off down the field when the pocket collapses.) The Niners have a great running game and the best special teams in the league this year. The Giants have magic on their side, especially at this time of the year, but I think the world is sleeping on how balanced and tough Jim Harbaugh’s group is. 49ers 20, Giants 17

Fantasy Playoffs Resume

• Eleven of us remain. I survived based only on the tie. But my presence should haunt your dreams. Haunt them terribly.
• We’ll put the Top Four, plus ties, into the Super Bowl. When the Super Bowl comes we’ll most likely have to institute a tiebreaker or two.
• RULE OF NOTE: YOU MUST HAVE AN ELIGIBLE ENTRANT ON DEFENSE FOR THE SUPER BOWL. IF THE SUPER BOWL IS PLAYED AND YOU HAVE PREVIOUSLY USED BOTH OF THE DEFENSES YOU WILL BE INELIGIBLE FOR THE SUPER BOWL. (This is not the case for offense or special teams.)
• My choices this week. Offense: San Francisco 49ers. Defense: New England Patriots. Special Teams: New York Giants.
• The rest of the eligible participants:

SidLuckman42 

#76 Mongo Murph 

SC Dave 

Jimwoww 

TheFifth 

BigT 

Elcaney 

The Void 

Shannon Pankster 

Jokey