DBB Coins a New Term

From Twitter, yesterday:

Many like to use the phrase “meatball” to describe a certain kind of fan. In Chicago I am going to refer to those people as “Score-ons”.

It is on all of us to make this phrase happen.

BIGGS, BEARS, BAD JOB?

Because I tend not to forget and choose to hold others accountable, from the opening of a New Year’s Eve piece in the Tribune by Brad Biggs:

In announcing the massive housecleaning Monday at Halas Hall, President Ted Phillips called the Bears’ head coaching job prestigious.

He stands nearly alone in that opinion in light of a Tribune poll of NFL front-office employees and coaches who ranked the Bears barely above the Raiders in terms of attractiveness.

Quarterback concerns left the Jets at the bottom, but the Bears job wasn’t considered much better even with Jay Cutler, the passer in whom they have invested so much money and whom Chairman George McCaskey said he is a fan of personally and professionally. Elsewhere, Cutler is classified as a coach killer.

The Bears landed an in-demand (young) GM, a head coach who has been to two Super Bowls, the best defensive coach on the market and an offensive coordinator who interviewed for just about every head coaching vacancy. Rumors have it that if the Bears job were prestigious, Vince Lombardi would have climbed out of his grave and agreed to a five-year, $35 million contract.

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Two things on this hire.

• Adam Gase has never actually called plays. He has never told his quarterback to run “X right wide 7 triple diaper dance.” The system in place between he and Peyton Manning was Gase sending in a handful of options to Manning and Manning making the decision at the line of scrimmage. Gase made suggestions. He did not make calls. Should this be a cause for concern? No. Because, and I shall repeat this often, the Bears will be running John Fox’s offense. He is a head coach, not just a defensive-minded head coach. (Spoiler alert: this will not stop fans from placing all their blame on the OC moving forward.)
• Notion that Gase and Brandon Marshall can not co-exist is poppycock. If the Bears are planning to move on from Marshall – and I’m not sure how that works financially – fine. But if they let a talent such as Marshall’s leave the organization because two adult males can’t get along, they are wrong to do so.

I thought John Fox called Jay Cutler “Jake” during his introductory press conference. I paused the TV, rewound and watched it again. Yep. Jake. Jake Cutler. Maybe Fox was channeling his Carolina Panthers days and remembering with nostalgic glee the days of Delhomme. Maybe he’s a fanboy for the work of actor Joe Penny. In any case, the symbolism of the moment could not be missed. With his non-committals on the future of Cutler in front of the Chicago media, the new Bears head coach made it clear that the much-maligned quarterback is no longer the franchise priority.

Does that mean Cutler will not be the quarterback in 2015? No. Does it mean Cutler will not be the quarterback in 2016? No. But it does mean that unlike the hiring two years earlier the Bears hierarchy is no longer making decisions with Cutler in mind.

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Editorial Note: There will be some advertising emerging on the site in the coming weeks. DBB is entering into an exclusive advertising agreement with a not-profit organization I’ve worked with a great deal over the last two years. The goal was to make them a partner on the site and create a role for them that does not, in any way, take away from the reader experience. I think we’ve done that. You’ll start seeing their presence after the Super Bowl.

Vic Fangio is one of the best defensive coaches in the league. His performance in 2014, in the wake of an injury flood at key positions, was just as impressive as anything Todd Bowles did in Arizona. Now he is the Bears defensive coordinator and the Bears have arguably the best defensive room in the league.

Photo appeared in the Chicago Tribune.

The press conference set to begin at 11 AM CT to introduce John Fox as the 15th head coach in the history of the Chicago Bears. You can watch the press conference live on NFL Network or at ChicagoBears.com and listen live at ESPN 1000 (we don’t promote the other station round these parts).

Remember as you’re enjoying the press conference, these were jobs nobody wanted according to your local media. And they were filled by a young GM in-demand and a head coach with two Super Bowl appearances. You will hear today what I’ve written all along, “head coach of the Chicago Bears” means a great deal to those men who fill the NFL’s coaching ranks.

The best I’ve ever been taught the three-act structure of playwriting was by a a wonderful writer and teacher named Pat Cook at the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop. Cook, recalling the lessons of a teacher from his own past, described it thus:

Act One: get the main character up a tree.

Act Two: throw rocks at him.

Act Three: if he comes down safely, comedy. If he falls to his death, tragedy.

At the risk of harping on an issue many readers of this site could care less about, this structure is being more or less abandoned by the modern dramatic writer. The three-act play is being replaced by the 65-minute “meditation” on a relevant theme. (How hard it is to be gay, violence in schools, sex scandals in politics!) Plays with beginnings, middles and ends – once referred to as “well-made plays” – are now considered old-fashioned.

John Fox is not the hot coordinator of the moment, the NFL’s equivalent of a meditation on a relevant theme. What has Adam Gase actually done? How much does Dan Quinn actually provide the ridiculously-talented Seahawks defense? Shhh! Who cares? These are the names of the moment and they excite owners and fans in the same manner any shiny toy in the window excites a child: they’re new!

Fox is not new. He is a veteran head coach, an established structure, an old-fashioned play. The Chicago Bears are his third act.

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John Fox is not a flawless head coach. But the Chicago Bears are coming off a 2014 debacle defined by locker room meltdowns, traitorous coach leaks, endless primetime blowouts and a lack of any and all competitive fight. The organization, more than savvy play-calling or altered scheme, was desperate for stability. Fox is thirty games over .500 as a head coach. He is well-respected across the NFL landscape. He will build a top tier, professional staff. (Including the most exciting candy in the pinata, Kyle Shanahan.)

Stability has arrived.

Perhaps most importantly, John Fox will lead the locker room. There will be no more questions of accountability or articles written about the head coach addressing his players from the back of the room. The Chicago Bears will blow their horns to the tempo of Fox’s baton. And whilst hiring him does not guarantee topping Aaron Rodgers in the NFC North, it does guarantee the Bears return to respectability.

So welcome, Coach Fox, to a proud franchise. Welcome to a fan base desperate for the kind of toughness that came to define your teams throughout tenures in Carolina and Denver. Welcome to a city that rewards its champions with a lifetime of applause – muted in winter through thick, wool mittens – and more endorsement money than your pockets can hold.  (Not to mention radios shows, restaurants…etc.)

Welcome. Now win.

I have nothing more to add. The Chicago Bears are in a holding pattern until they make a decision, one way or the other, on John Fox.