Belief still in short supply
Bears need sensible plan to restore fans' faith, interest
Two years later, the Bears will end another miserable season on the road against the Vikings.
Everything is different yet nothing has changed since the last time that happened.
During the 2014 finale at TCF Bank Stadium, four men in navy blazers guarded the door to the visiting owner's suite like the only snow blower in Minnesota was on the other side. Sunday back in Minneapolis at U.S. Bank Stadium, the McCaskeys should welcome guests to watch their team try to avoid becoming historically bad.
At this point, the family's misery needs company, not privacy.
Nobody believes in the Bears anymore. Worse, almost everybody in town still paying attention on Sundays doubts the ability of the McCaskey family to find solutions to familiar problems. The last Bears game of 2016 falling on the first day of 2017 offers an opportunity to start approaching things differently in the new year, beginning with introspection that often precedes transparency.
What is the Bears' plan again? Does anybody in Chicago remember? Or care anymore?
Ownership needs to give fans reasons to care like they once did. Do or say something that inspires more optimism than skepticism. Turn football season back into something more than an entertainment bridge between the Cubs' playoffs and Blackhawks' push to the postseason.
Chairman George McCaskey needs to explain how, as a former ticket manager, he feels about an epidemic of apathy resulting in a troubling number of no-shows at Soldier Field — only 5,000 fans stayed for the final minute of the last home game. McCaskey needs to articulate how the Bears will strike the balance between holding people accountable — changing offensive coordinators? — and preserving continuity by giving inexperienced general manager Ryan Pace and unlikable coach John Fox one more playoffs-or-bust year.
Opting to wait until after the season to answer questions, McCaskey needs to address the rumors that the Bears considered hiring either a football consultant or a real football guy as team president. While McCaskey is at it, he also can clarify whatever role his 93-year-old mother, Virginia, still plays in the evaluation of personnel and planning for the future.
It's a fair question, and so is this: Has the disconnect between the Bears and Chicago ever been greater? The relationship is impossible to measure but just as hard to ignore.
The Bears had at least 21,000 empty seats at kickoff for the home finale. They have lost more games (33) since 2014 than any other team in the NFC and stand one loss away from their worst record since the NFL expanded to a 16-game season in 1978.
They now have gone six straight seasons without making the playoffs. Their Super Bowl XLI appearance seems so long ago that the highlight of Devin Hester returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown should be in black-and-white. Sadly, they have become NFL doormats and local afterthoughts.
Forbes estimated the Bears' worth at $2.7 billion with $385 million in annual revenue, making them the NFL's eighth-most valuable franchise. Imagine if they actually were good.
Alarmingly, since taking over as chairman in 2011, McCaskey has presided over four different general manager-coach combinations. So far McCaskey's signature moves have been firing the last general manager to assemble a Super Bowl roster and the last head coach to win 10 games. Of all the people put on notice after another dismal season, perhaps the name at the top of the list should be the first one on the organizational flow chart.
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