Bear(s) Down

Marc Trestman, quite possibly the strangest and most delusional professional coach ever to work in Chicago, sounded like he expected to be back for a third season with the Bears after going 5-11.  “I’m putting my thoughts down,” he said fresh off the team’s fifth straight loss, this one a numbing 13-9 performance against the Vikings.  “I don’t think there is anybody in a better situation to assess it, other than myself and” Phil Emery, the general manager who made the mistake of hiring Trestman.

Why, Trestman even had a plan, “to continue to finalize my notes now that the season is over and make sure [when] that opportunity arises, I’ll be able to explain how we fix the team.”  Not to worry.  The McCaskeys have their own plan, which started with firing both Trestman and Emery, who cited a lyric from songwriter Carrie Newcomer in his exit appearance with the media:  “‘We stand breathless on the clean edge of change.’  So, it’s time to change and to move forward.  Go Bears!  Thanks for your time.”

It’s hard to tell what’s more surreal here, that an NFL G.M.. staked his job on a coach with New-Age management ideas just short of the huddle as quality circle or the amount of coverage the two firings generated.  At least one of the network stations broadcast the press conference in its 40-minute entirety, and everybody led with it on the 10 o’clock news; for once there was no video from four states over of a collapsing building, car chase or black bear wandering into an unlocked kitchen.  Nope, all we got was Chicago NFL football.

Wrigley Field could’ve collapsed and the White Sox moved out of town, and not a sports’ reporter would’ve noticed, or cared.