A month ago Chicago Bears Chairman George McCaskey sat through a nightmarish loss to the Seattle Seahawks that was punctuated with fans at Soldier Field chanting “Sell the team.”
McCaskey didn’t take the hint, and on Wednesday he was back in their good graces, relatively speaking, after the hiring of Ben Johnson as their new head coach.
By George, he got it. He finally got it.
Who didn’t think the Bears would screw this up, as they’ve done so often in the past decade or so that no one can really keep count anymore? Even the justifiable firing of former coach Matt Eberflus resulted in a black eye for Bears management, which made the coach conduct a news conference looking ahead to the San Francisco 49ers game a couple of hours before pulling the trigger.
“That’s so Bears,” was the general reaction of most fans. Anything the Bears could do wrong, they did.
Johnson was easily the most coveted candidate available, so there was little doubt they’d blow it and wind up with a consolation prize. When general manager Ryan Poles said they were “turning over every stone to make sure we’re doing this the right way,” then interviewed everyone who ever uttered the sentence “We’ll have to look at the film first,” it looked as if the Bears were covering their tracks for the inevitable letdown.
Even up until Monday, two days after the Detroit Lions’ playoff flop, it appeared Johnson might be headed to Las Vegas and the Bears would pivot to Plan B, whatever that was.
But not this time.
“Ryan says ‘This is the guy we want,’ and I said, ‘Go get him,’” McCaskey told reporters Wednesday at Halas Hall.
It didn’t even take an in-person interview to reel in Johnson, a motivated buyer who said he loved the city and taking his family to Wrigley Field. Even watching a mediocre Cubs team couldn’t spoil his experience.
“The first words out of his mouth were ‘I want this job,’ ” McCaskey said. “The last thing he said before we turned off the camera was ‘Did I tell you that I want this job?’ ”
The only thing left to do was coming up with the financials to give Johnson that job. Credit McCaskey for doing whatever it took to get it done.
So the Bears got the guy almost all of Chicago wanted, and McCaskey had the rare privilege Wednesday of answering the media’s questions without being on the defensive. He even told reporters he turns the volume down whenever Joe Buck calls games on ESPN, ingratiating himself to many Bears fans and sports fans in general.
What’s next after drafting the quarterback everyone wanted in Caleb Williams and then signing the coach everyone wanted in Johnson?
“Now all we have to do is what everybody wants, and that’s win,” McCaskey said.
Yes, that definitely will help with the attitude adjustment at Soldier Field.
Johnson said his message to players was “get comfortable being uncomfortable,” which was exactly what Bears fans needed to hear and one of the many reasons why Poles made the right choice.
But all the elation that greeted Johnson’ arrival doesn’t ensure winning, especially in a division as strong as the NFC North. It can only give Bears fans hope that things will be different and that Williams will thrive under a quarterback whisperer.
The jury is still out on whether the Bears made the right decision with Williams, who had an up-and-down season while fellow rookie Jayden Daniels, the No. 2 pick of Washington, was far and away the superior quarterback. Daniels will lead the Commanders into the NFC title game Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Still, it can’t be denied that the Bears got the hottest available coaching candidate, just as they did when they hired Dave Wannstedt — then the Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator — after firing Mike Ditka following the 1992 season.
The late Michael McCaskey, George’s brother, interviewed Jets defensive coordinator Pete Carroll, among others, but wanted Wannstedt all along. Carroll, coincidentally, was one of the many candidates interviewed for this year’s vacancy.
“The hiring of Wannstedt would be a popular move for an owner in dire need of popularity,” Tribune football writer Don Pierson wrote of Michael McCaskey. “As coach of the Dallas Cowboys’ No. 1 defense in the NFL, the 40-year-old Wannstedt is the most sought-after assistant in the league.”
Michael McCaskey beat out the New York Giants to nab Wannstedt, who proceeded to go 40-56 in his six years in Chicago, with one playoff appearance following a 9-7 regular season in 1994. The Bears upset the Vikings in Minnesota before the San Francisco 49ers drubbed them at Candlestick Park. Wannstedt was let go after consecutive 4-12 seasons in 1997 and ’98 and is currently a Bears analyst for WSCR-AM 670.
George McCaskey doesn’t seem as interested in being popular as his brother was back in the day. He understands that criticism comes with the territory of owning the Bears and said it was “understandable” to hear “Sell the team” chants at the home finale.
“Our fans are passionate,” he said. “They’re incredibly frustrated. They wanted to make their voices heard.”
The hiring of Johnson probably won’t persuade many Bears fans from changing their minds about McCaskey. But if Johnson lives up to the hype, conducting a Detroit-style turnaround in Chicago, the chanting could be muted in 2025.
And as we now know, the mute button is McCaskey’s best friend.
