Dan Wiederer writes: 'When the team announced Phillips’ retirement plans Friday, the immediate response from fans was awkwardly but not surprisingly celebratory. For many, it felt like a needed and overdue change.'
, Phillips at least acknowledged that the Bears’ inability to win regularly over the last two-plus decades has been “my biggest disappointment.”In the most cutthroat sports league on the planet, the Bears have failed to truly grasp how laser-focused, persistent and meticulous the entire operation has to be to even open a door for potential sustained success.
“We have relied on our GMs to put the right structures in place and have the right evaluation processes in place,” Phillips told The Athletic. “The Achilles’ heel of the Bears for many decades has been to have the right quarterback in place who is not only talented but can lead and raise the talent level around him. In my opinion, having the head coach or general manager report differently would not have changed any of that.
It’s unclear whether Pace suffered any internal repercussions for his mistakes. It’s also hard to know how much deep reflection Phillips has given to that historic fumble. “Anything that he was ever asked to take care of, he came through and did it very well,” Virginia McCaskey said Friday in the team’s statement. “We’ve been very blessed to have him.”
For years, McCaskey remained firm in his belief that the Bears’ chain of command worked properly, with the GM reporting to the team president and the president reporting to the chairman. But even Phillips began to seriously wonder if it was worth trying something different.
Still, rather than create a post for a president of football operations, helping to remove some of the organization’s football blind spots and reduce the level of admitted football ignorance at the top, McCaskey instead chose to have his new GM report directly to him in a supervisor’s role he had little experience or comfort in.
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