{"id":323156,"date":"2021-01-14T11:31:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T17:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanmatter.com\/chicago\/?p=323156"},"modified":"2021-01-15T16:16:15","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T22:16:15","slug":"chicago-bears-press-conference-masterclass-in-insulting-our-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanmatter.com\/chicago\/chicago-bears-press-conference-masterclass-in-insulting-our-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bears Season Press Conference Was a Masterclass in Insulting Our Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"

For 90 minutes on Wednesday morning, Chicago Bears chairman George McCaskey, team president and CEO Ted Phillips, general manager Ryan Pace, and head coach Matt Nagy sat on a Zoom call<\/a> and lied to you about the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mt. Rushmore of Mediocrity, as I like to call them<\/a>, sat there and delivered can-made opening statements and answered questions about the Chicago Bears season with the transparency of Kayleigh McEnany, and lied to you\u2014about everything.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To them, 2020 was a success.<\/span><\/p>\n

To us, an abomination.<\/span><\/p>\n

To the rest of the NFL, a joke. The Chicago Bears are a laughing stock; washed in a thick, tar-like cloak of mediocrity that weighs them down impeding any semblance of meaningful progress. Their organizational credo says simply showing up is good enough for the decision makers. See, we know the Chicago Bears are toast. But that wasn’t going to stop McCaskey and Phillips from toasting each other for the hard-fought, 8-9 2020 season that saw them become a charity case in an expanded NFL playoff. They think they’ve had success at Halas Hall, because that’s the bar you set for yourself when you achieve the average in positions you’re not qualified for to begin with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Their delusion is no more evident than in two moments: 1) When George McCaskey claimed that he was proud and acknowledged Pace and Nagy were collaborating and growing within their roles and 2) when Ted Phillips refused to give an answer when legendary football columnist Hub Arkush simply asked which year Pace and Nagy’s contracts ran through.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each egregious for their own reason but two moments in a baseless hour and a half that highlights just how out-of-touch with the current reality the Chicago Bears truly are. Their belief is that they’re close when in reality they stand squarely on the edge of complete and total irrelevance and the only course forward is to jump completely off.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Phillips is an issue of his own. He’s a business guy who makes football decisions and has overseen 21 years of not-so-great to even-worse results. It’s what makes it so insulting when he laughs off a question regarding the Bears’ football culture, and how he believes the one in place this season is the right culture moving forward despite no evidence it’s a winning one. He categorized questions about management’s contract status as “not pertinent to this conversation,” proving just how little he gives a damn about fans having the full picture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I could dive in deeper on Phillips but I’ll just let this Dan Durkin tweet tell the rest of the story.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

ICYMI. pic.twitter.com\/c5OyeoOodd<\/a><\/p>\n

— dan durkin (@djdurkin) January 13, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n