Oh, Buddy, Bears have lot to lose in this game

Ah, yes, something else for Bears ownership and management to be defensive about.

Even on a day when they're out of the playoffs, the Jets-Chargers game puts Halas Hall in a lose-lose predicament.

If San Diego wins this afternoon with Ron Rivera as defensive coordinator, the Bears lose. If New York wins with Rex Ryan as head coach, the Bears lose.

Let's not even get into the Minnesota-Dallas game, where former Bears cornerback Leslie Frazier will coordinate the Vikings' defense.

Remember, all this is soon after some guy named Perry Fewell, once a Bears assistant coach, chose to be defensive coordinator of the Giants instead of returning to Lake Forest.

Still, whomever the Bears wind up with in that job can't be much worse than head coach Lovie Smith or linebackers coach Bob Babich were while running the defense the past three years.

My goodness, that unit hasn't been adequate since, well, since Smith dismissed Rivera after the 2006 Super Bowl season.

"Trust me," Smith implored back then.

Trust you? With the Bears' defense? Wouldn't that be like trusting a conscientious objector to conduct a war?

Maybe the Bears are delaying the hiring of a new coordinator until San Diego's season ends and they can interview Rivera for the job.

Then again, maybe Virginia McCaskey will win the Indianapolis 500 in a go-kart this Memorial Day weekend.

It says something about the state of the Bears that Rivera's prominence in the playoffs isn't the most disturbing development for them.

No, that would be that Rex Ryan, another mastermind of defenses, directed the Jets to the second round of the playoffs in his first season as an NFL head coach.

Rex is Buddy's boy. You know, Buddy Ryan, the defensive coordinator of the Bears' only Super Bowl champion.

The most frustrating part isn't that Rex Ryan, who attended Stevenson High School, is in the playoffs and Lovie Smith isn't.

What's really frustrating is that Ryan is a fiery chip off Buddy's old block and Smith is a chilly chip off an old block of ice.

In other words, Ryan has a personality, pulse and presence. Smith, of course, has all the charisma of an accountant with a whistle for a necktie.

"Rex is the real deal," San Diego general manager A.J. Smith was quoted in The San Diego Union-Tribune about Ryan being bigger than life.

In other words, Ryan is just like bold, blustery Buddy Blowhard was and just like the most successful Bears head coaches have been.

"He's like his dad," A.J. Smith added. "When I see Rex I see Buddy, and I smile - It's not somebody else trying to act like Buddy. He isn't movie acting. He's not a fraud."

More important, Rex Ryan's defense is like Buddy's was: aggressive, disruptive, exciting. Lovie Smith's is bend-but-don't-break boring.

So, what we have today is the son of the only Bears defensive coordinator to win a Super Bowl working as the Jets' head coach.

Meanwhile, the last Bears defensive coordinator in a Super Bowl will be working in that role for the Chargers.

Bears ownership and management? They'll be in a lose-lose situation at Halas Hall.

mimrem@dailyherald.com