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Rozner: Bears' failure with McDonald shows quest to win at all costs

Win at all costs.

Truly all costs, even if it means employing someone like Ray McDonald.

This applies to Bears owners Virginia and George McCaskey, executives Ted Phillips and Ryan Pace, and coaches John Fox and Vic Fangio.

Every person mentioned above knew McDonald's history and every person mentioned above chose the opportunity to win a football game.

George McCaskey is like most sports owners who inherit wealth and status. Put them in a room with pro athletes and they are infatuated with someone who treats them with respect — and they are easily snowed.

Pace is the new GM who already thinks he's smarter than 31 other GMs.

And Fangio, the former Niners defensive coordinator, is the one who personally vouched for McDonald — repeatedly — because he knew McDonald could help the Bears on the field.

The possible consequences took a back seat to winning, and in that passive regard they enabled the next violent event.

“George McCaskey said, ‘I talked to him. I looked him in the eye and I don't believe there's a problem here.' He allowed McDonald to take no responsibility for what he's done,” says University of Maryland law professor Leigh Goodmark. “They allowed him to be immune from what he's done.

“But the Bears also said, ‘We believe in second chances.' If you say that, you imply there was a problem in the past. So why did you dismiss the idea that he had done something, that you looked in his eyes and believed him?

“That's some contradiction, but you can't have it both ways.”

Goodmark teaches at the University of Maryland, directs the Gender Violence Clinic and is the 2013 author of, “A Troubled Marriage: Domestic Violence and the Legal System.”

She has seen in court, studied and taught about thousands of domestic violence cases, and does not pretend to be surprised that McDonald is in trouble again.

“You can't expect someone to change behavior until he's able to admit what he's done, accept that it's wrong and then want to change,” Goodmark explained. “The Bears could have facilitated change. Instead, they facilitated his behavior by giving the impression he did nothing wrong.

“I think it's really interesting that they thought through a conversation with someone who had a motive to minimize or deny behavior, that they could know he would no longer engage in that behavior.

“Honestly, that's ludicrous.”

Rather than simply criticize, Goodmark looks at these situations as opportunities, and she implores teams to help a player and those he has abused. She was hopeful the Bears might do that when we spoke about McDonald in March.

“Instead, the Bears did nothing,” Goodmark said Tuesday morning. “The most disappointing thing of all for me is they took on a player who they knew had a history of domestic violence and did nothing to hold him accountable, give him incentive to change his behavior or put a program in place to help him change his behavior.

“If they had done these things, they would have certainly said so,” she said. “Did they change the culture in the locker room? Did they educate or put in place a structure of accountability? They did not, and they got a predictable result.

“They certainly did not require he confront the consequences of his past behavior and without that there is no chance of deterrent.”

Of course, it was George McCaskey who accused McDonald critics of reverse sexism, and at the NFL owners meetings he told reporters, “(McDonald) talked about growing up and his parents and his playing career. Then he talked about these incidents which have become public knowledge, and he walked me through each one.

“And I was impressed with how sincere he was and how motivated he is.”

McCaskey's assessment of McDonald's violent past was “bad decision-making,” which seems a bit of a poor assessment for an NFL owner who sells pink T-shirts and preaches responsibility.

The Bears fired McDonald Monday afternoon following his early-morning arrest on domestic violence and child endangerment charges in California.

“I'm sure they were surprised it happened this fast, but it surprises me that the Bears thought it would be different,” Goodmark said. “The Bears had an opportunity to set an example for the rest of the NFL, that when you take on a guy with these problems, here's the things you should do, but they declined it.

“That opportunity is still there for a team to do that. A team can avail themselves of the opportunity. Unfortunately, it won't be long before someone has the chance in the NFL and I hope they do it differently.”

It's a hope she has had too many times in the past. The Bears, like so many teams before them, had the chance.

And they passed.

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's “Hit and Run” show at WSCR 670-AM.

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