Bears can breathe sigh of relief: Rivera's Chargers done
The football gods had the decency to spare the Bears any more grief Sunday.
Pittsburgh beat San Diego. Chargers defensive coordinator Ron Rivera is out of the playoffs. A "whew" of relief emerged from Lake Forest.
CBS gave Rivera so much airtime standing on the sideline in tinted eyeglasses it looked like he was being promoted as the star of "CSI-San Diego."
A Steelers run is stuffed ... cut to Rivera. A Steelers pass is incomplete ... cut to Rivera. The Steelers punt ... cut to Rivera.
It wouldn't have been surprising if Barack Obama phoned CBS and said, "Hey, he's just a football coach, not the president-elect."
Then Obama would slam down the phone and resume trying simultaneously to balance his personal checkbook and solve America's economic crisis.
"By the way," Obama would ask Michelle, "why did the Bears fire Rivera anyway?"
Ah, yes, the question most Bears fans asked as Pittsburgh approached halftime without an offensive touchdown.
That's when the gods mercifully allowed the Steelers to move the football against Rivera's defense and eventually record a 35-24 victory.
Seriously, the last thing the Bears generally and head coach Lovie Smith specifically needed was another week of Rivera haunting them on national television.
Better that they be able to simply endure criticism for playing fantasy football with their defensive coaching staff.
Since the end of the season Smith has initiated a transition at Halas Hall nearly as extensive as the one at the White House.
Gone are the coaches for the defensive line, defensive backfield, linebackers and homeland security.
(Er, sorry, you probably can disregard that last one. I'm not sure but I think I was just kidding.)
Anyway, defensive coordinator Bob Babich remains. He is the man who has presided over the deterioration of the defense since replacing Rivera two years ago.
The Bears have gone from the Super Bowl to mediocrity as some of their highest-salaried defenders have gone from super to mediocre.
If Rivera would have helped the Chargers advance to the AFC championship game and then perhaps the Super Bowl, well, that would have been too much for the Bears to bear.
As it is, all Smith has to do is endure criticism for offsetting staff subtractions by adding Rod Marinelli as assistant head coach/defensive line coach.
Yes, that's the same Rod Marinelli who was just fired for head coaching the Detroit Lions to the NFL's first 0-16 record.
Already, the Bears are being accused of this being like hiring Bernie Madoff to oversee their salary cap, Pacman Jones to be director of community relations and the captain of the Titanic to right their ship.
That's unfair, of course. Marinelli is a good football man, albeit a better defensive assistant than a head coach.
But the Bears' image is so shabby right now that anything they do will be perceived as the wrong thing to do.
Fans read about Mike Singletary becoming San Francisco's head coach and prefer him to Smith. They see Rivera on TV as San Diego's defensive coordinator and prefer him to Smith/Babich/Marinelli.
So the Chargers' loss did spare the Bears more grief ... at least until an NFL team hires Rivera to be its head coach.