Bye week and visions of one big bye-bye

Just thought I'd take a moment during the Bears' bye week to mention these two words: Bill Cowher.

I know, I know, the former Steelers coach isn't dumb enough to come to the Bears. I know, I know, the Bears aren't smart enough to hire him.

But who knows? Maybe Cowher's IQ is low enough and incoming Bears chairman George McCaskey's is high enough.

It's never too early to campaign for change when the Bears are playing the way they're playing.

By change I mean all of them Ted Phillips, Jerry Angelo, Lovie Smith, Mike Martz, Jay Cutler, Brian Urlacher, Julius Peppers, Staley the mascot and all the rest at Halas Hall.

Some are less responsible than others, but the water in the building poisons everyone, and it doesn't appear that an antidote can be developed during the current break.

“We'll use it to evaluate everything we do,” Smith, the head coach, said Monday.

Back to the subject of a potential franchise overhaul: We'd include the McCaskey ownership, but they show no inclination to go anywhere.

What a shame that is after a Chicago newspaper's two-part interview with Mike McCaskey, who is in the process of retiring from his position as Bears chairman.

“Lovie is doing a, uh, is a terrific coach,” he was quoted as saying, “and I have all the confidence in him in the world.”

McCaskey made that remark before Sunday, when Smith challenged an official's call that wouldn't be overturned and after the next play didn't challenge one that might have averted defeat.

“Yes, I should have (challenged),” Smith said in a rare spasm of candor.

Anyway, here's another gem from Mike McCaskey in respect to Smith's contract status: “It's way too early to worry about those kinds of things.”

Huh?

As far back as January the McCaskeys had just cause to gentrify Dysfunctional City, where only the disarray is functional, but chose to retain Halas Hall's principal decision-makers.

Ten months later the Bears' pieces still don't fit.

The head coach doesn't fit the offensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator doesn't fit the quarterback, the quarterback doesn't fit the wide receivers, the offensive line doesn't fit any of them …

Yet the outgoing chairman believes “it's way too early to worry about those kinds of things.” The only hope is that the McCaskey-in-waiting spends every waking moment worrying “about those kinds of things.”

George McCaskey's title has been senior director of ticket operations, a long way from the chairmanship of the mess his brother is leaving him.

If somebody around here knows what qualifications this McCaskey brings to his new position, please speak up now or forever hold your peace.

Anything is possible after Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz succeeded his father and won a Stanley Cup.

Maybe George McCaskey devoted all those years in the ticket office to plotting a major remodeling job at Halas Hall.

Maybe he suffered in silence and now will acknowledge publicly the disorganization within the organization.

Maybe this McCaskey is smart enough to understand that it isn't “way too early” to ponder a move in a new direction.

You know, like being smart enough to at least explore whether Bill Cowher is dumb enough to come to Halas Hall.

mimrem@dailyherald.com