Maybe Bears' GM believes in Theo's theory

Perhaps Jerry Angelo's future with the Bears comes down to what he thinks of what Theo Epstein thinks.

Epstein said when he became the Cubs' president of baseball operations that the productive span of a sports executive with one team is 10 years.

Well, Angelo is on the dark side of a decade as the Bears' general manager, and he could be pondering whether his time is up.

Speculation surfaced over the weekend that Angelo would quit the Bears after the end of this season.

Angelo denied the report while indicating that his goal remains to win a championship with the Bears.

However, reading Angelo's remarks and reading between their lines probably didn't convince anyone.

The decision likely will be Angelo's to make. Bears ownership normally doesn't fire someone they like if he has done a reasonably good job while never embarrassing the brand name.

To Epstein, the 10-year mark signifies when the tenure of a general manager or coach starts to smell stale.

Doesn't that describe the air in and around Halas Hall these days? Nothing creative has occurred there for too long.

There hasn't been a burst of energy to provide momentum into the future or enough success to inspire optimism for the next decade.

The 10-year rule would mean nothing if the Bears were the Patriots or the Steelers and already won multiple Super Bowls recently.

After a decade of not winning a Super Bowl with the same GM in place, however, it becomes all too easy to nitpick over this policy and that strategy.

Angelo's method of drafting always is open to criticism. Lovie Smith's game-day coaching is a tired target in his eighth season. As a Smith pal, Mike Martz's offensive coordinating easily can be portrayed as passing too much one week, running too much the next week and not adjusting to any week.

Epstein presumably means that the message becomes lost after awhile after the messenger can't reinvent himself anymore.

Too much skepticism has been leveled at Bears people for critics to say “never mind” if something positive happens in Lake Forest.

You know, sports fans and media don't like to admit they were wrong about someone.

Angelo, Smith, club president Ted Phillips and the McCaskeys haven't won enough for anybody to retract the assessment of them.

What should be frightening to Bears management is that hardly anyone would be broken up over their departure.

Last week reports had Martz on the way out and the public's pulse hardly moved. This week's Angelo rumor didn't prompt panic in the streets. Celebrations might greet next week's speculation that Smith won't be back.

There is little emotional attachment to anybody associated with the franchise from owners down to coaches.

Do you think anyone around here would need grief counseling if the McCaskeys announced they were selling the Bears?

These are decent people — from Mama Bear down to Lovie Bear — but they inspire about as much affection for them as strangers on a train to nowhere.

Jerry Angelo was hired here before the 2001 season, and you have to wonder whether Epstein's 10-year proclamation hit close to Angelo's Halas Hall home.

We'll find out soon enough what Jerry Angelo thinks of what Theo Epstein thinks.