Jim O'Donnell: Bruce Arians is another one the McCaskey Bears let get away
ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS about being a Bears fan is that you seldom have to budget for blue-and-orange Super Bowl party favors.
History says once every 20 years or so and that's about it.
Unless you have a Rocky Mountain high going on over the Denver Broncos.
Much more frequently, Bears fans get to watch ones that got away from Halting Hall in Lake Foggiest participate in the NFL's biggest day.
Sunday, when golden Kansas City faces golden-aged Tampa Bay in SB 55 (CBS, 5:30 p.m.), Exhibit A for the more casual fan from Wheeling to Wheaton-Warrenville will be Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes.
He's the PAW Patrol illusionist from Texas Tech whom Bears poseur Ryan Pace so memorably failed to coherently process data on prior to the 2017 NFL draft.
But for the more sophisticated regional observer, it will be hard not to recall the McCaskey history with TB head coach Bruce Arians - age 68.
Eight winters ago, with the unfortunate Phil Emery masquerading as Bears GM, insiders reported that no fewer than 13 candidates were being interviewed to replace Lovie Smith.
From that incompetent baker's dozen, two finalists emerged - Arians and a Canadian Football League angler named Marc Trestman.
Trestman had coached the Montreal Alouettes to two Grey Cup championships, was dynamite on a 110-yard field and presumably had everything that Geddy Lee and Anne Murray had ever recorded.
Arians was merely the reigning NFL Coach of the Year as interim HC with Indianapolis after Chuck Pagano was diagnosed with leukemia.
He also had a remarkably textured background as a football lifer who went on from graduate assistant at Virginia Tech to two Super Bowl rings as offensive coordinator with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Arians was also regarded as one of the game's great "quarterback whisperers." He earned that sobriquet after serving as a critical accelerant in the NFL careers of Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Andrew Luck.
Smith purportedly had been ashcanned for his inability to develop Jay Cutler and the Bears offense.
So the Bears needed a sky pilot and they instead hired ... Trestman.
Two years later, after lackluster seasons of 8-8 and 5-11, Trestman - and Emery - were discards.
Following that same 2014 season, Arians won a second NFL Coach of the Year award as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.
Sunday, he will try to surpass Bill Belichick as the oldest ever to coach a team to victory in a Super Bowl.
Trestman and Emery will presumably be watching the game from somewhere in the ancient gallery.
And George McCaskey and Ted Phillips can once again breathe sighs of relief over no extra expenses for any sort of staff Super Bowl bonuses or blue-and-orange party favors.
STREET-BEATIN': More minutiae from the Bruce Arians file: When he was bought out as head coach at Temple in 1988, the coach had a large portion of his walkaway money funded by former Owls running back Bill Cosby. (The fallen comic reportedly remains a huge football fan while awaiting either parole or a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on two critical points of appeal.) ...
The return of Candace Parker to her native Chicago basketball landscape would be even more impacting if times were normal. (The Elegant One's work as a contributing panelist on TNT's NBA coverage has been seamless and terrific.) ...
As the reportage of Chris Placek in The Daily Herald implies, there are many moving parts regarding the future usage of Arlington Park. One thing is certain: In the eyes of Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen, AP with Dick Duchossois available for a Million Day trophy presence vastly trumps any racing at all without Duchossois. ...
Connie Kowal reminds that the inaugural Cubs Convention - billed as "The Diehard Cubs Fan Convention" - took place 35 years ago this week at the downtown Hyatt Regency. (The event and its many residuals remain one of John McDonough's greatest hits.) ...
If advance screeners are any indication, it is a notably weak year for creative connectivity in Super Bowl commercials. (Dave Bickler - lead vocalist for Survivor in the Jim Peterik-Frankie Sullivan "Rocky III" anthem "Eye of the Tiger" - reprises his role as voice of Bud Light in a busy retro on its "Real Men of Genius" campaign.) ...
And pro-turned-poet Etan Thomas, chiding the NBA for its restrained response to the LeBron James-"Courtside Karen" bizarreness in Atlanta this week, wrote: "All it takes is for the Juliana Carloses of the world to abuse the wrong person, someone who is more Metta Sandiford-Artest than Michelle Obama."
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports & Media column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com.