Arkush: Stubborn McCaskey decides to throw on 4th and 1
From 1977 - my first year on the Bears beat - through 1994, the Bears were one of the best NFL organizations, making 10 trips to the playoffs, three trips to the NFC title game and winning Super Bowl XX.
In the 27 seasons since, the franchise has mostly wandered in the desert, with only 2001, '05, '06, '10 and '18 to celebrate.
The Super Bowl in '06 was the best, but with the surprise of the 12-4 campaign and the celebration of the Bears' 100th season that immediately followed, 2018 was the franchise's second-best season of the last 27.
It was delivered by Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy, and for that we should always be grateful, as we should be for the class and dignity with which they carried themselves and represented the city.
For all that has happened in the three seasons since, they needed to be replaced.
No need to belabor their failures; they were fired and it stings more than enough.
In facing Bears Nation several hours after the dismissals, Chairman George McCaskey had an open field and clear shot at a fresh start.
His first couple of play calls were solid, starting with: "He (Ted Phillips) has persuaded me that with the pending acquisition of the Arlington Park property, and its evaluation as the possible future Bears stadium occupying much of his time and attention, the general manager should report to me.
"This modified organizational structure, the general manager will continue to oversee the entire football operation, including the head coach. The GM will report to ownership."
On 2nd and short near midfield, we got: "Bill Polian is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame because of his success as a football executive, including his hiring of two head coaches, Marv Levy and Tony Dungy, who are themselves in the Hall of Fame.
"He is well-regarded in league circles and has a lot of contacts. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have Bill assisting us in our search."
It was 1st and goal at the 1, and spirits were high. Then McCaskey told us: "Our search team will consist of myself, Ted Phillips, Hall of Famer Bill Polian, our vice president of player engagement Soup Campbell, and our senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion Tanesha Wade."
It was a fumble in the end zone, leaving us to wonder if the Bears will ever score again.
The addition of Polian to the selection process - a Hall of Fame Executive with six NFL Executive of the Year honors, the building of six Super Bowl teams and a string of outstanding coach hirings to his credit - is an absolute home run. He is an NFL savant.
But the stunning declaration that Phillips had to tell McCaskey what everyone knows - that his involvement in any more football moves is poison based on how you got here in the first place - knocked us sideways.
And after you had him out for a minute or two, why drag him right back in?
On top of that, I'm sure Campbell and Wade are wonderful people, maybe the best in the business at their jobs, but what do they know about head coaches or GMs?
Common sense suggests the most all of them can do is be a distraction to Polian.
McCaskey is a good guy who loves the Bears as much or more than anyone, but charged with finding the right people to make them winners, he is unable and unwilling to go it alone.
Give him points for admitting that, and had he announced Polian as his new President of Football Operations and told everybody else to get out of his way as he intended to, most of Bears Nation would be celebrating.
Instead he gave us a strange brew of amateurs to create more doubt than hope that, this time, they'll get it right.
It's not for me to say they won't, it's just so much less than fans had hoped for, like dropping back to throw on 4th and 1 again.
@Hub_Arkush