Jim O'Donnell: Once Luke Getsy is gone from the Bears, here's five for the load
THE BEARS CAN BEAT GREEN BAY 73-0 Sunday afternoon and the No. 1 survey answer outside of Halas Hall Monday morning will be that Luke Getsy has got to go.
The man is an offensive holding penalty. He's killed more drives than PETA infiltrators inside of a Colorado cattle ranch. Anything Justin Fields has accomplished, the Bears QB would have at least 50 percent more production if he had the smarts of a competent offensive coordinator in his head.
But this is the McCaskey Bears. That means alliteration like “legacy,” “languid” and “losing” frames far too many narratives.
STILL, FANS CAN DREAM if they want to. So, for consideration, five names that could Red Bull a confident new charge forward by Fields, if the Bears want him to stay (and they better):
Mike Kafka (Giants, OC) — Northwestern/St. Rita High grad was fast-tracking to a head coaching job until the grand tumble of the NYG this season. … He still might be. … Hey, he didn't sign breakable Daniel Jones to a four-year $160M deal. … Chum of Ryan Poles going back to their time in Kansas City. … As No. 1 QB at NU (2008-09), his own hot footin' was measured, opportunistic and breathtaking.
Tee Martin (Ravens, QB coach) — Wheaton native Todd Monken is properly getting a harbor boatload of credit for upgrading the Baltimore offense to expand the impact of the MVP-bound Lamar Jackson. … Martin is Monken's No. 2 … Odds on to be an OC somewhere next season. … Why not the Bears, with a whole lot of the jacked Jackson call card transferable to Fields and the Chicago lakefront?
Greg Roman (available) — The poor man's Andy Reid. … OC for Jackson's first MVP with the Ravens (2019) then humbly resigned last January after Lamar-less BAL lost to the Bengals in the Wild Card. … Proponents cite his ground-breaking work with Jackson and earlier, Colin Kaepernick in SF. … Detractors say far too much of a Roman offense is just that – ground breaking without enough six if by air.
Ryan Grubb (University of Washington, OC) — Flavor of the week after Michael Penix Jr. spliced Texas in the Sugar Bowl Monday night. … But the Husky offense has been cleverly brisk all season long. … Downside includes zero NFL experience and the reality that Fields' next OC has to be of sufficient pro sophistication to move his skills further on up. … For now, Grubb hub is likely to remain tethered to Kalen DeBoer.
Charlie Weis Jr. (Ole Miss, co-OC) — Tab for later, but the resume of the 30-year-old NextGen could certainly list some impressive references including Bill Belichick, Steve Sarkisian and current boss Lane Kiffin. … Hopefully learned from his father's Jerry Krause-like personality gaps. … If Belichick returns to NE shorn of his personnel responsibilities, he could elect to speed-Pat young Weis. … Poles might want to lob an interview his way just to expand the network of the Bears GM.
· SWEET SPORTS STORY OF THE WEEK: An Arlington Heights man and his wife took their 15-year-old daughter to visit the University of Iowa last weekend.
They hoped against hope to see Caitlin Clark and the No. 4 Hawkeyes play visiting Minnesota Saturday night. At the arena ticket window Friday afternoon, the seller told them: “A few general admission tickets will go on sale Saturday morning because the students are on break. But they'll be gone in a blink.”
So the disappointed traveler paid $30 — total — for three tickets to the Iowa-Northern Illinois men's game Friday night. (“The chance to boo Fran McCaffrey in person was too irresistible,” he later admitted.)
BACK AT CARVER-HAWKEYE ARENA a few hours later, the tickets wouldn't scan. A supervisor was called over. The seller had tapped out three of the precious ducats for the Clark-Minnesota game.
“The supervisor looked at me like I was one of Putin's guys in Kiev,” the Arlington Heights man said. “Once he realized I was 'the victim' of the seller's mistake, he asked if I wanted to keep the tickets to the women's game or swap them for three to the men's.”
Duh — Friday night at Perkins in Coralville or Saturday amid the historic Caitlin lights out of Iowa City?
Clark scored 35 points, became the Big Ten's career assists leader and the Hawkeyes soared 94-71.
The ride home was all interstate love.
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.