Jim O'Donnell: McBears splinter into two parts — Poles forward, Warren lost at sea

A CREATIVE LYRICIST COULD TWEAK IN a few contemporary lines to the classic “Bear Down, Chicago Bears.” They might go a little something like this:

“We'll never forget the way you confused the nation

“With your Draft Week fragmentation.”

That's because the McCaskey Bears split into two distinctive parts in the past five days.

One suggests positivity. The other is so self-mocking that it brought instant recall of pioneering TV comic Flip Wilson and his materialistic Reverend Leroy character of “The Church of What's Happening Now.”

THE GOOD VIBRATIONS FLOWED from the football ops department of Ryan Poles. The bright young executive came into the 2024 NFL draft with a strong hand and did nothing to diminish the anticipation of autumn coursing through his team's fan base.

The seaside disconnect wheezed from the starch-tied imagination of big footin' team president Kevin Warren.

The big rascal hosted some sort of “stadium reveal” event on Draft Eve Wednesday afternoon at Soldier Field. It proved to be so tone-deaf, so turgid and so lame that it insulted even diversity, equity and inclusion enthusiasts everywhere.

WARREN'S FOLLY GOT OUT OF THE GATE in astonishing fashion. It opened with a prayer of profit advocacy — a prayer! — by minister Rev. Dr. Charlie E. Dates.

The Rev. Dates was asking all to join in petitioning The Big New Stadium Office Upstairs so that the spirits in the sky would align and get the McKooky Bears a big new domed stadium on the Chicago lakefront. He stopped short of passing burnt-orange-and-blue collection baskets.

That The Lord may not be paying attention to NFL stadium matters — especially the day before The Draft; He is said to have a very busy schedule — apparently never crossed the minds of improbable project spiritualists.

Some called the prayer “blasphemous.” Some others thought that it was so inappropriately funny that it had to have been out of the Flip Wilson playbook.

APPARENTLY TRYING TO MOVE even further behind the curtain on all of this is George McCaskey. The former TV reporter (WEEK-TV in Peoria, 1980-82) is giving more and more hints that at age 67, he is simply exhausted by many elements of a lengthy fray with increasing antes.

That's why the Bears went out and cast a global net all the way to Rosemont to bring in Warren as the franchise's new president and CEO. He didn't even have to reprogram his GPS to get to his new job.

One year ago, he was considered a most curious hire by some very smart NFL people. After the “What's Happening Now” of the past week, those ranks of skeptics are only going.

THE MCBEARS ARE NOT GOING to win any public fight to get a new stadium built on Chicago's lakefront. Warren said multiple times this week that every year of delay is costing the organization “between $150 million and $200 million” in escalated costs.

By that Warren measure, the 30-month lapse since the team's purchase agreement with Churchill Downs was announced has cost the franchise a minimum of $375 million. That new tote will only continue to rise as Warren's Folly plays out with the city of Chicago — despite the boolah-boolah cheerleading of flapping Mayor Brandon Johnson.

THERE IS STILL NO FIRESTORM among the residents of Arlington Heights for the Bears to move to their pleasant suburb. There continues to be mildly growing concern that open-strip mining may begin on the desolate former racetrack site before the Bears inflate a football out there.

Both Warren and Arlington Heights village president Tom Hayes made media rounds after the “stadium reveal” and The Rev. Dates' private profit prayer on Wednesday.

Warren continued to try and speak in the slide-and-glide manner that must have played well in the law offices of his old Phoenix base. He hasn't quite mastered it given the more big-league circumstance he's now in. He would greatly benefit from being “coached up” in the art of reframing questions and answering with an assertive blend of substance and conviction.

A PATIENT AND REASONED HAYES continued to kindly explain the clearly superior benefits of the Arlington Park land as the owned-and-operated new home of the Bears. He concluded some segments with a laid-back sigh, noting, “What is to be will be.”

A key reality: In Chicago, the Bears face the unbeaten opposition of The Friends of the Parks. In Arlington Heights, they benefit from a de facto band of well-placed friends of the project.

In the end, Ryan Poles won the week and Kevin Warren didn't.

It's a fragmented operational divide at Halas Hall that maybe only a prayer by the Reverend Leroy of “The Church of What's Happening Now” could help heal.

Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.