Imrem: Denver may have won - and Bears lost - in Fox firing

The Bears can't win Super Bowl 50, but it might turn out looking like they lost it.

With that premise in mind, management better pull for Carolina to beat Denver.

No, the alternative isn't ideal either.

The Panthers are coached by Ron Rivera, who played for the Bears' in Super Bowl XX and who Lovie Smith didn't think in 2007 was good enough to remain his defensive coordinator here.

Many in town would prefer that Rivera be the Bears' head coach after they watched them struggle under Smith, Marc Trestman and John Fox.

The timing was never quite right, however, so the Broncos are the Bears' issue in the upcoming Super Bowl.

Wouldn't it be uncomfortable at Halas Hall if Denver won with head coach Gary Kubiak, who was hired to replace none other than current Bears coach John Fox?

John Elway, who runs the Broncos, determined that Fox wasn't good enough to coach his team to a championship, and he continues to express that opinion.

The way this works is that by commending the new coach, in this case Kubiak, the old coach, in this case Fox, is condemned.

"You look at the games we've won this year and how we've won them," The Denver Post quoted Elway as saying two days before the Broncos won the AFC championship.

A year ago this time, Elway was angry that Denver had great regular seasons under Fox but lost the Super Bowl two years ago and their first playoff game last year.

"At least in the last game," Elway said last January, "you want to feel like you go out kicking and screaming."

Elway believed that Fox didn't instill the fight, fire and fury required to overcome adversity in big games.

Denver's victory in the AFC title game Sunday further emboldened Elway, judging by his postgame comments in USA Today:

For Kubiak "to be able to come in and get us back to the Super Bowl has been tremendous. There is not a better guy for the job."

In other words, Kubiak is a better guy for the job than Fox was the previous four years. Elway noted that Kubiak "stepped into a hot seat" after the controversial firing of Fox.

"The mindset (now) is, 'Play for 60 minutes,' " Elway was quoted as saying. "That's why this team is a tougher team. Last year was a good year, but this year is attributed to Gary and his staff."

And the year-end defeats under Fox - even in a Super Bowl season - are attributed to him and his staff.

If Elway was correct in firing Fox - still debatable - the Bears better have their next coach in mind if they intend to ever win the last big game of any season.

It should be noted that the Bears lost four of their last five games of 2015 on merit because they weren't very good. However, it also should be noted that three and maybe four of those five opponents weren't very good either.

Fox, who has taken two different franchises to two different Super Bowls, is considered a proven commodity around the NFL.

But both Carolina and Denver fired him, so now Fox has to prove all over again that they goofed and more precisely that Elway is a goof.

"I think the big thing is we have to win it," Elway said of Super Bowl 50. "So hopefully we saved our best for last."

It wouldn't hurt the Bears if the Broncos whimpered away in the season's final game under Gary Kubiak.

Otherwise it will look like John Elway won by firing John Fox, and the Bears could look like they lost by hiring him.

mimrem@dailyherald.com