Rozner: Yes, Virginia, Chicago Bears still winless
As the Chicago Bears begin auditions for 2017, you have to wonder what Virginia McCaskey is thinking.
It was, after all, the mother of chairman George McCaskey who was so angry about the embarrassment of 2014 that she may have encouraged her son to dump GM Phil Emery and head coach Marc Trestman.
At the very least, she didn't stand in the way.
"She's been very supportive," George McCaskey said after the 2014 season. "She agrees with the decisions that we've made.
"She's (ticked) off. I can't think of a 91-year-old woman that description would apply to, but in this case I can't think of a more accurate description."
The Bears went into Sunday night's game in Dallas with a 6-12 record under Ryan Pace and John Fox, while Trestman was 9-9 after 18 games. Trestman was sent packing after two years, but he wasn't raking in $4 million a year and Fox has two years left on his deal after this one.
Virginia, now 93, was "fed up with mediocrity" two years ago, said George McCaskey, and, "She feels that she and Bears fans everywhere deserve better."
If that was the case then, she can't be enjoying the current state of the franchise all that much, one might assume.
"She's been on this earth for eight of the Bears' nine championships and she wants more," George McCaskey said when he fired Emery and Trestman. "She feels that it's been too long since the last one, and that dissatisfaction is shared by her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren.
"We feel that the correct course of action is to hire the best people that we can, and stay out of the way and let them do their jobs. I was involved in the last hiring process, and I'm going to be involved in this hiring process."
So McCaskey went out and - along with super-survivor Ted Phillips - found Pace and Fox, and so far the results aren't all that encouraging.
That's been the common denominator since 1999, Phillips - and pick a McCaskey - running the show, out searching for football experts to bring glory back to the franchise.
Since then, that formula has produced precisely no championships and several seasons of total embarrassment, especially 2014 under Trestman when it all came tumbling down.
As for what occurs the rest of this season, that will depend on how well Pace has drafted for depth and how well Fox can coach what's remaining of a banged-up roster.
On national TV again Sunday night, it was another rough one in Dallas as the Cowboys beat the Bears 31-17. Dallas scored on its first four possessions and led 24-3 going into the half, cruising to victory in the second half.
For the second straight week, the Bears' vaunted Vic Fangio defense was picked apart by a rookie quarterback, this time fourth-rounder Dak Prescott, and rookie first-rounder Ezekiel Elliott ran 30 times for 140 yards.
So the Bears' season is over at 0-3, not that they really had playoff hopes for 2016, but they were at least supposed to show progress after a 6-10 season a year ago, and they'll have to get considerably better to give fans any reason for hope in 2017.
At this point, Fox would have to finish 7-6 the rest of the way just to match Trestman's two-year record in Chicago, while the jury is very much out on whether Pace can evaluate talent.
Virginia McCaskey viewed Sunday's pleasantries in person and you wonder what she must have been thinking as she watched another Bears season end in September.
She can't be pleased. Maybe she's even ticked off again.
brozner@dailyherald.com
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