Rozner: Decades later, Bears still missing leader at the top

The owners may take your money and snicker when you walk out the door, but the paying customer is not as dumb as they think.

You know you're getting a pitchfork between the shoulder blades.

But every half-decade or so, Bears fans get fed up enough to raise their voices and remember why this horror movie gets replayed over and over again - with the same dreadful ending.

Atop the food chain sit George McCaskey and Ted Phillips, the ownership group remaining intact, perhaps planning as we speak their next great hire.

"We feel the structure we have is a good one," George McCaskey said late on a Monday in 2014 after firing GM Phil Emery and head coach Marc Trestman. "The head coach reports to the GM. The GM reports to the team president. And the president reports to the chairman."

Chairman McCaskey knows it was team president Phillips using search firms and consultants to discover the likes of Jerry Angelo, Emery and Ryan Pace, and they have produced one playoff victory the last 14 years.

In a parity-stricken league where rebuilds take two years, this is an impressive record of futility.

"We have an excellent collaboration," McCaskey said that day. "Ted keeps me informed on actions he's taking, or will take. We collaborate. It's not a voting situation."

But are they truly football qualified?

"I think Ted and I understand the history of the Bears," McCaskey said. "Ted and I have lived it. We feel a collaborative effort is best way to go."

Might it be better if the family relinquished control of the operation, as did Rocky Wirtz and Tom Ricketts? Would the Bears be better off tomorrow if they hired John McDonough, as has been suggested here so many times over the years?

Naturally.

But that would mean surrendering power and allowing McDonough to spend huge dollars to go after Bill Belichick - and those like him.

There has never been a hint that the family would be willing to do something like that, not when Phillips and McCaskey see themselves as genuine football experts.

This began with the death of Mugs Halas in 1979, which led to the departure of Jim Finks in 1983 and the firing of Jerry Vainisi in 1986. If Mugs had been around, Finks would not have bolted. If not for Michael McCaskey, Vainisi wouldn't have been tossed out.

After that, Michael McCaskey famously botched the stadium negotiations, and together with the Dave McGinnis debacle, the McCaskeys had to put Ted Phillips out front and in charge just to get the city on board with the stadium.

Phillips led directly to Angelo, Emery and Pace.

At the height of the circus, they even allowed Mark Hatley to run the draft in 2001, knowing for certain that he was leaving shortly thereafter due to conflicts with Phillips.

And now here we are with Ryan Pace, Matt Nagy and Mitch Trubisky filling all three circus rings, elephants on parade and clowns throwing buckets of confetti all over the patrons.

Beating bad teams late in the season doesn't change that reality, unless you carry pompoms for a living.

Bring them all back. Don't bring them back. Whatever. Seriously, whatever.

Just know that until you have an NFL quarterback coached by a coordinator who can make in-game adjustments, and that coach is given players - not projects - by an erudite general manager, it's all a fool's errand.

And those things will not occur until there is genuine football leadership at the top that finds the GM, coach and QB.

The question is a rather simple one, if you own the team. Can you envision Trubisky playing quarterback in a Super Bowl, making wise decisions and leading his team to victory while Nagy handles the pressure of the biggest sporting event on the planet and makes smart calls and in-game adjustments?

That is, after all, the point of the exercise.

It's wonderful that the Bears beat an awful Vikings team Sunday and don't you worry that Trubisky tried his best to give away another game. Don't even fret that the only reason Nagy finally fed his running back was that the kick returner he prefers at running back got hurt.

Talk about a steep learning curve for a genius coach.

Next week, Nagy will be fired up and talk about how much he loves his players after they take out the 1-13 Jaguars.

But after finishing 8-8 a year ago, the Bears are now 7-7 in the sixth year of a rebuild that included a six-game losing streak and a single victory over a team with a winning record.

Yippee.

The Bears think you're too dumb to see this for what it is, that you'll keep forking over that season-ticket money no matter what, sheep funneled through those gates with no consideration for time and money wasted.

All while knowing that sensation in your back is a pitchfork to the scapula.