Jim O'Donnell: Bare Bears or tone-deaf Texans, Lovie Smith knows front-office nuttiness
IF FULL TRUTHS UNDERPINNED network TV coverage of the NFL - which is a laughable notion - a simple shot would be featured early in the Bears-Texans telecast Sunday.
That would be a cut to Lovie Smith on the Houston sideline.
CBS analyst James Lofton, working alongside Andrew Catalon, would say: "There is one of the most good and decent men in the league. And a head coach all too familiar with how uncorrected corporate dysfunction can swallow franchises whole."
SMITH GOT HIS MASTER'S in endgame NFL malfeasance during his nine years (2004-2012) with the Bears.
Fans of the Staleys are all too familiar with the Lovie ledger: 91-83 (.563), three postseasons, only three losing seasons and a second-quarter lead vs. Tony Dungy and the Colts in Super Bowl 41 that did not hold to the wire.
That was all good enough to get him fired following a 10-6 campaign in 2012.
10-6!
First-year GM Phil Emery - a manufacturer's rep waiting to happen - had to prove he was the smartest football mind in George McCaskey's clunky conference lair.
So it was bye-bye Lovie.
And the Bears were quickly switched into a nine-season tailspin from which they have yet to recover.
SMITH DID HIS TIME with Tampa Bay (2014-15) and at the University of Illinois (2016-20).
But if he thought he knew nuttiness, he's now getting his doctorate with the Texans.
CEO Cal McNair is second-generation money - always a caution card. He's also a devout Christian who avoids the spotlight.
His Rasputin - the Russian mystic who weakened the Romanov dynasty and set the stage for the Bolshevik Revolution - is a most curious NFLer named Jack Easterby.
HE ENTERED THE CHANNELING as chaplain of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2011. Two years later, he began a six-year run as Bill Belichick's "character coach" in New England, a direct response to that organization's reeling from the murderous insanity of the late Aaron Hernandez.
In 2019, McNair brought Easterby into the teetering Houston dynamic.
In three seasons, Easterby - now the Texans exec VP of football ops at age 39 - has proven himself adept at: 1) private prayer sessions with McNair; 2) consolidating football-side power within; and 3) alienating a whole lot of staff and star players like J.J. Watt and the once-pristine Deshaun Watson.
His arc with McNair has also included Houston going from a 10-6 mark and a divisional playoff loss to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in 2019 to records of 4-12 (2020) and 4-13 (2021).
LOVIE SMITH GOT THE HOUSTON JOB in January in part because the NFL is once again staggeringly bereft of Black head coaches.
But he also landed it because McNair and Rasputin Easterby were somehow dissuaded from hiring Josh McCown, the ex-Bears backup QB and NFL vagabond who has never coached a pro down in his life.
So a good and decent man will guide the Houston Texans into Soldier Field Sunday.
But there is no doubt that on either sideline, Coach Smith knows the nuttiness that lurks within.
STREET-BEATIN':
The Bears-Houston game will play to only 12% of the CBS Nation - which is probably 10% too high. (Big dogs Jim Nantz and Tony Romo are working the Chiefs-Colts.) ...
Justin Fields deserves 1,000% mitigation for not wanting to talk to the media after the mucked-up fourth quarter in Green Bay. A: The young fellow's not used to losing (20-2 at Ohio State), and B: Fields has never had to try and operate within such a crawl of confusion as Luke Getsy's lunkhead offense. (It's 1-99 that Fields will never quarterback a home-team down in Arlington Heights.) ...
Tickets for the '22 White Sox farewell-to-group-somnabulence series vs. Cleveland were going for as little as $2 on the secondary market. A Tony La Russa/Holiday Inn seminar on "Snooze and Prosper!" would command more. ...
Thirty-seven years ago this week (1985), the Bulls were opening the first and only out-of-town training camp of their Michael Jordan era at Beloit College. Early-dance highlight was No. 23 winning $2 at 8-ball from the 13-year-old son of a country club GM following a team golf outing. And His Royal Tightness accentuated the victory by telling the lad, "You got to learn not to mess with 'The King.'" ...
And iconic Taylor Bell, mixing his football postseasons - but not by much: "Is Georgia good enough to win the Super Bowl?"
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears Sunday and Thursday Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.