While it was necessary, and perhaps overdue, for the Bears to fire coach Matt Eberflus last week, they botched the implementation of that decision just as much as Eberflus mishandled the clock at the end of the loss to the Lions the day before.
As chairman George McCaskey, president Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles deliberated on Eberflus' future Friday morning, they carelessly allowed him to go on his scheduled news conference with reporters on Zoom.
Warren explained how that sequence unfolded and admitted it was regrettable.
"When Coach Eberflus had his press conference, we had not made a final decision," he said. "If there's one thing we stand for is family and integrity and doing it the right way.
"In retrospect, could we have done it better? Absolutely. I’ll be the first one to raise my hand. Yes. But during his press conference and even a couple hours later, we had not reached a decision.
He continued by saying he wanted to explain the decision to Eberflus and allow him time to inform his family.
"So in retrospect, could we have done better? Yes," Warren said. "But we were trying to be respectful and we did not know our decision when he started his press conference."
The Bears decided against postponing the news conference out of concern that doing so would raise suspicion, a source said, but that happened anyway as reporters posted on social media about the team not sending a Zoom link until after the scheduled start time. Management also was generally unconcerned with the news conference, a source said, due to a preoccupation with making a decision on Eberflus.
The clumsy scene reflected poorly on the Bears throughout the NFL, which could be problematic in their upcoming coaching search, and Warren acknowledged how it might have been perceived by potential head-coaching candidates.
