The Chicago Bears fired Matt Eberflus. Nobody was surprised. The entire country watched what happened in Detroit on Thanksgiving. His bungling of the game’s final minute has already reached legendary status. Coaches around the league are using it as teaching tape on what not to do. He’s even a punchline during college football broadcasts. Firing him was the only course of action for the franchise. Some would argue it was long overdue. More than a few people felt he should’ve been gone after last season.
Either way, what’s done is done. The Bears can finally move on, right? Well, it may not be that simple. According to Adam Hoge of CHGO, the organization might be in an awkward spot because of the way they handled Eberflus’ firing. The former coach held his 9:00 a.m. presser the day after the game as if everything was normal. He expressed confidence he’d be ready to go for San Francisco next weekend. Two hours later, the news dropped that he was out. People were shocked the Bears would do that, wondering why they didn’t cancel or reschedule the presser.
Hoge revealed on the Hoge & Jahns podcast that several people around the NFL were appalled by it, including potential coaching candidates.
According to the available information, GM Ryan Poles and team president Kevin Warren met with George McCaskey around 7:30 a.m. last Friday. The meeting lasted a few hours as they weighed their options. No decision on Eberflus had been made when the presser was set to begin. The Bears didn’t want to cancel or reschedule it because it would send the signal something might be happening when they hadn’t yet decided. So, they let things continue as planned until they were sure what came next.
The presser was long over by the time they concluded that Eberflus had to go. It was a rough PR look, but was a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. Some will argue they should’ve had the conversation right after the game, but it was Thanksgiving. The Chicago Bears weren’t going to fire the coach on a holiday. Besides, McCaskey wasn’t in Detroit. All of it came through an unfortunate set of circumstances. The good news is the Bears have over a month to prepare their explanation for potential coaching candidates once interviews begin in January.
