Is Kevin Warren On The Hot Seat? Inside The Growing Unease Over Bears’ Stadium Plan
Kevin Warren was hired in 2022 to replace Ted Phillips as the Chicago Bears’ team president. It felt like a reasonable move at the time. Warren had extensive experience as an NFL executive with the Rams, Lions, and Vikings before becoming Big Ten commissioner. If anybody had the credibility to guide the Bears in their efforts to get a new stadium built, it was him. Three years later and nothing has happened. The only discernible progress was closing the final details on the Arlington Park property. Other than that, Warren has managed nothing.
Illinois politicians haven’t budged on any sort of public assistance, despite assurances from the Bears that they would cover all the costs of construction for the building. Warren has pivoted back and forth between possible new sites, with his latest being a flirtation with Northwest Indiana. That would take the Bears out of the state they’ve resided in their entire existence. I expressed recently on Twitter (X) whether George McCaskey might be regretting the decision to hire Warren.
It didn’t take long to receive an answer. My Sports Mockery colleague Jeff Hughes, who’s proven to have excellent connections inside Halas Hall, provided it.
Kevin Warren might be on borrowed time.
McCaskey is known for being patient, but there are a few things to keep in mind. He turns 70 next year. He isn’t getting any younger. There is no doubt he’d like the get the stadium built before he runs out of time. That would be part of his legacy. Yet Warren’s inability to gain any traction in negotiations can’t be ignored forever. The longer this goes on, the more apparent it becomes that the Bears’ president is out of his depth. He clearly wasn’t prepared for the challenges that the Illinois government would present.
Firing Kevin Warren may look bad, but the bottom line is that keeping him has done nothing. Better to take the brief PR hit and find somebody more competent than drag this out. It feels like the Northwest Indiana move is his Hail Mary. He likely hopes it will serve as a new home or convince the Illinois government to return to the negotiating table. If neither materializes in the next few months, McCaskey may reach the end of his patience. Something has to break, one way or another.