Accountability

I've been thinking about this a bit lately. It's very common to excuse players/coaches/presidents here by saying, "they didn't know" or "at the time it seemed like the right pick". That to do otherwise is a Monday Morning QB.

There's plenty of truth to this. However, at some point, you have to have accountability. If a QB chucks up ints week after week after week, even if they seemed excusable at the time in the micro, at the macro level the QB has to be held accountable for his actions. If a player makes a mistake one week and false starts a bunch, mistakes happen, but if it happens repeatedly, corrective action is needed. Shit even though I love him as a player, you have a guy who is the #1 paid OLB in the league and is currently 19th in sacks, behind the super shitty OLB you released the year before?

If a GM says "I think it's a good idea to add a quarterback every year." in a discussion about drafting and proceeds to draft one QB in 5 years? Hold them accountable. If a GM continually trades away draft picks and you find yourself on a team that is capped out financially and still has glaring talent holes? Accountable. If you have a coach who has players that seemingly quit on him? Accountable. If you have a President of football operations who has failed to hire good GMs for the past 21 years? Accountable. If you have a President who has overseen exactly 5 years of playoff appearances in that 21 years, and only 3 wins (2 of which were in one year)? Accountable. Fuck people, the Vikings have 9 appearances in that timeframe, and that's without any HOF QB. The Packers 13. That puts a solid THIRD in the division.

Basically, there's a difference between saying, "hey I would have done that" or "I understand the moves he made" and "this has been an absolute clusterfuck of an organization for 20 years". Can I understand picking Mitch over Mahomes? Sure, Mahomes was definitely seen as a riskier pick. Can I understand picking Mitch over Watson? Not really because almost everyone here was on board, but no QB is surefire. But understanding that is irrelevant to the results. We as fans aren't paid to get decisions right. Presidents, GMs, Coaches, these are people who have to make the RIGHT decisions, as judged by the outcome. You are allowed mistakes, but if you keep fucking up, get the axe out. You don't let these people continue to fuck up year after year, decade after decade.

Honestly this is the same as any other job. If I were a VP for a large company and made bad business deals that made sense at the time? Unless there's shady doings going on, I'm let go. If I were an independent plumber and continually had leaks or other faulty fixes, even if the consequences were unseen, people are going to stop hiring me. No matter how understandable or justifiable the actions seemed at the time.

Results matter. Accountability matters. Whether that's firing, changing the structure/scheme, whatever it is. You can't keep doing the same thing and expect it to magically turn out differently.

Do you realize that someone who is 20 years old this year, would have been 6 fucking years old the last time the Bears were in the SB? I am 40 and was fucking 5 the last time they actually WON it all. Maybe we're not the Lions or Browns, but we also sure as shit aren't the Packers, Steelers, fuck even the Cowboys.

Thoughts?

 

The difference between the McCaskeys and the real-world examples you cite is that their operation still makes money even with all their fuck ups. They still benefit from being part of the NFL revenue sharing, TV deals, merchandising and all that shit. Even in non-Covid seasons when there are thousands of no-shows at SF the game itself is still a sell-out. There's little incentive, other than pride in the team, for them to do things differently and hold people accountable. The money comes in. They still own the charter franchise. Why change?

If there's one thing we know it's that the W-L record matters little to the McCaskeys, but optics in how the organization is run do matter. Michael got fired for the botched McGuinness hiring, not because the team was in a death spiral year after year under his administration. I've said this before but the reason Trestman/Emery got fired was not because of the record on the field but because of how toxic shit got in Halas Hall and how that toxicity was perceived league wide.

This is an organization that didn't have a fucking GM until 2001, and still have only had 3 GMs in history. This is an organization that had to rely on (actually blackmail) a broke ass city to renovate its crappy stadium so that it's lazy and entitled owners could get more money from luxury suites and PSLs. This is an organization that has taken its millions of passionate fans for granted for decades. Partly it's because they don't know any better. They were handed the team, doing nothing to establish or build the brand, and expected to live off it, which they have.

I guess what I'm getting at is that accountability has never been a part of the organization because there's never been a need for it.

 

So where does this put you on what will happen at the end of this year? Are the optics bad enough?

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...giants-upset-cardinals-to-keep-nfc-east-lead/

And I quote: "I'm not sure how it happened, but the "Lock of the Week" has turned into the Chicago Bears of picks. It started off hot, but now, it's the laughingstock of football. Trust me when I say that you don't want to be the Chicago Bears of anything, especially not this year."

Do we get another "Virginia is pissed off" speech at the end of this year? Talk is cheap. I don't care how they get there, but get a plan together and get there. And that plan, in my mind, should be results oriented.

Fuck even Lovie came in and said, our goal is to beat the packers, make the playoffs, and win the super bowl, and he got damn close. Like him or hate him, there was a clear vision and plan, and as much as it fucking drove us nuts at times, he got us closer than anyone since Ditka. Lovie was bend don't break 4-3 defense and on offense "got off the bus running". What is this team's identity? The only word I can come up with is gimmicky. How do you build a team with that identity?

To your point though, if money is what talks to the McCaskeys, then all of us die hard fans are the ones creating the cycle of grief.

 

And that's why it's so bad. Over the past few decades this team has spent a ton of time being just mediocre...and sometimes bad. Once in a while they are good but that good always comes with some issue...no qb, no line, no kicker, so on.

But because they are almost never bottom of the pile...ownership trucks on because fans stay interested.

 

In my opinion, as of now, no. But give it 4 games. We lose out and folks in the locker room could start turning on each other or the coach, maybe. This is why losing out and losing badly matters if we want change.

Yes. But that doesn't mean any firings.

Given the league revenue sharing, the team could possibly still survive Bears fans boycotting by not watching TV and not showing up to the games live. It's virtually impossible for Bears fans to do anything about it except hope to the flying spaghetti monster that there's a change in ownership sometime before they die.

 

The sad reality is if the bears aren't the charter franchise of the entire league--they'd be the Lions or Browns. They wouldn't be revered the way they are now--because even being the laughing stock they have been--they're still respected.

Don't get why. Don't get how.

I don't want the speech. At this point--we all know what's wrong, what went wrong, and what was never corrected that Pace was supposed to. If you must give a speech, just give fans a brief talk of 'breath of fresh air' and go about not hiring a fucktard this time and let fans going about forgetting you until roster changes start happening in late February/early March.

I know how unlikely the last part I want is.

 

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