Bill Shuey talks outside linebackers | All Access

I'm Jeff Joniac and this is six seventy The Score and Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy. Good to have you alongside with our producers tonight, Adams Dzinski and the Score Studio helping us out along with Dan Burreli and Jordan Trudup. The lineup tonight includes the following Big Jim Meller joining the program coming up at six oz eight for a few segments as he does our weekly guest from Serious XM NFL Radio and the

former Bears quarterback off Things NFL. He's got the Wide View, and then refocus a little bit on your Chicago Bears with a visit from Bill Shoey, the new Outside linebackers coach. Been with the organization for a while now, since twenty eighteen, a long and interesting coaching career. He'll be our guests coming up at the bottom of the hour. Good evening, Tom There, Hey, what's new, buddy? What is new? What

is new? Oh? Nothing? Just excited to be uh, you know, watching the wires, the conversation about the NFL, the different elements of the league they're talking about, the players trying to get involved in the conversations and their own team speculation, where big free agents are going to go, and the real the NFL year hasn't even gotten under way yet, but there is never you never starved for a topic with the you know, whether it be the Bears or just the NFL in general. And honestly, it's that way

every year, big time. And you know what to what are you referring to today? I mean, really, what really came across the wire today? It's guess what quarterback conversations We've already seen Matthew Stafford, movies seen Carson Wentz, Jason excuse me, Jared Goff and now the constant drama what appears to be around Deshaun Watson. According to ESPN meeting with the new head coach, David Cutting says, Hey, listen, I'm sticking to my guns. I don't want to play

for you. So now what now what? Well, I don't think he necessarily doesn't want to play for the new head coach. He doesn't want to play for the organization. So, I mean, you know, it's really tough for you bringing a head coach and he takes a job, and he's excited because he has a franchise quarterback that could be there for another decade, and you think of one of

the most important building blocks. But you know, it seems like right now all a lot of the players that are free agents are unhappy in what's going on with themselves and their organizations. Hey, you know, it's they have the talent. They have the ability to go out there and say, look, I want to go elsewhere. I don't know if it's the best thing for the NFL, But that's just the world that we live in today. Everybody has an opinion about where all these quarterbacks are going to.

And then you got the agent force heat a quarterback Russell Wilson. This is the one that stirred up Twitter today, not demanding a trade. According to his agent, Mark Rogers, telling Adam Schefter of ESPN, wants to remain in Seattle. But if you're if you're thinking about moving me, there are only poor places I want to go. One of them is Chicago, one, Dallas, New Orleans, and Vegas. So

this is what's coming out of that camp. There seems to be some bad blood blurret brillin there in some former fashion because it's been several weeks of this kind of constant conversation now about Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson, Well, you know what's the You know, it's in some of the disagreement with Russell Wilson as he talks about he's been sacked three hundred and ninety four times throughout a period in Seattle, and then he talks he wants to

have a hand within the personnel decisions. And I don't think that's a player's right. I think the players should play the game. And um, you know the unfortunate way the times that he holds the ball a little bit longer than possibly he should, because he has great faith, in great trust in his athleticism, sometimes it does result in a sack. So, man, I think if the most important position on the team isn't focused about the team.

It's really it could it could have some bad circumstances to go along with him if he's only thinking about what he can do, not necessarily what he should be doing. Right. I mean, he has been hit a lot, he has been sacked a lot. There are many factors. It's it's they've drafted a bunch of offensive linemen for a period of time, there as many as any team in the National Football League. They did get some terrific receiving weapons, and he helped make some of those weapons better players

because of his ability. So it's an interesting cross section of thoughts and it's a it's it's immovable objects. Here you got you got a veteran head coach and Pete Carroll. You gotta now a veteran quarterback Russell Wilson that Seattle drafted in the middle rounds to uh in a very impactful ways, has risen to the challenge of not being a first round pick. But you know, I have great

admiration for Russell Wilson. I think every time you'll get a chance to watch him on TV or he plays against the Bears, his athleticism how well physically conditioned he is, how he can make an old defensive player look old in the fourth quarter. So you know what, whatever he's capable of doing, I admire what he's already put down in terms of his early career template. And I'm sure he's got a great deal of confidence in himself that he can do the same thing if it is in

Seattle or if it is not in Seattle. Another nugget today this week, I should say, not just today, and we're getting a Jim Miller here and just just a bit that Corey Linsley feels like he's not going to be back with the Green Bay Packers. Considered by many one of, if not the best center in football. He's turning thirty in July. But again, this is all salary cap related. You know, things are happening around every roster.

There's gonna be a ton of at Denver today releasing a five time Pro Bowl defensive tackle and Dull Casey, right, you know, with Lindsley and even Bakiar. I mean, it's it's easy to be considered one of the best players at your position when you play in front of Aaron Rodgers. Now,

if you put these players on different teams. And we've seen it throughout Peyton Manning's career where there's a couple guy that I've gotten free agent opportunities with teams that had lesser supporting cast and they never lived up to the same role that they showed what they had the ability when they were playing behind in front of Peyton Manning. So I think when you talk about the best center in the league, you better just you know, temper that

a little bit. He's a good player, but he's got one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the game behind him. Yeah, it happens at multiple positions. That could think of many wide receivers that were a number at two and number three and then they had a great year because of the attention paid to their number one, and then he goes out in the free agent market

and never lives up to that building. Or a great pass rusher is on one side and the other guy's getting all the benefit because this guy's getting double team. Then now he becomes a high price free agent. So it's all very interesting. We'll discuss with Jim Miller here on Bears All Access after a first time out here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy the score. Welcome back everybody to Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy.

Choose clean energy for your home at igs dot com because every good choice adds up to a better world. Our show a little bit better right now with Big Jim Miller, John of the Program and Serious x m FL Radio Moving the chains with our man Pat Kerwin. With Tom There, I'm Jeff, Joni act, Big Jim. Welcome back this week. How you feeling. I'm doing great, Jeff, Tom, always gonna be with you guys. So quiet though right now, right, this's just it's way too quiet in the NFL. I

just not enough's going on, not enough conversation. What the heck? Well, and when's it gonna heat up? Jim, Yeah, I think it's gonna start heat well. Teams are still figuring out. There's a lot of I'm being I'm being facetious because every minute there's some new rumor. Well, yeah, it's a

lot of well we call this the protest season. You know, there's a lot of you know, players protesting about where they want to be and where they want to go and I don't want the tag and all these type of things, and yeah, there's a lot of speculation and in rumor, and some are just thrown out there because there's really nothing to write about right now. I just think teams are trying to figure out what they're going

to do in the next week or so. Probably in the next ten days, you're going to see a blood letting of players around the NFL. There is going to be like right now, Pat and I went through it, there's over five hundred free agents that are out there. I mean, there's over twenty free age and running backs at that position alone. There's over forty defensive backs that are out there. You just mentioned Durell Casey, he's on

the market. There literally will be over seven hundred free age and guys that are on the market here in the next ten days. There is going to be a huge blood letting of teams that need to clear up some cap space. Look at Denver by releasing a j Bouyer and Joe Casey, they just got twenty four million dollars back on their salary, GiB twenty four million dollars.

What can you do with that money? And that's where teams are really looking at right now, so that they can clear up and get in this free agent market as much as they can. I have a question for both of you guys. If Trevor Lawrence wasn't such a sure thing, would we be talking more about the first couple picks of the draft, because it seems like we're only talking about free agency. And that's the veteran side

of it. Where up unto this point, the three of us may have had three or four conversations about the combine and about the draft, but it just seems like everybody's just you know, hey, Trevor Lawrence is going to go here, and then let's see where everybody else falls into. Yeah, I'll the way in first, because Jim, there is no combine,

so we're not there. We're talking about guy, because ordinarily we'd be at the combine, we'll be getting together, we'd be talking about everything that transpired over the course of the week and what's going to happen next week or who's gonna run this. Yeah, it's it's oddly different and most of my fat I mean, I started strong right when the playoffs started, getting ready for the draft and starting that process, but I've shifted now to free agency.

For what you just said, to have that many people out on the free market. I mean, it's I don't want to be a veteran right now. Well here, Here's what I'd say is, but those are known commodities. These guys coming out in the draft are not. You know, everybody can say, oh, you're the jetsitude they should take Zach Wilson out there at BYU or Justin Fields or you name the quarterback. I mean, I just don't see

that happening. Again. The guys that are out there are known commodities, and you're gonna be potentially drafting a player that you even that opted out last year. You know, there are some guys like I just interviewed Rousseau the University of Miami pass rusher. That guy's only played one season, one season of games that you're going and people get met at the Bears, mister Bisky only at thirteen starts. This guy's got less than Mitch Wow, and you're gonna

draft him. Tommy Vant I want to hear both of you guys in this. You know, I know how you are. Tom. It's all about ball. So and granted there are a lot of guys you know you're going through your list and these are top guys that chose to avoid injury or for personal reasons to not play at their colleges in the pandemic circumstance. Are you gonna look at those

guys differently despite their great talent? No, I know I would, You know, I kind of frown upon guys like the San Francisco guy that sits out because he was injured in college and then he doesn't have a lengthy track record of being durable Nick Bosa. So he doesn't have that track record of staying healthy through multiple seasons in college where he had to stop playing a senior year, then he got injured as a rookie, then he got

injured as a second year guy. Some of the guys that sat out just because of the uncertainty of the COVID are are they coming in to be a starter? And I think there's more pressure on them coming in to be a starter because of some of the free agents that are not being signed. Jim, put your scouting cap on. How do you feel? How are you going to evaluate those guys? Yeah? I think one teams are evaluating differently and this year is going to be even

more challenging. Again, That's why I think you'll see more guys drafted from the recess Senior Bowl because at least you got to see them play in an all star game where you could watch a wee week of practices of the top talent going against each other. I'm not saying these guys are going to be rusty. I mean

certain guys are going to be rusty. But I think it showed down in Mobile that guys could quickly get back and involved because there were opt out guys that I thought, you know, really showed and really flashed and got their sea legs under them pretty quickly, and that they will be able to rebound and they will be able to contribute. But again, there's just so much less tape that you can watch on these guys as as

we've just mentioned. So if we already thought that raft was a fifty fifty crapshoot case in point Isaiah Wilson, we all see what happens with him with Tennessee right now, the guy hasn't even been with the team ten months. He's a first round draft pick, and he's already on the block to be traded. Granted, he had some off the field. He actually had more incidents off the field

than snaps that he played for the Tennessee Titans. So you better do your due diligence because the information is not going to be easy to come by because all these numbers, heights, weights, forty times ten yards, splits watching him work out, you may not even have be able to have a personal workout with a player. Are we able to even take all thirty guys? Every team's able to invite thirty guys to the facility? Is that even

possible here? Even Roger Goodell said, ah, we're going to keep some of this virtual stuff in place, and potentially the draft. Again, nothing's been decided yet, but I think all those things are in play. So information is going to be tough to come by. Is might take of how it's going to unfold? You know, I wish the young guy from the Tennessee Titans would have taken the challenge by the GM as kind of a motivator and say, all right, I'm gonna prove you wrong. I'm gonna show

you exactly that you pick the right guy. I'm gonna be more disciplined during the football season, and I'm going to be a productive football player during the season. And so I think nowadays you get a GM that challenges a young man because they see his upside, and then they now they want to be traded. What incentive is another team have to go out and get this guy if he always has already proved maybe to the GM that his work ethic and his work habits need to improve. Yeah,

and how about that? The minute the GM challenged him, he writes on Twitter that he no longer wants to be a Tennessee Titans. So he basically quit, basically quit on his team. How many? How many other teams want that? Well, you know, I was talking with Jason McKee today briefly, and it's just a different even he's not that far removed from the National Football League as a player when you think about it, and just how how quickly it

has changed. And these guys have voices on Twitter and Instagram or whatever, and whether they're they're not able to stop from hitting send or it's truly how they're being positioned, how they feel or their agents are given the green light to do it. It's it's it's allowed cacophony of of of a lot of noise right now, and uh, it's everybody feels they can, you know, just say whatever and there's no repercussion. But for a guy like that,

a first round pick, there's serious repercussion. And somebody, the young guy from Tennessee who they believe had enough ability to be evaluated to be a first rounder in the NFL. There's some elder statesman offensive lineman there that should bring this guy in their inner circle and say, hey, look, this is what we need out of you, because we need you to be the player in which the Tennessee

Titans drafted you for. And if you come and play up to your athletics, him your dedication, you know you can help us be a major player in the league. You guys like timped there and Jim Miller to help too. To him a little bit. We're gonna take a break here on Bears All Access. Coming up at the bottom of the hour. Bill Shoey, the Bear's new outside linebackers coach, getting the promotion to that position here for twenty twenty one, will join us with Jim and Tom. I'm Jeff Joniac.

This is Bears All Access, brought to you by IGS Energy on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Score, The Chicago Bears Network presents Inside the Bears, brought to you by Verizon. Anthony Adams, Lauren Screeden cover the world of Bears football on and off the field every Sunday night at ten thirty five pm on Fox thirty two Chicago, or watch anytime at Chicago bears dot Com around the

Bears official app. Remind me to give double A a a little bit of a business because you know he's a Chicago guy now right, he's dropped anchor here, he's raising his family and some with a Pistons jersey on going back to his Detroit roots. Jim Miller, you know that's all good. But you know, Bulls are playing well, game under five hundred. Let's go. Oh, have plenty to talk about in Chicago, right, you know, got offseason here basketball.

I mean, what's not to be fired up about. Jeff, You're in You're in your You're in your true medium right now, aren't you. Yes? Yes, So, Tim and I talked about in the first segment about the Wilson stuff today and the Deshaun You have anything to add? What do you How are you guys handicapping this whole situation? Well, it's you know, it's I think, like you said, there's so much out there, like via social media and things that are being stated, whether it's by the player or

by the player's agent. You know, to me, well, it's it's a good annalogy. It almost feels like the NBA, like players just want to talk themselves out of places, you know, whether it's Jamal Adams last year talking his way out of New York. And here you have to Deshaun Watson situation down there in Houston that came to a head. They had a meeting Friday. He told the new head coach to his face that he doesn't want to play for Houston anymore. Russell Wilson. You know, I'm

kind of and I love Russell Wilson. He's always, to me, been a classy guy. But what is Seattle not done for Russell Wilson. He got one hundred and forty million dollar contract, They've drafted fifteen offensive linement, They've been to two Super Bowls. They have just recently fired their offensive coordinator and hired a new one that they gave him, say in hiring Shane Waldron. And now he supposedly wants out of Seattle. I mean, I just don't get it.

But it seems like it's more like the NBA that the players just want to drive where they want to play, and I'd be careful because the grass is not always greener. It really isn't. Yeah. I mean, that's that's the thing about Russell is the supporting cast they put around him, the type of head coach Pete Carroll, is the atmosphere he's created up there, the defensive personnel that they've been able to add keep in place and have as a

supporting cast for him. You know, he's brought a lot of life to that city throughout his career, and you know, if there was a team out there that was suffering for a franchise quarterback but picked up his contract and then did not have the supporting cast to allow him to be you know, sacked less or you know, turn the offensive around like they've been able to do in Seattle and Seattle too. When you blow there and play in Seattle, it's almost a guaranteed win because of the

viciousness of the crowd. I thought it was interesting. I don't know if you guys read that article in The Athletic. I did, and one of the quotes was that, you know, Russell was basically stating to the coaches like Hey man, I'm chasing the greats. When did this become about numbers? Isn't it about winning? That's what it's about. It's about winning games. All those numbers are going to fall into place if you're winning games and things like that. So

I just I don't know. I think it you come off, you know, and just have a bad taste in your mouth about you know what that conversation, those conversations were about, and you just view him a little bit different. I just my personal opinion, I thought it was somewhat selfish.

That article that came out today and some of the quotes that were in there all right interest as well today from Tom Pealicero from NFL Network, a virtual meeting with nflpa's executive director to Morris Smith and the agents, imploring them if they have a free agent at one position the same position, collude literally collude and try to increase the leveraging contract talks because of the drop in the salary cap this year at least one eighty. It's

gonna go up maybe another eight. Last year was one night too all dropping because of the pandemic. What is your initial reactions to both of that? To meet first, Yeah, go ahead, Jim good good time. Well, I mean it's just, you know, see even kind of contrived and start getting guys to have conversations about where they want to play, who do they want to play with, how much do

they want to play for? And so the only one that's benefiting really is the agents themselves, because there's no guarantee that you're going to put a player in place that he's going to be a part of playoffs or

super Bowl. And I think with Russell Wilson, if he wants to be moved, then he should be talking about a team that he's going to help get to the super Bowl, because I think they're supporting Russell Wilson financially in with the personnel to try to try to get him to personnel or try to get him to Super Bowl.

If you're telling these guys to sit there and collude and have conversations of how they can put a guy on a football team, when you talk about sixty guys, it's different than the basketball basketball teams being able to put two or three guys together with the supporting cast to allow them to get back in the playoff temple they're looking for. Yeah, I just don't get it at all to say that they didn't request to be traded, and then you list teams that can't even afford you

the team that he needed. One of the teams in there where the Saints. The Saints have to slash two hundred million dollars. They can't fit his thirty five million dollar contract in their financial budget right now. They haven't even decided what they're doing with through breeds. They've already cut him down to a million dollars for base salary in order. So, I mean, that's just flat out it doesn't even make sense to even bring up that team. Now. If he said New England or other teams out there

to have cap space, yeah, I could believe that. That's why it's total to me, just misinformation that's being floated out there. A Jim we Gotta hit a break coming up on the other side. Be joined by Bill Showey, Bears new outside linebackers coach, It's Just Ahead here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score. This segment of Bears All Access is brought to you by Athletico Physical Therapy.

Visit Athletico dot com to request an appointment in clinic or virtually and start feeling better tomorrow with Tom Thayer and Jim Miller. I'm Jeff Joniac. Welcome back to Bears All Access here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score our special guest tonight, Bears assistant coach Bill Showey, now the outside linebackers coach here in twenty twenty one. Bill, thanks for taking the time out. Appreciate you being on. How you feeling great, guys, Thanks for having me on.

Good to talk to you. First of all, Uh, you've done a lot. You've done a lot in your coaching career, and now to have a whole position to your own with Matt Naggie and his system here since twenty eighteen, You've known him a long time. How does it feel? First and foremost, Oh, I'm blessed, guys. I'm I'm very fortunate. I'm happy to have the opportunity of looking forward to the challenges. If you could put in a word, what

would be your coaching style? Or not one word, but just give me an example of what for those of those folks out there that may not know of you or your background. Sure, yeah, you know a lot of people talk about coaching being teaching, and that's That's how I would equate it too, And so you know that's part of my background prior to get into coaching, and uh, you know that's what that's what I try to do.

You know, I take I take pride in and you know, trying to get the best out of each guys and each of the guys and and finding their strengths and keeping them strong and cultivating weaknesses to be you know, for guys to get better, and working with young guys and also with the veteran guys, and you know, finding a good a good a good culture, and you know, trying to make the most out of the room. You know.

But my I would say that. You know, the one thing about me is you know I consider myself a teacher and that's why you know I find coaching a calling.

You know, it was something I'll tell you a quick story is at one point in time, I tried as as I started to have my family, I tried to get I tried to step away from coaching because you know, the hours in coaching are not your normal, you know, nine to five hours, and you know, I knew it was going to be a challenge to raise a family and be a coach, and so I tried, But I gotta be honest with you, guys, it was something in my blood and it was something that I just thought

I had to do. And I've been fortunate and blessed to be around a lot of good people and over the twenty some years that I've been coaching, Um, you know, it's it's always been about the people. Hey, Bill, Jeff talked a lot about your extensive background and colledge coaching. So and you've been in the NFL for quite a while. How does the coaching conversation change when you're teaching a college athlete to a pro athlete. That's a good question.

I don't know that the conversation changes a whole lot because the one thing that you know, I've tried to do as as a coach. You know, some guys, some guys really focusing on the scheme part of coaching. Other guys are really strong on the fundamental aspect of a given position. And I've tried to do my best to be well versed in all of them, and I got along. You know, Obviously, everybody can improve, and I've got a

long way to go in the various areas. But you know, That's the one thing I think that it doesn't matter what level you're coaching at. It comes down to the ability to communicate with with people, to formula formulate relationships with them. And I'll tell you the common thread that I found is that if people know that you care about them and they believe that you that's the ability to make them better. You know they're going to buy in and it usually works out, you know, for the

best for both sides. And you know, we bring out the best in each other, and at the end of the day, that's the goal, you know, to help the team move forward. Hey, coach Jim Miller here and thanks for joining us. Give us a few moments of your day. I thought I read a quote today from Arthur Smith, the new head coach of the Atlanta File, because I thought it was really interesting about last year about learning from every experience, and he also talked about the lessons

he learned about the virtual world. You know what lessons learned from your aspect of how you just brought up teaching and communicating with young players of the challenges of this past year in twenty twenty that do you carry forward here in twenty twenty one, lessons you've learned. Sure, that's a good question, Jim. And and I think that you know, coach Smith is right on there. You know, learning from every experience is you know, that's if you can do that. Uh, you know that sufficiency in the

learning process. And there were certain inherent challenges with the you know, you know, the virtual um you know meetings and that I mean because everybody learns differently, and so you know, the one thing you know, when you're teaching, you're trying to you're trying to teach to, you know, the guy that's at the top of the class and in a certain aspect, and also the guy that might be struggling with something. You got to keep everybody interested

and engaged. And so you don't have as many options or maybe the options are different in the virtual world than they are maybe when you're hands on. You know, some guys that like to learn by doing, you didn't have that option. For the most part. You could take them through a quiz, and you could you could walk through certain film and ask them to explain things to you.

But you couldn't stand there next to a guy and and and go through some things and have the eye to eye you know, enter that personal relationship when you're trying to figure out the nonverbals. Sometimes all you're looking at somebody's face in the way their body's moving as best you can. So I think there was some challenges there with the virtual coaching part of it, but you know, there were also some benefits. There were some some efficiencies that were gained in doing so. And so you know,

you know they're in a perfect world. You'd rather be, in my opinion, you'd rather be face to face with somebody. That being said, you know you can you can make anything work. Bill Showey our guest here on Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Score brought to you by IGS Enter, G Jeff, Jonny Accolong with Tom there, Jim Miller. Well, the virtual meetings, that's that's here to stay. It sounds like that was the word

Wednesday from Commissioner Roger Goodell. So it'll be interesting. But I want to circle back a little bit because and Tom can attest to this, Jim can tested this. I love everybody's journey. I don't care if you're a player coach in this game. And for thirty plus years, I love finding out the journeys, and so doing a little bit more homework on you. This was a wrestler. A wait, wrestler, I might add in high school with no football, but then you go and play semi pro football. You get

an internship at three Rivers Stadium. So that's not necessarily working for the Steelers. You're working for three River Stadium. You're a marketing intern in ninety nine with the Eagles, an assistant training camp coordinator. And oh, by the way, here's big Red. Andy Reid looked at that. He says, Wow, this guy's this guy's got got something. How the heck did this happen? Well, you did some bonework, chef. That

was right, It was excellent. I'm telling you. Uh yeah, that's you're at your your your background check is accurate. So last the last time I played I played ninth grade football. That was it. And like, you're right, I U I should say I played football and I was a ninth grade and I was a lightweight wrestler in high school in a in a very good wrestling area,

and uh, you know, it just wasn't unfortunately. You know, I was a younger guy from my age, you know, I was I was seventeen when I went to college, and so, you know, it was it was what it was. I really had to work because I love football, you know. Growing up, I played you know, youth football, you know, for however many years. It was seven or eight years prior to that. You know, as soon as I could put the helmet on and we were bobbleheads back then,

you know, I was doing that. And then you know, I took I took a break, you know, and I just kept working. So when my wrestling career was over, I just kept working. And it was always in the back of my mind, if I could ever build my body up, I'd love to give it another shot. And you know, I played briefly in college. When I transferred to Slippery Rock University, I played briefly, but um, you know that that didn't work out. Then when when I got out of college, it was probably the biggest I

could possibly build my body up. And a friend of mine called me and said, you know, I'm going to go I'm going to go look at you know, I've got a call. I'm going to go out for this semi pro team. And I said, I said, well, let me know how it goes. And a week later, I was. I was interning at three of a stadium, like you said, and I was also working security for the Pirates at night because the internship I had was not paid, so I was matching around, just trying to make ends meet.

And he called me a week later, and you know, we were talking about it, and partly I was living on his couch sometimes too, so we were talking about it, and he said, you should come look at it, and I said, if I go out there, I'm not going to look. So we grabbed up some equipment and went out there and it was like day one. You were in Oklahoma's and you know, guys were coming from all kinds of backgrounds to do that. It was a lot of fun. And I did that for five or six

years until until Andy pretty much told me. You know, he's like, Bill, if something happens and you get hurt, I'm gonna have to find somebody else to take your job. And I don't want to do that, so I'm asking you to please, you know, hang it up. And so I did. At that point, it took I would say, I didn't do it immediately. It took a little bit more, you know, coaxing from from coach read, but eventually I did. I loved it was a lot of fun. I met a lot of Again, it was about the people. You know,

That's one of the things about football. It makes it such a great sport, you know, as the team sport truly is. And it was was about the people in the locker room and on the bus trips that we were taking and everything else. It was a lot of fun.

And that's how I bet that was one of the things I think when I first met Andy, I was I was stocking refrigerators at training camp at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, and you know, he heard from from somebody, it could have been Sean McDermot or somebody that I was playing semi pro football when the Eagles were playing, uh, you know, away preseason games, and he we struck up a conversation and he found it interesting that I could spend so much time working at training camp and still

find a way to play football. Hey Bill, you know, talking about your the extensive time that it takes to be a coach in the NFL, but then reading about all the different hats you wore Widener College, how did you teach yourself to use your time for each of those duties and how does it carry up into your NFL career. Yeah, that's so when I when I was at when I was at Widener, Uh, I was fortunate that, you know, the guy that was the head coach there

was an offensive coach and I knew him. He was a scout for the Eagles at one point in time and he coached for the Eagles briefly, and so when he got the head coaching job at Widen there we had a couple of conversations. And when I went down there, I was a de coordinator. You know, we we had success right at the gate and it was a lot of fun and uh. But as as we kept moving forward, and I started to understand, you know, because there's there's

a learning curve to everything. So I was starting to understand, you know, the recruiting at that level, how the academics fit in the time constraints of certain students, and the challenges that they faced. You know, I just felt that there was more I could do to help, and that was what I was, you know, I was always about trying to help young men, developed young men and also helped the team win. And I just felt there was more I could do to help, and that's what I

pretty much said to him. I said, look, I think I see an area where I think I could bring value. What do you think? And every year I just kept batting another piece on and you know, I finally got to the point where he's like, He's like, Bill, you're doing everything you possibly can. And at the time, I still had some young kids back home, so it really

came down to efficiency too. You know. I made sure like when we ran meetings, there was an agenda to every meeting, and everybody knew what the bullet points were and what the goals were for the meeting, and you know, we were we got in and out and guys knew that they had to be they had to pay attention, and they appreciated that approach, I think, and so we

were able to get a lot done efficiently. And that's why I was able to do as much as I did there, you know, from recruiting coordinator to assistant special teams coordinator, defensive coordinator and I for a couple of those years I was able to walk around as a coordinator. But then you know that last year I was the

secondary coach also well coach. We were just talking on the air before you joined us about you know, normally we'd be down at the combine watching guys work out and all the interviews and all that, and least free agencies around the corner. But you can watch tape on the on the free agents and actually see guys in games.

And how challenging is that going to be this year because or what you can share with our listeners, are you even able to go out and work out any potential uh, you know, guys coming out of college this year and to get all the information you need to get a proper evaluation. It's my understanding Jim that the way that it works, like each team can have a maximum i think three guys at each pro day, and you're not allowed to work out like when when I

was allowed to our push for the Eagles. You know, that was one of the things that we we like to do, Like you'd call guys up and get private workouts and you'd be able to have a dinner with them or something like that. Really, you know, get to know somebody as much as you can in a you know, a twelve hour twenty four hour period, you know, so now you've got to lean on there's always trust and you got to lean on some other guys in the

organization for that because the film is the film. Yeah, And the benefit of that is you don't get sidetracked with some of the other things that you could that you would have to fight the earth from getting sidetracked on in that evaluation process at the combine and everything else. So that's a positive to it. But the downside is that you want to know about you know, you're trying to figure out the integrity of a guy, the work ethic of a guy, their ability to learn as you

teach him something and you go back to it. And so you can do some of that on zoom interviews. But like I said, there's a little bit of the personal I mean that gets that gets lost when you're looking through a computer screen at somebody as opposed to eye to eye. So you know, there are ways around it. Like I said, you do get more focused on what you see on film, and that's going to be the approach. All right, Bell, one last question for it. Let you

go and really appreciate again your time. I heard something yesterday from bulls Head coach Billy Donovan when Zach Levine was named as an All Star reserve and you know you got a superstar player. New head coach, great backgrounds coaching great players, and he used the advice given to him by another NBA coach in the years. It's all about for the player and for the coach to connect,

especially a star player. And I'm thinking Khalil on this one for example, you're in that you're in that room outside linebackers coach the term voluntary cooperation, and that's got to come from the player to kind of send the message from the coach. Do you feel that your experience with the Eagles as a linebackers coach spent spent ten years there and your time already here these guys know

you will ease that transition. Yeah, I think so. I mean that's that's one of the benefits of you know, being here for for the three years prior to this upcoming year that I've been here and and getting to know guys and really for those guys to get to know you. Uh. You know, relationships take time, and there are ways obviously to you know, depending on people's personality. You know, it makes it easier to make it to deal with some people when you know, depending on personalities

but time has helped me. You know, with all those guys, we've got a great linebacker outside linebacker room, a linebacker room period. I mean, we got great linebackers on on the defense. Um, a lot of great players at all positions, but in the outside linebacker room we got great players. But we got really good people too, and so you know, I'm really looking forward to, you know, seeing what I can bring to the table to help, you know, some

of the veteran, more established guys. I mean, Robert Quinn's, you know, an established player also in the league with a lot of career production. And the approach is going to have to be one where they're going to have to trust me, and that's something that we've built along the way, and I'm looking forward to working with them and helping them get better and try to maximize you know, what they've got. Bill, it was outstanding. Thank you so

much for sharing those stories. We look forward to talking to you soon. Great, great guys. I appreciate it. Y'all have a great night, all right, you too, Bill Shoey, Bears outside Linebackers coach kind enough to join us here. This is Bears All Access. Will take a break be back with Jim put some final comments from him. You're on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score. They Bears fans been shopping for your game day celebrations. Hey, don't

forget to pick up your favorite variety of lays. Potaty Chips, antistitostitos and lays are an essential part of the game day addition and the official chip of your Chicago Bears. Go bets. Tom there, my broadcast partner from w BBM, and Jim Metal, former Bears quarterback in serious x MNFL radio host Moving the Chains with Pat Kerwin. I'll tell you, I just took a gander at Twitter and it's it's

so blowing up about the whole Russell Wilson thing. People are coming up with ideas and how to get him here. What has to happen? I mean, this is what the NFL thrives on, and this is why it's the most popular sport and in this country anyway, and in many international places. I know soccer is the number one, but uh in in uh internationally, but boy, oh boy, oh boy, this is this is right up a football fans alley. Well, I mean, if everybody we can dive into the rumor speculation.

How about this? Seattle says, Uh, I've got Houdini because he's an escape artist. Because uh, that's what Tom brought up about all the sacks and how he's been scrambling for his life. And basically Deshaun Watson has the same issue. So we'll call him. Who's the other magician? Um not Whodini, Who's David Copperfield. We'll call it. We'll call him David Copperfield.

We'll trade you Hudini for Copperfield, and I'll take your headache, you take my headache, and they'll now be both our headaches, just with different You imagine that one that would seem more more possible, right I think? So? I mean, if it gets to that point, because it's it's somewhat equal compensation, wouldn't you think? I mean you look at de Sean, he's a little bit younger. I mean, but you know it might as will throw our hat in the ring. How's that? Gentle? Will ask you? This is what is?

What does Shaun Watson saying tarnishing the reputation of that organization where everybody knows Seattle is a great supporting organization for Russell Wilson and then going out and get Jamal

and all that during the off season. So I think Seattle still has a really solid reputation amongst the layers where Deshaun you know, he's got a difference of opinion and even some of the things that JJ Watts said before the end of the regular season about some of these guys not playing as hard as what he is expected out of them. No, I agree. I do think

that the hit is on the organization. He brought that up earlier time because you know, I don't know what kell McNair promised or said to Deshaun Watson, but it seems pretty evident that if he didn't follow through on it, that's how that relationship has deteriorated, along with some other things that are that have been going on there. So

you know, I totally agree with that assessment. I think Houston is really the team with the with the black eye right now, you know, and how it's made them look and how things all the moves that have been made, and again, you can't make promises behind closed doors and not keep them, And it seems like that one why that's the reason why that has deteriorated so fast. The other one I'm with you. I think they have done

everything they can to support Russell. They hate him. They drafted him, they named him the starter, they paid him, they tried to put weapons around him like DK metcalf or even this past year with Greg Olsen. They've done everything they can to support the player who they believe in. So, I mean, it'll be interesting how both these things shake out. Because they the more and more fired that are more and more fuel that keeps on being thrown on this fire.

It just both looked like they're heading down the wrong path. No, no question, It's gonna be interesting, all right, Jim, I'm gonna let you go appreciate it as always. But you know, I thought I thought i'd seen it all right, because Tom Fair does not and will not ever unless he's forced to, I guess, and maybe even then, and that he will not go on social media yet. I just

out of curiosity did a background check. I want to see because our previous guest was tutored in many respects by Jim Johnson, who is a Maywood product provides least and he was at Notre Dame with Tom, so I see, Welcome to Tommy Thair Online. It's an online official website of Tommy There, the lead guitarist of the legendary rock band Kiss Instead, but get a load of this story on the beaches of Conna Polli, tom take it away.

He's staying at the same place that I'm staying in Hawaii, and I ran into him yesterday and some and someone that works at the hotel said, Hey, this is Tommy Thair from Kiss and he wanted to meet you. And so I've always I wanted to meet him too, because I heard of him, but I've never met him. So just so happens that we're staying in the same building, you know, a couple of feet apart from each other, and had a chance to talk. And he's really enamored

about the broadcasting business. And we talked a lot about the Bears in football and such, and we said we get together later during the week and talk. But he said that he used to go by tom Thair and then when he got he joined Kiss in two thousand and two, then he started going by Tommy Fair to change it up a little, right, Well, that's what you should do. Though. You should have taken a picture there and that that's a picture. You're definitely gonna gain followers.

You can push the send button on that one time. Send that picture out. Look. I look forward on Jeff Joni x Twitter or Cole Player this week because listen, if I had his head of hair at sixty years old, maybe I'd be in a rock band. Yeah. I mean it's yeah, it's it's it's lengthy. It's lengthy, and it's black. And he doesn't look sixty years old, Tom, and he's at Tom Tommy Underscore there on Twitter, so you can't even use that handle. He said, well, how old are you?

And I said, well, I'll be sixty in August, and he goes, oh, I just turned sixty. And I'm looking at him and he looks great. You know, A rock and roll life hasn't been hard on him, and it definitely hasn't lost any hair because of it. Brothers from a different mother. All right, Jim, we'll talk to you next week. Appreciate it, buddy, he push informed. All right on all you get out of the doors. We'll do buddy.

You guys have a good week. Jim Miller, I guest here on Bears All Access a couple of more minutes here with Tom Thare. I want to go back to Bill Shoey because all that experience and the one question, if we had time would be, hey, you know, tell me a story. Tell me a story about those those games in with the Pittsburgh Colts of the Grassroots Football League and the Lehigh Valley Panthers of the Colonial Football Alliance.

These these leagues, these semi pro leagues are probably playing on horrible fields, and gosh knows what kind of people you meet, there's got to be a good story in there.

I mean, I can imagine his teammates smoking cigarettes in the locker room because when I first started playing in the USFL, we had guys that would run into the locker room to be able to you know, smoke at halftime, which you know, it was only a very few and far between, but when you're talking about a semi pro football league, I can imagine the you know, some of the surprisingly talented guys he saw that for some reason or other, they didn't make it to what, you know,

the next level are some of the guys that were didn't really look the part, but we're really hard hitting, good football players. It were that, you know, you got to do a story on, Yeah, because it's an ring the season. Yeah, we need to hear more about uh, you know, coach Bill Showey and his semi professional football league experience a good stuff, all right. Before we wrap things up here, virtual meetings now become standard in the NFL. We're not going to have his money in person meetings

when we get back. That's a direct quote from Roger Goodell at the NFL Women's Careers in Football Forum this week. Quote. I think technology is something we have embraced and will make us better. So this is the tug of war I feel will happen because players, Okay, maybe they'll get tired of the zoom thing. There's there's a thing now, I know we heard it on WBB at zoom burnout right or the coaches want to teach face to face.

So the tug of war there. But Goodell is saying that, you know this is going to be here to stay, no matter if the pandemic eases or not. Well, I think it's going to be more challenging for the coaches than it is the players because there's a certain sense of commitment by players have when you see what their efforts are in the weight room and stuff. But it's gonna be hard getting that point across as a coach, it'll be interesting. I don't know if you could have

handled it. I think you need to be face to face. You need to see the guy in the eyes. Right hey man, I'd be living, I'd be fighting for my job every day, big time. Thank you so much for time there, Jim Miller and our special guest Bill Showey and our producer Adamsinski. Thanks for listening to everybody. This has been Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy Discord. Thanks for listening to this Chicago Bears Network

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