Cut open that Dj Moore nisode Touchdown, Touchdown Bear.
I am Jeff joniya.
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What was like playing for coache goodgo I don't want to answer any questions like that pressure coming is a big trouble. Donnie Goes Montest Sweat.
Now Bears, et Cetera.
Brought to you by Geico with the voices of the Bears, Jeff Joniac and Tom Thayer.
Just like that, the one hundred and fifth season and Bears history comes to a close at five and twelve, but with a sterling and signature win at Green Bay to open the twenty twenty five calendar. Year one that begins with a significant, thorough and broad head coaching search with a long list of potential candidates including interiroom head coach Thomas Brown with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Thayer.
I'm Jeff Joniac.
Episode one, twenty six Hope the Bears et Cetera podcast is brought to you by Geico. Tommy Tuesday here at Hadi saw a review of what has transpired in a preview of what next from general manager Ryan Poles. We're gonna hear comments from him as well as President and CEO Kevin Warren. They went off to the side in midway at hallisall and Chairman George hallis McCaskey as well. Overall, everybody's upset to what's happened and now looking forward to
what's next. And what's next part is what's got everybody excited, how they're gonna turn this thing into a positive and how they're gonna make this thing sing like they all wanted to, all the parties involved. And I know it's important to you how that all turned out in the Packers game. I was talking to several people here in the building today, Tommy about.
That, just what it meant to everybody.
And it may not mean much in the big picture for the standings and all that, and what's happened doesn't put us off on the wound of the big picture, but you got to take these small snapshots now and build from it.
Everybody, remember where you were.
You and I were up in the booth in lambeau Field, and we couldn't have felt happier about the Bears winning the game because the way they did it, they didn't lose sight of what was important to that even though they had an interruption then they got the ball back. They made some complete plays, got the ball into a position where they gave it to Cairo and he was able to finish it with the game winning field goal.
That was super exciting to me.
I'm not going to lie to you, but I think when you look at the locker room, all these guys have to remember what that feeling was like.
Not only the.
Sense of accomplishment, but like Kevin Warren said, the commitment to before game that you knew what you were up for. It was going to be cold, it was going to be unpleasant, you were fighting one of your biggest rivals in the one hundred and five year history of this football team. But you got to remember that moment coming back in the locker room. You just won that game, and see if that can catapult you to the successes in twenty twenty five that we had in twenty twenty four.
But we believe they can still happen in this immediate future.
And as much as anybody, the guy who benefits the most from that is Caleb Williams because he was in that position eight or nine times this season, bon his hands, fourth quarter, chance to take the lead, chance to win the game, and not every one of those were slotted in the win column. That one was, and it just kind of wipes everything clean. No more talk of this double digit losing streak, No more talk of this double digit losing streak to the Packers.
Now, let's just see where it goes. See where the freeway goes. It's open road, open road.
Tommy, Well, one hundred percent agree with you that it is important win for Caleb because you know, you kind of get an understanding, you get a feeling about the emotions that going to the visional games you played, and
you started every single one of them. You know what the frustrating end results of a couple of those games were earlier in the season, and then you have that certain sense of accomplishment that you finish the season on a high note and it can really carry weight into the draft, the offseason preparation, the OTAs and everything that's
set before you. So I think you kind of got to walk away with that game with a little bit of that last game high and really let that kind of resonate in understand what that feeling was like until the very.
End, Tommy.
Chairman George Allis McCaskey had plenty to say about Thomas. Brown said he did great work on behalf of the Bears in a very unusual situation, basically having three jobs in one season. Also knows that the fans are incredibly frustrated from the expectations he put it of September through the disappointment of December, but they still stuck with the Bears. They stuck with us, and that's what the Bears fans do. Says, they deserve a winner. We're going to do whatever we
can to give them one. He's very disappointed, for example, in the Lions fans trying to take over Soldier Field buying up tickets. So he understands the passion of the fan base better than anybody, and the challenge for the Bears, as he put it, is to put a team on the field that Bears fans are so excited about they're not interested in selling those tickets. He's also excited about Ryan Poles and the plan he's got laid out, and that laid out plan we're going to get in to here.
But it's broad.
He indicated it was going to be a wide search and it's probably not over on the list of candidates that he's going to bring to the table. But they got a plan, They've worked on it for a month, and now they got to start executing that plan.
You're right, though it is broad. There's a lot of search, There's a lot of stones that you have to overturn. There's a lot of research you have to do to see who is the best qualified for where the Bears are at right now, but where you ultimately want them to go and to have one of those center pieces
like Caleb Williams. There's not going to be a lot of guys that are going to shy away from the opportunity to interview, So you have to have a strict process of your interviewing and make sure you answer every question that you Ryan Poles needs answer that's going to benefit the Chicago Bears. So I do think this is probably in the history of the Bears one of the more exciting times to be interviewed as the head coach. And I just think that there's going to be a
lot of qualified candidates. You got to find out what best best fits the culture of the Bears and then be convicted about it and go strong forward.
You'd love to be in a room with all these guys wondering what the plan is, you know, because everyone's going to have a different little take on it.
And this whole.
Notion though also about you know, the questions regarding what Ryan poles this contract may or may not be, and how that would impact the arrival of a coach not necessarily being on the same timeline and all that. I think Kevin Warren's correct, and I think Ryan's correct. This is a coveted job.
Okay.
I know things haven't gone well consistently here for a while. It's been an up and down ride. But it is Chicago. It is the charter franchise of the National Football League, and you know better than anybody, when you win here, your love forever.
You're admired, you're cherished. And that's how passionate this fan base is. They just want to win.
So I would believe that it'd be a long line of people say, hey, look at me, I'd like to do this. I don't think for one second somebody's going to run away from this job.
Not a chance.
Listen, if you're a guy that you want a head coaching job, you're willing to make some concessions. You're not necessarily concerned about who the general manager is. You're just trying to get in lockstep with him to put the best pieces in place to make you a success, a successful, winning franchise. And you know that's the one unique quality of head coaches is we see how many hours these
guys put in at this job. We see the difficulty of ultimately getting a head coaching job, how many times some of these guys move from place to place with a moment's notice. So if you have an opportunity to come and coach the Chicago Bears, you are gonna offer every of every bit of what you think you have what it takes to turn the Bears into that winning franchise that George and Kevin and Ryan all talk about.
Taste like Miller Time, go to Miller Like dot com, slash Bears pod to find delivery options near you. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ninety six calories and three point two cards per twelve ounces. All right, let's listen in to a portion of what nearly was a forty
minute Q and eight with General manager Ryan Poles. Will give you about fifteen minutes here of what he had to say, beginning with his opening statements about what this franchise is working with right now and where it's headed.
First, I want to thank our players for their time and their energy this year. I want to thank our support staff and our coaches preparing our players weekend and week out. Want to take a moment to think Thomas Brown was put in a really tough situation. Was given a lot of responsibility as the season went along, and I thought he handled it with poise, with command.
I thought he did a great job leading.
Just watching him inside the team meeting room, seeing him address the team, they did a great job and accountability to the forefront, being a truth teller was really important at that time. I want to thank our fans for their support and their patients. I understand their frustrations just with where the team is right now, and they have my word. I'm doing everything I can and we are as an entire group to get this thing back on track and headed in the direction it needs to be
and they can take pride in their team. I want to give a special shout out to Jalen Johnson for making Pro Bowl for the second year.
That's no surprise from anyone in our building.
His preparation, his detail, his process is always on point and that's allowed him to be successful and consistent in terms of injuries, some of the long term ones with surgery. Braxton just got out of surgery a couple of days ago with his ankle and he's healing up. Billings got his peck prepared. He is out of the sling already and getting stronger, which is no surprise. And Jalen Jones
all so had a shoulder operation as well. In terms of the concussion guys, Brisker and Baits, they're filming back to themselves and I got faith and all those guys that they're going to be back ready to help us next year. I don't have a specific timetable in terms of their return, but they're heading in the right direction. In terms of UFAs, we have just a few of them in terms of our starters, and we have a couple guys that definitely will be up for some type
of extension this offseason. But I think it's really important to wait for coaching staff to be in the building because we want to make sure we have that alignment with vision.
Fit and roll as we move forward.
Looking back at the season, not happy with the results it's been a long season where those Mondays have been really, really difficul cult because we continue to come up short, and I have to take responsibility as the leader of the football operation for that, and I also have to make sure that we find solutions to make sure that we don't make that mistake again.
And we can continue to improve.
I think anytime you have a struggle, but I also think when you have success, too, it's important to listen, reflect, learn, and adjust to make sure that you're putting yourself in a good position. I also think part of that is taking a look in the mirror to make sure that you know, just in terms of myself as a leader, I'm doing everything that I can to help our football team.
After spending time going through the exit process with our players yesterday, reflecting and taking time to look back, one of the things that popped out I think it was a common theme is I think we have to change back to our process over outcome. I think this year, with the excitement of the season, it was very much
outcome over process, winning expectations. All of those things which goals are fine, you never want to back down from that, but the detail, the accountability, the competitive poise, and critical situations. Finding edge to win games is something that we came up short with. I think as a front office, we got to continue to add talent to this roster. We have to make sure that the players we bring into this building also fit the culture that we want so
we can continue to make strives forward. So I'm disappointed, just like our fans are, but I'm not discouraged. I believe we have a strong core of players that we're going to connect to the right staff as they come in to make the progress that's that's needed. I'm grateful for George and Kevin and they're trust in me to continue to get this.
Thing back on track and get it corrected.
I do want to address some of the things that I've heard about the relationship between Kevin and I that couldn't be further from the truth. We spend almost every single day together talking about solutions and direction of where we want to be and where we're going to go, and I mean, it is so far from the truth. It was a little disappointing to hear that, to be honest, But we do have the strong core that we're going to get with the right staff and make things happen.
I was proud of the way some of our core veteran players played this year with dj Jalen Johnson, TJ. Edwards, Kevin Bayern, Cole Kmet, and I was very excited and happy with the development of guys like Dexter, Darnell Rome, and Caleb.
Looking at Caleb, I thought he.
Did some really good things, but I also know that there is so much more left than him and his game and his skill set.
I love the flashes that he showed.
I love the two minute drills and his ability to put the team in a position to win games multiple times this season. As the championship caliber trade, we watched that, especially this time of year. Moving forward, we watched that happen a lot, and we're going to continue to build off of that. We have cap space, we have draft capital, and like I said, we have continuity to continue to roll forward. In terms of our coach search, we've taken shoot the last month or so to prepare our process.
We've taken time to look back at the past processes to make sure that we were making changes and adjusting so that this is an absolute success. We've been in information gathering mode, looking at data research, making countless calls to make sure that we have everything we need to make a sound decision.
What we're looking for.
We're looking for clear vision, a developmental mindset, really good game management, and obviously a plan to develop a quarterback is going to be a key part of that as well. We're going to cast a wide net. It's going to be a diverse group. There's will be different backgrounds from offense, defense, specialty teams, college pro. We are turning every stone to make sure that we're doing this the right way. We
believe that's gonna be really, really important. There's gonna be some names that you don't expect that are gonna surprise you because we're digging deeper than we.
Ever have before.
In terms of timing, we're gonna move with urgency, but we are not going to rush the process again because we want it to be a sound process. In terms of the interview panel, it'll be George Kevin, Matt Feinstein who does ADMIN with me, football admin, Jeff King who's on my staff, Liz Guys who's in HR.
And obviously missing Ian there.
I think it's really important to allow Ian to go through his own interview process.
If that pops up, if it doesn't.
He will be in that group as well as we move forward, and then our senior leadership here with the Bears is also everyone's gone through the league training in terms of inclusivity and sound hiring practices that the league puts in place, and as we move forward in our process, they will have time to spend with our candidates, especially as we get down to the finalist group.
I'll open up to questions.
There seems to be a maybe an overriding or at least a theme in the locker room that the players need more discipline, need to be challenged more.
Is that true?
Is that the type of coach that this locker room needs based on you learning more about your players.
Yeah, I think that's important for any locker room. I had made it coming a couple of weeks ago about training camp. I think one important thing is, you know, we look at the wins and losses, but you got to go to the root calls on how we got there.
And I do think we need to challenge our guys more. And when we talk.
About accountability, there's systems of accountability. It's how we're going to put tape up of this is not how we do it. And then with examples of this is how we do it, and sometimes that can be uncomfortable. I call it healthy friction, and I definitely think we need more of that and that would help result in closing that gap on some of these games that we came troup.
What could the numbers get to.
I haven't put a limit on it. I think the restriction at some point is how much time you have. There's a lot of rules that go along with kind of setting your calendar up, so we want to make sure that it fits that and it's not stressing us out to an extent where we're not doing quality work.
It absolutely needs to be quality, but I haven't put a number on it.
Rian, what assurances will you give candidates about the power structure inside alas all about who they work for? The clarity there there seems.
To be some questions. Yeah.
No, So I'll end up selecting the coach and I'm taking a lead on that and George and Kevin have put me in charge of that, and that'll be the relationship between the coach and I.
You know that coaches are going to ask about your status and about being aligned with you. What will you tell them?
Yeah, I'll have that conversation with them.
When we talk about coaches having a wide enough pool where there might be some coaches that surprise you are all options on the table. Would you consider giving up draft capital to trade for a coach of be current it's currently employed by another team.
Yeah, we'll look at it. All avenues to get the best coature.
Right over the summer, you you guys talked about the culture here, the leadership here, a lot about what you had. How did it get from that to where we're talking about details and lack of accountability?
What?
What do you do you think kind of fractured that?
Yeah, there's there's a couple of things there.
When we talk about culture, and I've talked about this, I strongly believe cultures people, I completely I mean, you all spend time with them.
Those are there's a really good locker room and they're with the really good guys.
I think there's some foundational things that you have to address from the beginning to kind of hold the standard throughout the entire year. I believe when you go through struggle, some of those things get difficult. Right, guys are struggling with just being down and losing games, and I think.
That's some of the things that we saw.
Any team needs, like a certain standard and certain measurements of how we're gonna do things, because at some point in the season you're gonna have adversity in your house, is gonna be shaken and and your foundations tested. And at that point you got to go look at the reo cosse did we do everything we're supposed to in terms of detailing everything we needed to, because if you didn't,
it's a little bit often. Like I said, I think we looked at the outcome and winning more than the process and doing those things, then those things show up and bubble up. Especially you know, we were put in a lot of situations where you know, we're a couple of yards away from a kickline.
We were right there in a.
Lot of situations, and I think some of the competitive poise popped up in terms of doing what we need to do and being disciplined to get over the hump.
And I'm sure you guys want the discussion too, about pairing an offensive guy with the young quarterback versus you know, a guy that can kind of oversee the whole thing.
And as head coaching experience.
Things like that, just what is your general philosophy when it comes to that kind of tuggle war between those two head coaching candidates.
Yeah, I think there's like for a young quarterback. Obviously there's ideal fit.
But at the end of the day, you got to look at all the characteristics of what you're looking for in a head coach, and then you got to see what's the best bundle of those to bring in the building. Obviously we're talking about leadership, accountability, some of those important things that carry over regardless of what the situation is, so like those have to be there. To ignore those just to go to the other side I think is a bad deal too. So really it's the candidate that
has the best collection of all of those things. And yes, the development of a young quarterback is going to be a huge factor in that.
People locker room itself needing more leadership, like the players are asking for a coach.
But I'm wondering if you're looking at the locker room right now.
Thinking I need somebody to come in there, and.
Yeah, well we definitely will take that into consideration as we add more talent the roster. I've also challenged in some of our exit meetings some of our guys to take the next step to lead as well. You know, I was in the same category, and some of our guys were too, in terms of you know, I saw this, and I just was should I say something about this?
Should I step up? And and I.
Encourage all those guys. We got to get to this place. We've been together long enough. There's continuity. We aren't going to take things personally or amongst each other, both in the front office and then football operations, but also in the locker room and then coaching. We got to be able to have healthy friction, like I talked about, to say, hey, that's not the way we're supposed to do it. Let's clean it up and get better, because again that will show up later in the season.
Historically, this franchise hires assistant coaches and makes them head coaches. I think only one in the last hundred years has been a head coach before. What is the value you put on experience at the head coaching level versus how you project an assistant to be Given that Mattyberflus was an assistant and maybe some of the traits you thought would translate did not.
It's a great question, you know, when you look at that. You know, good coaches come from different places, different backgrounds. What how are you supplementing your your the thing, your blind spot's your void. So if your first time head coach, what can we put in place for you to help support you?
What do the coordinators look like? Are they former head coaches?
You have an advisor that's a head coach, that's you know, at your right side to pick up some of the blind spots to say, hey, you might want to take care of this. This could turn into something later, or
I think you might be missing here. So how are you supporting some of those blind spots if you are a first time coach, if you have been a head coach before, yeah, there's a lot of value because some of the new things, like you've already experienced those, You've been around it, and you have kind of the playbook and the blueprint on how to counter things when they go away from you or you know, when you have success, how do you make sure that everyone stays humble and they continue working?
Coming out three two one times?
Did you jot down any notes you'd like to share about what Ryan had to say over that of course of the forty minutes, but specifically this little chunk we played.
You know, you address the podium, you thank all the support staff that gave their time and effort in order to make sure that they put a team on the field week in and week out. And there's a lot of different important moving parts that really have a difficult job at times when you talk about what you face, what you suffer through, and what you're able to accomplish during an offseason, So that's a big part of it.
And then talking about the search process that you're going to go through looking for the best head coaching candidate
that fits the Bears right now. And I do think that everybody is going to be interested in this opportunity because, like I said, when you have one of the most difficult pieces to put in place in place, and that's the quarterback position, and then you have other guys like DJ and Roman Cole and other other players out there that he brought up that you know, you're talking about making sure that you have that foundation, that core group of guys that you can build that supporting cast around.
And I'm excited to see where Ryan's gonna go with this. I'm going to see where his vision takes them, where the support that he has in the building, are not going to tell him where to go, but are going to advise him and help him how to make that decision. And I think everybody he mentioned in there, Wull that would be part of this research crew are all qualified people in the football business to help make the most correct decision for the Bears, right.
And that list that there's a list, and it's being reported by reporters, the traditional reporters from NFL Network and ESPN, So you can see the list.
You can find the list. He's not going to comment on.
Specifics just yet, but when they do complete an interview with one of the candidates, they will announce who they've interviewed.
But you know, you know the names.
Everybody knows the names that the top coordinators on both sides of the all but also some interesting coordinators names have popped up, maybe a little bit off of everybody's radar, and former head coaches, former head coaches, there's a there's a list here going into the college area. I see David Shaw's name mentioned, the former Stanford head coach and now an executive in the Denver program. Arthur Smith, the
Pittsburgh offensive coordnate, former Atlanta falcon head coach. You know, I'm not going to go through the whole list, because you guys can all find it out there, but it's a it's a broad, wide ranging list of all ages and types.
But one thing I'm glad Ryan is not doing this exclusively. He's not sitting in a room by himself only listen to these candidates. That he has a support staff around him that are able to listen, absorb the information, and give him some of the feedback that he needs to hear. And that's what I like what Ryan brought up at the podium, that this is not a one man job.
This is kind of a group effort, and everybody's going to have a chance to look this candidate in the eyes and try to get a feeling from them what they need to hear, what they want to hear. And maybe so there are some questions outside the box that maybe Ryan didn't ask, that these support staff wants to hear.
PNC Bank is our sponsor, brought to you by a PNC official Bank of the Bears. And have a new or gently used coat laying Aroundhead to your local jewelsco until February tenth and donate one of your new or gently used coats to the thirty sixth annual Chicago Bears Coat Drive help keep Chicagoans warm this winter. My perspective on what Poles had to say are some of the things that he and I have discussed for all these pregame interviews over the course of the seventeen game season.
It's pretty lockstep with it. He's taken responsibility. He knows he's made some decisions that didn't work out and other decisions have but he also believes in his process and he believes how they go about it. He still wants to be draft driven. That I can tell you for a fact. He wants to be a draft devant team. As he dipped into free agency like all teams, yes, but or not, this is not going to be a free agent driven team. It's going to be a draft
driven team. And so they do have draft capital. Salary cap looks good, it looks really good. So it'll be one of the better ones in the NFL. And that's been consistent. I think that will always remain consistent as far as he can help it, based on how developed players you know, become available for contracts moving down the road. But always have that ability to be fluid and flexible Tom to make additions down the roster or make the right moves right.
You know, if you break down this roster, Jeff, if you look at every level from running back to quarterback, to offensive line, to receiver, to tight end, to defensive line to linebacker to defensive backfield, they have quality candidates
in place already. So now it's how can you get these other draft capital as you say, which I'm encouraged to hear, to fit in with some of these wily veterans, wise veterans and kind of become accustomed to what they need to do to become the pro that we all want to see out of him, in which I'm sure and the staff want to see out of them. So you're not putting anybody into a position there isn't solid
support around them. And I think right now, when you look at the development and the building blocks of a team, I think it's super encouraging when you have some pieces in place here that can expedite the learning curve of a lot of young guys that you want to come to this football team and be immedia contributors.
And experience is the best teacher. Big time failure is also a fertilizer. You're going to grow from it and everybody in that position, first timers, veterans, you can take it all the way through the National Football League. Only a few teams have made it to the Super Bowl and recent vintage and few or less have won the Super Bowl. So it's not an easy task to win in this league. Not to cover for anybody's mistakes or missteps, but that's the reality.
It's tough. It's tough to win.
With that being said, in your mind's eye, forget about who the candidates are, forget about that.
If you had to create a head coach, what would.
Be the give me like two or three must have that you would like to see in a head coach, regardless of name, regardless of where they came from.
You.
I'm going to give you the word that I've heard Caleb say, I've heard Gordon say, and I've heard Ryan Pohl say.
It today, accountability.
When you have the opportunity to have a job as awesome as being an NFL player, accountability is such an enormous requirement because you're in a team sport and how
that pertains specifically to your job. It means everything your accountability in the weight room, your accountability in the meeting room, on the practice field, on the game field, all those types of things that you want to have a guy up there that has such alpha status that he's in charge of everybody that he stands in front of on a daily basis and gives them that team speech and
before they break up into their segmented position. But I just to me, it's that one word of accountability that I've heard being said by a couple of the major players on the football field itself and players. But Ryan Pohle said it today in his press conference, and I think that's one of the biggest words, the most responsible words that you can, you know, be a requirement of a head coach and a leader on this team.
And you know, thinking back to whom you played for at all levels, whether it be position coach or head coach, I think you could speak to this because I don't believe, with rare exception, I had imagined that you ever played for a coach that did not carry that attribute and that trade, am I correct you.
You don't want to throw anybody in the bus. I'm just saying I'm not.
Going to put anybody under the bus because you know, I played for Dandy Fine. He was a peculiar guy, but he had great supporting assistant coaches, some of the best I ever played for. And I was a young kid. And then Jerry Foules came in to know and he hired a bunch of his friends. You know, this was his first offensive coordinator, this is his first All American offensive lineman at Mohler and the pieces didn't fit, and our record was a result of at first losing record
in eighteen years at Notre Dame. Then I played for George Allen, who's a Hall of famer. I played for Ditka, who's a Hall of Famer, for Dick Stanfeld as a hall of famer, for Don shul who's a Hall of famer. So then I got to see the best of the best. And it's not necessaryly the uber alpha like a guy like Ditka, because that is not the George Allen. George Allen is a guy that's over prepared. He pays attention
to every single detail. Before analytics became a part of the NFL format of you know, predicted success and predicted preparation in the NFL, so you don't have there isn't only one template of person that you have to have is going to be successful. It's about the attention, the details, the accountability, the requirements that a head coach is putting on his players and how he can see them to
be the most successful. And that's the unique quality of great head coaches, is what they see in the player and how they get that out of them.
Don't forget your high school coach, please, he's a holodimergically Gordy Gillespie.
I I yeah, it would be a shame to overlook him. And you know, and he did it with a variety of kids where we are kids playing football, and he didn't want guys to play both ways. He wanted everybody to play. And that was one of the unique traits of a guy at that level. Because when you go to college and you go in the NFL, you have everybody is designated to a position. There isn't both way players. But in high school we didn't face that either and we are successful because of it.
I also want to throw in my two cents because I'm with you on the accountability thing, and I just need a guy who is going to impress the player with his ability to have them think they can win every game, right, no matter what your talent level is, whatever your situation, whatever the matchups are going to be on the table, and I get these guys to play
their hair on fire on all three phases. There's been some of that, no question, But to have that complete trust in the coach that he's gonna put us in the best position. We're not gonna win every game, but dang it, we're gonna be putting up a fight and that other team's gonna feel it every single time they play us.
That's what I'm looking for. That's another point.
It's a great point by you, and I wish I would have set up myself because some of those Wednesday morning meetings, when Mike Dicka would stand up there or Don shul would stand up there, their offensive guys George Allen would be on the other.
Side of the room with the defensive players.
But when they gave up and they gave that leadership speech of what we are going to do this week and to the opponent, it was inspiring. And I'm glad you brought that point up because it's such a huge part of.
What the co coach can offer a team.
Blue Cross and blue shield of Illinois right here at home, driving access toward healthier communities through it all. Let's listen in to the president and CEO of the Chicago Bears, Kevin Warren, who met with the media after the news conference with Ryan Poles. This is a clip about how he feels about where this team is at in terms of wins and losses and how much it stings, but how much hope and excitement he has for the future.
I despise losing, and so I am focused at every level and from at anything I compete in. You know, winning with integrity is my focus. And so from a critical standpoint is we need to do better here. I mean collectively, and it's not them when I say we, I'm talking about me collectively. And I'm going to continually pour every ounce of energy in here from a business operations standpoint, from a stadium standpoint, from a football standpoint, to provide all the resources that I have access to,
all of my energy and insight to win. And I'm confident that we will win here. We will win championships here. It's not going to be easy, and I know we sometime in life you got to go down to be able to come up. But that's part of it. We're built for this. We have the support of ownership. And the thing that I like about is that there has been no taking a step back. You saw it in Green Bay. It would have been that would have been a very easy game for our players. It was cold,
it's on the road. We hadn't won in the division, we hadn't beat them in a long time. But to come together and even the way the game went to make our mind up that even after the turnover, to say, let's rally together. And I thought it was apropos to end the season one and on in twenty twenty five, but do it with a with a walk off field goal, and I think that helped set the tone. But yes, we're gonna do all that we can to build a champion here.
Tom.
I appreciate his honesty and let's go get it. That's my opinion of him. He's uber positive all the time and so he recognizes some difficulties, but he's also not going to dwell on them. He's going to try and fix them. That includes the business side, the stadium site. Obviously touchdown the stadium thing, still some work to be done. Never easy, not like building a house, not like buying a house.
I like what he had to.
Say, right, I mean, he's got a lot on his plate significant in the history and the future of the Chicago bears the state of Illinois in everything you take into consideration. However, the first thing that came out of his mouth is winning. And that's the most important element for anybody to talk about. The winning part of football is the most important part of football. Yes, all the other things that you have been brought here to develop and help build and bring along, you've never you know,
that has not been your focus. However, I think everybody in the building has to have one focus together, and that's winning. So whatever we're hired to do, whatever our job is, that's a we do. Kevin's got a lot on his plate as much or more than anybody in that building. However, winning is a key ingredient.
And a big message sent to all the candidates. Because George says, hey, he believes in Ryan Poles, Kevin Warren says he trusts Ryan Poles. He appreciates his hunger, his curiosity, his self reflection on himself hard as he is on anybody other than himself, and strives to do the right thing. So everything's aligned, So there can be holes poked in at all they want, but they are aligned, and now they're ready to go find their guy.
Yeah, I think you know, the front office, the upper office of Hallas Hall is in place. Like you said, they're all aligned, and I think it'll be an exhaustive search.
I don't think they're going to get a lot of sleep in between now until the day that the head candidate is hired, and then they have a whole assistant coaching staff to fill in, and you know, let's get this thing right immediately and allow offensive coordinator to come in here and start a dialogue with Caleb so he understands the terminology of the future, so that can expedite the learning curve and the developmental process of this whole football team.
One more thing from Kevin Warren. Some of the things he brought about the discipline, accountability, hard work, vision, foresight, leadership, game management, and commit to the standards they set for those Anything below the line, can't use it. Everything above the line, you're going to be a finalist, a candidate, and so you got to be clear I meeting that standard, you can't you can't sacrifice the standard. I do believe in that for anything, you just can't it's too it's too hard otherwise.
But you know all those words you said, I think that word accountability snuck in there, and I just think that if you do have that ultimate accountability, that takes care of all those other things that we've been talking about.
So let's find that and you will find success.
Hey Bears van Steinhoffel is a proud partner of the Chicago Bears are now open in Orland Park. Steinhoffls is Chicago lands furniture and mattress leader with the largest selection to fit every style and budget and is one hundred percent employee owned shop in store and online at Steinhoffels dot com. There's five openings tom, So there's going to be a lot of candidates for those five openings, and everybody assumes certain coordinators are going to be at the
top of the list, but who knows. Everybody's going to have different tastes. It's no different than sitting down at a restaurant and ordering off a menu. There is this positive in this Bear search that there are only five openings.
I think there are because but the thing with the five openings and a lot of candidates. It's going to be super competitive, you know, who can come to the decision the quickest and then make the offer that that candidate is happy with. But then again, I think there's a lot of candidates out there that are going to look at what who is there offering being made by
in what do they have in place? And how quickly can they get from why they're being interviewed to success and so like I keep repeating, and I think it's as important as any position on the football field. What they have here in the quarterback. I think it is going to be super enticing because that is the most difficult obstacle to get in place, to be the best, the quickest, and you know Caleb is that guy.
Good news Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new planes with all the bells and whistles, like Bluetooth connectivity screens at every seat in room for everyone's rolltor bag United proud to fly the Chicago Bears and you too. Any thoughts on the weekend's playoff games? Time before we break here? As I know, we're always jealous of this time of year we're not in it.
I am so jealous. I am so jealous I'm not going to hide that fact. But I think that we're getting ready to be a board of one of the greatest weekends in football. When you talk about two college playoff games, you talk about all the NFL games up into the Monday night. So you think Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Your time, your free time, if you have it, is
going to be occupied by quality football. But as I sit there and watch the NFL games, Jeff and I've always been like this, at the end of the game, I have to turn it off because I turn it off immediately because I don't like looking at the fun and the excitement that the winning team has, and that
makes me even more envious and jealous. And I know it's very petty, but I've been in that winning locker room, and I've been in that losing locker room, and I know the one, the happiness and the sadness of it, and so I'm looking forward to watching it, but as soon as that final second ticks, I will shut it out.
I think I covered twenty five twenty six Super Bowls and had a good fortune of calling one with you in two thousand and six and started my career with the eighty five Bears.
But people say, why do you want to even go?
You know, Bears are not in it, and I always felt that, Yeah, it's kind of cool. You learn stuff, You learn things about the teams that are involved, You learn what it kind of takes in terms of the personalities, the alphas, the head coaches, the quarterbacks, obviously, and you you were one of those like, man, I'm not going to a super Bowl just to go No, no way, no how Bears are in it.
That's right.
And the only time I've ever worn my super Bowl ring was the last time the Bears were in the super Bowl. So it's you know, there's a lot of great memories that surround football and that part of my life.
Time to take that thing out of mothballs and get it back on your finger.
Tongue, right, let's go.
All right, that's gonna wrap us up. Well, another podcast later this week. I'm not sure exactly what avenues will take, but we'll always have something for you, that's for sure.
For top there, I'm Jeff Joniak. Thanks for listening to everybody.
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