Chicago Bears head coach John Fox came in with a lot of assurances. Here was a guy who’d guided two previous franchises to the Super Bowl. His career record was 30 games over .500 and he’d just gone 12-4 the previous year in Denver. This man had loads of experience at team building. Something the franchise desperately needed.
In that regard Fox has done his job. Chicago is no longer a center of controversy and they’ve done a good job rebuilding their defense into something formidable again. The problem is that skill hasn’t erased his others issues. Namely an inability to clean up sloppy play, properly manage a game or get his players motivated for important weeks.
Most of all, as he’s so fond of saying, it’s about winning. That’s something he hasn’t done much of since arriving. Yet people remain uncertain about his future. Well there’s an interesting bit of information that could be just over the horizon that may sway some people on that.
John Fox could join a dubious club in Bears history soon
Seven games remain on the Bears’ 2017 schedule. They sit at 3-6. Their playoff hopes are largely done. The Detroit Lions are up next and not many expect them to win that game. If so that drops them to 3-7. This means in order to finish at least .500, Fox would have to go 5-1 the rest of the way. In fact Mike Mulligan of the Chicago Tribune thinks 7-9 might even be enough to save him.
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“Whether his time is over at the end of the year remains to be seen. Fox has seven more games to prove his value. A winning record down the stretch and the coach might hit the required seven wins that could keep him here for another year, maybe even get him a short extension so he’s not a lame duck next season.”
Thing is if that record plays out, it doesn’t help Fox escape from one of the most dubious honors in Bears history. He would become just the second-ever Bears head coach to not have a season of at least 8-8 in his first three years. The other? That would be Abe Gibron. He oversaw arguably the darkest period in Chicago football history between 1972 and 1974. During that span he went 4-9-1, 3-11, and 4-10 respectively. His winning percentage was .268.
Right now Fox sits at .281. That is not the best company to keep in this city. It’s also a fair reminder that across nine decades of existence the Bears have never kept a head coach beyond three-straight losing seasons. It was true when Halas was owner and the McCaskeys, for all their faults have held to that same standard. So why would it change for Fox?