The next four weeks are going to be a brutal time for Chicago Bears fans. Their team is out of the playoff picture. Everybody knows their head coach is getting fired. In essence they have to go through the Christmas and New Years seasons in painful anticipation of the next moment on the NFL schedule where they can take genuine interest in their team again.
That’s when John Fox will be out and the team will set about finding a replacement. Sure it’s nothing more than an exercise in reviving hope but that’s all Chicago has at this point. They desperately need somebody who can come in and breath some life into an organization beat down by years of losing.
Fox failed to do so. Rumors persist the Bears may go the younger route this time around. It’s only a matter of finding out who that might be. Well Albert Breer may have an idea. The NFL insider made a list of head coaches under 50 years old who will get special attention next year. All the names he mentioned were not connected to a team.
Except one.
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Breer claims Chicago Bears could go after Pat Fitzgerald
For years now the best head coach in Illinois football hasn’t been in the NFL, it’s been at the college level. Pat Fitzgerald took over at Northwestern in 2006 and has since steadily grown the program from second-rate to genuinely respectable. This despite picking from a smaller talent pool as some of the bigger football programs in the country.
Breer believes he’s ready for an NFL shot, and that the Bears might be his best destination.
“Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald. It’d take a lot for him to leave his alma mater, but if you want a guy who does more with less, this is your guy. He could be an interesting candidate for Chicago.”
I actually wrote about Fitzgerald as a possibility back in November. There’s no question it would be an unorthodox hire. At the same time it’s hard to argue with his track record. In 12 seasons he has seven bowl game appearances. He is the only coach in school history to win two bowl games and post two seasons of double digit wins.
The amazing part is he’s done all this and is still 42-years old. He’s also an Illinois native out of Orland Park. The guy grew up in the shadow of Bears football, just like the great George Halas himself did. It would be quite a story for him to go from running the college favorite in his home state to the professional.
Problem is it doesn’t look like he has plans to leave. Fitzgerald had plenty of chances to jump over the past couple years. Every time he’s stayed the course. Northwestern is his alma mater. He loves it there. So it would take a significant push to pry him away. A push Chicago is unlikely to make.
