Anybody who watched Game of Thrones or studies up on the history of the Middle Ages knows one thing: rights of succession can get messy. When a king or queen dies or gets deposed, it creates a power vacuum. Something that inevitably attracts many people towards it because the desire for such power is all-consuming to many. It may be romanticized in history books or fiction, but it’s still a very real thing in the modern era. The Chicago Bears could learn this soon enough.
People forget how messy their first transition was. George Halas had always planned to give the team over to his son, George Halas Jr. Sadly a heart attack took the life of the younger Halas before that could happen. Papa Bear was thus forced to hand ownership over to his daughter, Virginia McCaskey instead.
Unappealing as that was, it could be even worse the second time around. Virginia is 95-years old. Though she remains in good health, there’s no telling when her time may come. Logic dictates it will be sooner than later. People may not have thought much about it, but Sports Illustrated pointed out just how crazy a succession could become after her.
Chicago Bears ownership is at the mercy of massive McCaskey family
People might think it’s a clearcut plan for the Bears once Virginia finally steps down. It’s never that simple though. The McCaskey family is massive both in its number of children and grandchildren. Many of whom have ties and stake in the organization. She is the one who controls who gets the reins and nobody knows what she has planned.
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“Virginia represents her 13 children and grandchildren as the chief holder of 80% of the Bears. The other ~20% is jointly owned by Andrew McKenna Sr. (former director and chairman of McDonald’s) and Patrick Ryan (founder of consulting firm Aon—formerly based in Chicago—that sponsored Manchester United until 2014 and had its New York offices in the WTC in September ’01). McKenna Sr. is a former director at Aon as well…
…George McCaskey, the current team chairman, is probably next in line. But Virginia has nine other children and dozens of grandchildren to choose from as well. (Her second-oldest son, Tim, passed away in 2011.)”
Fair assumption says George is the likely man to take things over when she’s done. He’s been groomed for it as chairman since 2011. He’s had plenty of time to learn the business of being an owner. That said, this sort of thing has happened before. One person thinks they’ve got the crown locked up only to have the ailing queen change her mind at the last moment to somebody else.
There’s no telling what could happen if this thing were to devolve into a tug-of-war among family members for rights to the team, or even from the current minority owners who might like to seize control from themselves. George said it would be a cold day in hell before that happened.
Well, it’s getting kind of chilly these days.
