If people were looking to a moment that started the Chicago Bears downfall to mediocrity over the course of this past decade, it came in January of 2013. Former GM Phil Emery exercised his first true use of his power when he made the controversial decision to fire longtime head coach Lovie Smith. This despite the team finishing with a 10-6 record that season. The reasoning was simple in Emery’s mind. He wanted a coach who could finally do something with quarterback Jay Cutler.
That meant hiring an offensive-minded head coach who could build a strong system around that position. After a careful and detailed search, the list he had come down to two names. One was reigning Coach of the Year Bruce Arians who’d just led the Indianapolis Colts to the playoffs with rookie QB Andrew Luck. The other was Marc Trestman, a two-time Grey Cup winner from the CFL who hadn’t been south of the border in almost 10 years.
Everybody knows what happened. Emery liked both but he ended up falling in love with Trestman’s leadership style. A decision that led the Bears to just 13 wins in two season and one of the most disastrous franchise collapses in history. As a result, he was fired in 2015. Arians, for his part, went on to have considerable success in Arizona, reaching an NFC championship that same year.
According to Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog though, the decision to go with Emery was not one of consensus in the organization.
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Marc Trestman hire caused a cascade effect for Bears
There are a number of ways to view this. Basically though, Emery understood the wishes of his ownership and decided to go against them on a gut feeling. One has to understand the level of stones it takes to do that. Emery had a Coach of the Year in his lap and knew the Bears brass loved him. Yet he was so convinced that Trestman was the guy he was looking for that he staked his career on it. That took guts. Obviously it was the exact wrong decision though.
It’s also one that had a farreaching effect even after Emery was fired. When Ryan Pace took over as GM in 2015, the team was quick to hire John Fox as the next head coach. Word soon came out that ownership made their voices in the matter far more heard that time around. Undoubtedly a result of what happened with Arians. While it was done to make sure they would avoid another debacle like Trestman, it ended up backfiring as Fox proved little better aside from his ability to better build a stable locker room.
It turns out he wasn’t the first choice in Pace’s mind. This entire story offers an important lesson. When making a critical decision regarding a head coach of a football team, it might be best for everybody at the top to be on the same page.
