The Chicago Bears have been allergic to good offense for most of their modern existence. This is due in large part to their lack of understanding of how things work. Most will blame their remarkable inability to find good quarterbacks. That’s fair but it goes deeper than that. One issue they can never seem to get right is coaching. Either they find guys who just don’t know how to craft a good offense or find coaches who are good at it but can’t seem to foster productive environments beyond one year. A perfect example is Mike Martz.

Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the man was viewed as one of the best offensive minds in football. The architect of the Greatest Show on Turf Rams that topped 500 points in a season three-straight years. However, his star began to dim by the middle of the decade and had lost a lot of luster by the time he arrived in Chicago in 2010. It didn’t help matter that according to former backup quarterback Caleb Hanie he had a stubborn streak that brought him into conflict with others.

Most know QB Jay Cutler to be one of those names, but Jeff Dickerson of ESPN revealed another. Offensive line coach Mike Tice.

“They fired Turner and [quarterbacks coach] Pep Hamilton after 2009,” Hanie said. “I liked both of those guys, but the thought at the time was that Jay needed more creativity. The first hire the Bears made was Tice as offensive line coach. Then they hired Martz as the OC. After working with those guys for two years, I came to learn that Tice and Martz were polar opposites in how they viewed offense.

“Huge, huge conflict. When the s— hits the fan during the season, then people start playing the blame game. That was a big problem in that era. There was some finger-pointing going on behind the scenes. I remember hearing the dirty laundry. The coaches didn’t keep it to themselves. That was a very toxic environment.”

Mike Martz and Tice are indeed two different personalities

This is often what can happen when a coach hires an assistant before the coordinator. That assistant starts to feel bulletproof. Like he doesn’t answer to that coordinator. Think of it like the Bears retaining Buddy Ryan before they hired Mike Ditka. Ryan never listened to Ditka because the decision to keep him came from the top. So why should he? It was likely the same situation with Martz and Tice.

The former was of the new school. He believed in pass-first offense with all sorts of creative alignments and lots of deep drops to attack down the field. Tice? He was old school personified. A former blocking tight end who became an offensive line coach. When he took over as head coach in Minnesota in 2002, they went from a pass-happy team that featured their star receivers to a more ground-oriented approach. Finishing the top 10 in rushing attempts his first two years.

So it’s hardly a shock those two butted heads. By the end of 2011 following a disastrous fall from 7-3 to 8-8, the relationship probably reached a breaking point. Head coach Lovie Smith had to side with one of them. So Martz was fired and Tice promoted in his place. A decision players quickly realized was a massive mistake. Would it have happened had the Bears not forced them together?

That’s a what-if that deserves further speculation in the future.