Ben Johnson knew what he wanted to do regarding his coaching staff. It would’ve been so easy just to pinpoint several names he was familiar with and bring them in. Chemistry would never be an issue. However, the Chicago Bears head coach also understood it would limit the chance of this team reaching the highest peak of achievement. Johnson had to be willing to bring in guys he didn’t know, guys with strong reputations elsewhere, even at the potential cost of somewhat difficult relationships. That is what led him to Eric Bieniemy.
Johnson knew the man’s track record, which dates back two decades. He made his name as a running backs coach in Minnesota and Kansas City before winning two Super Bowls as an offensive coordinator. The Bears recognized an opportunity after things didn’t pan out at UCLA. Johnson wanted to bring Bieniemy in at his position of expertise. The meeting went well, and the two sides reached a deal. Johnson revealed exactly how strong Bieniemy’s reputation was at the NFL Owners Meetings based on the reactions around the league after the hire went public.
“He’s going to coach the piss out of these running backs now. That’s what he does. Everybody that texted me after we hired him, I had probably half a dozen people that have worked with him in the past and they said, you just hired the best running backs coach in the NFL.”
Eric Bieniemy is willing to do things some modern coaches aren’t.
He isn’t afraid to demand more from players. Some have called him a hardass for his approach, unwilling to give guys any wiggle room on their duties. They either do it the right way, or they don’t play. Several modern players hate that because it makes them feel unnecessarily abused. Eric Bieniemy doesn’t care. He understands the fundamental truth.
Football is hard.
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If you want to win championships, you must be prepared to make many sacrifices. Every detail matters. There are no cutting corners in this league. Not if you want to win. Johnson is of that same mind, which makes it easy to understand why he wanted Bieniemy on the staff. He famously told Caleb Williams and others that they better get comfortable being uncomfortable. The new running backs coach is the epitome of this.
@Krisanthony I actually love the hire in this case. It’s just that he does this shit EVERY. FUCKING. YEAR. first we stole Getsy from the fudgers then Waldron was perfect, next thing you know Eberflus is a bitch and Waldron is the village idiot. The willingness to completely ignore things that he himself wrote even days before without even acknowledging them is just exhausting. I’m all for learning and changing your opinion but not when he pretends like it never happened. I have yet to see a single “I was wrong” article from this man.
I don’t know Bieniemy. Not even a little bit. I’ve read some of what is written about him and believe even less. I think he’ll have some solidarity with players that may be “labeled” hard cases. And before it’s all over, we may find, that Mr. Bieniemy found the same things political activist S. Weil found in her radical ethics and deep commitment to the struggles of the working man/woman. Force can dehumanize. So, I don’t want or expect anything from him. I don’t want to believe this, that, and the other about him. I only hope he gives Ben… Read more »
I know I regularly laugh at and attack Lambert’s takes on things he reports. It’s not personal. I swear. I have no reason to believe he isn’t a smart person, a good friend and a stand up guy. I don’t say that fictitiously, I mean it. I just think that his Bears takes are mostly terrible and quite frankly juvenile in many ways. He’s a homer to the extreme (not a bad thing for a site like this). But he constantly leaps to conclusions that aren’t even implied in the quote he’s reporting on. It’s looks dumb and I’m sure… Read more »
@Bears57 thank you!!!! Lambert simply has no clue. His default is to take anything Bears do and announce it as amazing, game changing, cheat code creating. Then that proves to be bad, like the Waldron hire, he then pretends he never wrote any of that garbage.
Hey gena…this is football. Nothing to do with some obscure philosopher. Time kills everything.