It almost seems like Vic Fangio was destined to coach in Chicago. The Bears defensive coordinator established himself as one of the more memorable personalities on the team since his arrival in 2015. Not only is he their best assistant coach on the staff, he’s also the most entertaining. He correctly predicted his arrival to the city would turn around its baseball fortunes. At the same time he began to cultivate another reputation.
He couldn’t care less for the teams’ media policies.
GM Ryan Pace and head coach John Fox stick to the company line, offering up generic answers for most questions and giving little of their personal feelings away. Fangio sees that mode of operation, crumples it into a tiny ball and throws it in the trash. He proved that yet again during the weekly press conference leading up to opening day against Atlanta.
Vic Fangio was in rare form during Q&A session
Things started innocently enough. Fangio was asked about the upcoming opponent, the Falcons. He talked about how their running game is the best the Bears have seen yet this year and what makes Julio Jones so hard to stop. He also explained how the coaches began molding Roy Robertson-Harris into a defensive end as far back as week five of last season.
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It wasn’t until later in the session that he started to fire off some of his trademark shoot-from-the-hip answers. It started with the much-maligned secondary.
Where does Vic Fangio hope to see improvement from his all-new starting DB group? "All aspects," he said.
— Patrick Finley (@patrickfinley) September 7, 2017
Not a savage burn but a slight sting to it. Honesty can do that sometimes. Things got even better though when the subject of Pernell McPhee came up. The outside linebacker practiced for the first time this week after spending all of training camp and preseason on the PUP list. Rather than play coy like Fox normally would, Fangio gave a straight answer when asked if the key pass rusher would play.
#Bears DC Vic Fangio on if he expects Pernell McPhee to play Sunday: "I think there's a good chance, yes."
— Zach Zaidman (@ZachZaidman) September 7, 2017
Good news. At the same time though, Fangio couldn’t help but take a shot at the Bears training staff. Given the rash of injury problems this team has had the past two years, they’ve been under a lot of fire lately. Fangio gave them no breaks when he declared whether McPhee would be the same player he was two years ago and the staffs’ contrary stances on his status.
#Bears DC Vic Fangio seems skeptical of training staff saying Pernell McPhee's in best shape of his life, since he's limited.
— Bob LeGere (@BobLeGere) September 7, 2017
Vic Fangio's no-BS media gatherings are the best. When asked if it was fair to compare Pernell McPhee to his 2015 version: "Probably not."
— Patrick Finley (@patrickfinley) September 7, 2017
It’s not hard to see why Bears fans love him so much, and why many would prefer he were running the team. Chicago has always been a city that required coaches with no filter on their mouths. It worked for Ditka, it worked for Phil Jackson, Ozzie Guillen and Joe Maddon. All anyone can say at this point is for Fangio to never change.
