The Chicago Bears’ Owners Are the Worst Owners in Professional Sports
Published by Galvin Kilroe on October 25, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
The McCaskeys are the worst owners in all of professional sports. I do not believe this comes as a surprise to any Chicago Bears fan.
As long as that inept, greedy, cheap, learning-disabled family is in charge, the Bears will not win a Super Bowl.
The McCaskeys’ sole goal in running the Bears is to squeeze every nickel and dime out of the franchise as humanly possible. Of course, they are McCaskeys, so they are too stupid to maximize their profits efficiently.
Instead, they jacked up the prices on everything at Soldier Field, making attendance at the games too costly for average Chicagoans.
If you do not make a lot of money, the only reason you would pay to watch a game in Soldier Field is some sort of predisposition for wasting money.
Twenty-five percent of their wins the last three seasons came at the expense of the Detroit Lions. Wins against the Lions are gimmes that hide just how unskilled the Bears’ owners really are.
From a purely business point of view, the dumbest thing the McCaskeys have done in recent years is the renovation of the Mistake on the Lake, better known as Soldier Field.
The Bears are located in the second largest market in the NFL, yet they play in the smallest stadium.
This allows the McCaskeys to charge season ticket holders a fortune, while routinely putting an inferior product on the field.
If the Bears played in an 80,000-seat stadium, like real NFL teams, they would not be able to charge anywhere near what they do for season tickets and would be forced to spend money on premium players in order to fill the stadium.
Soldier Field used to be a blue-collar stadium, where people actually cared about the team. Now, the real fans are gone and the stadium is filled with yuppies who are in attendance merely for status.
Despite how badly the Bears play, they are still the hottest ticket in town.
Jerry Angelo might be the worst general manager in the NFL; then again, he might be one of the best. Unfortunately, he has to answer to the whims of the McCaskeys, which effectively means that any GM we have will be the worst GM in the NFL, even if they are potentially the most capable.
Following the 2006 season, which featured a lucky Bears team being defeated in the Super Bowl, the Bears had a huge amount of money available to acquire free agents. Instead, the McCaskeys, content with their failure to win it all, decided to stay under the cap in order to divvy up a few more million dollars amongst themselves.
Of course, like all McCaskey plans, it backfired terribly: This just encouraged players to hold out in order to receive bigger contracts. The McCaskeys had the Bears positioned so far below the salary cap, that any player with an agent worth his fees recognized the McCaskeys had no choice but to meet their demands.
The last time the Bears made a good choice in the first round of the draft was 10 years ago with their selection of Brian Urlacher. Tommie Harris had potential, but undersized defensive linemen prone to injuries do not tend to hold up.
Big surprise—Tommie Harris did not hold up.
In 2008, they “wisely” selected left tackle Chris Williams because he had a serious back injury, which the McCaskeys recognized would allow them to acquire him for much less money than, say, a Ryan Clady, who is a Pro Bowler and a player the Bears could easily have acquired by trading up two or three spots.
Chris Williams is no longer a left tackle; he now plays left guard on the worst offensive line I have ever seen.
In an uncapped year, the McCaskeys failed to do anything to improve their offensive line, which was arguably the worst offensive line in the NFL the year before.
If the Bears’ offensive line was a condom, you would not need condoms anymore, because your girl would be pregnant, and you would have acquired every STD known to man, meaning there is no point in trying to prevent them anymore.
What I’m trying to say is, the Bears’ offensive line provides zero protection. Watching them in action is a little bit less fun than acquiring the clap, and penicillin cures the clap.
Nothing can cure how pathetic the Bears’ offensive line is.
Three Pro Bowlers were drafted in the first round after Chris Williams: Chris Johnson, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, and Mike Jenkins. Last I checked, the Bears could use the best running back in the NFL, or a lockdown corner.
In 2006, the Bears traded their first-round pick to the Buffalo Bills because they were too stressed about whether to draft one of two future Pro Bowl running backs, or a future Pro Bowl center, all of whom were selected in the four draft picks that followed the pick they traded away. In 2005, eight Pro Bowlers were selected after the Bears chose Cedric Benson, now on the Bengals.
Personally, I liked Benson because he ran such a slow 40 and I am not convinced the Bears would have been a better team if they had drafted DeMarcus Ware, Shawne Merriman, Aaron Rodgers, Roddy White, or Heath Miller, all of whom went in the first round after Benson.
In 2003, the Bears traded their first round pick to the Jets in order to move down and draft Rex Grossman after seven future Pro Bowlers were drafted before him, and just before Dallas Clark, Larry Johnson, and Nnamdi Asomugha were drafted.
In 2002, the Bears made a good pick in Marc Colombo, who now starts at offensive tackle for the Dallas Cowboys.
In 2001, the Bears drafted David Terrell, now out of football, instead of 11 Pro Bowlers selected in the first round following his selection, including wide recievers Reggie Wayne and Santana Moss.
As long as personnel decisions are handled so ineptly, the Bears will not win a Super Bowl.
You can blame Jerry Angelo, who was general manager for this entire period, but is he really the one in charge? Because if he was, he should have been fired. Failure to replace him falls on the McCaskeys.
Angelo has demonstrated some skills in drafting contributors from schools that you have never heard of, because small school players sign much cheaper than players from major programs. That is why the McCaskeys like to sign players from Abilene Christian.
For all the Bears fans out there, our only hope is that when Virginia McCaskey croaks, her greedy children and grandchildren will just sell the team, divide up their billion dollars, and get out of town.
Then again, maybe one day a McCaskey will recognize the easiest way to make money from the Bears would be to restore them to their former glory and bring a few Super Bowl titles to Chicago.
Even though the Bears are unbearable to watch, in two weeks when they come back from the bye and proceed to eliminate themselves from the playoffs, I know I will be sitting on the couch watching them play.
Maybe I am as dumb as the McCaskeys.
Read more Chicago Bears news on BleacherReport.com
