Chicago Bears Have a Terrible Habit When Picking Head Coaches
By Erik Lambert
The Chicago Bears head coaching job used to be surrounded by an aura of prestige thanks in large part to the efforts of their founding father, George Halas.
Over the years though, outside of him and Mike Dikta the organization has endured a run of rather average coaches. Meanwhile other organizations like Pittsburgh, New England and Denver continue to hit home runs. Why is that? Well there are several reasons. Luck of course being a small part but there is also one recurring trend in many of those hits.
They were all proven winners. Run down the line of each organization. New England? Bill Belichick won two Super Bowls as a defensive coordinator with the Giants. Pittsburgh? Mike Tomlin was defensive backs coach for the 2002 champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Denver? Mike Shanahan was offensive coordinator for the 49ers during their 1994 title run and Gary Kubiak was part of both the 1997 and 1998 Broncos teams that claimed Lombardi trophies.
Conventional wisdom says that taking the most proven guy from a system that won a championship should yield maximum results. Apparently the Bears never got the memo on that. Aside from Ditka and Dave Wannstedt, their history of head coaching hires is replete with an assortment of Super Bowl runner ups.
John Fox:
- Lost Super Bowls 38 and 48 as head coach and 35 as a coordinator
Marc Trestman:
- Lost Super Bowl 37 as a coordinator
Lovie Smith:
- Lost Super Bowl 36 as a coordinator
Dick Jauron:
- Lost AFC championship as a coordinator
Neill Armstrong:
- Lost Super Bowl XI as a coordinator
Jack Pardee:
- Lost Super Bowl VII as a player
It’s a pretty eye-opening trend that explains a lot about their lack of championship success throughout most of the Super Bowl era. How can a team expect a man to know how to win a title when they never saw it happen once in their coaching career prior to arrival in Chicago. Ditka saw it twice as a player and once as an assistant coach and he still only managed to win one Super Bowl. Even having the knowledge makes the process difficult.
So ready for the decisive stat? Of the 31 head coaches who have won a Super Bowl, 19 of them came in with some sort of prior championship winning experience. This includes college national titles as well given the stakes for the talent level are quite similar. The point being that knowing the blueprint to constructing a winner often helps one become a winner elsewhere. It remains baffling that the Bears haven’t taken that into more serious consideration.