Dan Wiederer: As Bears President Ted Phillips prepares to move on, the team’s on-field mediocrity under his watch reveals bigger problems
CHICAGO — By the end of November, just about everything surrounding the Chicago Bears football team was undeniably ablaze. That extended window the Bears thought they had to compete for a Super Bowl crown? Incinerated.
The belief in the leadership of coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace? That had become a massive pile of ash.
The crucial rookie-year development of franchise quarterback Justin Fields was quickly melting too.
When Thanksgiving week arrived in 2021, the Bears were a month removed from their previous victory and stuck in a five-game skid that was threatening the prior season’s depressing six-game slide.
A deafening “Fire Nagy” chorus had spread well beyond Soldier Field, offering a reliable forecast of the coach’s eventual fate.
Pace’s future at the top of the front office was disintegrating just as quickly. And some of the internal clumsiness and dysfunction at Halas Hall left many in NFL circles scratching their heads with bewilderment. The Bears had lost their way. Again.
Across Chicago, though, there was an understanding that the origin-and-cause investigation probably wouldn’t take long. Ten months
