Pro Football: The Firing of Pace, Nagy and What’s Wrong With Team Ownership

 Hey hey hey Divas hey! Back with reading material on this cold Monday after working this weekend (I have to work two jobs because I’m expensive). A cold day here in Wisco with crazy two year olds who couldn’t go outside plus another cold one tomorrow. Gotta love winter. 

And speaking of cold-it was a cold day in the world of pro football. Chicago to be exact, with the firing of both General Manger Ryan Pace and Head Coach Matt Nagy. While speculation made its way around the sports world similar to the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier (I suggest going during summer but remember to bring proof you’ve been vaxxed and if your not vaxxed, please do it). Navy’s firing was not a surprise; some say he deserved it while others disagree. Pace’s firing was a surprise. Chicago fans are hot and cold about the firings and the fact that Ted Phillips still has a job is not surprising. 

Did both Nagy and Pace deserve to be fired? I ask this due to the ownership of the Chicago Bears and the leadership behind the team. The ones that sign the checks to obtain talent and pay the staff. 

The ones responsible for the team. The ones that promote the product through their actions and hiring of key players in key positions, with those people carrying out the product. 

Every Sunday during football season, you’ll find me wearing blue and orange. Born in Chicago and raised in WI, Green Bay to be exact, I love my Bears. Grandmother loved the Bears when I was a kid, and our house was a house divided. We cheered the Bears being from Chicago and cheered the Packers because we lived in GB. (Some say I’m screwed up being a Bears fan, I say I’m raised right). Complete with blue and orange eye makeup (yes I have it), plus my earrings, many of my customers got a kick out of seeing my blue and orange. 

Since halfway through this season, I haven’t worn a Bears shirt. It’s not that I don’t like the Bears or football, it’s that I don’t support a team with ownership that clearly does not care about football and the product, plus the fans. The fact is the McCaskeys are awful team owners with zero interest in football. Getting into specifics will take away from the topic, with the question being this: what have the McCaskeys done for the team since Virginia took ownership from her father, George “Papa Bear” Halas? 

Five years ago, I took a position as a director of a preschool, given that I meet the WI DHFS requirements to operate a preschool/childcare center. No hesitation, no reservations. This position was a step up from teaching where I was responsible for the day to day operations, including hiring and training staff, maintaining licensing rules and everything else. The work was intense and the owner was something else as I later found out. 

This school was located at the edge of an impoverished neighborhood in a world where families struggle with financial hardships, lack of food, clothing, transportation and in some cases, both children and adult supplies (baby formula, diapers, hygiene products, etc). They may struggle with affordable house and personal relationships and lack parenting skills, all of which greatly impact child development. For this reason, high quality care is essential to low income families. The owner of this particular school had a good intention of placing the school in an area like this, yet had no intention of improving the business. We were on two different pages with our vision, which didn’t match. 

Perhaps both Nagy and Pace went in with good intentions to win, and were met with no positive intention from the McCaskeys. Perhaps they made suggestions for improvements, and spoke of their vision for the future which the family liked. The family kept insisting they were on board, with the promises of giving everything needed to achieve said goals. Nagy and Pace didn’t get the support they needed, and the family is unhappy with the numbers in terms of wins and losses plus the team/player statistics. Eventually, after many broken promises made by the owners, both Nagy and Pace are out of a job. The owners refuse to see they are the issue, and have been for several years. 

Many Bears fans agree with one thing: the McCaskeys need to sell the team to someone who cares about winning and football. A team is only as good as the people in charge of it which in this case are the owners. The same experience that both Nagy and Pace went through is similar to my experience as the director of the school from the business standpoint. I had zero support from the owner, so how was I able to succeed in my position and create an environment that turned a profit. 

On the flip side, how were Nagy and Pace supposed to build a winning team when they did not have the support from the McCaskeys? Surely if the family cared about the team, the issues in Chicago would be there, yet not as big as they have been for several years. 

Virginia, it’s not 1985, and it hasn’t been for almost forty years. I can only imagine that both your father and Sweetness agree with me, and the fact they are both stunned by the mess you made with this team. 

Not only are Packer fans laughing, but the league is laughing. Bear fans can only hope that someone comes along and makes the McCaskeys an offer they can’t refuse which results in a restoration of the team to bring a championship back to Chicago. 

Fingers crossed. 

With hot cocoa and love, 

Dani