Bad News Bears: It's a culture

Between Brian Urlacher's steady stream of complaints about how the players and coaches are treated harshly by the Chicago fans and media, and Devin Hester's quasi-retirement threat in the wake of Lovie Smith's firing, I think I have a better idea of what ails the mediocre Bears. They've got a locker room that needs to grow up a bit and take some accountability.
It's not always somebody else's fault. The NFL is a bottom-line business in 32 different markets, and in Chicago,
the success rate has not been high enough the past two years. So people have lost some jobs because of it.
That's on everyone who calls themselves Bears and gets a paycheck from the team. Not just the fans and the media.


Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20121231/lovie-smith-andy-reid-black-monday/#ixzz2Gk8gBGgv

I think Don Banks nailed it. If you've got an infection (whinning, pointing fingers, disrespecting where your buttered bread comes from) - cleanit up! Burn the disease right out. I hope the next coach takes a page out of Bill Walsh's philosophy - You were a terrific player - but I'm about winning today. So thanks for the memories, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Lovie was not held accountable until yesterday. Now the players will re-think their own accountability. I think change is a good thing here. I hope the new coach helps the players understand that the monkeys don't run the zoo anymore.

It just goes to show how much more than winning games a HC is really responsible for. This sort of thing helps build cameradery -- "It's Us against the world", but it makes for poor relations with your end customer - the fan.

For the most part, something critial is written about every player - even the superstars at one point or another. ANd players are people too. They don't like it. So when a HC channels that the wrong way, it does give the players a place to vent, but its an unhealthy relationship. And I can see that a HC that allows them to feel the way they want to feel rather than helping them through it would be popular.

After all, a child who is allowed to take his toy away from another child rather than share it is going to like the first action much more. But it's not helping the relationship between that child and others. Go ask the child which baby sitter he would rather have during play time.

Might be the same thing in the Bears locker room. That is easy to fix. The players know what's right. Someone just needs to remind them. The right culture will fix this.

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Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

Lovie was not held accountable until yesterday. Now the players will re-think their own accountability. I think change is a good thing here. I hope the new coach helps the players understand that the monkeys don't run the zoo anymore.

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Problem w/the Us vs Them, is it has to be done correctly, ie Phil Jackson and the Bulls it was an Us vs them w/Management. That way the media/fans are not caught up in it. Or it has to be an us vs them towards the rest of the teams in the NFL.

An us vs media/fans is a good way ot getting you shit canned real quick. Reallity is that Lovie should have been let go last year, if not the year before, but he was a good enough politician to keep himself in place while he threw everyone else under the buss.

I'm quite happy he's not here. His stupid condesending attitude was brutal to have to listen too. And I think you'll see a change of tune in the locker room w/a new guy also. As for how the players reacted yesterday, I wouldn't take to much to heart until after the new coach is in place. They'll have recovered from the shock. Most are guys that know their time is limited and Lovie was a key factor in being able to maximize that remaining time.