When it comes to the Chicago Bears, decades and decades have gone past without a franchise quarterback. The jury is still out on Caleb Williams’ rookie season this past season. When it comes to head coaches, the Bears have had a list of clunkers since the team fired Mike Ditka in 1993. The Bears have been looking for a solid coach since they fired Lovie Smith in 2012. He led the Bears to a Superbowl loss in 2006, the last time they made it to the big game. We know with Ditka the Bears won their only Superbowl in 1986. We know before Ditka, Papa George Halas was a legendary head coach in Chicago for decades. The Bears have not figured out a way to find a head coach better than Smith. Many will say the Bears have not found a better replacement than Da Coach. In between Ditka and Smith, the Bears did find success. It was 2001 when the Bears went 13-3 under the former Yale graduate of Dick Jauron who had the Bears in the post-season in one entertaining magical year in team history. Jauron coached 28 seasons in the NFL and played 8 seasons as a player. He was loved by all whereever he worked as a coach and a player. It’s a shame when good people pass away as Jauron quietly did less than a week ago at the age of 74.

Dick Jauron was born in Peoria, Illinois. Jauron would attend grammar school in Rensselaer, Indiana. He played his high school football at Swampscott High School located in the state of Massachusetts. He was named top ten best high school players in the state of Massachusetts. He then played his college football at Yale University where he was 3 x First Team all Ivy-League. The Detroit Lions drafted Jauron in the 4th round of the 1973 NFL draft as a safety. He was also drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals as a short stop in the 1973 MLB draft. However he chose football over baseball. He played 8 years in the NFL with two teams. The Lions for 5 seasons and then the Bengals for 3 seasons. He earned his only pro bowl nomination in 1975 as he was still with the Lions. He played in 100 NFL games as a free safety and had 25 career interceptions. He had two defensive touchdowns. His NFL career ended after the 1980 season. In 2015 Jauron made it to the College Football Hall of Fame for his stellar play for the Yale Bulldogs.

Dick Jauron then took his talents to coaching as he started in 1985 with the Buffalo Bills as a defensive backs coach. Then from 1986-1994 he held the same job he had in Buffalo, only he did it with the Green Bay Packers. From 1995-98 he was the defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars under Tom Coughlin. Then the Bears gave him his first head coaching job from 1999- 2003. In 2001 he led the Bears to the post-season as they were one and done. They were quickly dispatched in the wild card round by the Eagles. Jauron would get fired by the Bears and finished with a 35-45 record in 5 seasons in Chicago. In 2005 Jauron was defensive coordinator in Detroit the last few years after Chicago and he took over the head coaching duties. In the last games in 2005, he finished 1-4 as the interim HC. It was good enough that the Bills gave Jauron his next head coaching job in 2006. He was fired in week ten of the 2009 season as he lasted 4 seasons. Jauron had three straight 7-9 seasons in Buffalo until the 4th year when things got worse. He started the season with a 3-6 record and was fired. He finished with a 24-33 record in Buffalo. In 10 seasons as head coach he had a 60-82 record and only coached one playoff game which was the loss to the Eagles. After Buffalo, Jauron did one season in Philadelphia as defensive backs coach.Then got the defensive coordinator job in Cleveland for another three seasons.

The Bears before the 2001 season were picked by the experts to be one of the bottom feeders in the league. The Bears most likely played a weak schedule from being a bad team the year before. Like the LA Chargers this season played well, got into the playoffs, and looked like they did not belong. I think the Bears may have gotten lucky in some of these games they played in this magical season where they went 13-3. It was a year that they were 8-0 in games decided by 7 points or fewer. The things most Bears fans remember were the back to back overtime games they won that year with Dick Jauron as the head guy. These two games were comebacks by the Bears to send them to OT. The Bears then won both overtime games against the Browns and 49ers with Bears safety Mike Brown scoring two defensive touchdowns to seal the deal in back to back regular season games. Jauron instilled a work ethic with these guys in 2001 and it was working.

Mike Brown was Johnny on the spot as you would think he had some magnet that had the football go to him like a dog bringing back a stick after you tossed it. Every winning season has some luck. Look at the Kansas City Chiefs blocking a field goal to deny Denver an upset this past season. Then all those games where the zebras gave the Chiefs the call that sent Kansas City home with a slew of victories and followed that same MO throughout the postseason until they were denied in the Superbowl. What comes around goes around.

Dick Juaron won 13 games with quarterbacks named Jim Miller and Shane Matthews as the starters. Miller was one of my favorite Bears quarterbacks of all-time. Miller arrived in Chicago in a clunker he drove from Pittsburgh. Probably his high school car. He was a fat guy who tested positive for steroids. Something has to be wrong with the NFL testing when you see a QB fleshy and gooey. Miller that season was 11-2 behind center as the Bears’ main guy. Matthews went 2-1. The Bears had the A-Train at running back.

Anthony Thomas was bruising back the Bears drafted from the University of Michigan. He had a solid season for the Bears rushing for 1,183 yards with 7 touchdowns. Jauron had the defense playing well and the offense. The QB’s were game managers taking what the defense gave them and not making the mistakes to cost their team. It was the last year in Soldier Field before the city gutted the insides and put a space ship on top of the stadium in an all out makeover.

The next season the Bears played all their home games at the University of Illinois while the makeover was going on.. That did not help Dick Jauron’s team. It would also be the quarterback play that eventually doomed Jauron’s first head coaching job. The Bears signed former Falcons veteran Chris Chandler who was at the end of his NFL career. Chandler made 7 starts in 2002 and went 2-5 as the starter. The Bears also gave another washed out veteran a chance in former Steelers QB Kordell Stewart, aka Slash. The Bears then drafted Rex Grossman in the 2003 NFL draft as Chandler would linger another year after 2002 to be the bridge guy. The Bears did not play well after 2001 and Jauron was fired.

Dick Jauron was a players’ coach like Lovie Smith. These coaches were always calm, cool, collected and more like father figures than an NFL head coach. Jauron was head coach of two of my favorite teams that I follow to this day, the Bears and Bills. He came into both jobs when both franchises were not playing well. He was a guy that was a straight shooter to his players, media, and people in general. He did things his way. You knew where you were at with Jauron. He treated everyone like how he would want to be treated. Both the Bills and Bears did not have a solid team built for him to work with. He took average guys and made them better. You would have loved to see what he could have done if he had a solid roster to work with. Smith had the horses as he was the guy hired after Jauron. Jauron was hired by a different General Manager than the one that fired him. Jerry Angelo was the guy that fired Jauron and he probably had no choice to keep Dick after that 13-3 record. Angelo did more moves-wise for Smith than Jauron. You could say the deck was stacked against him after that 2001 season.

Watching Bears football over the years Dick Jauron would not be the worst coach I’ve seen on the sidelines. He definitely is one of my favorites. In Chicago we have had a lot of bad teams in the Windy City landscape. Jauron would not make that list of all the bad coaches we had in this town in the four main sports. He was a brilliant mind. Played the game smart. He was a better college player than professional. In 28 years of coaching in the NFL he called some great games on the defensive side of the ball for many teams. Jauron was diagnosed with cancer and lost his battle at the age of 74 years old which is a shame. He stepped away from the game to help his wife deal with dementia. He always put others ahead of himself. The NFL world lost a wonderful guy, husband, father, coach, and friend. The 2001 Bears team was one of the best seasons being a fan of a very bad franchise. You have to thank a guy like Dick for giving us something to cheer for in bleak times. As Bears fans, we hope Dick RIP!!!

Last Sunday the Chicago Bears shit the bed in their visit to the Bay Area to face a depleted 49ers team. Many of the players on the Bears were fed up with their old head coach Matt Eberflus. The Bears front office fired Eberflus finally after that debacle in Detroit. Not using a time out in a crucial situation in the last 30 seconds of the game when the offense was hovering around field goal range looking to tie the game versus the Lions. That was not the first blunder by Eberflus in his short coaching tenure with the Bears. The Bears front office finally showed some balls firing a guy that needed the pink slip last year with games still left on the 2024 schedule. In the past the Bears would wait on firing a head coach after the season concluded or letting their contract simply run out and move on. The Bears promoted Thomas Brown to the interim head coach, a guy who was just promoted weeks ago as the team’s new offensive coordinator. The players pretty much sang “Ding dong the witch is dead,” all week rejoicing that Eberflus had left the building. On Sunday in the debut of Brown as the Bears head coach, the Bears players shit the bed as the 49ers romped Chicago 38-13.

Who is Thomas Brown? Brown was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons back in 2008 in the sixth round of the NFL draft. He was a running back out of the University of Georgia. He suited up for the Falcons and Browns and really had a sip of coffee in the NFL. Brown is only 38 years of age and went into coaching after his playing career was non-existent. Brown had multiple coaching jobs in the college game. His position was running backs coach. In 2020 he got his first pro job with the LA Rams and worked for master mind Sean McVay as running backs coach. In 2022 he was still with the Rams as McVay switched Brown to tight ends coach. In 2023 Brown would find a better gig with the Carolina Panthers as the offensive coordinator. That did not work out well as the Panthers were a disaster in 2023. The Bears hired Brown as passing game coordinator this season. The Bears’ first scapegoat for their season gone bad was their new offensive coordinator they just hired in the off-season, Shane Waldron. The Bears promoted Brown to the offensive coordinator and Caleb Williams and the offense started to play better. That was enough then for the Bears front office to promote Brown again to interim head coach where he is way over his head and not even close to being qualified for this job in the NFL.

Thomas Brown changed some things around like any other guy would do when he was promoted. He said the Bears would play the game violently. On Sunday it looked violently ill. Brown’s style of football would be physical which he would bring to the opposing team. Usually when the interim coach takes over at least in the first game or two, the players respond. Many teams usually dumb down the play book. They get a loose free spirit environment for that week ridding the old tensions out of the locker room. Not these Bears as their shit stunk up the bay as the 49ers steam rolled them with back up personnel playing for back ups to the starters in some positions. The Bears were shut out 24-0 in the first half and the offense gained 4 stinking yards with 5 punts compared to the 319 yards of offense the 49ers had.

The Bears on defense were aggressive as they came after Brock Purdy with multiple blitzes. The 49ers encountered with running plays and screen passes that baffled this Bears defense that regressed after Matt Eberflus was shown the door. Maybe the Bears should have kept Eberflus to work the defense. Do you remember defensive end Montez Sweat who the Bears acquired at the trade deadline from the Commanders? Where has he been most of this year? MIA. Then Jaylon Johnson a talented Bears defensive back running his mouth all week on Eberflus being fired was also a no show against this 49ers offense that let Purdy finish the day with a 145.4 quarterback rating. George Kittle seemed wide open the entire game as linebackers Tremaine Edmunds and Jack Sanborn may have not read the scouting reports on one of the better tight ends in the league that may need some attention. Kittle finished with 6 grabs for 156 receiving yards.

The new interim head coach Thomas Brown is still calling all the offensive plays. Under his watch as the O-Coordinator, the Bears have not scored in the first half . It seems like he abandons the running game and the Bears looked like the walking dead going through the motions. Every game it seems like Caleb Williams finds his groove in the second half when most of the time it’s too late. In the second half the running game was installed on the play sheets and Bears mustered up 13 points. This offense still has all the same problems that no one on this coaching staff can fix. Once again Williams was sacked 7 times. Which now tallies up to 56 for the year as he closes in on David Carr’s rookie record as he was sacked the most all-time in NFL history. Williams’ knock is he holds on to the ball way too long. Which is true. The offensive line the Bears have assembled is horrific. Braxton Jones and Coleman Shelton became a turning style for the 49er defense. This was defense without their star defensive end Nick Bosa. The Bears O-line was losing one on one battles. It’s not like 49ers defense brought everything at Williams including the kitchen sink.

The Chicago Bears had many of us fooled this off-season with their moves including taking Caleb Williams with the number one pick. They say fools always rush in. We were admiring all the new shiny weapons the Bears had assembled on offense in flashy colored wrapping paper with bows on them. It felt like Christmas as the upcoming season was going for change be jolly and the playoffs. Bears fans had dancing sugar plums inside their head thinking about their team in the post-season. The return of a solid defense and an offense that were going to light up the score board every week. Now the bottom has dropped out of the house of cards that Bears general manager Ryan Poles built. He probably thought this Chicago job was going to be easy. I’m not sure if Williams is the right quarterback as all the others drafted in April’s NFL draft look much better than Caleb. The Bears have not had a franchise QB since the 1940’s. This franchise needs to hand the keys over to somebody that knows about the NFL and football. This team needs to nail down a new head coach. Someone who can discipline the players and rid this team of guys who play hard when they want to. They need a head coach that knows what an offensive line looks like. This head coach, either offensive or defensive, needs a guy on his staff that can develop Williams. Enough of giving assistants around the NFL their first head coach job. This Bears franchise better pull out the check book and get themselves a name. They need a guy that has been there done this. My short list would be Jon Gruden & Mike Vrabel to start. I may even give full control to Bill Belichick because he would do better getting the right players and they would play hard or else find themselves elsewhere. This has gone on long enough. The Bears have been shitting the bed since the late 80’s. I know the Bears made the Superbowl in 2006, but had Rex Grossman as their starting quarterback. Enough with shitting in the wood or the Bay, it’s time to use the bathroom like every other NFL franchise in the league.