NEWSLETTER
It’s actually happening. After years of wondering how and when it’d go down, the news finally broke today: Ted Phillips, 65, is retiring as President of the Chicago Bears in February.
How Chicago’s football team sends him out remains to be seen. But it will ultimately play out over the next 20+ weeks — beginning with the regular-season opener against the Niners in nine days.
And yet, finding Phillips’ replacement will be an omnipresent story. It won’t take precedent over on-the-field happenings. But let’s not kid ourselves. President of the Chicago Bears isn’t just a title. It is an important job. One that the Bears should take seriously in filling with the absolute best candidate possible. They can’t cut corners here. Nor can they afford to blindly promote from within. A prestige franchise in a major market deserves a serious search.
The Bears deserve it. And so do fans who have lived through the Phillips era which netted just six playoff appearances and just three wins in playoff games.
In his story announcing Phillips’ retirement, The Athletic’s Dan Pompei reports the process of finding the team’s next president has already begun.
Pompei writes that Phillips, Chairman George McCaskey, and Senior Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Tanesha Wade have reached out to a search firm named Nolan Partners. The names Scott Hagel (Senior VP of Marketing and Communications) and Cliff Stein (team legal counsel) were name-checked by Pompei as possible internal candidates. But I can only imagine as this being just the beginning of the process. So I wouldn’t get hung up on two internal candidates already getting singled out by a reporter this early in the process.
So … who wants the job?
Better yet, who makes sense to lead the Bears moving forward?
I don’t have much when it comes to specific candidates right now. But I do believe the time has come to get someone with a football background at the top of the organizational food chain. I wouldn’t call it a prerequisite, but I’d come darn close. There is value in having previous experience working in football when overseeing others who make football decisions. To be clear, the Bears shouldn’t be aiming for someone to go over GM Ryan Poles’ head. But having a football mind both he and Chairman McCaskey can bounce ideas off could have its perks.
With that being said, I wonder if we’ll see Trace Armstrong‘s name pop up as a candidate. In December 2021, Armstrong was strongly refuting rumors that he had talks with the Bears about a front office role. At the time, there was chatter about Armstrong being a possible candidate to replace Ryan Pace as general manager. Armstrong is a power player at Athletes First, a prominent sports agency representing numerous NFL stars and coaches. Leaving that role to be a GM might not be all that enticing. But to become a team president? That could be alluring. As a former player (one of the 100 greatest Bears of all time), NFLPA President, and agent, few know the many perspectives business of the business of football like Armstrong.
Perhaps we’ll hear Rick Smith‘s name come up again. Smith, a former executive with the Houston Texans, was reportedly on the Bears’ short-list of GM candidates last offseason. However, he never officially interviewed with the team. That makes back-to-back offseasons in which Smith’s name came up as a GM candidate in the offseason — only for him to not come away with a job. Smith has been through a lot personally, and it is fair to wonder if the heavy lifting a GM does is too much, too soon. But maybe that leaves a door open for a possible run at a team presidency. If so, the Bears should have interest. For what it’s worth, Pompei wrote about Smith being an ideal candidate for a President of Football Operations job if the franchise was ready to go down that route. And it certainly piqued our interest at the time.
Again, I’m not looking for someone to usurp Poles’ power. But it would be nice to have someone who was once a solid NFL executive overseeing the process.
So, with all due respect to the dream of Theo Epstein leading the Cubs and Bears to titles, I think that one is out of the equation.
To reiterate, I don’t have much rattling around in terms of having potential options lined up. We’re too early in the process for me to be spitting out names. But I firmly feel this is a good time to bring in a “football guy” to help lead the process moving forward. And I’m open to any number of possibilities. Let the process begin!
