Harry Chappas

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 8, 2015 -> 11:17 AM) But if you are being interviewed by the President and CEO, it really doesnt matter. You are jaded, but i dont fault you for it because the Bears have made a lot of mistakes. Hopefully they get things right this time. In a functioning company whether successful or not the CEO and President should have earned the title because they know the business. George and Ted do not know the business they have proven that.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 8, 2015 -> 10:35 AM) That literally makes zero sense. They met him, they are forming an opinion of him, in addition to the GM, the consultant and whoever else was introduced to him. It doesnt mean their opinions weigh the most or are the end all be all, just that they will have them. When you interview at a company you meet all sorts of people up and down the chain, even if only one person's opinion REALLY counts as the final say it is good for everyone to have a feel for the candidate. Yes you interview with all sorts of people and the opinions are weighed and eventually the buck stops with the person in need of the person to be hired, who has the most knowledge of the role the person will fill. If when the GM is hired all of these interviews take place again you are correct and the process is as you are pointing out. What would think if you went into a company and they interviewed you and at the end they said. Thank you for your time but this process meant nothing as the hiring manager is not yet employed. Ted and George are interviewing a person for a job that they are not qualified to hire them for. Recruiters can send people to you to hire all of the time and the person that hires them should have knowledge of the position they will file. I guess I am just jaded in thinking that Ted and George should not be the sole interviewing parties. This whole process seems like they went into it blindly and had no ideas of what the process would be. Same as the last GM and coaching hire. All of this work to find the right candidate because they had no clue who they wanted and then had no ability to find the right candidates anyway.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 8, 2015 -> 10:25 AM) Why is that an issue? He clearly already gave them his name and his opinion on him, now its their turn for an independent evaluation. an independent evaluation by two people that are not qualified to give an independent evaluation does not make for a positive result. Also if the GM is going to hire the coach why are the ticket manager and accountant interviewing him?

QUOTE (shipps @ Jan 7, 2015 -> 05:08 PM) They would be concerned with rape allegations. as well as an alarming number of interceptions.

Winston seems like the type of player whose on field performance will mirror that of Jay Cutler's. I am not talking personality or what not just how the numbers and results will look annually. Ithink he will be good but not great and I think he will make continual mistakes. Off the field I guess he can clean that up. I too find him hard to be a fan of.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 6, 2015 -> 09:18 AM) I was one of like 8 people to stay for that entire game. Good times. I was there for the whole thing and remember none of it. Home Opener v cub game is a no brainer. 37K die hards v 5K die hards. I'll take the home opener every day and twice on Tuesday.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jan 6, 2015 -> 02:39 AM) I've been watching my Breaking Bad barrel blu-rays each night before bed. It's really odd seeing the behind the scenes stuff from the early seasons when Bryan Cranston still has hair, Jesse is a skinny looking punk that acts nervous on camera, and Vince Gilligan doesn't have a mustache. Some really great content though. It's crazy how much work those set designers put in to scenes that only last 20-30 seconds on air. Bryan Cranston seems like one of the most down to Earth actors I can imagine. He is constantly joking and keeping it light and is having fun. It seems like that would have been an amazing fun crew to work on. Also, a funny tidbit I learned was that Bob Odenkirk didn't even watch a single episode of Breaking Bad until like season 4 or something. He was on for 2 seasons and had no idea who these characters were. He said he would act a scene in a completely wrong tone at times because he didn't know if a guy was good or bad. He said something like "I was able to put together that this Gus guy I was always talking about did some bad things." lol. His character is the one who introduced Gus to the show! He said Cranston used to always bust his balls saying "Still haven't watched the show yet, huh Bob?". Kind of ironic the actor who seemed least interested in the show he was working on gets the lead in the spinoff. I am re-watching this and it is actually better the second time through as I am not as preoccupied with some of the thoughts I had originally and see better how things are playing out. I still think Jessie's role is pointless after Walt hooks up with Gus.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jan 6, 2015 -> 10:55 AM) I disagree with you on this. I will admit that Gasol is a more consistent and reliable force on offense (at least perception-wise), and even though he's gotten better defensively as of late, he was horrendous early on in the season. Butler impacts the game on both ends of the floor, plays 40 minutes night in and night out, came up big in late games a few times already this season. While on some nights, Gasol isn't even on the floor for most of the 4th quarter. Both compliment one another very well and are in the conversation of MVP race at his time. Hopefully Rose can modify his game to continue to compliment them. The team when healthy is 9 deep without much drop off if Nick can spend some time at the 3.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 6, 2015 -> 10:46 AM) I dont think Ink has much bearing on advertising money anymore. A pretty large portion of the population has tattoos and its only growing. A little niche for him that I personally like but that is just my opinion. I find a picture of grandma on your foreman a tad bizarre but again that is just me.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 6, 2015 -> 10:02 AM) Ballard has significant experience in both coaching and scouting and is extremely well thought off across the industry. We've had an outside group helping us in the process. It is all a crapshoot to some extent, but I just don't think people can ignore the fact that league wide, Angelo was and still is very widely respected for what he did in Tampa and Chicago. He has now went to another organization and worked with tremendous people and again is very well thought of and received in broad scale NFL circles. This is not the Bears hiring the person they are familiar with, this is the Bears hiring the best candidate, who happens to be someone they are also familiar with (which to be frank is a plus...cause without that familiarity, I don't know if he is taking this job). I liked Angelo a lot and I think he lost a power struggle with Lovie which reflects poorly on the Bears organization as Lovie is not a personnel guy and will never win in Tampa. If he stuck to coaching he would be fine. I understand what you are saying and they may be homerun selections but the fact that they both were passed over for Emery and Trestman by Ted and George leads me to be a little weary of them being able to make the proper decisions. It could work and it could just as easily blow in their face. Wasn't Ditka a special teams coach at Dallas, well there you go.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 6, 2015 -> 10:03 AM) For example, last night, they focus in on what he did to hold Harden to something like 2 points in the 2nd half. Immediately, he gives credit to his teammates, etc, credits them for the team effort and everything. He literally says the right thing whenever I've heard him interviewed this year. He's the anti-Rose from that perspective. Guy can own this town. He really is well spoken, humble and a hell of a player. Lack of ink does not hurt with the high brow advertisers either.

QUOTE (Knuckles @ Jan 5, 2015 -> 06:55 PM) Ballard / Toub a very possible GM / coach duo for the Bears according to Jeremy Stoltz on twitter. So what changed, two years ago when George and ted were hiring guys they passed on both when they were employees. What am I missing here? Both guys were let go only to hire them back and both will they both come cheap. Remember when Wanny was the rock star hire.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 5, 2015 -> 02:27 PM) There is so much we dont know about George before he assumed control though. What if he was working for another company and just assumed that his brother was going to continue to run the business? It wasnt like it was a planned move, from all accounts people expected Mike to handle it until he went full boob and botched a coach hire. He was in charge of ticket sales for 20 years so he really had nothing to do but learn the business as selling tickets to the Bears is kind of like selling water in the desert. That organization is a clown car.

Big looks good today. OSU defense looked really good MSU hung with Oregon in Oregon so it should be a good one.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jan 1, 2015 -> 11:36 PM) Pass on 1st down was stupid They should not have attempted a pass in the 4th qtr. There should be :50 seconds left.

This play calling is abysmal by both teams.

Like that Maybe the SEC West didn't have the four best teams in football in it after all. BCS game would have been bama/fsu

Bama down two backers and a safety just run the ball down their throat

3 straight 3 and outs are the problem without taking any time off the clock.

OSU had not stopped the run all half.

OSU play calling has been pretty bad last three series.

If the championship game was #1 v #2 and FSU would play whoever wins the championship with the #3 team looking on this year. Four teams is unequivocally better than two 8 may or may not be better. I like the ND/LSU, Ole Miss/TCU type of match ups.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Dec 30, 2014 -> 03:18 PM) Yep no surprise they will hire Ballard who is from the Angelo/Emery tree and ex 12 year Bear employee, who will not rock the boat and Phillips survives again. Sucks to expect real change with the McCaskey's Nothing has changed with this organization. Emery and Trestman were complete failures, there really was no other choice there. I am glad the 91 year old woman was even able to realize that. She has seen two championships since Sid Luckman retired. She should have been pissed decades ago not now. Somehow the media portrayed George McCasky as being the decision guy now. Wasn't he overseeing things when Emery was hired as well as Trestman. Nothing will change here, an under-qualified head coach and general manager will be hired and in five years they too will be fired. Virginia and the Queen of England can then begin another search for greatness after they are no longer pissed off. What a family of losers at least Wrigley left but he got to keep his name on the stadium and the other delusional cheap family dinosaur died. Virginia McCaskey could give two s***s about how successful the Bears are.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Dec 30, 2014 -> 09:50 AM) I get that they passed on some good coaches and took the really bad one, but who is Rod Marinelli that he gets to rate the coaching prospects. He was one of the worst head coaches in the history of the league. 0-16. and one of the most successful coordinators with a long history of being successful at building defenses. He is right there with Dick LaBeau. Seems to me if that account is correct Marainelli was more attuned to the situation than the Bears organization was as he looks like a genius right now for stepping down and then getting promoted and turning that defense around. That list of GM candidates is not really all that inspiring. This process seems to be going down the same road as the previous. Hire an inexperienced guy and hope he is qualified.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Dec 29, 2014 -> 05:35 PM) That is going to be the next test...how quickly and swiftly will we move. Thus far, while it would have been nice for a football czar, the reality is they did exactly what they absolutely needed to do, which was hire a football guy to help them find the next GM, who will clearly have full say over football matters (that much was obvious throughout the course of the press conference). People who want to blast Ted, really don't understand his role, imo, and just want to hate on a hater. The reality is, the owners view him as a the CEO and he's very removed from the football decisions. The key to me is getting the right GM and the owners are always going to have final say on that (no matter who the owner is). The thing is, now they have someone who has been very successful in the past at bringing in head coaches (and has assisted in hirings of GM's as well) and also understands deeply what it takes to be successful as a GM. The whole hiring a consultant thing started two weeks ago, which again, is much swifter than this franchise has ever moved in the past already. Everything I've seen so far is that this is going to be handled significantly different than past decisions (and that includes the fact that we acted quickly with the firing of our coach and GM). There was no reason for Phillips to be there. Let him fill whatever role he has in silence. George and Ted hired Emery and Trestman. Neither should make a single football decision after getting Acorsi on board. That press conference should have been five minutes long. I give two s***s that Virginia is pissed. Sounds like business as usual.