The day after general manager Ryan Pace hired John Fox to be the Bears’ coach in January 2015, the two drove to meet with team matriarch Virginia McCaskey. According to her son, chairman George McCaskey, she was “pissed off” by the old regime’s struggles, and Pace and Fox wanted to assure her they’d do their best to turn her team around.
But first they had to figure out the tolls.
Bound for her home in Des Plaines, Pace and Fox exited Interstate 294. With Pace driving, they got into the line to pay cash. Then they realized neither of them had change.
They drove through anyway.
When Fox was on the road himself, he did the same — for weeks.
“I wasn’t doing anything,” Fox said. “I wasn’t throwing quarters.”
When photo evidence — and fines — found their way to the coach’s home, Fox eventually got an I-PASS.
And when he felt comfortable enough to simplify the GPS device in his car, he got to know the names of the suburbs near his new home.
“When I ask people where they’re from now, I don’t just nod and smile,” he said. “I’ve actually kinda heard of it.”
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With his second season looming — the Bears open training camp July 27 — Fox has settled in. His team is getting there, too, he told the Sun-Times in an interview last week.
Fox should know. He reached the Super Bowl in his second year with the Panthers and went 13-3 in his second season with the Broncos.
He said Halas Hall already feels “remarkably different” than it did at this time last year, before the Bears went 6-10.
“Last year felt like three years, or seven years, or whatever you want to say,” he said. “You’re coming into something completely new, from your own building, to media, how to get to the stadium, how we travel. Everything is new. And you’re fixing stuff and doing things more like you’re accustomed to.
“Your players, they’re learning you. You’re learning them.”
Before the offseason program started last year, he evaluated his players solely on film.
“You might as well be looking at robots,” he said. “You don’t know how they prepare. You don’t know how smart they are. You don’t know their capabilities or their weaknesses, other than physically.”
For example, Fox said the coaching staff had no idea Charles Leno would emerge as the starting left tackle last offseason.
“Discovering that, evaluating that, and he went into the season and played a lot of football for us,” he said. “I’m sure the comfort level for him is way greater right now, and I know the comfort level for us is way greater right now.
“And that’s just one position.”
The Bears didn’t sign a replacement this offseason. Leno said the coaches “believed in me, so now I’ve got to repay them.” That’s easier for players to do now that the staff’s schemes and training plans have been in place for a year.
After the Bears completed organized team activities this month, Fox compared the film to that of last year. The newer version was faster and more competitive.
“So much of it is a culture,” Fox said. “How you practice, how you compete, how you do your job every day.”
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Before Fox’s second year with the Broncos, the team signed quarterback Peyton Manning. The Bears didn’t ink anyone as transformative this offseason, but Fox found a kindred spirit in inside linebacker Danny Trevathan, who played for him with the Broncos.
Fellow inside linebacker Jerrell Freeman and defensive end Akiem Hicks are newcomers who share his edge.
“I think everybody’s kind of more comfortable with people you know,” Fox said. “This is a hard profession. There are going to be bad times.
“When you’ve been through that with people and know how they react, know their mental toughness, obviously you’re going to gravitate to that.“
The feeling is mutual.
“I think he’s starting to get that wisdom,” Trevathan said. “He’s got some more years under his belt. He knows what it takes. He put together some of the best teams I’ve ever seen.”
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Fox knew the remodel would take time — “You can’t just go buy a team in one year,” he said — but he has seen growth.
“All of it takes time, whether it’s acquiring talent to getting the right meld of the kind of guys, team chemistry,” he said. “I think we made strides in all those areas.
“I think it takes another injection of players or talent. And I think we’ve had another year to do that, both in the draft as well as free agency.”
His first Bears team was worse than his first Panthers and Broncos teams. But entering his second season, Fox feels change coming.
“And you hope it does — for the better,” he said. “We were 6-10. We’re trying to change.”
