Patience. Is it an attribute, a character trait or a flaw? As we sit on the threshold of the unknown that has tested the city’s marriage to the Bears, the simple acts of tolerance and forbearance (and sufferance) have been the unasked request.
“Just give it time, a little more time.” That seems to be the ask from the organization to us. “Then you’ll see what we see.“ And as we all seem to be looking at the same thing, what we are seeing may be totally the opposite. Because the vantage points of what we see and what the Bears see aren’t simultaneous. Our look is of immediacy; theirs is of projection. We need a win now; they are looking at wins later. It’s an oil-and-water, Microsoft-or-Apple paradox. One that will never see eye-to-eye but also won’t leave either blind.
After reading the column last week on Roquan Smith, someone said (paraphrasing to a degree): “You all are always writing about the problems, y’all never write or talk about solutions.” That hit different. Not because I necessarily agreed but because it’s fair. The complaints levied against all perceived things wrong with the Bears have been unrelenting and at times merciless. Expected and warranted, sorta. But still. If we are down for this team the way this city keeps claiming that it is, then suggested solutions become testaments that all are not down on them.
With that, this ask: Is patience a virtue? Is patience earned? Is it a solution?
Rick Telander and David Kaplan targeting Justin Fields ain’t the answer. Terry Bradshaw on Fox, Dan Orlovsky on ESPN, Kurt Warner on the NFL Network, Chase Daniels on The Chase Daniels Show saying the problem isn’t just Justin, it’s deeper, ain’t the answer. Me implicating the front office and saying on a radio show that “if Deion Sanders was the Bears coach, we wouldn’t be having these conversations” is the diametrical opposite of being the answer. Us at the Sun-Times pulling out every bottom-feeding stat just to show a Bears player or the Bears name somewhere in those categories is — accurate — not conducive. Cavity-searching this team for every thing from the offensive line to the defensive schemes to play calling concepts to the underdevelopment of Fields to their draft choices to their lack of full transparency and lack of continuity on and off the field — although understood — can’t be what’s going to produce positive results. Change doesn’t work that way.
Change occurs in crisis situations — like the one we believe the Bears are in — when calm is the overriding emotion and time is not applied as a construct. The remedy? As professor W.S. Scarborough wrote in the early 20th century: “A calm view of the situation with reasonable suggestions as to the best course to follow.” Use the 21st-century North Siders as evidence. In 2009, the Cubs were sold. In October 2011, new ownership brought Theo Epstein in to run things. In November 2014, Theo hired Joe Maddon to run the things that Theo didn’t. In 2016, World Series. The Cubs went from 101 losses to 103 wins in four seasons. Sh*t can happen. The city had patience because the Cubs presented patience — after 108 years — as part of what was needed for their plan to work. Unfortunately the Bears haven’t done that. They are 20 weeks in on what offensive coordinator Luke Getsy called a “17-week process.” Right now, time is more enemy than fiancé.
So here’s a solution, outside of suggesting the McCaskey family sell the team to get some newly needed life, energy and way of thinking in Halas Hall, hoping that an ownership change has the same results for the Bears that it did for the Cubs: Let’s call a rebuild a rebuild without making the Bears say it in their out-loud voices. Results may be two to three years from actually happening.
Look, it’s understood that there are Chicagoans who are soon going to be 35 years old who’ve in their lifetimes only seen this team play in two Conference Championship games (the 1989 loss to the 49ers won’t count as they’da been at best a 1-year-old). There are kids who are just entering high school who have only seen this team play in wild-card games. Only twice. There are 23-year-old Chicago adults who’ve only seen this team play once in February. The wait and weight of the years pile up. The burden of patience has been heavy for those who are all beginning to treat optimism like fake news.
The cycle is vicious. Patience is thin.
Move forward from this day forward with the notion that last season was ground zero, with a new quarterback, new coach and new GM. Let’s put at the forefront that this is Year 2 of the unspoken rebuild (they use the word “build” instead) and Year 1 of the new president, who is still functioning in the shadow of a man who’d been “the man” (Ted Phillips) inside the Halls for almost 40 years. Let’s acknowledge the unexpected setback that Matt Eberflus has to deal with having to now be both defensive coordinator and head coach with the resignation of Alan Williams. Factor that this is Getsy’s first time as an OC at the NFL level to go with Eberflus’ first as head coach. Let’s give time to adapt and adjust to all of the adjustments. Act like we know everything is new to damn-near everyone in non-ownership positions within the organization. As one of the members of the Bears said, “Good food takes time to cook.” Know that our fatigue probably ain’t good for the fix.
Let’s for a minute (aka, a year or two) stop thinking being unforgiving is cool. We ain’t Philly. And even though their heartlessness as a fan base did win them a Super Bowl ring five seasons ago, get them back to a Super Bowl last year after their own “rebuild” and make them so far one of the best teams in the NFL this season, our moral compass has to arch higher. Maybe.
It’s using the Cubs as a contemporary Chicago sports guide of how patience can be the greater good. Giving what’s new a full chance to grow. To ration pain and disappointment out in fragments and not decades on decades of piled on grief topped with anguish served with a side of armchair head-coaching. Where this season isn’t a confutation of what hasn’t happened since 1985, instead it is the second part of what began last year, which was the fresh departure from everything that happened before.
The patience of Job now owned by Jerome … and Jenny and Jimbo and Jaylen and Jennifer and Jacob and anyone in Chicago who named their kid after Jordan.
Just as the title of Amanda Gorman’s new book suggests, ‘‘Something, Someday.’’ A beautiful philosophy to have in this moment. For Bears fans, just know that someday is not going to be today for a while.
