Tuesday started off strangely for the Chicago Bears and head coach Matt Nagy. By the end of the day, strange wasn’t nearly strong enough of a word.
After a tumultuous few days for the coach, in which “Fire Nagy” chants had broken out in all corners of Chicago (including at his son’s football game) and a report circulated that the Bears’ Thanksgiving game against the Lions would be his last, Nagy emphatically denied the rumors he was on his way out in a press conference.
That’s when things started to get really weird. According to the Chicago Tribune, sometime between that press conference and the team’s walk-through practice, Nagy met with ownership – telling players the meeting was about “moving forward” and that “no one knows what tomorrow will bring.”
He did not address the report or the lingering doubts about his status with the team, which left some players “angry,” according to the Tribune. Then, Nagy canceled all of the team’s meetings for the rest of the afternoon – a highly unusual move, especially since they are less than 48 hours away from kickoff in Detroit.
It leaves the organization in a state of unrest. A source described the handling of the situation to the Chicago Tribune’s Dan Wiederer as “remarkably clumsy,” with the reporter noting that “an organization’s professionalism in moments like these is judged at least somewhat leaguewide by other coaches, execs, etc.”
It seems like Nagy is as good as gone, but who is going to want to take the job as his replacement after everything that has gone down? Who leaked the story that he was going to be fired to Mark Konkol, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist? What’s true? What’s not?
The Bears will be a fascinating team to watch over the next few weeks – for reasons entirely separate from the mediocre product they put on the field.