Top 5 Chicago Sports Stories In 2014
Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
The demise of the Chicago Bears
The Bears are the one team in Chicago that can unite the city like no other team. Some people may not like baseball, basketball or hockey, so when the talk revolves around the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls or Blackhawks, they will turn off. When it comes to baseball, there are the Cubs faction and the White Sox faction, and one detests the other.
When it comes to the Bears, however, it seems that EVERYONE is a fan. Even the smallest mundane item about the Bears can be blown up out of proportion. That is why the dysfunctional 2014 Chicago Bears season is the Chicago Sports Story of the Year.
The season started out with such hope. After another frustrating loss to the Green Bay Packers that cost them the NFC North title, the Bears got busy in assembling a better team for 2014.
The first moves made by Phil Emery was to re-sign Tim Jennings, Matt Slauson and Jay Cutler. The Cutler signing raised a few eyebrows, as they signed him for $126 million ($54 million guaranteed), when the Bears could have franchised him and see how he played before rewarding him.
Emery then went to repairing the defense. He went with defensive players in the first three rounds, including cornerback Kyle Fuller in the first round. Through free agency, Emery acquired Lamarr Houston, Willie Young, Ryan Mundy and the pearl of the defensive free agents, Jared Allen.
With all the changes made, the Bears had their fanbase hopeful. The offense in Marc Trestman’s first year as coach was incredible, finishing second in scoring only to the history-making Denver Broncos. Many were thinking playoffs, and a few even thought Super Bowl.
Well, reality hit hard right away with a loss to the Buffalo Bills. There was a good win against the San Francisco 49ers, but things got bad.
After a great road win against the Atlanta Falcons the Bears were 3-3. They then went out and looked lethargic and had no energy against the Miami Dolphins, and that started a downward spiral that they could not get out of.
There was a Brandon Marshall blow up in the locker room after the Dolphins game. Cutler kept throwing interceptions, and the defense stopped trying to keep the opposition from scoring. In fact, they allowed the opposition to score 50+ points in consecutive games, and one of them came after the bye week!
After that win in Atlanta, the Bears have gone 2-7, and both of those wins came in consecutive weeks. They are in the midst of a four game losing streak at the current moment, with one game remaining.
The Bears lockers room has been a three-ring circus with no ringmaster. Lance Briggs admitted to tuning out coaches, Cutler has shown no leadership and no concern over his bad performances, and Trestman continues to say that the Bears have had great weeks of practices, but for some reason it doesn’t translate to games.
Speaking of Cutler, he continued going in front of the media and saying the right things, but game after game he keeps making the same mistakes. Reports came out that the Bears were having “buyer’s remorse” over Cutler’s contract. It later came out that the criticism told to the reporter came from offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer.
Kromer broke the cardinal rule of going public with things that should be done in-house. He apologized to the team and Cutler, but the damage was done and Kromer will not be back.
Neither will Mel Tucker, who has been at the helm of two of the worst defensive seasons in Bears history. He looks out of his element at the sidelines, and his schemes have been utter failures. At one point in a game against the Packers, it looked like there were three different defensive schemes going on in one play.
Trestman may not survive the chopping block, either. Reports are swirling that he will be fired on Black Monday, the day after the end of the NFL regular season when a number of coaches get fired.
Perhaps with that in mind, Trestman finally benched Cutler in favor of Jimmy Clausen, who owns a 1-9 record as a starter. Clasuen actually didn’t do bad, but the Bears lost again.
Later it turned out that Clausen suffered a concussion and would not play the season finale, so Cutler is right back in there.
It should be an active offseason for the team. Since all of this dysfunction occurred under his watch, the question will be whether Emery will get a chance to fix his mistakes, or if someone else will be brought in to clean up the mess that is the Chicago Bears.