The Chicago Bears have a new voice at the top of their organization. After rumors swirled the last couple of weeks, the Bears made the official announcement that Kevin Warren will become the new team president and CEO.
Warren comes to the Bears after spending the last few years as the commissioner of the Big Ten. He’s also held front office positions with the St. Louis Rams, Detroit Lions, and Minnesota Vikings spanning the ’90s into the 2010s. Warren becomes the fifth president in team history, taking over for Ted Phillips who will retire at some point this year.
The decision to hire Warren sends a message that the Bears are going in a new direction with their team. He’s the first president with prior football-related experience outside of the Bears organization and should bring a fresh perspective as they look to forge ahead in new business ventures, most notably the new stadium project in Arlington Heights.
Here is our initial grade of the hiring.
Grade: A
The Bears hit a home run, won the lottery, got a hole-in-one, whatever metaphor you want to use. They got this one right. Warren is one of the most qualified individuals for a position like this and instantly transforms the Bears front office. For years, they were known as the “mom and pop shop” run by the McCaskey’s with their close friend Ted serving as president. Now, they’re paying top dollar to bring in a seasoned executive with years of experience in multiple areas of the football world. In other words, they’re moving from their small-town bungalow to a sleek city high rise and are spending the cash to do it.
Warren has had success basically everywhere he has gone. From helping the Rams get their first Super Bowl title in St. Louis, to playing a pivotal role in the Vikings’ new stadium plans in Minneapolis. With the Big Ten, Warren navigated uncharted waters with the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020 football season and, even with some missteps along the way, came out on top with a lucrative television rights deal as well as expansion with USC and UCLA set to join the conference. It wasn’t perfect, but he persevered.
Now he’s tasked with turning the Bears into a relevant football team again. The biggest of those tasks will be the new stadium project in Arlington Heights, which now looks like a lock more than it ever has. But there will be more on his plate than just a new stadium. General manager Ryan Poles will now report to Warren, changing up the structure that was implemented even just last year where he was reporting to George McCaskey. It’s another check put in place, only this time the person responsible has other experiences outside one organization to rely on, unlike Phillips.
Last but certainly not least, the Bears broke barriers yet again by hiring Warren, a person of color, for the job. Last year, they hired their first Black general manager in Poles, and this year they hired their first Black president in Warren. For a team that’s had a checkered past, whether it was George Halas’ role in banning African Americans from the sport in the 1930s and 1940s, or the claims that the Bears wouldn’t embrace African-American quarterbacks prior to the selection of Justin Fields, hiring Warren is a major step forward.
It’s good to see them embrace a diverse front office and it sends a message to the league that the Bears are working to be on the forefront of change in that regard. With Warren now on board, that’s going to be the case for many more initiatives. It’s an exciting time to be a Bears fan.
