The bad news is the Bears went down in a spectacular heap to end the 2020 season, torturing fans with their special blend of ineptitude and self-immolation.
The good news is all the guys in charge will be back in 2021.
Go on, dance in the streets. You know you want to.
In this week’s “Polling Place” — your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter — we asked respondents to weigh in on the whole same-old, same-old situation, from chairman George McCaskey on down to coach Matt Nagy. It went as richly in the Bears’ favor as one would expect it to.
“It’s like an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone,’ ” @JBIRD1268 observed.
We also asked who among McCaskey, president/CEO Ted Phillips, general manager Ryan Pace and Nagy would be the one to spare if a “fire everybody” scenario came to be.
“This is a trick question,” @MGoldstick commented. “NONE.”
And about the proverbial arrow: Is it pointed up for the Bears? Down? Neither?
“I voted ‘up’ by accident,” @kbannon shared. “Meant to hit ‘down.’ ”
Of course he did. On to the polls:
Poll No. 1: Your take on the Bears moving forward from another 8-8 season with the front office and head coaching positions intact?
Time again for our weekly @suntimes "Polling Place" questions. Let us hear from you! Selected comments will appear in Saturday's paper.
— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) January 14, 2021
Q1: Your take on the Bears moving forward from another 8-8 season with the front office and head coaching positions intact?
Upshot: The people have spoken. Only one problem with that, best we can tell: The Bears aren’t listening. They’ll move forward with a braintrust whose brains seem to be at the very center of the problem — practically no one outside the organization trusts them.
Poll No. 2: If you had to keep one, and only one, going forward with the Bears, whom would it be?
Q2: If you had to keep one, and only one, going forward with the Bears, whom would it be?
— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) January 14, 2021
Upshot: One assumes the McCaskey votes are less about him than they are about the other, more directly football-oriented positions. How that could possibly make Phillips feel any better about these results, we don’t know. And Pace? If he’s paying attention to this, he can only take it as the no-confidence haymaker from fans that it is.
Poll No. 3: Which way is the arrow pointed for the Bears?
Q3: Which way is the arrow pointed for the Bears?
— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) January 14, 2021
Upshot: “Bear Down, Chicago Bears” clearly isn’t just a fight song anymore. If respondents are right, we might as well start erecting statues in honor of the last couple of 8-8 squads. Something tells us the Packers aren’t too scared about what awaits them in 2021.
