Bear Digest

George McCaskey sees brighter days in state of the Bears address

The Bears owner remembered his mother, the late Virginia McCaskey, and looked ahead to a season with positive energy from regime change permeating the franchise.
Gene Chamberlain|
George McCaskey on State of the Bears
George McCaskey on State of the Bears

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Chicago Bears

As state of the Bears addresses go, it was an emotional one.

Bears board chairman George McCaskey pondered a season opener coming without the beloved team matriarch, the late Virginia McCaskey. His eyes welled up a bit and words were slower.

“It will be an adjustment," McCaskey said. "Sunday and next Sunday will help, because I think September 8th will be difficult.

"But again, she showed us the way, her leadership, her guidance, her direction has been invaluable. We have all been the beneficiaries of it.”

Unbeaten

Virginia McCaskey, who died at age 102 in February, left her family with a team and franchise now on what looks like a decided upswing with Ben Johnson as the new coach.

“Everyone's very hopeful," George McCaskey said. "Everyone's very excited. Talking to the fans coming into practices, we're in the honeymoon period, we're undefeated.

"So, I think people are very excited that we got the guy that they wanted us to get, but now we need to take care of business.”

The guy, Johnson, has lit a fire under the team and provided what seems like a cultural shift from the Matt Eberflus era.

Agent for change

“I wouldn't say a shift," McCaskey said. "When you're successful, they say you have great culture, and when you are struggling, they say, well, that must be a problem with the culture.

"He's an agent of change, that's for sure. We're looking for positive results from him."

The last few Bear practices provided evidence supporting this more than anything else. If they can get the offense playing with the defense's efficiency, it could be a rapid turnaround from last year's 5-12 disaster.

"He's intense," McCaskey said of Johnson. "He's demanding. He's committed. He's intelligent."

Friday's joint practice with Miami went well for the defense while the Bears offense seemed to at least come close to a standoff, with some big plays going both ways.

It was the Tuesday practice that still has players buzzing about how much hitting they did from the start of practice until the end. It was the kind of thing players could eventually look back on as a watershed moment.

"I definitely think that," safety Kevin Byard said. "I think everybody was saying the same thing we got in the locker room. It was the most intense practice ever.

"Obviously, we knew we had an off day coming, so I think that was the talk in the locker rooms. Like, ‘Hey, let's go. Let's really go.’ The coaches got guys riled up a little bit. Dennis Allen made a joke, like, ‘I haven't seen a tussle or nothing during training camp.' I think guys kind of took that personal."

McCaskey searched back through the years to compare to past Bears practices.

“It reminded me of the good old days of two-a-days, but you saw it getting a little chippy today for the joint practice," McCaskey said. "The guys are getting physical. I think that's an indication of how hard they're working. I think it's also an indication of how hot it is and how humid it's been, but no big blow ups. So, positive results."

Other movement ahead

The movement forward seems across the board, albeit without a snap taken in the season. The contract extension for GM Ryan Poles means they're behind the personnel department as much as they are the team itself.

"He is a world-class leader, talented," Bears president Kevin Warren said. "He's hard-working. He has a transformative thought process, which is critically important.

"Just thankful for the support of George H. McCaskey and the entire ownership group to be able to allow us to work that out with Ryan, and now to be able to see the relationship that Ryan and coach Johnson have built allows us to have a chance to be able to build a really good football team and the football program with two young leaders."

The Arlington Heights stadium project is close to taking off with just a push needed from the legislature in Springfield on property taxes.

The inner workings of the team are moving forward. After Virginia McCaskey's death, they had a board of directors vacancy.

“We added my favorite nephew, Edward Lawrence McCaskey, to the board," George McCaskey said. "He's going to fill Virginia's vacancy. I told him, you've got big shoes to fill here. He's been fantastic so far. He's bright. He’s articulate, he has great questions. He's eager to learn and it's exciting to have the next generation of our family on the board.”

Bears worth $8.8 billion

McCaskey didn't want to confirm a Sportico report that the McCaskeys and the Ryan family agreed to split the 2% equity they agreed to buy back from the estate of the late Andrew McKenna.

The report said the Bears are valued at $8.8 billion, quite a bit more than the $6.4billion projected in the latest Forbes NFL value rankings.

It would seem the franchise is moving in a different direction than when they were firing the head coach right after last Thanksgiving.

McCaskey cited the leadership provided by his mother for the positive franchise outlook.

“We're together," he said. "I said then, she gave us the game plan. She coached us up and we need to execute the game plan. Our goal is to remain the owners of the Bears, my brother (secretary) Pat (McCaskey) says, until the second coming. I say another a hundred years, either of those would be great. But we have to stick together. That's the important thing.”

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.