Dave McGinnis Once Was Bears Head Coach -- And Didn't Know It
Dave McGinnis woke in his Chicago hotel room at 7 o'clock that Friday morning and readied for what he hoped would be the best day of his career.
One day earlier, McGinnis had blitzed the Windy City during his initial interview for the Bears' head-coaching job, convincing the organization's decision-makers – and an impressed media corps – he was the man to restore the team to its glory years of the mid-1980s. Dave Wannstedt had failed to do so in six years at the helm following Mike Ditka, leaving the Bears with an opening in 1999 to lead one of the NFL's most storied franchises.
It seemed near impossible anything could go wrong Friday, when McGinnis was scheduled to complete his interview with Bears president Mike McCaskey, a meeting most expected to include a formal offer for the job and a hammering out of contract details.
But as the time ticked by – 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 9:15 – without word from the Bears as to when he'd return to the facility, McGinnis began to wonder what was going on.
Then came three phone calls that kicked off one of the strangest coach-hiring sagas in NFL history, a day-long series of events that earned notoriety more because of what ultimately didn’t happen than what did.
McGinnis first heard from current Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, at that time a promising college assistant at Illinois looking to make a leap to the NFL. Frazier told McGinnis he'd been offered a job on another NFL staff, but wanted to see if McGinnis might hire him in Chicago before he accepted the position.
“Well, Les, you know I'd love to have you on my staff, but I don't have that job yet,” McGinnis said. “I haven't even finished up my interview yet.”
Awkward pause.
“He said, `Coach, it's on the radio. There's a press conference at 11. You're the head coach,'” McGinnis said. “I said, `Les, that's the first I've heard of it.'”
McGinnis put down the hotel phone, only to hear moments later from Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary, who McGinnis had coached in Chicago earlier in his career.
“Mike says, `Congratulations, Coach, I just heard the news and I'm very excited. I'm going to go to the press conference,'” McGinnis said. “I said, `Mike, I don't know what's going on, but there's no press conference I'm aware of.' He said, `Coach, they're announcing on the radio that you're the next head coach of the Bears.'”
His head spinning by this time, McGinnis hung up with Singletary and heard the phone ring yet again. It was Bears general manager Mark Hatley at last, though his message hardly brought clarity.
“He said, `Mac, where are you?'” McGinnis said. “I told him, `I'm still in my hotel where you dropped me off last night, waiting for someone to pick me up this morning.' He said, `You mean nobody has called you this morning from the Bears?' I said, `No.' And he went, `Oh, God.'”
IT’S A DREAM JOB
McGinnis, who's in his fourth year as the Tennessee Titans' radio analyst, looked like a great fit for the Bears' head job following Wannstedt's six seasons – which produced a 40-56 record and just one playoff berth.
Thirteen years earlier, a 34 year-old McGinnis had begun his NFL coaching career in Chicago under Ditka, joining the Bears only months after the famous 1985 team had steamrolled its way to a Super Bowl title.
One of McGinnis' first challenges: Earn the respect of linebackers Singletary, Wilber Marshall and Otis Wilson, who made up the game's best starting trio. He took a big step in that direction just a month into his tenure, when McGinnis was asked to introduce the three stars – whom he'd yet to coach – and present them with their Super Bowl rings at a gala dinner event.
“I'll never forget sitting next to Mike Ditka that night, and after Dave got done introducing those players and talking about them, telling Mike this guy is going to be a head coach someday,” said NFL agent Bryan Harlan, who was then head of the Bears' media relations staff. “This guy was just 34 years old. He'd just gotten there from the college ranks and hadn't even coached any of them. But he was so polished and so confident. He did such a great job in a very tough spot, that it was obvious from the very start this guy had head coach written all over him.”
McGinnis would indeed make a strong impression during a decade as the Bears linebackers coach, helping Chicago's defense to a top-10 ranking in seven of those 10 years. The Bears made the playoffs in five of McGinnis' first six years there, reaching the NFC title game in 1988.
“The most important thing is that Dave just always had a way with players,” Singletary said. “He was definitely a favorite with us. He always had a way with people overall. He was just a good guy to be around, a good guy to deal with. He was well liked in the organization.”
That high esteem extended to the franchise's upper echelon, as McGinnis built long-lasting bonds with the McCaskey family. Ed McCaskey served as the team's chairman of the board and was married to Virginia McCaskey, who just happened to be the daughter of legendary Bears coach George Halas. One of the couple's sons, Mike, was the Bears' president.
So, when the team found itself in search of a head coach following the 1998 campaign, it only made sense that McGinnis – who'd spent the previous three seasons as Arizona's defensive coordinator – earned immediate attention.
“It's a dream job if you come up through the ranks coaching, to be the head coach of the Chicago Bears,” McGinnis said. “I had a great relationship with the entire McCaskey family, the entire Bears organization and really, the entire city of Chicago. It was a very good situation.”
IT FELT RIGHT
There was no lack of competition. The Bears also interviewed Gunther Cunningham, Dick Jauron, Sherman Lewis and Joe Pendry. McGinnis was the final interview, flown in Wednesday night from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., for his turn in the spotlight on Thursday.
Among his tasks was a meeting with the Chicago press corps, the same scenario the other candidates had followed. But there was something about McGinnis' energy, his passion for the Bears' organization and his familiarity with all of the Windy City that seemed to blow away the competition.
“He left everyone at that press conference with the impression that he was going to get the job, that it was going to happen,” said Melissa Isaacson, former Bears beat writer for the Chicago Tribune and now a faculty member at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. “We all wrote that it was going to happen. Everybody there was just saying it seemed so obvious.”
McGinnis' discussions with Hatley, the McCaskey family and the rest of the Bears' brass seemed to go smoothly as well. The veteran coach had come well prepared, toting a large binder filled with detailed plans for mini-camps, training camp, the draft and roster evaluation.
One hitch to Thursday's interview? Mike McCaskey had to halt it earlier than planned that afternoon, due to a meeting with Chicago mayor Richard Daley about the team's proposed stadium upgrade. So, McGinnis agreed to return Friday morning to continue the process, since no formal offer had yet been made. Still, all signs looked positive when McGinnis headed back to his hotel.
“The whole interview process was awesome,” McGinnis said. “There are some times you just know that it feels right. I mean, it felt right.”
WELCOME, DAVE McGINNIS
One morning later, however, McGinnis was baffled by the phone calls from Frazier and Singletary, each man telling McGinnis he'd been announced as the Bears' head coach. How could that be, McGinnis wondered, considering there had been no contract talks, no talk of a coaching staff – no one actually telling him he'd been named head coach?
After a panicked Hatley asked him to return to the team's facility, McGinnis jumped in his car, turned his radio station to WGN and heard the stunning report himself.
“Sure enough, they're saying, `Welcome, Dave McGinnis, one of our own will be Chicago's next head coach. Tune in live for the press conference,'” McGinnis said. “So, I drive over there and you've got all the satellite trucks ready to go, everyone's in the building. It's a big deal.”
What exactly had happened?
It eventually became clear that McCaskey – perhaps because things had gone so well during the previous day's interview, perhaps because of his long relationship with McGinnis, perhaps because he'd successfully worked contracts with McGinnis in the past – had gotten well ahead of himself.
He'd sent out an internal memo to the organization saying McGinnis would be the team's next head coach, even scheduling a time for the press conference – all without any confirmation whatsoever from McGinnis.
“I'll never forget the secretary, I guess Dave Wannstedt's old secretary, was already answering the phone, `Dave McGinnis' office,'” Harlan said. “It was that far along. Everybody internally thought it was done because we'd gotten this memo.”
Added Isaacson: “Everybody was so poised for him to be walking in as the next head coach. Not only had they printed out the press release, but they'd changed the voice mail to say Dave McGinnis. It was done! It was so done.”
But it wasn't.
As much as the dream job meant to McGinnis, he didn't feel right accepting it under those circumstances – without any firm contract details, without any commitment to his potential staff, without anyone having told him he'd earned the position before word leaked.
So, as he sat in McCaskey's office, a huge portrait of Halas in the background, McGinnis stated his position clearly, expressing grave concerns about the likelihood of him actually taking the job he'd so actively sought.
“I said, `Michael, with all due respect, you know how much I love this place, and how much I respect you,'” McGinnis said. “This is an iconic franchise in the league. You know how much I value the tradition of the Bears. But I don't understand what's going on here. I've been named the head coach of the Chicago Bears before the job was even offered to me.
“I told him it was about doing things the right way because I'd wanted this to last for a long time. But starting off like that? That just didn't feel right.”
"WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?"
Harlan, meanwhile, was put in a difficult position, delaying what was supposed to have been McGinnis' inaugural press conference while trying to make it appear the situation was less than disastrous.
“The cameras were showing shots of an empty podium, or of me kind of stumbling through things to buy time,” Harlan said. “Nobody knew what was going on with contract negotiations. It was not a good situation. It was rough. It was a very awkward deal.”
Chicago's media knew something was up, of course, and Isaacson soon found herself holding two phones – talking to McGinnis' agent on one line, to Hatley on the other. She recalls hearing dramatically different viewpoints from each of the two sides.
“One ear was saying, `We've hired him,' and the other ear was saying, `They're saying what? Are you kidding?'” Isaacson said. “I'm reading the press releases to one side, while Hatley is starting to get panicked because he knows I'm talking to (McGinnis' agent). It was very exciting as a reporter just because it was so stunning.”
Meanwhile back in McCaskey's office, another issue had reared its ugly head: When McCaskey eventually got around to telling McGinnis what he was thinking about in terms of a potential contract – again, after the press conference had already been called – the terms weren't at all to McGinnis' liking. The amount of money wasn't an issue, McGinnis said. But McCaskey's first proposal was a four-year deal that gave the Bears an option to buy McGinnis and his staff out after two years, not exactly the kind of commitment that would make a first-time head coach comfortable.
“I said, `Wait a minute, what are you doing? How can I do that?'” McGinnis said. “I said, `That's not the relationship I've had with this club for 10 years, and it wasn't the relationship I had with this club up through last night. What are we doing here?'”
The Bears eventually cancelled Friday's press conference, sending media home with more questions than answers, and leaving Chicago's eager football family dejected – but not completely out of hope.
“I knew things were off the track, but I still thought a deal would get done,” Singletary said. “I really did. Because Dave was so well liked by the team, so respected by the organization and so well liked in the community. It was tough for me to envision things not getting worked out.”
THE FALLOUT
The two sides did give it one more try the following morning, as McGinnis traveled to McCaskey's office yet again. To their credit, the Bears upped their offer, modifying the proposal to guarantee all four years.
But the damage had been done by that point – both procedurally and contractually – as far as McGinnis was concerned.
“We sat there for a little while the next morning and (McCaskey) finally looked at me and said, `Look, this just isn't going to work, is it?'” McGinnis said. “I said, `No, Michael, it's not. I'm saddened by the way this is. This is not good for anybody.'”
Hours later, McGinnis was on a plane headed back to Phoenix, where he returned to his job as the Cardinals' defensive coordinator. McGinnis eventually got his head-coaching opportunity in the NFL, as he replaced Arizona's Vince Tobin halfway through the 2000 season. In three-and-a-half years at the helm of the talent-poor Cardinals, McGinnis posted a 17-40 record. He later spent eight years as the Titans' linebackers coach and five more seasons as an assistant to Jeff Fisher with the Rams.
The Bears almost immediately hired Jauron, who produced a 35-45 record – and one playoff berth – over the next five seasons. McCaskey, meanwhile, suffered repercussions from the botched hiring of McGinnis. Most of his operational responsibilities for the franchise were taken away, and he was demoted from president to chairman of the board.
One of the more positive people you'll ever come across, McGinnis to this day has nothing but good things to say about the Bears organization and the McCaskey family. He seems to hold no bitterness over a bungled hiring that in the words of Harlan, “should have been a lay-up.”
The one word McGinnis most often uses to describe those strange few January days of 1999 – when an announcement was made but never came to fruition – is a simple one.
“Sad. It really made me sad because I think it could have been a very good thing,” McGinnis said. “And it was hard, hard to turn down. I mean, come on, this was the head coach of the Bears. That's a great opportunity.”
He's still reminded of fortune's strange course from time to time, especially when he visits the Windy City, as was the case last year when the Titans played at Chicago in a preseason game. McGinnis took a stroll around downtown with another member of the radio broadcast crew, Jonathan Hutton, on the morning of the contest, greeting some fans who still recognized him more than two decades after his last season with the Bears.
“We're walking across the Chicago River, and Hutton looks at me and said, `Mac, just think about it. You could have been the head coach of this city,'” McGinnis said. “I just said, `I know, man. I know it.'”
