The firing of former Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith was always going to be one of the more peculiar moves of this off-season for the Chicago Bears, at least in my opinion. Smith went 81-63 in Chicago with a Super Bowl appearance and had just won 10 games the season prior. A track record that many teams would love for their head coach to have.
For the first time, Bears’ GM Phil Emery elaborated on why Smith was let go and the thought process behind the decision.
“We were in a position where if he stayed, he would be picking his fifth offensive coordinator,” said Emery to SI’s Peter King.”Part of it was because I really believe looking at a team that if you’re going to have success, the most important relationship is between the head coach and the quarterback.
“I like our quarterback. I think Jay Cutler is very talented. He wants to improve. I know he needed to improve for us to be a championship team. When we were looking at making a change we knew that if we were going to do it we were going to make that the focus point. We had to work from that end.”
I think the biggest takeaway from the whole situation in general is the fact that we live in a ‘what have you done for me lately?’ society.