Rod Graves said it was not simply the “ambiguity, uncertainty and indecisiveness” in the Bears’ front office that caused him to resign Monday as personnel chief after 13 years with the team, but “matters of principle.”
Clearly, however, his decision has everything to do with a lack of direction in an organization that lamely said goodbye Monday to its second personnel director in four years.
“I’m not going to make an attempt to make sense out of something that doesn’t make sense with some idle words,” Graves said. “There are reasons, but I don’t choose to harp on those reasons right now. I think, as in all situations, things run their course. And I think in my case, it has run its course here and I’ll jump on another track and hopefully run just as fast or faster somewhere else.”
When it came down to it, Graves was simply tired of waiting for a decision on his fate from Bears President Michael McCaskey, who publicly declared his displeasure over the team’s personnel in January and said a front-office restructuring was in the works.
Given a choice to remain, Graves, whose contract expires May 31, said, “It was not clear to me in what capacity.”
At the heart of the conflict was the very structure of which McCaskey had spoken. Without a general manager or anyone other than McCaskey to answer to, personnel and coaching disagreements often went unsettled.
There was some question by McCaskey, sources say, over whether Graves, 38, was too young for such a position. But while Graves felt the need for someone to be in authority, he did not insist that he be the one to fill that role.
Graves did, however, want certain assurances, among them that his six-man scouting department, one of the smallest in the league, be beefed up. And clearly he was stunned by McCaskey’s comments the week before the Super Bowl. “I was not keenly aware of his feelings at that particular point,” Graves said. “But obviously he made it known and here we stand today.”
Likening the occasion to “kind of an Irish wake,” McCaskey announced Graves’ resignation by saying he was “disappointed that he asked me (to accept the resignation). He’s been with the Bears for 13 years, and he’s just the kind of person you want representing your organization.”
What is next for the Bears remains uncertain. McCaskey said he is in the process of talking to a few people about joining the team in a personnel capacity. He reiterated that the new person would not be a general manager per se, but someone with responsibilities similar to Graves’.
McCaskey said he would not mention names, but among the candidates are believed to be Pittsburgh’s college personnel coordinator, Tom Modrak, and San Diego’s director of player personnel, Billy Devaney
“We’re working on that, and we hope to bring it to a relatively quick conclusion,” McCaskey said.
McCaskey said he did not know what the precise job description would be. “It will be a role that depends in part on who the person is,” he said. “And since we don’t know who that is yet, it would be hard to say with any exactitude right now.”
McCaskey cut short a question-and-answer session, and Bears coach Dave Wannstedt was similarly reticent on the topic of Graves’ resignation. “The only thing I can really say is that Rod and I worked very well together,” Wannstedt said. “I obviously respect him as a talent evaluator and as a person.”
Wannstedt did say of the new hire, “This will be an important guy if we’re going to maximize what has to be done within the organization.”
Graves, who succeeded Bill Tobin after Tobin left under somewhat similar circumstances in 1993, has spoken to several other teams, including the New England Patriots, regarding possible employment but would not elaborate on where he might go.
The Bears’ scouts are all under contract for next season with the exception of pro scout Mike McCartney, and Graves praised them for their efforts during trying times.
Citing a desire to take the high road and acknowledging his associations with Mike Ditka and Tobin, Graves said he leaves the organization “much richer than I arrived.” He would not go so far as to say he was a scapegoat.
“This is a business where it’s not uncommon for finger-pointing to begin when things don’t go right,” he said. “And when you accept a position like mine, whether it’s coming from upstairs or whether it’s coming from the general public or just coming from your colleagues, you’re in a position where you have to accept blame when things aren’t going right.”
The fact that he left on his own terms, said Graves, provided some consolation. It did not, however, give him satisfaction.
“Obviously, I would like to have been carried out on somebody’s shoulders,” he said with a grin, “but that’s simply not the case today.”
