What the McCaskeys always will consider one of the hardest decisions they have had to make–firing family favorite Dick Jauron as the Bears’ head coach–ultimately was an easy one for general manager Jerry Angelo. Four losing seasons in five made it so.
Angelo concluded that Jauron’s popularity wouldn’t be enough to save his job shortly after the Bears were eliminated from the playoffs with a Dec. 7 loss to Green Bay. Part of Angelo’s job description involves removing sentiment from the equation, much simpler to do with a coach like Jauron, with whom Angelo had a chilly relationship.
“I have to be the voice of reason and be more objective about these things,” Angelo said Monday in announcing Jauron’s dismissal.
Objectively, Angelo saw no way retaining a coach with a 35-45 record in five seasons would take the Bears closer to the Super Bowl, no matter how much some members of the McCaskey family lobbied for Jauron’s return.
The organization had empowered Angelo to make such decisions, and it affixed his stamp on the franchise even more boldly Monday by extending Angelo’s contract through 2008. It now runs concurrently with team President Ted Phillips’. Phillips announced both extensions on a day of mixed feelings at Halas Hall.
“I believe [Angelo] will be the architect of our next championship team,” Phillips said. “I believe in his plan, his plan being to build through the draft, develop young players and reward your own.”
Some will interpret Monday’s moves as the day the organization transformed itself from a family business into a corporate firm to compete in the modern NFL. In some ways, Angelo has been updating the Bears’ structure and philosophy since taking over in 2001. But nothing made his fingerprints on the franchise more obvious than firing Jauron.
“We’re a bottom-line business, and looking at Dick’s overall career record, I just didn’t feel the hope we needed to move on to the next level was there,” Angelo said. “I expressed my intent to ownership, and they reiterated to me that the final decision was mine.”
Neither Angelo nor Phillips said ownership necessarily agreed with the decision, and sources say the McCaskeys could have lived with Jauron for another year. Angelo couldn’t.
He and Jauron didn’t mesh, and Jauron privately believed that Angelo made personnel moves–such as trading defensive tackle Ted Washington for draft picks in the preseason–that were designed to make Jauron’s job harder this year.
He considered Angelo a meddler and a frustrated coach, and the two drifted to the point where members of Jauron’s staff privately questioned Angelo’s lack of positive feedback after the Bears staged a mini-run at midseason.
But beyond the personality clash, Angelo simply lost patience with an offense that consistently ranked near the bottom of the league. The Bears’ next coach, Angelo hinted, will come from a pool of six to eight candidates who have a history of getting the ball into the end zone.
“History would tell you the Super Bowl winners have offensive backgrounds,” Angelo said.
History also says that, with the exception of Mike Ditka, the Bears have struggled when hiring head coaches without head-coaching experience. Yet Angelo will not make that a prerequisite for Jauron’s replacement.
“I’m not limited to any particular type,” Angelo said.
He plans to begin interviewing this week, presumably with candidates on staffs of teams that have first-round playoff byes.
That would include Rams defensive coordinator Lovie Smith and Patriots defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, two minority candidates who fit Angelo’s profile. A league source said Monday night the Bears had asked for and received permission to interview Smith.
A league source also said Angelo has talked about former Giants coach Jim Fassel and former Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin, a friend of Jauron’s. Two other offensive-minded NFL assistants, Cowboys offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon and Steelers offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, also represent the type of up-and-coming coaches the Bears could afford.
If the Bears dip into the college ranks, a possibility Angelo didn’t sound overly excited about Monday, a source said Angelo has discussed Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, known as an offensive innovator. Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and LSU’s Nick Saban, an Angelo buddy who is said to lean toward staying where he is, will generate speculation but are considered long shots.
After paring the original list, Angelo plans to bring the final three or four candidates to Halas Hall to meet the McCaskeys, team management and the media. He identified the third week in January as the target date but knows the sooner he hires a coach, the sooner that coach can fill his staff with quality assistants.
“We want someone who has a core knowledge of who we are, what it is to come into this marketplace, respectful of our tradition,” Angelo said. “We’re not going looking for a young Don Shula or Bill Parcells. They’re out there, but I’m not naive enough to think I have that type of intuitive skill to find that person.”
In a gesture most Bears fans will believe when they see it, Phillips pledged that money will not factor into the decision if Angelo identifies the right man. Until Jauron finds another employer, the Bears still owe him the $2.4 million left on his contract and remain on the hook for at least another $1 million due his assistants. Inflation has driven salaries for elite coaches into the $3 million-a-season range and beyond.
“The reality is that we know what the market is for head coaches,” Phillips said. “Jerry’s keeping an open mind in terms of the type of head coach he wants.”
If seeing Angelo ascend to the power position in the franchise made Jauron bristle on the worst day of his professional life, it never showed. After getting the news from Angelo at 9 a.m., he flashed as much humor as sincerity in a team meeting when he told his players an hour later.
“You have to commend a man like that,” Kordell Stewart said. “He was a man about it, and he handled himself with class.”
Never was that classy style more evident than in Jauron’s farewell remarks. Dressed to the nines in a gray suit and blue tie, Jauron began by thanking team matriarch Virginia McCaskey for a “once-in-a-lifetime chance” and moved on to the entire Bears organization, the fans, the media and his coaches and players. He never mentioned Angelo by name.
Jauron, 53, vowed to be back in Chicago, coaching against the Bears, and his name has shown up on the lists of at least two NFL franchises looking for head coaches.
“That’s my goal and my ambition,” he said.
Jauron spoke from the heart without ever losing his composure, referring to a note card so as not to forget to thank anyone and taking no questions–a choice Jauron explained with a smirk.
“I stood here a number of years ago and, quite frankly, I have much more control today than I did then, because I don’t have to answer your questions,” Jauron said. “I have now said everything I had to say. I’ve thought about it a great deal.
“I’ll just tell you thank you very much, and I have loved every moment of it. I certainly wish it could have turned out better, but I am not looking back. I am definitely looking forward.”
The Jauron years
YR REC PL COMMENT
1999 6-10 5th Tabbed Gary Crowton as offensive coordinator.
2000 5-11 5th Jauron’s Cade McNown experiment fails.
2001 13-3 1st Jauron coach of year, but a quick playoff exit.
2002 4-12 3rd Even after poor offensive year, kept John Shoop.
2003 7-9 3rd 1-5 start, injuries the final nail in Jauron coffin.
5 yrs 35-45 — Only 1 winning season, playoff appearance.
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