The Bernstein Brief: Vic Fangio, Bears' Truth-Teller
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) While Bears general manager Ryan Pace openly celebrates pushing "all-in" on his risky draft and coach John Fox grumbles along about whatever he's seemingly forced to discuss, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio remains comparatively refreshing in his inability to lie.
Unlike his bosses, Fangio has never felt compelled to sell a product or an idea when it comes to his side of the ball, a personality trait on display once again after rookie mini-camp this weekend. Is the defense better now than it was last year, Vic?
"Well, that remains to be seen," he said.
No bluster or bumbling or optimistic word salad from him, and that sentiment summed up his assessment of pretty much everything right now, that he knows about as well as we do if any of the free agent signings or draft picks have done any good.
"We've got to go through all these OTAs, go through training camp and see what happens in the games," Fangio said. "I'm not one to predict that it's going to be this or that. We've got to see."
Can't argue with that.
Fangio sees his job as coaching whatever he has to be as good as it can be, not trying to make you feel any better about it than you should. It might be one reason he has had little interest from teams looking for a head coach despite being held in high esteem both personally and as a defensive strategist, with so many NFL executives often terrified of the truth.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Bernstein and Goff Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.