Lovie Smith: Coaching Bears Was A 'Dream Come True'
By Dan Durkin-
(CBS) Lovie Smith isn't under any false pretenses when he leads his Tampa Bay Bucs onto Soldier Field this Sunday to face his former team.
"I know how I'm remembered there (in Chicago)," Smith said in a teleconference Wednesday. "As I come in Sunday, I'm coming in as an opposing coach, that's how I'm looking at it. The year I had off and just being in Chicago for nine years, I don't need anything validated this week. Fans were great to me and my family while we were there, the administration was. Have lifetime friends on the Chicago Bear football team. I think I have all those things right now. I'm an opposing coach coming in on the other side of the field this week."
Smith looks back upon his time in Chicago with nothing but fondness and is proud of what he was able to accomplish in his nine years on the job.
"I'm proud of everything we were able to do," Smith said. "I loved my time there. I loved the organization that I worked for and the opportunity that they gave me. But mas much as anything, the players I got a chance to lead and to coach. The lifetime memories, the lifetime relationships that I was able to form from being there. Of course, that's what will stay with me forever."
During his time with the Bears, Smith led Chicago to an 81-63 (.563) regular-season record, good for third in all-time franchise wins, trailing only Hall of Famers George Halas and Mike Ditka. Smith went 3-3 in the postseason, led the Bears to three division titles, two NFC Championship game appearances and the Super Bowl following the 2006 season, the team's first such berth in 21 years.
The only thing missing from his time in Chicago was a Super Bowl win.
"Being my first head coaching job, all of my philosophies and things that thought I believed in, I got a chance to see them," Smith said. "Every imaginable situation you can be in as a head football coach, I feel like I had a chance to be in there. Despite any game, coaching the Hall of Fame game to coaching in a Super Bowl. Besides winning a Super Bowl, I think as a coach, I got a chance to witness and be a part of just about everything you want to as a coach."
Being able to coach the charter franchise of the NFL fulfilled a wish for Smith.
"A dream come true," Smith said. "Everything that you thought was kind of how it turned out being for me. To come to a storied franchise with a great fan base and to just help to bring that fan base and what was expected back. The things you dream about, that's how it really turned out for me. I enjoyed every day I came to work and the people I had a chance to come to work with. Not only the players, but the staff and the administration. Again, your first job, I'm sure everyone would hope that their first job was like my first job."
Jerry Glanville once joked that NFL stands for "Not for long," and given the impatience organizations show to coaches nowadays, Smith knows he was given a fair shake in Chicago but also feels his best days are still ahead of him.
"To be at a place for nine years in the NFL is pretty good," Smith said. "So, I enjoyed every second I had there. A part of life sometimes, you move on to other places ... I couldn't be happier than where I am right now."
Dan Durkin covers the Bears for CBSChicago.com and is a frequent contributor to 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter at @djdurkin.
