The Bernstein Brief: A Bad Idea That Has To Stop -- Adam Gase As Bears Head Coach
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) The Bears' Adam Gase is probably going to be an NFL head coach very soon, and that's fine and good.
He's a solid offensive coordinator and deserves the chance that he had to let pass a year ago, when the dysfunctional 49ers were set to offer him their job. He only bailed when they tried to force Jim Tomsula on him to run the defense, and we know how that worked out.
Gase may do well in charge of a team, or he may not. Regardless, a line of stupidity infecting local sports thought is that the Bears would be well served to either replace coach John Fox with Gase now or pay Gase to be some kind of anointed coach-in-waiting.
Both ideas are ridiculous.
Gase isn't Joe Maddon, and Fox isn't Rick Renteria. I have heard and read that comparison made locally, and it's startlingly inapplicable.
Fox isn't some doddering geriatric patient, either. He's 60, which isn't even old. For comparison, Tom Thibodeau is almost 58. Maddon is 61. Why should Gase not have every chance to set out on his own?
Beyond that, it even boggles the mind that one is compelled to form a counter-argument to something so laughable. What franchise would want to appear that rash and panicky in the early stages of rebuilding, already believing it had lucked into the right coach at the right time, particularly one who's installing a new way of doing day-to-day business and had a long track record of hiring smart, successful assistants at every stop?
This insanity has to end, now.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
