The Bernstein Brief: The Problem With John Fox's Idea
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) John Fox likes to think of the Bears' admissions standards as being like those of an Ivy League college.
As detailed by the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, Fox described his prerequisites for Halas Hall like those of Harvard and Yale.
"They actually start with a more selective product," he said. "You have to have this, you have to have that, you have to have this, even just to get in."
He's talking about football intelligence, professionalism, work ethic and utter dedication to the game, devoid of distracting outside interests. I get it, but he has to see what's wrong with this clumsy analogy coming from the head coach of an NFL team.
Ivy League schools are bad at football, relative to their big-conference counterparts. They have to play against each other to avoid being thrashed by schools without those other requirements that have nothing to do with size and speed and athleticism.
Even places like Northwestern and Duke place themselves at a competitive disadvantage by choosing to limit their pool of recruits to those who can handle a more rigorous academic load.
It's pro football, John.
As long as you're in that business, try to be more like Alabama or Ohio State.
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.
