Bears coach Lovie Smith can be a spinner of fairy tales at times.
Devin Hester is a No. 1 receiver. Remember that one?
I also recall Smith proclaiming that the Bears’ victory in Minnesota last January actually was their first win of this season, or something similarly palm-to-forehead ludicrous. Does that make the Bears 5-0 at the break this week? Is this like geometry class where you get to drop your lowest grade and in this case replace it with a win from last season?
Perhaps thinking Bears fans are as easily brainwashed as his players, Smith tends to manufacture stories that fit every situation and turn of events. Like he planned for it to come out just this way or just that way. Magically. Amazingly. Perfectly.
You’d think a guy who smugly acts like he knew the result all along would have won a Super Bowl by now.
Or at least played in more than one.
Or at least made the playoffs more than once since that Super Bowl in January, 2006.
Which makes you wonder about a report that the Bears have tried to open contract extension talks with Smith. I don’t know if it’s true, but it sounds as silly as some of the fertilizer Smith has spread in his explanations over the years.
The Bears have Smith under contract this season and next at about $5.5 million per. Let him earn that first. Don’t get suckered by a 4-1 record heading into the off week.
I mean, what if this was last season when the Bears were 7-3? They were the hottest team in the league. They were rolling to a Super Bowl. Then Jay Cutler went down. Then Matt Forte went down. Then we saw that Smith can’t coach above his players the way, say, Bill Belichick seems to.
Smith’s team and backup quarterback couldn’t beat dogbreath teams and backup quarterbacks Tyler Palko or Tim Tebow last season. Five million bucks, and a defensive-minded head coach can’t stop his team from blowing a 10-point lead in the final two minutes?
This season, we’re seeing a Bears team where the best players have been the best players, if not all game, every game, then at least when it mattered in the second halves. So, Smith looks like a great coach.
But he isn’t and won’t be until he wins a Super Bowl.
Smith has a terrific overall record for the league’s heritage franchise. His players play hard for him. All good stuff. But that’s not the object of the exercise. Winning the Super Bowl is.
Why are the Bears reportedly in a hurry to throw another $10 or $20 million at a guy whose only playoff win since 2006 came at home against the worst division winner in history?
I’ll hang up and listen for my hummena-hummena-hummena.
Bears GM Phil Emery hasn’t said anything on the issue, which is what you’d expect. Smith’s son Matthew, who serves as his father’s agent, denied the report. Good. I’m hoping that at least one member of the Smith family is familiar with telling the truth in public.
