Did I Get Bamboozled On The Bears? Or Did Something Change?
CHICAGO — Did I get bamboozled when a trusted source, in the position to know, told me Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy was told he would not be on the sidelines after Thanksgiving?


Or did something change at Halas Hall after I reported what the high-level source told me?

I don't know.

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When I offered the Bears a chance to officially say the information wasn't true, I got snarky answers rather than straight ones.

And when reporters deluged the Bears' front office with questions, the team opted for silence.


And when Nagy had a conversation with ownership later that same day — then took the "unusual" step of canceling the rest of the day's meetings — the Bears continued to officially opt for silence.

What I do know is that many folks — some who make a living writing about the Bears — don't trust the organization to always tell the whole truth.


I don't want to have that problem with my readers.

Over more than 20 years covering every aspect of Chicago from government and courts to neighborhoods and sports, I've developed reporting relationships with a multitude of trusted sources who have provided tips, details and documents that exposed corruption, righted wrongs and held public officials accountable.


If my source fed me bad information about Nagy, I should have done better, much in the way the Bears should have done better.

There seems to be little question among those who regularly cover the team and cover it well that the Bears soon will part ways with a head coach who has lost the support of fans and, according to several reports, even the players.

Was that going to happen this weekend? Will it happen next week? At the end of the season?

I don't know. A trusted source in a position to know confidently told me Nagy would not be the head coach after Thursday's game.

Was that right at the time? Did something change? I don't know.

What I do know is that I will continue to rely on a multitude of trusted, well-placed sources to expose corruption, right wrongs and hold public officials accountable.

Readers deserve no less.

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

I would say it is very likely he was right and the organization changed course when they found out it leaked

The guy sounded like he was full of shit on the radio and now he's doubling down with this article. Several reports say that Nagy has lost the support of the players? I haven't heard or seen one besides from the Schultz clown. What high level source would be in the know? Pace? Phillips? George? Virginia? Nagy?

The Bears have never fired a coach during the season and they're going to decide to fire the 2nd best coach since Ditka after 10 games? They're going to tell the coach that he's fired, but he has to coach on Thanksgiving? Then, they're going to leak it to someone who doesn't cover the Bears 3 days before the game? I think so many people wanted it to be true, for good reasons, so they've allowed themselves to be played twice in 24 hours.

Edit: There could be a disgruntled McCaskey somewhere who fed Konkol bullshit, but a great reporter would have to ask themselves why they were being given the information even though they don't cover the team.

I'm with this

The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.

You've already said he's a failed offensive expert but now he's better than Lovie, a guy who actually followed through on his purported area of expertise.

I'm with this

No matter how incompetent I think Bears management is, I don’t think they’d decide to fire him before a game but not plan to do it until after that game.

Not only that, but tell him about it, and get a guy with Nagy's ego to agree to work on a holiday even though he's been fired already.

Who did it leak to? Who decided that Konkol would be the perfect guy to report the story?

We lose a lot of rights when we look the other way when it doesn't affect our lives or it isn't a cause we agree with.

No matter how incompetent I think Bears management is, I don’t think they’d decide to fire him before a game but not plan to do it until after that game.

Yes it is.

When this is all over, which is not going to be for a while, Trump will be re-elected President.

I do. I just don't think they told him of the plan.

The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.

Right. The fact that Nagy cancelled a bunch of meetings to speak with ownership following release of the report suggests that he didn't know about the plan. I think it existed, though.

The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

we continue to live in a real-time "monsters are due on maple street."

The bigger mystery is what race Konkol is.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

Conrad Thompsonoid

Looks like something that would come out if you were able to mate Raymond Burr and Penn Jillette

Did find it interesting that Kap kept mentioning the report came from a Pulitzer prize winning journalist while others were like, "what the hell is patch.com"?

The story made no sense for anyone knows how these firings work. Was this guy even a sports reporter?

This is the only way these things go.
1) Decision is made by management to fire. Fired immediately.
2) Decision is made by management to fire. Coach is offered to finish the season.
3) Decision is made by management to fire. Coach is not told until things get bad enough that they are fired.

You aren't telling a coach they are being fired in season but they still get to coach the team until after the next game. What's the point of doing that?

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

I agree that is how things normally work. But that is not taking into consideration how the Bears have managed to pretty much screw up every thing they seem to put their hands on, so is it really that much of a stretch to think they screwed the pooch on this one too?

I agree that is how things normally work. But that is not taking into consideration how the Bears have managed to pretty much screw up every thing they seem to put their hands on, so is it really that much of a stretch to think they screwed the pooch on this one too?

I agree that is how things normally work. But that is not taking into consideration how the Bears have managed to pretty much screw up every thing they seem to put their hands on, so is it really that much of a stretch to think they screwed the pooch on this one too?

Are you stoned or pissed off, or both, when you create these postings?