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Per Crains......
Chicago Bears matriarch Virginia Halas McCaskey almost always has stayed away from the team's daily operations. Her absence at a press conference yesterday announcing changes in the team proved that hasn't changed. But her son George McCaskey, chairman of the team, made her presence known at the press conference, proving that something else has not changed with 91-year-old Virginia McCaskey. She rules the Bears. She often does it from an unseen throne, but she's the one in charge. Just ask her son Michael, who she ousted as Bears president in 1999. And she's not happy with the state of her team.
"She's been on this earth for eight of the Bears' nine championships, and she wants more," George McCaskey said at the press conference yesterday. "She's fed up with mediocrity. She feels that she and Bears fans everywhere deserve better."
At 91, Virginia McCaskey is still a player. Here's why:
1.) When she's "pissed off,” people listen.
George McCaskey and team CEO Ted Phillips fired General Manager Phil Emery and head coach Marc Trestman yesterday and hired a consultant to help search for replacements. Why? Because Virginia McCaskey is “pissed off” about the state of the Bears and is ready for a change in the 5-11 team, George McCaskey said at the press conference yesterday. Virginia McCaskey wants a team she, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren can be proud of. Now that's a power play.
2.) “She's an icon.”
Virginia McCaskey is the only surviving child of George Halas, founder of the Bears and one of the founding fathers of the American Football Association, which later became the NFL. She grew up entrenched in football culture and inherited majority ownership of the team when her dad died in 1983. She knows the players and travels with them, and she's respected in football circles. “She's an icon,” Broncos owner Pat Bowlen told Business Insider. Jerry Jones cites her as the biggest influence on his decision to purchase the Cowboys in 1989.
3.) She's an institution.
She's the daughter of a legend and on the way to becoming a legend herself. But more than that, she's an institution. In a league where corporate ownership is forbidden, Virginia McCaskey is the only remaining member of a founding family still involved in the NFL, spokesman Greg Aiello told the Associated Press in 2011. Many know her as the first lady of the NFL. She has said from the beginning that she's doing it all to keep her father's legacy alive, and she's hell-bent on keeping the team in the family.
4.) She's “the glue” of the family.
A devout Catholic, Virginia McCaskey and her late husband, Ed, had 11 children, and George McCaskey once called his mother “the glue” of the family, according to the Chicago Tribune. Keeping the family together is a goal most mothers aim for, but it reaches new heights when your family comprises the board of directors for the Bears. Her sons, Brian, Ed, Michael, George (who is chairman) and Patrick all are on the board. In keeping the family together, she has kept the team together, in a way. Many eyes are on the McCaskeys' plan to keep the team in the family, as the Tribune reported that splitting Virginia McCaskey's shares among her surviving children could complicate things.
5.) She's rich and powerful.
Being the majority owner of any major sports team obviously comes with some power, but let's look at the numbers. Virginia McCaskey's net worth is $1.3 billion, according to Forbes. She owns 80 percent of the team, which is valued at $1.7 billion and ranks eighth on Forbes' list of NFL team valuations. Forbes named her one of the most powerful women in sports in 2009, after she helped bring in annual revenue of $241 million. She's humble in her power, staying out of the limelight and acknowledging that she's only in the position because of her father, but she's almost impossible to ignore.
_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”
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