Lucky Luciano

well, here we go. if it turns out to be true... if this scandal with ross (dolphins owner) and now the owner or high management personnel of the browns? (what other franchises are involved) comes to light that NFL teams were TANKING games per instructions from the owners/management this isn't just a tiny blip on the radar screen this is tracking a full out attack with ICBM's. this means that a number of extremely important things come to mind and it opens up a gigantic can of worms for the owners and the hierarchy of the NFL corporation as a whole. 1. INTEGRITY: the integrity of a real and not contrived sport where the end results are predetermined are at stake. are we looking at this sport from this point on if there is no real investigation and penalties not only by the NFL corporation but the legal criminality consequences of law enforcement for perpetrated fraud, it plainly destroys this sports trust forever. this changes it from a sport to an exhibition. 2. GAMBLING: here it all comes crashing down. if ANY franchise is involved in conspiring to tank games, shave points or any other form of game or point manipulation it brings to light the serious problems involved with gambling cartels and organized crime. this is a criminal aspect no different than insider stock manipulation and needs to be seriously investigated by law enforcement. where owners and employee's could benefit from insider information to place bets on games it is a catastrophic breach of faith with the fans and public. it's illegal. this also should bring up the manipulation of game results by referee's. the results of watching the poor officiating throughout a season is nearly indisputable. this also involves the NFL corporate and owners by making game rules so unenforceable and vague that there is never any call that is considered wrong or right. this leads to gambling interests or franchise personnel possible ability to bribe referee's a paramount concern. 3. THE DRAFT: if true, franchises tanking games to manipulate the order of the draft is again a breach of fan faith. any team purposely tanking games to garner a coveted spot in the NFL draft if not illegal should be enforced and penalized by the NFL corporate in it's most severe consequences. this effects every franchise in the NFL and the future of the health of each team and the money they will bring in. it effects the final win/loss results of every franchise for decades to come. A TIP OF THE HAT TO BRIAN FLORES: this opens up the possible truth of how the corrupt side of the NFL works. not only that but the racial injustice that is being manipulated by certain franchises in regards to not only hiring minorities but chastising coaches or players that rock the boat on how these instances are being used by owners. the black balling and intimidation of these whistle blowers just shows how corrupt the NFL corporate and the owners really comes into play.

he runs a 4-3 defense for colts. worked under marinelli and kiffen. ran a cover 3 like seahawks and cover 2 combo? will be reallllly interesting who is coordinators are.

per the score mat eberflus is our new hc

this causes me concern also. are his top candidates related to the franchises he worked with in the past for serious consideration? i want the best there is not just the best there is wearing blinders.

to a point his age does not matter but at 79 years old he is basically retired as observed. he is not a candidate to be a permanent fixture in this franchise. he has been out of the loop with key nfl personnel for a long enough period that it has to effect his evaluation performance. he is not rubbing elbows with his peers at this time in his life especially with younger up and coming nfl execs or even different owners. he has no accountability if he fails what he is being paid to do. if polians candidate for gm is strictly to hire the top performer at this key position it should not matter what he thinks or doesn't of the current roster of players. the same holds true of who HE thinks would be the best coaches to hire under HIS regime. same goes for the draft. if this guy is the best he should know what is needed and proceed to find the players that fit what he is trying to accomplish. otherwise it's the same old crap. hire the most important executive in your franchise based on what a previous regime has accumulated and handcuff him to it. fit a square peg into a round hole. if he doesn't like the player personnel that's fine because it sure hasn't gotten us in any superbowls lately. let him decide because that is what we are hiring him to do. if he likes certain aspects of what is here all the better. if our scouting dept is top notch let him decide what to do with it. i don't want to fit another cog into this machine i want the whole machine rebuilt to run at maximum capability.

that is true. but was this a gm candidate that we coveted? even if it was not, we are now behind the giants in regards to hiring a head coach. so in essence we at best are getting the 2nd choice candidate if the giants (or anybody else) hires a HC before we do that was on our list.

i just have to ask this.... why wasn't this all done prior to the season even ending? and by that i mean why weren't the candidates narrowed down to the best 1-3 and the bears were ready to interview a gm immediately and hire him near the same time. this is why i question his credibility. this is common sense on how to run ANY business, company or franchise. you have a good idea who the top candidates are that you want to hire before they are even needed. you beat the competition by preparation. polian obviously has done no prep work for TWO MONTHS. we are now going on three weeks out of the initial firing of our staff and we are just narrowing it down now? that is what amateur executives do.

here is a synopsis of how this organization is working toward a new GM and coach... bill polian is hired in 2021 by curious george to advise the inept mccaskey family on how to proceed with running their franchise. according to rumor, polian was advising the bears back in november 2021. deciding, it appears, that nagy wasn't the man for the HC job. what that means is that ryan pace had become untenable to do this job as a GM. what does that mean? it means that at this time ryan pace is now going to be replaced also. so, it appears bill polian has had the reins to how the football operations are going to proceed since november 2021. in approximately 2 months jim polian appears not to have any idea who the new gm should be thus setting up the process of adding every name in the nfl world as potential gm candidates to be interviewed AFTER the last game in the season has played out. this means that we are already BEHIND the competition to acquire a candidate for either position. it appears he has had NO short list, has not sent out feelers to potential candidates prior to the season ending. this is how a genius football guru operates?? at the very LEAST he should have had a list of no more that 3-5 hard candidates for the GM job. these short list candidates should have been contacted immediately to interview in chicago. once that process was set into motion the new gm should have made his OWN list of head coaching jobs and use polian as a springboard to choose them for interview. polian has done nothing. moving on... who are his main candidates now this process has been muddied up with the head coaching search prior to hiring a gm? it appears if you were were involved with teams he specifically had involvement in 15-30 years ago you have made the the grade as a top candidate. in my opinion, however smart polian USED to be the times have moved on. general knowledge? yes. current knowledge on how the nfl operates and all potential candidates for key positions? VERY questionable. why hasn't the list of gm's been acted on in a timely manner with due diligence? is he just plain lazy or is he struggling to catch up with today's nfl or else just doesn't really give a $h!t. this mess we are in is flat out ludicrous. a football genius hire who apparently has no clue into the fact that time is of the essence if you want the best candidates hired. there is your 79 year old football genius in 2022.

i am still going with khan and add rick smith to the two top candidates. The Wrath Of Khan: he has made his bones for years in a winning franchise that is family run. he has rubbed elbows with some pretty good gm's and coaches AND owners in this time. to limit the gm search to a player personnel candidate only is wrong. this guy will be able to bring it all to the table. he will also have a chip on his shoulder to succeed. he is still my top choice. next is rick smith. another candidate with a lot of good things in his past. has worked hard in a crappy franchise before leave of absense. one of these two are for me.

without knowing pertinent information on the GM candidates i am seriously leaning to Khan as my top candidate. 1. he has worked with a family owned franchise. he should be able to work with the idiots in ours. 2. he has worked under and with some of the top people in management in the nfl. 3. the steelers have had a winning organization for decades. he is not working with a flash in the pan franchise who have just turned it around over the past few years. top mention also, these other franchises like the browns and such have had the #1 or top 5 pick multiple times recently. how hard is it to draft with those positions? if not our gm i would have liked to see Khan as president of football operations. he would have been a great candidate for that.

i would agree with you. removing ted is/would be a plus. but... here is the murky facts as i personally see them. the statements that teddy boy is gone from the rank of president of football operations and set out to stadium only pasture is just not true or else has been obscured by the village idiot george. the named designation may have changed but certainly not the job he performs. even in the presser george referred to consulting with ted when asked who is going to evaluate these new hires (gm or head coach) in the future. he proceeded, unless i am mistaken, to refer to himself, ted phillips and the board of directors of this franchise as making these decisions. who is on this board he mentions? surely ted phillips is and add to that family members. none of whom have even the slightest idea how to run or manage football operations. quite frankly it reminds me of when mikey m. was supposedly put out to pasture and hired as the family gardener. yet when it came time to hire/fire angelo (i believe it was him) and hire a new gm ted phillips refers to mikey (who was standing on the podium) in the press conference as making the final decisions. only the names were changed to protect the guilty. they just believe the fans and the press are as stupid as they are. if they change the ORDER in who is in charge and who makes the final decisions then there is real relevant change when in reality it's the same group of clowns that just got out of the clown car the last time there was a debacle. off this topic a little. i heard on the score that polian may have been hired mid season. if this is true why in the holy hell are we in the position now of looking for a gm? that should have been cut and dry the minute the decision was made that pace was gone. why keep pace in limbo and waste months looking for a new gm when it could have been done already and we would have hit the ground running post game 17!!

this... i have no idea of what polians creds are or whether they are current in TODAY'S evaluation market. even if they are up to date, nobody can make positive hits on every choice they may make no matter how good they are. my point about being a temp is that once the process of who he 'thinks' is the best candidate is his job is over with this franchise. that is the fault of this entire process we are again going through. if polian was hired as president of football operations i would be happy. if he were hired on any type of permanent basis for evaluation of what he has given us and advise us on the hire we make through his recommendation in the future i would be happy. but he is not. will he give us the best chance at a good gm? possibly. yet again it's the same people who are evaluating this gm talent that haven't got any clue how their underling is performing. we are asking a blind man to navigate us through a mine field.

here is the problem... polian is a temp worker that it is possible the current NFL has evolved past him other than general football knowledge. he is a viable source that a current and up to date president of football operations contacts along with OTHERS to make cognizant decisions for the future of a franchise. but... once the initial process is over he is dust on the shelf. you get no evaluation of the candidate he has chosen years down the road. is this candidate he has chosen succeeding or failing? who is going to make that determination? what about the corrsi temp worker (another supposedly football guru) who put in place what we just fired? he was knowledgeable also but who evaluated his pick over the last 7 YEARS? who advised or directed our GM one way or the other as things started to fail? how long did it take for georgie to figure out that pace was not up to the job? when he gets blasted with it in the media? that is the problem. we have nobody in place that knows enough about anything relating to football to do this job. that said, let's talk about georgie. he has been the president of this franchise for over 10 YEARS!! he himself has proclaimed his lack of knowledge in football operation and just considers himself in the status as a fan as of yesterday. are you freaking kidding me?? in TEN YEARS wouldn't you think someone as president of a billion dollar corporate franchise would EDUCATE himself on how to run this organization? apparently not or we wouldn't be using polian exclusively to do the most important job this franchise can undertake. so in TEN YEARS he has literally done nothing to understand the workings of how an nfl franchise should operate. georgie is not just dumb, he is an entitled, elite, mamma's boy fool two steps below being considered a cretin.

keep this in mind.... this stuff SHOULD have been on a big board already by a genuine president of football operations or by georgie, ted, the board or whoever these clowns are that make the decisions. they should have a board with every single person who looks like a candidate for GM, head coach, assistant coach/coordinator, or any important cog in how a football franchise works. thus using established nfl people or up an comers from the college ranks and have them rated as to capabilities and availability. they never do this. every time this franchise implodes it is like some kind of shock to them. they are like chickens with their heads cut off running in random circles. they are too stupid to make the calls themselves and then have to find someone out there not even related to this franchise and how it works to make the football decisions that are critical moving forward. just one detriment to this way of running your franchise is by the time you decide to even hire an outside consultant or board of consultants (this happened too) you have lost time. critical time needed to contact the correct people to fill the vacancies. it also has limitations. if the person who they hire fails, he has no accountability for this failure. it's just... uhhhh well, we'll look for someone else next time. it's ultimate ignorance of the processes that are needed to make you successful and they don't even seem to realize it.

agree. the key is a president of football operations who even has an idea if the gm is doing a good job.

i have to respectfully disagree. i do NOT applaud the moves that were made. 1. did he fire nagy and pace? yes. that was the absolute minimum and obvious move to make. from that point on everything went south. the point of all of this is a change that moves this franchise forward. we did not see that at all. it's the same philosophy, the same way of running this franchise that has gone on since jim finks left the building and mike mccaskey became the football guru. it has failed for over 40 YEARS! 2. ted phillips moving out of football decisions: again this is not the case. it was just sleight of hand with smoke and mirrors included. ted phillips is not out of football operations. georgie affirmed that at the presser. he stated when asked who was going to govern and oversee the gm and who is hired and the answer is himself (a self proclaimed fan rather than football minded force) along with the board (family members? mother? who exactly?) and ted phillips. please tell me what is different that what we have lived through for 4 decades. 3. bill polian: again this is sleight of hand. polian is what? 79 years old? has this franchise hired him full time and a manager or at the very least even a full time consultant? the answer to that is NO. this is a guy who has been out of the NFL loop for over 10 years. a guy who is selling a book and needs the promotion. a guy who has absolutely no responsibility to this franchise once a gm or coach has been chosen. a guy whose thoughts and ideas are way behind the the times on how the nfl is even run. let's be frank. if you are the top executive in charge of running football operations for this franchise and you have to hire an outside consultant not once but TWICE to choose who is going to make all the critical football decisions, you are in deep water with someone standing on your shoulders. it's stupid and it's the same stupid that has made this franchise what it is today. the smart move would have been to hire a president of football operations to make the decisions that georgie is incapable of making. otherwise in another 5-7 years we will be doing this all over again. we have gained NOTHING. 4. AGAIN, we have non football people (unless the ancient polian is involved) in searching for a head coach and gm. excuse me.... who in their right mind is going to want to become the GM of this lame ass franchise and be stuck with a coach and football personnel they didn't even hire? it's the same stupid backward idiocy that has been perpetrated by upper management forever. hire a coach then force the new gm to work with him. this is just de'ja vu all over again.

i don't think i have heard anything like this in the world of sports. the stupidity and ineptness of the people running this clown car called the chicago bears has to go down in corporate history as what you never want to do if your goal is to succeed. top that off... georgie basically called olen krutz a liar and insignificant "you can take what olen says with a grain of salt". that he was offered $15 an hour to work for the organization. well that surely will buy good will from ANY former chicago bear player now or in the future.

This franchise is unbelievable. George is a complete imbecile that couldn't run a fast food chain. They could have just run a replay of the 2015 presser. Even that was less stupid than what I heard today. Every bit of goodwill and hope is just pie in the sky. This franchise will NEVER amount to anything as long as this family owns them.

per adam schefter

i haven't watched him extensively but have seen him on enough plays dancing at the LOS with offensive linemen to say he is easily replaceable. he rarely gets any push into the pocket and i have seen him many times getting blocked 3-5 yards back by the center or guards. this is NOT what you want to see from a nose tackle that is not drawing at least double teams. add that to how many games he misses and the size of his contract. this says to me... dump him. ANY savings is worth it to get rid of this guy and put someone in who really wants to play in the NFL.

in answer to that.... YES. at $5 mil a year that is clearly a fair price for the 2nd or 3rd best defensive player on your entire roster and a key player at his position in the entire NFL. but let's look at his injury history first since he has been in chicago: 2016 - started entire season - 16 games 2017 -- started entire season - 16 games 2018 - started entire season - 16 games 2019 - started 5 games - 5 games - out with dislocated elbow 2020 - started 15 - 15 games 2021 - so far he has started 8 games with 3 remaining. was out with ankle injury earlier in season and is now on covid list NOT injury list. so where are you getting this 6 games a year? with his record he is not injury prone. the injuries he has sustained are not critical injuries to his career. it is true he is 32 years old but in my opinion he surely has at least 2 years left in his career. even with diminishing returns it is well worth it paying a 3/4 DE that can probably play tackle in a 4/3 scheme that kind of money. he also can possibly play nose tackle in a 3/4. the saints had him scheduled to play nose tackle in 2013 prior to drafting jenkins in the third round for that position. let's look at his stats in chicago: solo tackles - 161 sacks - 31 (3.5 sacks this shortened season for him) what player off the wire for cheaper than 5 mil are you going to find out there? and draft? yes we should draft a DT or 3/4 DE. but to expect that someone to come in and be anywhere close to this quality out of the gate that we draft 2nd round or below is ludicrous. all this does is create yet ANOTHER major hole in our defense.

$5mil a year for a stud D lineman is cheap, cheap, cheap even if he plays limited snaps. this is also worth considering... if we get rid of nagy, the next coach may want to revert the defense to a standard 4/3 depending upon what DC he chooses. if that happened there is no way hicks is not super valuable as a DT in that scheme.

although hicks is on the downside of his career and missing some games i would NOT let him walk. you can see the difference when he plays as opposed to being out. it's like the old dan hampton syndrome. when hampton played the entire defense was light years better, even as his career was winding down. same goes with hicks. if you let him go it's another spot empty to TRY and fill with an even average player let alone a stud. i would let goldman go in a heartbeat and figure a way to keep hicks on the field. he certainly has been on the active roster more than that drone goldman has been. can hicks play tackle? if he was willing have HIM replace goldman.

count me in your corner Pixote. in agreement 100%

the crucial factor in bad, missed or no calls, is the timing. it's not the amount of penalties a team has as a whole, it is a case of WHEN the refs decide to penalize a team in the game that factors in the win/loss factor. i have seen this numerous times through the decades of watching pro football - a team gets a critical call on a offense or on defense that is beyond the pale. later in the game the so called 'make up calls' usually happens when the game is getting to the point of certainty of who will win or lose. if not that then limiting the scoring (shaving points) to hold a final score within certain gambling parameters. in example, a holding call... on offense the same call could have been called nearly ever single play but a ref decides at this critical juncture in the game to drop a flag? secondary defense... same goes for pass interference or holding. both teams do the same type of foul at numerous times throughout the game yet one is called at a critical time for no apparent reason. this sets the tone for the entire game when points are shaved from the board due to referee interference. let's face it, the NFL purposely has left the rules vague over the last several decades at least. how else could this be justified in a multi billion dollar corporation? the NFL doesn't make enough money to be able to hire full time referee's and hold them accountable to their job performance? it's ludicrous. the league has no desire to see games regulated in a fair manner probably due to market share and the dollar and cents bottom line for the owners. the way it's set up the rules/penalties are determined by an individual referee at his own discretion (or the gambling syndicates) and NOT by the rule book. at any given time a referee can drop a flag and be correct OR not drop a flag and be correct at the same time. factor in not only the market share/profits but the gambling factions. this is big, big money. who would have thought 30 years ago that the nfl would actually condone a team moving to the gambling capital of the united states?