It isn’t a secret by now that Chicago Bears players weren’t too fond of Matt Eberflus by the time of his firing. The head coach’s message had grown tiresome. His unwillingness to take accountability for his mistakes grated on a lot of players. That failure to take a timeout was the last straw. Since his ouster on Black Friday, multiple notable names have openly stated they weren’t surprised. Jaylon Johnson, D.J. Moore, and DeMarcus Walker were among them. One would think Cairo Santos wouldn’t have much to say about it.
You would be wrong.
Bears media caught up with the veteran kicker on Wednesday. They asked him his overall impression of Eberflus. His comment was short.
“He made the grass at Soldier Field amazing.”
Most people will think this is a harmless comment since Eberflus was responsible for switching the Soldier Field turf to Bermuda grass, which is more durable. However, a closer look shows this is an ice cold burn by Santos with two layers. First, he’s basically saying the only good thing the head coach did was fix the stadium grass. Second, and even nastier, is a subtle jab at Eberflus’ favorite saying.
🔥 Subscribe to the Untold Chicago YouTube channel to hear Chicago legends tell stories you’ve never seen in headlines — real moments, real experiences, straight from the athletes themselves.
“It’s all gonna be about the grass. What we do on the grass.”
Cairo Santos is a savage for that.
After all, he has good reasons to dislike the former Bears coach. He basically hung the kicker out to dry twice with his poor decision-making in the losses to Green Bay and Minnesota. Eberflus failed to run another play to get the attempt against the Packers closer, forcing a longer attempt. That opened the door for the block that followed. A week later, the coach refused to identify the blocking issue that led to it, which allowed Minnesota to exploit the same weakness for another block. It was further evidence that Eberflus wasn’t on top of the details, and he let players like Cairo Santos take the heat for it. No wonder guys have been quick to mock him since his departure. Immature? Maybe a little. It’s probably more than a little cathartic, too.
