Kevin Warren’s hire as the new Chicago Bears team president was met with intrigue at the time. Here was a man who’d worked in multiple NFL front offices over the past 25 years and had served as the Big Ten Conference commissioner. His accolades were impressive, at least on paper. Add to that his experience in helping the Minnesota Vikings build their new stadium, and it made sense that George McCaskey would target him for the job. Four years later, and the Bears chairman is having regrets.
It has been rumored for some time that ownership wasn’t happy with Warren, particularly regarding his handling of the stadium process. Here is a man who promised shovels in the ground by 2025 at the latest. Now we’re approaching halfway through 2026 and still haven’t even committed to a location yet. Now, more details have surfaced on McCaskey’s feelings from Sports Mockery insider Jeff Hughes. It appears this goes much further back than people realized.
All the way back to right after Warren was hired. It isn’t just the stadium situation, mind you. The utter lack of organization from a business standpoint is another major issue that isn’t talked about.
George McCaskey is caught in a tough position.
Firing Warren immediately after hiring him was a non-starter. It would’ve looked incredibly embarrassing. No doubt the Bears’ owner hoped the executive would figure things out, given some time to acclimate. When that didn’t happen, it became a rough choice. Either he stays the course, hoping Warren can somehow get the stadium over the finish line, or he fires him and muddies up the process even further by hiring a new president. Neither option is a good one.
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The fact McCaskey was warned by people inside the building that Warren wasn’t the best choice for the job seems on-brand. Though a dedicated fan of the Bears with every intention of making them a winner, McCaskey still demonstrates a remarkable lack of sense when it comes to the hiring process. We saw that for years with guys like Phil Emergy and Ryan Pace. It seems rather fitting that the same would happen with the team president’s job. Perhaps this is why he was always so reluctant to get rid of Ted Phillips.
That raises an interesting question.
Once the stadium situation is finally settled, will the Bears dump Warren? It really sounds like they don’t see much value in keeping him beyond that. Every time George McCaskey was asked about why they hired him in the first place, the answer always circled around his supposed expertise at getting a stadium built. Not much else. This makes one think that the organization will send him packing once the negotiations are over and construction has either begun or is completed in the next few years.
In all honesty, no one would be surprised whenever it happens. Opinions of Warren among fans and the media couldn’t be much lower. Many see him as nothing more than a politician: great at making promises and terrible at keeping them. Others see him as glaringly incompetent. It is hard to imagine the team could’ve downgraded from Phillips, but it’s shaping up that way. How much longer this goes on depends entirely on McCaskey’s remaining patience.
