Kevin Warren came in with so many promises when he took over as the Chicago Bears‘ team president. He was the stadium expert. That was why the McCaskey family targeted him in the first place. They had a new stadium to build, and he’d supposedly played an integral role in helping the Minnesota Vikings build theirs a few years ago. It felt like a safe bet. Time has proven that his reputation might have been more than a little artificially inflated. Warren certainly talks a big game. He has lots of grand ideas. The problem is he doesn’t seem to have the wherewithal to see them through.
Sports Mockery reported months ago that the McCaskeys were growing frustrated with the lack of progress on the stadium. They feel Warren didn’t have any answers on how to untangle the situation, instead just flailing from one direction to the next, expecting something to finally break through. It hasn’t happened.
Now there are growing signs that Warren has lost authority over the stadium discussions. Governor J.B. Pritzker’s office recently announced that he’d met with an NFL contingent featuring commissioner Roger Goodell and Bears minority owner Pat Ryan. Zero mention of Warren. This clearly indicates that the team president has been, for all intents and purposes, benched.
Kevin Warren might be on borrowed time.
If he isn’t leading the stadium push, what purpose does he serve the organization? It was the entire reason he was brought in. Ryan taking over is a massive indictment of his competence. The partial Bears owner already has extensive experience in stadium negotiations. He just successfully got a new one built at Northwestern. You know it’s bad when an 89-year-old feels the need to step in because you haven’t done your job. Other NFL teams began pursuing new stadiums after the Bears, and have already begun construction. Enough is enough.
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So what does this mean for Kevin Warren? He is doing everything possible to stay in the spotlight. You see him every week, inserting himself into the Bears’ locker room celebrations, making sure the cameras find him. Based on what SM has heard, there is a reasonable chance he may seek an exit plan. Some college programs searching for Athletic Directors have quietly shown interest in him. Perhaps the Bears “let him” depart for a new job elsewhere, saving them the trouble of publicly firing him.
It will look so bad if Ryan closes this deal quickly.
Imagine if the Bears’ owner manages to accomplish in a few months what Warren hasn’t in five years. That would be a humiliation on a grand scale. One that no executive would really recover from. The Illinois state government is nearing the start of its annual fall legislative session. This is the last opportunity the Bears will have to reach some agreement. Otherwise, they’ll have to wait until next spring. There was no way Warren ever had a prayer of getting things moving. Lots of people in Springfield clearly don’t like him.
All of this feels like a slow inevitability playing out. Warren serves no purpose to this organization. He hasn’t made any significant changes that have improved it. His stadium efforts have been the equivalent of throwing things at the wall, hoping something sticks. Even the ever-patient McCaskeys have limits. While they were never going to call him out publicly, they’ve seen enough.
