Butkus baffled by Bears’ woes
PHOENIX — Dick Butkus watches the Bears as often as he can from his home in Malibu, California. He usually ends up frustrated — particularly last season, when the Bears had the NFL’s worst record.
“There’s no reason why they should be this bad,” he told the Sun-Times on Friday. “I get a little disgusted.
“I really get hot watching them, especially with a lot of lack-of-effort things. I don’t get it. I really don’t.”
The Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker said the Bears’ losing in recent years reminds him of when he challenged George S. Halas to find a winning coach shortly after he fired Jim Dooley in 1971. Upon walking into his office at 173 W. Madison St., Butkus told Halas he didn’t think he wanted to win, and he thought the Bears’ founder might hit him.
“He got up, and I thought he was going to take a poke at me,” Butkus said.
He didn’t. Butkus’ point was made, though: The Bears were the NFL’s founding franchise, and they should act like it.
“Why have they been so bad?” he asked at Super Bowl radio row, where he was promoting the NFL Alumni Association’s anti-obesity campaign. “Is it the scouting department? What’s the answer here? To tell you the truth, I don’t know.
“Look at the teams that are winning, and look at their organization. The ownership is the ones that hire. It starts from them, too. They shouldn’t be void of any criticism.”
He doesn’t see Justin Fields as part of the problem.
Butkus said the quarterback “is going to be all right” — and then ripped the way he was handled by coach Matt Nagy and his staff as a rookie.
“That first year, I thought the coaching of him was terrible,” he said. “I said, ‘How is it that when he comes off the sideline and goes to the bench, he takes his helmet off and puts on a baseball hat?’ If you watch Aaron Rodgers and Pat Mahomes and Tom Brady, when they get on the sidelines, they’ve got the iPad and a coach right there.
“Where was that his rookie year? That group he was in there that rookie year, they didn’t coach him one iota, I don’t believe. So he’s moving along now.”
Butkus said the coaching has improved under Matt Eberflus. Now, he said, the Bears need to help Fields.
“Just like I told people when he first came in the league — the problem is, when he gets in, he’s going to get hurt because there’s nobody in front of him,” Butkus said. “And that’s exactly what has happened. The kid’s running for his life.
“With a number of draft choices, maybe we can get some offensive linemen.”
INJURY REPORT
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ right high ankle sprain is just fine.
Neither he nor any of his Chiefs teammates will carry an injury designation into the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, who was bothered by a knee injury Thursday, was a full participant.
“They all practiced, everybody practiced. I feel pretty good about ’em,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.
Only one Eagles player was on the injury report: receiver Britain Covey, who is questionable with a hamstring injury.