House of Dysfunction, Part III: Who's the boss?
“The great ruse is ‘Hey, everything is great here in Camelot.' Well, it’s not actually Camelot." Our series wraps up with a look inside how these Bears are run. Can new HC Ben Johnson overcome it all?
Read Part I here.
Read Part II here.
The FBI did not, in fact, raid the facility. That online rumor was a hoax.
So, hey, there’s some good news for the Chicago Bears.
All humiliation was shrouded in platitudes publicly. Inside the building, this flagship organization crashed to a new low through the 2023 season when two assistant coaches were let go for crude workplace behavior.
First, there was the peculiar case of Alan Williams. Fellow coaches noticed the team’s defensive coordinator acting strange during staff meetings on Sept. 12 of that season. He didn’t want to go home. The next day, Bears security searched his office. On Sept. 15, it was reported that Williams would not travel to the team’s game in Tampa Bay due to personal reasons. On Sept. 17, the Bears played the Buccaneers.
One day felt like a year as the Bears — waiting and waiting and waiting — inexplicably fueled curiosity into the mystery themselves. What did Williams do exactly?
One person involved with the fallout told us the Bears determined Williams, inside his office, engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior on an electronic device with a woman. “Between meetings. After practice. Before practice. All the time,” this source adds. The woman, we’re told, then tried to extort him — the Bears logo was in the background of one photo sent. This triggered an investigation and prolonged the situation. Internally, those involved with the crisis management found it strange that neither GM Ryan Poles or head coach Matt Eberflus were in charge of punishment. Final jurisdiction rested in the hands of Kevin Warren and, for whatever reason, the team president opted to slow-play the PR nightmare. Warren stressed the need to talk to the coach.
Others insisted the Bears cannot tolerate such behavior and must act fast. This was getting out of control.
On Sept. 20, Williams finally submitted his resignation, and was paid his full salary due.
The next week, things got weird during an all-staff meeting inside the PNC Center at Halas Hall. Typically, these meetings are scheduled far in advance. This was obviously an emergency address in the wake of the Williams mess. In front of all employees in all departments, the CEO derided “closed doors” in the building. And to wrap it all up, he played a video of Roger Bannister running the first ever four-minute mile.
“We’re all sitting there watching this thing,” recalls one source in the front office, “wondering, ‘What the fuck is this? We just had a guy fired — we don’t know what he did, it could’ve been something really bad — and you’re showing this fucking video?” There was no mention of Alan Williams, no clarity at all.”
As everyone filed out, they wondered what in the hell they just heard.
Then, there was David Walker. Two months later, the running backs coach was let go. One high-ranking source tells us the Bears concluded Walker harassed several females in the building via text and was warned by HR to stop. The father of an intern whom Walker was texting finally contacted the Bears and threatened to take action. On Nov. 1, Eberflus announced that Walker had been terminated. This source does not believe the Bears did nearly enough to support the women who the Bears determined received those text messages.
“You want to treat people the right way,” this source says. “There’s more to the support system than, ‘Hey, we fired him. The problem’s over.’”
Neither coach responded to Go Long for comment.
Two major crises. Two hollow responses. It can often feel as if you’ve stumbled into an alternate reality here.
True: The 2024 draft was a charade and Caleb Williams was a problem last season.
Also, true: A combustible environment is required to set all of this in motion. Methane so potent that a team never even considers other quarterbacks. Look closely at how business is done inside Halas Hall and it’s no secret how bad so easily turns to worse. There’s the GM. The accounts of how Poles fires people are callous. There’s the grand poobah. Warren, the president, hasn’t yet fulfilled his promise of “shovels in the ground” on a new stadium nearly 1,000 days in. Worse, employees in all departments describe a culture of fear.
Poles is the GM. Warren is dubbed the “end all, be all” by one VP.
“The great ruse is ‘Hey, everything is great here in Camelot,’” this exec says. “Well, it’s not actually Camelot. Ask anyone, and if they’re honest with you, it’s going to be quite the opposite. That’s the reality. Everyone is scared for their job, worried at any moment he’s just going to call — well, not him, he won’t do it, he has somebody else handle that shit.”
In Part 3 of our series, we explore how an NFL franchise malfunctions through the eyes of those in-house. The difference between perennial winners and losers in the NFL isn’t as Point A-to-Point B direct as a quarterback botching a play call or a cornerback taunting fans during a Hail Mary play. How the Bears conduct business the other six days of the week has a unique way of poisoning gameday and, frankly, you can see why any young QB would be hesitant to play here.
All roads — as always — lead back to ownership. George McCaskey took the reins on May 5, 2011. He’s currently 94-134 at the helm with zero playoff victories over 14 seasons. As one source in player development says, “losing organizations tend to have losing habits” and those habits deeply embedded into this franchise are especially hard to break.
Are they impossible? The ray of hope is a 39-year-old, first-time head coach: Benjamin David Johnson.