The Bears’ handling of Matt Eberflus points to other problems

It was supposedly a new day in Chicago. Ultimately it’s the same, the same.

The NFL has dysfunctional teams. And as our friend Big Cat says, dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things. (The attached video has a new twist on this line.)

Dysfunction emanates from the top of an organization and impacts everyone below. And even though the Bears have strengthened the top of the front office, ousting Ted Phillips and replacing him with Kevin Warren, there is little Warren can do to stem the tide.

With that, Warren made the benefit of the doubt decision to allow coach Matt Eberflus to hold a press conference the next day before firing him. Surely Bears ownership knew he would be questioned about his job. Surely they knew he would tend to exude confidence – especially if they didn’t fire him or at least postpone his press conference.

This should have happened. For any team that has doubts about firing their coach on the day of their press conference, the press conference should be postponed.

Letting Eberflus give his press conference before firing him is the front office equivalent of the clock management disaster that sparked the franchise’s unprecedented decision to fire a head coach during the season.

Wherever the decision originated, it’s the kind of thing that shows why bad teams stay bad. They do things that defy common sense off the field. This lack of common sense is noticeable on the field.

Whatever the reason for Eberflus’ firing after his press conference, it shouldn’t have happened. Unless he was fired before the press conference and did nothing during or after the press conference to justify his firing, a properly functioning team would have fired him before the press conference. Otherwise the press conference would have been postponed.

The functionality is a pass-fail test. The Bears failed disastrously on Friday. To anyone who isn’t sure how a big city’s professional football team harmonizes with the football passion of a much smaller city: That’s clear.

Dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things. On Thursday at the end of the game and on Friday after the Eberflus press conference, the Bears did dysfunctional things.

The only question is whether they will continue to do dysfunctional things.