In auto racing, they call it the silly season, the time of year when drivers get ousted from one car only to wind up in another.
The NFL now has a silly season for personnel men.
|  | | Tom Modrak lost a power struggle with Andy Reid in Philadelphia. |
Since the draft in April, several teams have bounced their top football executives and subsequently altered their management structures, kicking off a game of musical chairs with their personnel men that has left many around the league wondering what's going on.
The worst move so far? The up-and-coming Eagles showing director of football operations Tom Modrak the door after he lost an internal power struggle with head coach Andy Reid.
The best move? Bears vice president of player personnel Mark Hatley escaping Chicago for Green Bay, where he will be vice president of football operations under head coach Mike Sherman.
The question is: Could the two moves ultimately be linked?
In dumping Hatley after the Bears compiled a dismal 19-45 record on his watch, they made – for them – a radical move. They decided to put sole control of the football operations – including hiring and firing the head coach – in the hands of one man.
Could Modrak be that man? On the surface, it looks like a match made in NFL heaven. However, nothing is that simple when it comes to the Bears.
Chicago's murky chain of command, which includes nearly enough meddlesome McCaskeys to field a baseball team plus bean-counter-turned-team-president Ted Phillips, ought to throw a scare into any candidate, no matter how much power and control he is promised.
This franchise has lacked direction since 1983, when general manager Jim Finks resigned and founder George Halas died within a few months of each other. That contributed to a slow, steady decline that has seen the Bears finish last in the NFC Central Division four years in a row.
The Bears are so short of NFL brainpower at the top that they hired the New York head-hunting firm of Russell Reynolds and Associates to conduct their search for a football guru. The executive search is being led by Joe Bailey, a one-time Cowboys administrator who was bounced from the league in the Jerry Jones takeover more than 10 years ago. Bailey hasn't gotten back in, we're told by his choice.
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Bears GM candidates
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Name
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Team, position
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Jerry Angelo
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Bucs, director of player personnel
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Charles Bailey
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Saints, assistant general manager
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James Harris
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Ravens, pro personnel director
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Tom Modrak
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Eagles, ex-director of football operations
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Bill Rees
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Bears, scouting director
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Rick Reiprish
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Jaguars, director of player personnel
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Phil Savage
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Ravens, college scouting director
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Ted Sundquist
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Broncos, college scouting director
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Besides Modrak, personnel executives reportedly on Bailey's interview list are Bears scouting director Bill Rees, Ravens college scouting director Phil Savage and pro personnel director James Harris, Broncos college scouting director Ted Sundquist, Saints assistant general manager Charles Bailey, Jaguars director of player personnel Rick Reiprish and Buccaneers director of player personnel Jerry Angelo. But even as Bailey huddles with candidates in New York, some wonder whether he will have to twist someone's arm just to get him to take the job in Chicago.
If the candidates ask Hatley, it will probably take some serious twisting. To be sure, Hatley is no innocent bystander in the Bears' descent from bad to worse over the last four years. Hey, someone has to take responsibility for drafting Curtis Enis and Cade McNown.
However, Hatley was clearly happy to get out of the situation in Chicago. Four years of Phillips and various members of the McCaskey clan peering over his shoulder made the "mutual termination" between Hatley and the Bears almost seem like it wasn't a firing.
Hatley's tradeoff in Green Bay? Less power, more wins. And fewer headaches.
When he was introduced to the Wisconsin media this week, Hatley bent over backward not to ruffle any feathers in Chicago. He deflected questions about the Bears' decision-making process, but, tellingly, went out of his way to praise Green Bay's historically hands-off ownership structure.
"This is a unique structure (in Green Bay)," he said. "It's one of the only ones in the league like this. Their agenda is winning. That's the only agenda that's here with the Packers. You don't have an owner and you don't have a lot of different situations that you had at other clubs. My experience at Chicago was good for me. The four years I was there I enjoyed my working relationship there."
His teeth weren't clenched when he said that, but you get the idea. Hatley had wide-ranging duties similar to a general manager's when he was with the Bears, but other agendas always intruded.
For instance, in 1999 then-president Michael McCaskey asked Hatley to find a head coach and Hatley recommended Cardinals defensive coordinator Dave McGinnis for the job. However, McGinnis backed out when McCaskey blundered and announced his hiring prematurely. The Bears settled for Dick Jauron, a man Hatley hadn't even interviewed. A short time later, McCaskey was kicked
upstairs. Jauron, meanwhile, has gone 6-10 and 5-11.
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The Bears' new general manager (assuming the search process ever reaches a conclusion) will control (Dick) Jauron's fate. A word of advice to the new man: Get it in writing. It's not that the Bears are dishonest. It's just that ownership can become fractured and promises can get lost in the confusion. |
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The Bears' new general manager (assuming the search process ever reaches a conclusion) will control Jauron's fate. A word of advice to the new man: Get it in writing. It's not that the Bears are dishonest. It's just that ownership can become fractured and promises can get lost in the confusion.
The Bears' decision to get rid of Hatley, who was regarded as timid and indecisive by the Chicago media, and invest all of the football power in a general manager was hailed as a positive move. However, giving all of the power to a personnel specialist might already be outdated in the NFL.
The league-wide trend is for the head coach to hold omnipotent power in all football decisions. Over the last three years, 14 NFL head coaches have assumed additional powers, the latest being Reid in Philadelphia.
The Bears hope to buck that trend by hiring a general manager with vision and know-how and then stepping aside and letting him work. Since the Packers' Ron Wolf just retired and the Bears blew any chance they had at respected personnel men such as John Butler or Tom Donahoe by failing to act in January, the logical candidate is Modrak.
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said he dismissed Modrak because he was always looking wistfully at other jobs, but that was a smokescreen. Philadelphia's personnel decisions have been nothing short of brilliant since Modrak arrived in 1998, so it couldn't have been that. Modrak simply lost out to Reid in the inevitable battle for Lurie's ear.
Their first clash came in 1999 when Modrak recommended Jim Haslett for the head coaching job. Lurie hired Reid. Both men have turned out to be excellent coaches, but the scar from the disagreement never fully healed.
The Lurie-Modrak relationship further weakened when Modrak wanted to draft quarterback Akili Smith and Reid wanted Donovan McNabb later in 1999. When McNabb turned into a star and Smith struggled in Cincinnati (who doesn't?), it gave Lurie more reason to side with Reid.
Modrak, well-respected and well-connected, could pick up the phone today and take jobs with the Bills and Redskins. However, he wouldn't be able to call the shots in either place. Given his Philadelphia story, Modrak will almost certainly want total control in Chicago.
The question is: Will the Bears' owners truly give up that control? In the past, that's always been a silly question.
Tom Oates of the Wisconsin State Journal writes a weekly NFC column every other Thursday for ESPN.com.
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