Boers and Bernstein are highly critical of people saying for how long they've been fans of the Bears. I too can't stand those fan statements since they have no bearing on the quantitative elements of why the Bears suck. It doesn't matter that I've been an active fan of the Bears since 1984. I'm a fan. I have an opinion. The more or less years of being a fan have no bearing on my opinion.
However, given the current death spiral that the Bears are in, I'm concerned that we're heading into another decade of ineptitude. But then it occurred to me to take a look @ the decades and determine where my Bears fandom has gotten me.
- 1960 - 1969 / 67-65-6 / .486
- 1970 - 1979 / 60-83-1 / .417
- 1980 - 1989 / 92-60-0 / .605
- 1990 - 1999 / 73-87-0 / .456
- 2000 - 2010 / 81-79-0 / .506
- 2010 - 2014 / 40-33-0 / .548
Over the last sixty years, what do we have to show for this team?
413-407-7 / .499
We have a barely .500 team that we've agonized with. We have ownership that isn't listening. We have leaders that can't lead. We have coaches that can't coach.
Luckily, since the 1980s - I've had one totally lost decade in the 90s where the Bears were 73-87-0. Where we had running backs like Tim Worley and Lewis Tillman or defensive ends like Alonso Spellman or John Thierry. The 00s were marginally better under the worlds of Smith and Jauron. The 10s are - predictably - trending to .500.
Listen, we're not going anywhere because we really haven't gone anywhere. The blip of course is the 1980s where the team was built by Jerry Vainisi and a lot of years of great drafts were had in the early 1980s.
- 1980 / Otis Wilson, Matt Suhey
- 1981 / Keith Van Horne, Mike Singletary, Ken Margerum, Todd Bell, Jeff Fisher
- 1982 / Jim McMahon, Tim Wrightman, Dennis Gentry, Kurt Becker,
- 1983 / Jim Covert, Wille Gault, Mike Richardson, Dave Duerson, Tom Thayer, Richard Dent, Mark Bortz
- 1984 / Wilbur Marshall, Ron Rivera, Shaun Gayle
- 1985 / William Perry, Kevin Butler, Jim Morrisey
We arguably had four stellar (1981, 1982, 1984, 1985) and one incredible (1983) draft. This is what it's going to take for us to get where we need to get too.
I don't give a shit about ownership, I've decided after writing this. I give a shit about the people who evaluate and sign talent for the Bears team. We did it in the past, we've had little cycles where we did it in the 00's .. we can do it again ... but I think we know that both Emery and Trestman aren't the right people just like Angelo and Lovie weren't the right people.