A trip to Riverview Park, back in the day, wasn’t complete without tempting fate on one of its famous thrill rides, “The Bobs”, “The Wild Mouse” or “The Flying Turns”. If you remember the sensation of the experience then you can imagine the ups, downs, twists and turns that Chicago Bears Head Coach Dick Jauron has so nobly endured.
Jauron’s time in Chicago has been punctuated by more controversy than you would think possible for a person so stoic and unassuming. Hired by every Bear fan’s nightmare, Mike McCaskey, his tenure was born of controversy when Dave McGinnis walked away from the job after McCaskey announced his hiring before the parties agreed on a contract. Mrs. McCaskey, daughter of Papa Bear, gave her son the boot, but good, shortly thereafter. An 11-21 record in his first two years on the job, the Gary Crowton hiring and his elevation of Cade McNown to starting QB had Bear fans wondering if the ridiculous Dave Wannstedt regime was so bad after all.
The improbable 2001 season of wild and wacky finishes changed all that and left the faithful expecting a Super Bowl in spite of Philadelphia’s man handling of the Bears in a home playoff loss last January. Jerry Angelo, who kept Jauron swinging in the breeze the entire season, had no choice but to bring the Coach of the Year back along with his entire staff, despite rumors that he had LSU’s Nick Saban earmarked for the job. That decision must haunt Angelo in light of the disastrous 2002 Champaign-a-thon that will end with the Bears well below the break even point and thoughts of the Super Bowl a foggy memory.
Through it all, Jauron has been, Jauron; calm, steady, thoughtful. Bear fans want their coaches to pace the sidelines, harass referees to distraction and abuse mistake prone players publicly. If the team stinks, at least the sideshow is worth watching. But George Halas and Mike Ditka are long gone and you won’t find Jauron emulating them.
“Instead of yelling and getting all rah-rah, he takes a different method,” linebacker Warrick Holdman said last year. “He just tells you what needs to be done. He not the guy who’s going to go in the middle of the team room and break a chair or crack the chalkboard over his head.”
Don’t mistake his demeanor for a lack of toughness; just ask tight end Fred Baxter. When good old #84 questioned the offensive coaching philosophy, Jauron had little to say, at least until the time was right. He eventually spoke volumes, cutting Baxter earlier this year while remarking that Fred “was the odd man out”.
In the age of fast food sports programming, Jauron is a throwback to the days when NFL coaches had little to say, in large part because nobody was listening. These days every time a coach, player or play-by-play guy opens his mouth it’s an apparent audition for Sportscenter. Jauron, on the other hand is like Mr. Ed; he never speaks unless he has something to say.
“Everyone gives him a bum rap because he’s not real vocal with the media,” said Brian Urlacher. “But when he needs to get us going, he gets us going.”
Last year, Coach Dick encountered the makings of a possible mutiny on a Sunday at Lambeau Field when defensive players expressed their frustration with the John Shoop run offense. Shoop, a surly little fellow in his own right told the D-boys to shut up and figure a way to tackle Ahman Green. After the game, Jauron dismissed the encounter with a wry smile and a plausible explanation, to wit, football players and coaches are highly competitive people playing a violent game. Tempers flare and emotions run high so what’s the big deal?
The next day, he was quoted as saying: “This is the National Football League. This is not a Boy Scouts meeting. These guys are very competitive.”
Then Jauron said jokingly: “I’m not saying it doesn’t happen in Boy Scouts meetings; I don’t know that.”
The quote brought a mild chuckle from the assembled scribes but is something akin to the Coach doing the Macarena with a lampshade on his head. He is seldom given to these moments of witticism, preferring to play it straight and remain Rushmore-like.
With a losing record and an injured reserve list that would choke a grizzly, Jauron carries on in his steady workman like manner. His ultra conservative style, which relies on a good defense and excellent punting, drives fans to distraction while his commitment to a philosophy; coach or player is often characterized as stubbornness.
He is intelligent, steady, experienced, dedicated, calm, respectful, good and decent. The coach’s son has been in the game all his life. With blowholes like Marty Schottenheimer and Brian Billick coaching football teams these days, he’s a refreshing change. In spite of the team’s struggles, you won’t see Jauron laying blame anywhere but his own doorstep. Regardless, the dismal 2002 season is an organizational problem and there’s plenty of blame to go around.
GM Jerry Angelo has come to that realization as well. In spite of a mid season news conference where he spewed confusing mumbo-jumbo, saying, “I’m assuming my confidence in our coaches is assumed. I’m not going to update on those assumptions”, he has since announced that Jauron will be back.
If Angelo is so inclined, he can force Jauron out at a later date by insisting that he fire Offensive Coordinator John Shoop. When the loyal Jauron refuses, which he will, he’ll be launched in much the same manner Wade Philips was in Buffalo when he stuck by his beleaguered special teams coach. Hopefully, Angelo has no such plan in mind because the NFL and the Bears are better off with the likes of Jauron around.
Mike Lynch, a friend of Jauron’s from their high school football days related this anecdote to a Boston Globe reporter that gives the measure of the Chicago Bears Head Coach.
“I talked to him the night he got the (Bears) job,” said Mike Lynch. “Here I was, I had tears in my eyes, telling him I was so proud and so happy for him. Know what the first thing he said to me was? `How’s your mother and father doing?”’
Let’s hope Leo Durocher was wrong!