The new Halas Hall m.o.: 'No harm, no foul'

The Bears' quest for a new stadium has had all the earmarks of a Halas Hall production.

After outgoing team president Ted Phillips initially spearheaded the Bears' stadium pursuit — purchasing the 326-acre Arlington Park property in Arlington Heights for $197.2 million, introducing stadium designs as part of an ambitious "multi-purpose entertainment district' in 2022, then razing Arlington Park to clear the way — the Bears hired a new president with the opposite ambition.

Using "tax uncertainty" with the Arlington Heights project that wouldn't amount to one-tenth of one percent of the Bears' operating budget as a pivot-point, new president Kevin Warren turned the organization's stadium focus toward Chicago. And what at first appeared to be a feint designed to light a fire under the Arlington Heights people became a Warren fixation.

While a new Bears stadium in the city would continue the tradition of the Bears and every other major pro sports team playing its games in Chicago, the Bears' change of direction seemed typically impractical.

A stadium in the city would require significantly more public money — a deal that usually doesn't work out well for taxpayers. And it would waste the destruction of Arlington Park — not a functioning race track at the time, but still a world-class facility that could host racing in the future. In Arlington Heights, the Bears not only had more property and a state-of-the-art grand plan, but they would own the land and the stadium, with public money used for infrastructure modifications to accommodate increased traffic related to the stadium.

But last week the Bears announced that they were pivoting again and focusing on the Arlington Heights project, a deal that quickly appeared imminent. Considering with Warrens' self-stated goal of "shovels in the ground" in 2025, there's little time to play one side against the other.

The flip-flop-flip drew criticism, as expected. "This was Plan A all along ... how much money did the Bears waste in waiting as long as they did to shift their focus back to Arlington Heights?" asked David Haugh of the "Mully & Haugh Show" on 670 The Score. "This should've happened a year ago. This never should've been delayed by the fascination with the lakefront that God kissed."

Of course, we know the answer to that question: That's the way the Bears do business. There's a reason why they've never owned their own stadium. Just like there's a reason why they've won four playoff games in 32 seasons since the end of the Mike Ditka era and have fired three general managers and five head coaches in the last 14 years.

The good news is that despite their ham-handed process, this figures to end well. The Bears are going to end up with a state-of-the-art stadium in a 21st-century "village" venue. No harm. No foul.

For an organization so often consumed by its own dysfunction, "no harm, no foul" is progress. And that seems to be the way George McCaskey's Bears are rolling these days.

When general manager Ryan Pace went his own Halas Hall-dysfunctional way in pursuit of a quarterback in 2017 — signing Mike Glennon, then focusing on a clandestine mission to draft Mitch Trubisky while ignoring Patrick Mahomes — it ultimately cost him and coach Matt Nagy their jobs and sent the Bears on a path toward the recent 21-47 unpleasantness.

But when new general manager Ryan Poles retained Matt Eberflus after teardown/rebuild seasons of 3-14 and 7-10, then OK'd the hiring of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron — the resulting disaster somehow led them to hiring Ben Johnson, the hottest coordinator in the 2025 hiring cycle. No harm, no foul.

Same thing with last week's story about Caleb Williams and his father Carl initially looking to avoid the Bears in the 2024 draft, according to a soon-to-be-published book by ESPN's Seth Wickersham. The revelations certainly were newsworthy — especially Williams' complaints about getting no guidance from the Bears in watching film. But those mostly responsible if those charges are true — Eberflus and Waldron — are gone. And now Williams is in the hands of a head coach with credentials in quarterback development — and reportedly all-in with the Bears. No harm, no foul.

Even the recent coaching search started as a Bears production — McCaskey, Warren and Poles interviewed 17 coaches (though to their credit, it included the most popular candidates). But when it looked the Bears might veer into an unpredictable direction with Johnson — the people's choice — possibly unavailable until the week of the Super Bowl, the Bears caught a break when the Lions were upset at home in their playoff opener.

The Bears unexpectedly pounced — breaking the bank (a reported $13 million a year) to hire Johnson two days later. The Bears started the process doing things their way, and finished it like a team most Bears fans are unfamiliar with.

It remains to be seen if those recent developments are signs of the dawn of a new era at Halas Hall. They all hinge on Ben Johnson (and Caleb Williams) being as good as advertised. But in lieu of success, let's acknowledge their progress. Despite the Bears being the Bears — under same ownership — they now have Caleb Williams as their quarterback, Ben Johnson as their head coach and likely a world-class stadium in their future. That's better than they normally do at Halas Hall.