Chicago Bears Chairman George McCaskey appeared to get emotional while talking about his mother Virginia McCaskey during a press conference surrounding the team’s latest staffing shakeup.
“She’s been very supportive, she agrees with the decisions that we’ve made, she’s pissed off,” McCaskey said Monday following the firing of General Manager Phil Emery and Head Coach Marc Trestman. “I can’t think of a 91-year-old woman that that description would apply to but in this case I can’t think of a more accurate description.”
The daughter of George Halas, 91-year-old Virginia Halas McCaskey has seen several Bears seasons in her years, but her son said she’s “fed up with mediocrity.”
“She’s been on this earth for eight of the Bears’ nine championships and she wants more,” he said. “She feels that it’s been too long since the last one and that dissatisfaction is shared by her children, her grandchildren and her great grandchildren.”
The question sparked an immediate burst of passion from McCaskey as it appears his mother may have been a driving force behind the latest decision to make moves in the Bears staff.
“She feels that she and Bears fans everywhere deserve better,” McCaskey said.
The team said earlier Monday that McCaskey and President and CEO Ted Phillips told Emery and Trestman "they will not return as the team's general manager and head coach for the 2015 season."
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McCaskey said he plans to be involved in the upcoming hiring process, and he will be helped by former New York Giants G.M. Ernie Accorsi, whom the team hired as a consultant.
“We feel that the correct course of action is to hire the best people that we can and stay out of the way and let them do their jobs,” he said. “I was involved in the last hiring process and I’m going to be involved in this hiring process.”
The question remains, however, if his mother will also be behind the next staffing decision.
