Why Lions game could mean more to Matt Nagy originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Everyone’s heard the coachspeak cliché about teams treating each week the same. That no game is more important than any other. But when the Bears play the Lions on Thanksgiving, that may not be true. With rumors swirling around Halas Hall about Matt Nagy’s future with the team, Nagy may be coaching for his job.
Mark Konkol rocked Chicago on Tuesday morning when he published a report saying the Bears had already told Nagy that Thursday would be his last game coaching the team. A few hours later, Nagy said that report was inaccurate. When pressed about whether the higher-ups had assured Nagy that he would keep his job through Week 17, he said his focus was on the Lions. Take all of that, boil it down, and it begs the question of what is really happening among George McCaskey, Ted Phillips, Ryan Pace and Nagy.
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Has he truly been told he’ll be fired after Thursday, no matter what? Or was he given some sort of ultimatum to finally win, or else? Is this all completely off base? It’s hard to say, but it feels likely that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Maybe Nagy truly is coaching for his job.
If that is the case, players insisted on Tuesday that they’ll play hard for Nagy. Every man who came to the podium defended their coach and said he hasn’t lost the locker room. Allen Robinson went as far as to say, one of the reasons every player on the Bears came to Chicago “came here because of Coach Nagy.” He said that at the end of the day, they still respect him.
“The term ‘playing for your coaches job,’ it’s just respecting your coach and respecting what he has going on, and for guys to continue to be pros,” Robinson said. “I kind of think that’s kind of where that comes from. I think those are the kind of guys we have.”
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But Robinson didn’t go as far as to say the Bears were at that point just yet.
“Right now at this moment we’re playing to win,” Robinson said. “Whatever that means. As players, you want to get better. Coaches want to get better. Everything else that’s going on is out of our control and not really our concern.”
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