Jerry Angelo had a chance to give Lovie Smith a vote of confidence on Sunday.
He knew it. And he didn't.
Since the Chicago Bears four-game losing skid and the availability of some big name coaches like Bill Cowher, Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren, Jon Gruden and Tony Dungy, speculation has sprung about Coach Smith's future.
Keep speculating.
In a meeting with the reporters who defied the East Coast blizzard and made it to Baltimore, the team's General Manager called talk of Smith's demise premature. As well as talk of his job being secure.
"At the end of the year obviously we'll sit down and we'll talk though everything like we have every other year," Angelo said. "Lovie and I talk predominantly about our players, personnel during the year, focused on each and every week, winning the game so to speak. So that's been our dialogue through the season and no more than really what it's been in every other year."
In the midst of the losing this season, critics argued whether the McCaskey's would dare swallow the money Smith is guaranteed through the 2010 and 2011 seasons. Angelo said at the end of last year's non-playoff season that he wouldn't let money stand in the way of doing what's right for the team. He did not say the same thing Sunday.
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"I'm not going to get into that," Angelo said. "It's not about money, it's about doing what we feel we need to do to be a better football team."
Angelo did respond to the weekend reports from Comcast SportsNet that Smith would definitely be returning for another season with the Bears.
"I don't know where that report came from. I'm not dealing with it," Angelo said. "At the end of the year, we sit down, we talk as I'm saying, so I'm going to keep circling back to this because that's what we do."
While Angelo said the roster would "pretty much" stay intact because he likes the young core of players, he did not say that automatically includes the coach.
"You got the point of my answer."
