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Bears chairman George McCaskey addresses Ray McDonald situation
When you sign a player with off-field red flags, publicly rationalize the move with bad logic and then the player gets in trouble, you end up in a mea culpa press conference to explain what went wrong.
Will the Chicago Bears, and specifically chairman George McCaskey, learn anything from the Ray McDonald situation? Maybe. McCaskey certainly spoke like he would, two days after the Bears cut McDonald following an arrest over a domestic violence allegation.
But, many executives talk like character matters, until they need a pass rusher or red-zone threat.
“I’ve asked myself that question a lot: ‘What more could I have done? Is there somebody else we could have consulted with? Should I have taken more time to make a decision?’" McCaskey said on Wednesday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times' Patrick Finley. "I don’t know. We thought we had a good structure, a good support system. We thought we had safeguards in place in case something like this happened.”
The Bears heard what they wanted to hear as they debated whether to sign McDonald, which every team does when it justifies signing someone with off-field issues. The Bears tried to sell the public on bad reasoning, like how McDonald impressed them by buying his own plane ticket for a meeting, and that they talked to McDonald's parents and they vouched for him. It's always tough to tell if a team is trying to fool its fans or themselves in these situations.
Either way, it turned out bad, and ended shortly after McDonald was arrested on Monday morning. The previous statements on why it was OK to sign McDonald probably made the situation worse. But it's not like the Bears haven't acquired someone with serious red flags before. This wasn't some first-time experiment. It's hard to imagine it's the last time they acquire someone whose off-field record isn't clean, either.
But, after this public shaming, it might be a while until they try again.
“The overriding emotion for me was sadness," McCaskey said, via Finley. "Sadness for the child, for the child’s mother and for the entire situation. Domestic violence is a vexing social problem. The NFL has had some high-profile cases, including this one.
“And the NFL — because it’s a leader in society — is called upon to take action, which we are doing. We’re not going to do it by ourselves but I think we have an opportunity to make an impact.”
Whether the NFL is really a "leader in society," rather than a football business, can be debated. But the Bears wanted to move on quickly from this embarrassment. McCaskey said that he wasn't even consulted on Monday when the Bears cut McDonald because "They knew what needed to be done and did it." He detailed some other regrets. But it really just came down to McCaskey admitting a mistake for approving McDonald's signing, after general manager Ryan Pace asked for permission.
"As a I said, we had safeguards in place," McCaskey said, according to the Sun-Times. "(General manager) Ryan (Pace) came to me for permission. So we have the reinforcement of that process. I just need to make a better decision.”
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
