Everyone in Chicago knows the history. From Papa Bear himself to Butkus and Sayers, to Sweetness the Chicago Bears were once a storied franchise. Today though, they look much more like the modern day Raiders than they do the Patriots or Colts.

This year was supposed to be different. The Bears were supposed to rise again to greatness on the shoulders of Jay Cutler. I was just as excited as everyone else in town when the huge trade was announced. Sure, Cutler hasn’t really played well at all, but you are crazy if you think he has been surrounded with any talent.

I guess you can point to Johnny Knox who has been a nice surprise as someone who has some talent, but it’s painfully obvious that he doesn’t completely grasp complex defenses that are in the NFL and nobody should blame him for this. He went to a small school and honestly should have spent more time on the bench this season learning. Maybe if the Bears hadn’t wasted picks on Jarron Gilbert and Juaquin Iglesias, Knox would have had more time to develop a greater understanding of defensive schemes and we wouldn’t constantly see Cutler having to coach him after a miscommunication.

For the record, I don’t blame either player for problems like that. Knox has done far more than anyone could have expected in his rookie season and it’s absurd that the best offensive coach the Bears have is a player. Cutler is teaching guys how to be receivers, running for his life because the offensive line can’t block, and then he has to try to be an elite QB all at the same time.

Jerry Angelo has done a terrible job building a team that can be competitive. Lovie Smith has done a terrible job putting together a coaching staff and then actually coaching the team. How many mindless acts will this head coach be allowed before he is fired? If the team was winning or at the very least playing good football on a weekly basis, then the burning of two timeouts for nothing could be forgiven, but this team plays with no discipline or passion and it all comes from the head coach.

The players performance has been garbage all season and they deserve plenty of blame, but the main problems are so much deeper than the current roster. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many empty seats yesterday. That meant a reduction in beer and food sales and ultimately, that’s the only way for the fans voice to be heard. The McCaskey’s care about money, and yesterday was the first time the McCaskey’s took note of the product because it didn’t sell very well.

Honestly, I have no idea how this mess is going to get fixed, but I do know that the men currently in charge won’t fix it because they are the ones who broke it. Jerry Angelo doesn’t deserve a chance to fix it. The coach that doesn’t know what players on the team can actually play was hand picked by the general manager. Angelo doesn’t deserve a chance to hire another coach and give him crappy players to work with.

I’m admitting that Lovie Smith doesn’t have much to work with, but when Jamar Williams is on the sideline watching Ryan Grant run for a long touchdown it shows that Lovie doesn’t understand how to coach anyway. I’ve been sending text messages to a buddy for weeks that Devin Aromashodu needed to be on the field. He finally gets a chance (only because of an injury) and he shows that he might have some value as a bigger receiver. It’s sad that I have to root for Hester to not be able to play so the coaching staff would be forced to make a good decision. How the hell does a fan have a better grasp of the problems with the team than the coach? Why in the world is Lovie Smith getting 5 million dollars this year?

It’s time to start over and money shouldn’t matter. The Bears are going to make extra money next season now that the NFL’s revenue sharing plan is being cut out. That extra money will be more than enough to pay for Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith to leave Halas Hall forever. If they can somehow talk Bill Cowher or Mike Shanahan into taking over this mess they need to do it immediately.

Bears fans deserve better and this once proud franchise needs to be revived. The only way that is going to happen is to get people involved that know what winning football teams look like.