Column: Can the new face of the next generation of McCaskeys save the Chicago Bears?

A big news from Halas Hall last week was buried one day when the president of the Bears de Chicago, George McCaskey, and the president / chief executive, Kevin Warren, updated the stadium plans and the coach Ben Johnson announced that he would not play at Caleb Williams or most of the other beginners in a pre-season opener.

Edward L. McCaskey was appointed to the board of directors of Sept-Member Bears, replacing his grandmother, the late Virginia McCaskey, and becoming the first member of the next generation to be part of the management of the $ 6 billion franchise founded by his great-grandfather, George Halas.

No reason has been given for the meeting other than George McCaskey calling him “My favorite nephew”, which is a reason as good as anyone with regard to hiring in Chicago. Edward is the son of the secretary of the board of directors, Patrick McCaskey, and was appointed after the late husband of Virginia and former president of the Bears Ed McCaskey.

“I said to him:” You have big shoes to fill, Kid “,” said George McCaskey on Friday about his nephew, which is at the end of the thirties. “He has been fantastic so far. He is brilliant. He is articulated. He asks big questions. He is impatient to learn. And it’s exciting to have the next generation of our family on the board.”

It is an exciting thing for fans of the Bears, who were waiting for the next generation of McCaskeys to reverse the stagnation of the franchise under the current generation of McCaskeys. It is an thankless task, but someone has to do it since George said that the McCaskeys will not sell the team “before the second coming”.

I do not know anything about Edward’s qualifications to sit on the board of directors, nor on cousins for the headquarters of the board of directors. But I am rooted for him to succeed because it would be a great sporting story. According to the LinkedIn profile of McCaskey, he is an internal wholesaler and a former Bears Ball boy, summer trainee with the NFL, sports information assistant at Wheaton College, director of marketing of Schaumburg boomers and director of media relations for Gary South Railcats.

Taking control of bears one day should be a piece of cake. Maybe he can even conclude a stadium agreement in the late 2040s and get them out of an obsolete Arlington Heights stadium that his uncle George built in the late 2020s.

In a tribune profile in 2011, when he worked for railcats, McCaskey said he wanted to be tried on his own merits and not for his Bears connection.

“I want people to know me for me, not just a name,” he told the former columnist of Tribune, David Haugh. “It was a struggle in high school (Loyola Academy) to have real authentic friends because it was:” You are the child who owns the bears “. I don’t mind taking a rear seat.

His father and uncles George and Brian do not become younger, so finally Edward can move to the front seat, perhaps as a driver. The story of Chicago sports owners handing over the reins to heirs is deep … and above all comic, if you like to laugh through pain.

But we have a precedent with regard to the owners of NEPO canceling their father’s actions for the improvement of the team.

The owner of the late Blackhawks, Rocky Wirtz, succeeded his father, William Wirtz, after the man nicknamed “Dollar Bill” died in 2007. Rocky put the Hawks’ home matches on television, hired the legends of Hawks as an ambassadors, brought back the Pat Foley popular game and Through three seasons of the Stanley Cup in the 2010s.

The Hawks were in a reconstruction when Rocky died in 2023. Rocky’s son Danny Wirtz succeeded him and became the last face of the family franchise, which dates back to the purchase by Arthur Wirtz of the team in 1946.

Danny was appointed President and Manager of Acting Management in 2020, so at least he began to run by the moment when Rocky died. He also had marketing training as a sales director of Wirtz Beverage Group, and already worked as a group assistant from the ministry during a tour in 1999.

These life experiences can only help when he tries to bring the Hawks back to the relevance to the 100th anniversary of the franchise.

“(Rocky) did not like to wait or complicate too much or the bureaucracy,” Danny told Phil Thompson from the gallery in 2023. “I like the process. I like the strategy. I like to plan but with the same final objective in mind.”

Despite the best disputed planning and strategy, the reconstruction of Hawks remains a work in progress, as well as the reconstruction of the Bulls, which is led by another future owner of Nepo, Michael Reinsdorf, son of Bulls and the president of White Sox, Jerry Reinsdorf.

Michael became president of the Bulls in 2010, when Jerry felt that he had left the team to run on the automatic pilot.

“I underestimated the Bulls, I really did it,” Jerry Reinsdorf told Melissa Isaacson d’Espn in 2012. “It was one of the reasons to want Michael here.

“I just felt that we needed another person there to take us into the future and not just to count on our past success. In addition, young people need to manage businesses because there are so many things that I did not know with digital marketing and brand construction, Internet. It was time for it to happen with the Bulls. ”

The Bulls remained a company prosperous financially, but did not have much success in the field, with an appearance in the final of the eastern conference in its first season, seven appearances in eliminations in 15 seasons and a single after-season team since 2017-18.

At least, Jerry has chosen to sell the White Sox to an external interest in the billionaire Justin Ishbia, allowing Michael to pay individual attention to the Bulls and to allow fans of SOX to dream of a type of competitive and large market.

Fans of Cubs who are not satisfied with the current property will probably not be happier if President Tom Ricketts one day gives the team to one of his five children, or to various nieces and nephews of Todd Ricketts and Laura Ricketts co -owners. But Tom said in 2013: “It looks like (Cubs) would be a family business forever”, so don’t be surprised if the next generation of ricketts bearing khaki takes control.

Cubs have a story linked to nepo babies who have taken over since the chewing magnate William Wrigley gave the team to his son, Philip K. Wrigley, in 1932. PK’s son William, took over from his father in 1977 until he sold him in 1981 at Tribune Co.

The common denominators of the reign of the six decades of the Wrigley family were not championships and no lights to Wrigley Field. But at least, they have not destroyed Wrigley Field, which is now an ATM machine all year round for ricketts and a tourist destination for baseball fans.

The owners of Nepo in Chicago had their ups and downs. So, will Edward L. McCaskey by Bears Ball Boy to the owner of the Bears materialize?

We can only watch and wait, like the Ben Johnson era.

But if the face of the next generation of McCaskeys manages to win a single Super Bowl, it will at least be ahead of Uncle George.

So bring yourself, Edward L.

Bears Nation turns solitary eyes to you.