Olin Kreutz brings the heat while discussing Chicago Bears ownership
Two former Chicago Bears players were guests on WCKG Sports Talk Chicago with Jon Zaghloul. The No Name Football Podcast is run by Jason McKie and Olin Kreutz. Both joined Jon Zaghloul to talk about many Bears topics, but one stood out a little more than the others.
It is no secret that some bad blood exists between Olin Kreutz and the current Chicago Bears organization — specifically between Kreutz and George McCaskey. It did not take long for George McCaskey to take some shots at Olin Kreutz after a reporter asked McCaskey about the story leaking about Kreutz being offered a job that only paid $15 dollars per hour. This is old news, but if you have been living under a rock, you can read this recap.
Olin Kreutz calls out Chicago Bears Chairman, George McCaskey’s leadership
In a nutshell, Olin Kreutz made a comment after the season finale that he was offered a position during training camp to help the team that essentially paid him $15 per hour. After being asked about the story, George Halas told reporters:
"“I’ve learned over the years to take just about anything that Olin says with a grain of salt,” McCaskey said. “I look forward to hearing that story again. I hope he includes it in his Hall of Fame induction speech.”"
George McCaskey was then asked to clarify whether he was saying what Olin Kreutz said was true or not. His response was less than helpful, but I think it’s safe to say he finds the story to be false or at least out of context.
"“That’s the way it is sometimes with Olin. You don’t get the whole story. Olin knows (what) the story is.”"
Look, we will never know the full story. My guess is that the position Olin Kreutz was offered only lasted a short amount of months in the year. Once you broke down the salary per hour based on what Kreutz assumed would be the number of hours he’d have to work to be successful in the position, the amount was (or at least about) $15.00 per hour.
Whatever the story, Olin Kreutz told Jon Zaghloul and listeners how he feels about George McCaskey’s leadership abilities:
"“George knows me. I’ve played a long time there — for the Chicago Bears. Talked a lot about their struggles. Talked a lot about him and Ted Phillips’ struggles. Since Ted’s been in charge, since George has been in charge, they haven’t won a lot of football games. Their decisions hasn’t equaled weight. So obviously he was offended by me coming after him, Ted Phillips and Scott Hagel. But the way I felt personally was, I don’t mind you saying that, but at least be a leader, be the owner of your football team and call and reach out to me or pick up the phone when someone like Harry Heistand calls you to tell you the story. Call me after to talk to me about the things that went on. Obviously, I have not heard from George. You would think he would be the leader of the organization and reach out to somebody who played 13 years for him, but you haven’t heard from them. But, that doesn’t shock me. They haven’t won a lot of games with him in charge, which means he is not a good leader.”"
That was not the end of it though. When Jon Zaghloul followed that response up with the question about if the Chicago Bears did enough, or if more change must take place at the top of the organization. Olin Kreutz declared that the Bears need to make more changes, but he knows they won’t. Just by results, Kreutz believes that the Chicago Bears need to make a major change. Let’s be honest, no matter what you think of Kreutz, he isn’t wrong here. There haven’t been enough changes at the top based on the results of the team over the last 20+ years.
Make sure to go back and listen to the whole segment as Kreutz and McKie talk about many Bears topics.