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Bears to Wannstedt: Time to move on

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Posted: Monday December 28, 1998 04:11 PM

Wannstedt still had two years remaining on his contract but was dismissed Monday Jonathan Daniel/Allsport

LAKE FOREST, Illinois (AP) -- Dave Wannstedt was dismissed as Chicago Bears coach Monday, one day after the team finished 4-12 for the second straight season.

Team president Michael McCaskey said he decided to dismiss Wannstedt "because we didn't win enough football games."

The Bears finished their season Sunday with a 16-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Wannstedt has two years remaining on his contract, but McCaskey met with him Monday morning to discuss his future.

"Today's a difficult day for all of us at the Bears. We hoped it would go a lot better," McCaskey said. "We have a good nucleus of players and we need to increase the talent level."

Wannstedt, 46, came to the Bears from Dallas in 1993 as one of the NFL's brightest young coaching prospects. When he took over as Dallas' defensive coordinator, the Cowboys were 1-15. In his final season, the Cowboys went 16-3 and won the Super Bowl.

Despite being the youngest defense in the NFL, the 1992 Cowboys were ranked first in the league, giving up just 246 points a game. Dallas forced nine turnovers in its Super Bowl victory over Buffalo.

The Bears made strides under Wannstedt early, finishing 7-9 his first season, two more victories than they'd had the previous year. In 1994, Chicago went 9-7 and made the playoffs, beating Minnesota before losing to San Francisco in the second round.

Chicago went 9-7 again in 1995, just missing the playoffs. And then the slide began. The Bears finished 7-9 in 1996 and the 1997 squad lost its first seven games on its way to a 4-12 finish.

A quarterback controversy between veteran Erik Kramer and Rick Mirer, for whom Wannstedt had given up a first-round draft pick, disrupted the team. Volatile personalities like Bryan Cox and Alonzo Spellman caused further problems, and some players were questioning Wannstedt by season's end.

McCaskey brought in Mark Hatley to be vice president of player personnel, and the Bears got rid of Spellman, Cox and Mirer. Though they lost their first four games, the Bears righted themselves and won three of four before the bye week.

Then Kramer and Curtis Enis, the fifth overall pick of the draft, went down with injuries, taking the Bears right along with them. They lost six straight before finally trouncing Baltimore last week.

Wannstedt played offensive tackle at Pittsburgh, and was captain of the 1973 team. Drafted by the Green Bay Packers, he spent one season on injured reserve and then joined Johnny Majors' staff at Pittsburgh as the defensive line coach.

After four years at Pitt, he spent four years at Oklahoma State, the last two as Jimmy Johnson's defensive coordinator. He went to Southern California in 1983 before rejoining Johnson at Miami in 1986 as defensive coordinator. Wannstedt followed Johnson to Dallas in 1989.

 

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