Well, it looks like Matt Forte was watching ‘The Last Dance’ just like the rest of us Sunday night.
Most of the first two episodes dealt with how there was a divide between players and management (hmm sounds familiar), and how it played a large part in the break up of the Bulls after the ’97-’98 season. This will be a continuous theme throughout the remaining 8 episodes, but it sparked something in Matt Forte’s mind right from the jump.
He spotted some similarities between that Bulls dynasty and his playing days with the Bears…
Having played in Chicago for almost a decade this seems to be our Achilles heel! https://t.co/q89MA37h8E
— Matt Forte (@MattForte22) April 20, 2020
What is Forte referring to exactly, you ask? He provides some examples:
Y’all asking for details so here’s just a few examples.Lovie wins 10 games but gets fired. New GM (Emery) comes in and basically tried to get rid of the entire (lovie Tampa 2 def.) The way 54 was treated at the end of his career along with 55 and 33. So I knew I was just a number
— Matt Forte (@MattForte22) April 20, 2020
Then, not sure if this person was comparing Jerry Krause to Phil Emery, or Jerry Angelo to Phil Emery, but either way, Forte decided to share a story about Jerry Angelo…
Jerry lied to me in camp 2011. Told my agent and I he’d negotiate a new deal in “good faith” lol I ended up playing under rookie deal 600k making the pro bowl but season ended with MCL sprain while the punter made 4.5M. #facts https://t.co/QPQh4Q7GKI
— Matt Forte (@MattForte22) April 20, 2020
Sorry Chicago this #lastdance doc got me fired up about how great the teams I played on could’ve been. Especially when the bulls GM really actually let his brain entertain the thought of trading MJ pic.twitter.com/Qr2HIlwyzz
— Matt Forte (@MattForte22) April 20, 2020
Not sure I would put that Bears team up there with the Bulls dynasty, but we know where you were going, Matt.
The way things ended with that Bears core did always have a weird feel to it, though. It may have been time for some changes, but the Bears handled it horribly after all those teams gave to the organization for years. Between Lovie being fired after a pretty good season and 1 Hall of Famer (Urlacher) and 2 potential Hall of Famers (Briggs and Tillman) on that defense being essentially kicked out the door, like Matt said, there had to be more of a personal ego that got in the way of the right way to handle things.
2 episodes of ‘The Last Dance’ down, Chicago. It may be a documentary about the Bulls, but it appears we may get a few more stories about other teams in the city out of it. Directly, or indirectly…
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