Time for a new Bears president says Patrick Mannelly

Chicago Bears’ long snapping legend Patrick Mannelly joined our guy Jack M Silverstein for a jampacked thirty minutes that hit on a number of topics.

The Patrick Mannelly Award, which is presented by Zebra Technologies and benefitting Bernie’s Book Bank, was recently given out to the top long snapper in the nation, Pittsburgh’s Cal Adomitis, so it was neat hearing Mannelly explain the backstory to how the Award came to be.

Mannelly played with some fantastic special teamers during his time in Chicago, including one of the all-time greats in Devin Hester, so they talk about Hester’s chances to make the Hall Of Fame. They also talk about his former special team’s coordinator, Dave Toub, and why teams are missing out on not hiring him as head coach.

But the most eye-opening part of their interview was when Mannelly gave his take on the current team, and how the changes that need to happen need to start on top with team president Ted Phillips.

“I think he’s been there long enough,” Mannelly says about Phillips.

“If you truly want to make a difference, just say ‘hey man, it’s time for you to retire. We’ll put you on the board or something like that and we’re just going to get you out the building every day and you’re not making decisions,’ and that’s the true change. If you really want to make a change, that’s the one thing we’ve got to make.”

Mannelly is still very close to the team and his passion for the Bears shines through, so this entire interview is a must listen.

For the full uncut audio version of their interview you can check out the WCG Podcast Channel right here.

If you prefer your Bears content in video form, here’s the segment from Jack and Patrick talking about The Patrick Mannelly Award.

Here’s the segment from them talking about Devin Hester, Dave Toub, and some of Mannelly’s time in Chicago.

And here’s the segment where Mannelly goes deep on his thoughts about the current Bears and the Ted Phillips situation.

Mannelly holds the Bears record for most seasons played (16) and most games played (245), but he also hosts the pre and post game Bears’ shows on Chicago’s 670 The Score, so he’s still quite dialed in to the current team.