With Ted Phillips retiring at the end of the 2022 season, the Chicago Bears officially announced the hire of new team president and CEO Kevin Warren, who previously served as a sports executive as commissioner of the Big Ten Football Conference. Let’s take a look at Kevin Warren, Ryan Poles, and how they both heavily impact the Bears’ future.
Ryan Poles
The Chicago Bears hired Ryan Poles to be the seventh general manager in franchise history on January 25, after years of incompetence from former general manager Ryan Pace.
Before his tenure with the Bears, Poles worked as a graduate assistant at Boston College, his alma mater, after college. He also worked with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he worked his way through the positions to become the Executive Director of Player Personnel. This position is as close to being a general manager that one can be without having that official job title or duty. After being a finalist for the Bears’ GM opening. Bears ownership, with executives like Bill Polian and George McCaskey, decided to move on with Poles after a strong commitment to building a young football team that can win games and bring a championship to Chicago.
Kevin Warren
With an extensive reputation for dedication and a refusal to lose, the Chicago Bears brought in polished sports executive, Kevin Warren, to serve as President and CEO of the team. Warren has a reputation for being highly-professional and very intelligent as he is a law school graduate and licensed attorney. Certainly, that doesn’t come without loads of hard work and persistence.
The Notre Dame-graduate has extensive experience working in professional sports front offices. After college, Warren was hired by the then-St. Louis Rams to serve as their VP of Player Programs and Football Legal Counsel where he won a Super Bowl. Warren moved his way through the ranks with the Rams and Lions where he settled into a role with the Vikings in 2015, serving as their CEO. During his time in Minnesota, he was one of the key people involved in building Minnesota’s current stadium, US Bank Stadium.
The Future
Sure, that’s a lot of talk about business for two guys with loads of business backgrounds, so where does this affect football? Let’s take a look:
Ryan Poles: As the GM, Poles has many duties, but his most significant one is arguably the construction of a football roster that can go out and win football games on a consistent basis. We’ve seen GM after GM get fired from many teams due to a lack of winning and results demanded from ownership. If Poles doesn’t get Fields the help he needs to succeed, then after due time, Poles could be on his way out. But, let’s hope, that’s an overstatement and Fields and his future team will succeed with whoever Poles decides to draft and make acquisitions for.
Kevin Warren: No doubt Kevin Warren knows football, he’s been involved in football his whole life. And maybe Warren will have some say in who and what happens with the personnel (players) of the team, but that is specifically the role of the GM. But Kevin Warren’s roles with the Bears will be the oversight of many management personnel. Very significant to fans, the Bears are looking to develop and build a brand-new stadium in Arlington Heights that allows so much more than what Soldier Fields allows for them to do. Warren is a “no nonsense” type of guy, and he will be very tough on Poles, Eberflus and the rest of the staff to deliver positive results from the Chicago Bears. Warren understands what Chicago Bears fans love, want and deserve. He is here to deliver that.
