Getty The Chicago Bears are rumored to have a favorite to succeed current president and CEO Ted Phillips.
Ted Phillips has been the president and chief operating officer for the Chicago Bears since 1999, but there have been numerous reports in recent months suggesting Phillips plans to retire soon.
Adam Jahns of The Athletic reported in December of 2021 that retirement was “on the table in the near future for Phillips,” and insider Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog wrote on March 11 that Phillips was “set to retire in 2023.” Now, Hughes has named two of the top potential successors in his April 1 column.
Cliff Stein currently serves as senior vice president and general counsel for the Bears, and sports agent Trace Armstrong played defensive end for the team from 1989-94. Hughes says both are currently strong candidates to be the fifth president in franchise history.
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Hughes: Stein Is ‘In-House Frontrunner’ to Succeed Phillips
Stein has been with the Bears since 2002, and has been the team’s chief negotiator since then. He was in charge of the salary cap until former GM Ryan Pace hired Joey Laine to be the Bears’ director of football administration, giving Laine the job of negotiating the cap.
After Pace was fired, new general manager Ryan Poles hired Matt Feinstein to replace Laine in February and gave the cap responsibilities back to Stein — which Poles himself confirmed at the annual owners meetings.
Hughes claims Stein, who has the support of team ownership and has been with the Bears through multiple regime changes, is the in-house favorite to take the reins from Phillips.
“Cliff Stein is back running contracts and cap for the Bears,” Hughes wrote. “But he is also the in-house frontrunner to replace Ted Phillips in 2023. There are many strong outside candidates – including Trace Armstrong – but Stein has a lot of support in the McCaskey family.”
As for Armstrong, he still has a valued voice in Halas Hall. Pro Football Network reported in January that Armstrong, who is the agent for both Poles and Bears’ head coach Matt Eberflus, influenced team chairman George McCaskey’s decision to hire Poles as GM and Eberflus. It sounds as though Armstrong, who has been a sports agent with Athletes First since 2016 and was also president of the NFL Players Association from 1996 to 2003, is being considered, but not as seriously as Stein.
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Stein’s Managing of Salary Cap May Only Be Temporary
Based on Poles’ recent comments, it looks as though the team’s current plan is to have Stein show Feinstein the ropes where the cap is concerned, with the idea Feinstein will eventually handle it.
“Matt hasn’t done it (the salary cap) from the team perspective, but he knows the ins and outs of all the rules,” Poles said at the owners meetings, via Sean Hammond of the Daily Herald. “And so Cliff is taking the cap for the Bears right now and then we’re going to transition over time.”
While the phrase “transition over time” is a vague one, if the reports from Hughes about Phillips retiring in 2023 are true — and Hughes is one of the team’s most tuned-in insiders — it would make sense for Feinstein to become the team’s new salary cap guru if and when Stein were to get promoted.
Stay tuned.
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