Bears Eyeing Big Ten Boss as Ted Phillips’ Replacement: Report

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Bears President and CEO Ted Phillips is set to retire from his post at the end of the 2022 season.

The Chicago Bears have known since September that they would need to find a new team president and CEO after the conclusion of the 2022 season, but now it appears they may have at least one “strong candidate” on their list.

According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Bears have closed in on Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren one of the top candidates to become their next President/CEO after Ted Phillips retires from his post in a few months. Warren has roughly two decades of NFL front-office experience and served as the Minnesota Vikings’ Chief Operating Officier prior to accepting his current position as the boss of a top college athletics conference.

“We have not set a timeline for announcing Ted Phillips’ successor,” the Bears said in a statement Thursday, via ESPN. “Our search team has cast a wide net, spoken to many outstanding candidates, and looks forward to introducing our next President and CEO at the process’s conclusion.”

Thamel also provided details about the Bears’ overall search process, citing sources that say the team has been searching for a new president since “late last summer.” He also said they held a round of Zoom interviews with initial candidates “months ago” and recently started to hold in-person interviews with some of their preferred candidates, including with Warren.

Phillips announced in early September that he would be stepping down from his post once the 2022 season concluded, marking the end of his run as one of the only people outside of the McCaskey family to hold the position of President/CEO of the Bears. He will have held the job for 23 years when he retires in a few months.

Warren’s Stadium-Construction Experience Holds Appeal

As Thamel noted in his report, the Bears are partially interested in Warren because of his experience as the COO of the Vikings. That makes a lot of sense when you consider Warran was instrumental in helping build U.S. Bank Stadium for the Vikings in 2016 and could face a similar undertaking with the Bears if he were offered and accepted the job.

The Bears purchased a 326-acre property in Arlington Heights, Illinois, outside of Chicago back in September 2021 and have since been signaling their interest in developing the land into a new stadium (and more) in order to move the team away from Soldier Field. While the Bears have not yet committed to the move and could still remain at Soldier Field, the next President/CEO will have a key role in making that call.

Even if the Bears stay at Soldier Field, there is a good chance they would work with the city of Chicago to extensively renovate the area surrounding the stadium to bring it up to par with some of the other modern stadiums around the NFL. Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot shared some early concept images last July of what renovations could look like for the Soldier Field campus, should the Bears decide against moving elsewhere.

Warren Has Odd History With Bears QB Justin Fields

Warren’s tenure as Big Ten Commissioner hasn’t always been the most well-received, especially after how he handled the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, one of his most-criticized decisions as commissioner was one that put him at odds with now-Bears quarterback Justin Fields back when he was a Heisman Trophy candidate at Ohio State.

Warren faced quite a bit of backlash after the conference voted in August 2020 to indefinitely postpone all fall athletics, including the 2020 Big Ten Football season. One of the first players to speak out against the decision was Fields, who started an online petition to let athletes play that garnered more than 300,000 signatures. Eventually, the Big Ten approved a shortened, eight-game season, and Fields went on to lead the Buckeyes to a 5-0 record (due to game cancellations) and a Big Ten Championship.

Now, it seems highly unlikely that either Warren or Fields is still holding onto a grudge about the handling of the pandemic. Still, it is a little humorous to imagine what the first interaction between the two of them would be like if he got the Bears job.