LAKE FOREST, In poor health. — Matt Eberflus panicked. He appeared down on the barber’s cape and noticed a number of inches of his moist hair clinging to the navy cloth.
“Funk, that looks like rather a lot off.”
“Don’t be concerned about it,” stated his barber, Lawrence Funk. “Let me do it.”
Eberflus laughed and surrendered. He had a brand new lease on his teaching life, so he would possibly as properly check out a brand new look.
He’d walked into the barber store at Halas Corridor that Tuesday in February armed with just a few reference images. He’d worn a standard gentleman’s reduce for years however his spouse, Kelly, actually wished him to go shorter. He stored his hair lengthy with a brief sideburn and slicked it again with a shiny gel every single day, and he stored a clear shave. He all the time hated when the longer hair above his ear would not cooperate and his daughters would chortle at him when it appeared like he had wings flapping out of the again of his headset when the cameras caught him on the sideline.
Eberflus hadn’t had a information convention in a month, so there had been no cause to shave. And when Funk noticed the silver stubble mixed with Kelly’s concepts for a shorter reduce, he noticed a model new Bear.
Funk satisfied Eberflus to maintain the beard, lined it up and blended it into the now quick sides of his hair. Two days later, Eberflus took to the lectern to introduce his two new coordinators for the 2024 season, however the followers commenting on the livestream had extra to say about his new look than the brand new hires. Only a month earlier, this identical remark part had been calling for his head.
Matt Eberflus acquired a beard now?!?! It is official. We’re successful the division
Flus appears to be like mad prepared for a Tremendous Bowl
EBEARDFLUS IS UNDEFEATED
Funk was at his salon downtown whereas Eberflus met the media in Lake Forest. His cellphone rang, and it was former Bears guard Kyle Lengthy, who wasted no time.
“Did you chop Flus’ hair?”
“Yeah, on Tuesday.”
“I knew it bro,” Lengthy stated. “That is a stunning man.”
The response was so overwhelmingly constructive that the coach even purchased himself the Dyson hairdryer, a luxurious styling software that retails for round $429. Funk defined to him he would not have the ability to get the amount he wished if he did not blow dry it first. Then he experimented with vogue and wore white denims and a navy collared sweater to the NFL house owners assembly.
“Once you look nicer and also you gown nicer, folks respect you extra,” Funk says. “Flus had the longer pushback hair that was form of dangling when the wind’s blowing and he appeared wired. You go from that and get a shorter haircut, develop a beard. He is acquired some solar. He appears to be like like a brand new particular person.”
Flus’ glow-up turned the discuss of the city. “The very first thing I stated [on the air] was, I do know that is bizarre. He appears to be like smarter!” says 670 The Rating radio host Dan Bernstein.
And smarter was an enormous win for Eberflus, who had hemmed and hawed his means by way of a lot of his media appearances. A haircut and beard alone cannot change a staff’s trajectory, however within the Tremendous Bowl wasteland that’s Chicagoland, a beard that has but to win a recreation is already the stuff of legend.
Marquette basketball brings everybody collectively #MUBB | #WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/o34Q3zR4tZ
— Marquette Basketball (@MarquetteMBB) March 7, 2024
Late final season, Eberflus was firmly on the recent seat because the staff went 7-10 and locked within the No. 1 general choose from the Panthers, their finest likelihood to draft their long-awaited franchise quarterback. Was the defensive coach with a 10-24 file actually the perfect particular person to develop a rookie quarterback?
“Now take a look at the place we’re at,” Funk says. “A full dialog about how significantly better he appears to be like.”
Chicago is the brand new heart of the NFL universe. Coaching camp tickets offered out for the primary time, simply two minutes after they turned obtainable. The staff president is gunning for a brand new stadium to match his lofty imaginative and prescient for the constitution membership that has been caught previously, rookie quarterback Caleb Williams has vowed to finish the decades-long championship drought, “Onerous Knocks” cameras are rolling, and Eberflus lastly tasks the half.
NFL PRO SCOUTS spend their days monitoring motion across the league. They curate lists of free brokers, observe harm standing and place depth on all 32 rosters, and gather particulars on opponent schemes by watching each information convention for each head coach and coordinator. However late final season, whereas grinding mind-numbing information convention tape, one professional scouting director for an AFC staff tracked a really totally different form of change. Chicago’s head coach really appeared comfy?
“He was all the time very uptight and nervous when he needed to discuss,” the scouting director stated. “And now he’s extra chill and relaxed and he isn’t fumbling over his phrases or contradicting himself.”
The scouting director seen the advance in Eberflus someday round Week 15, when the staff collapsed late to the Cleveland Browns, a loss that dropped them to 5-9. He watched Eberflus clarify the loss with extra readability. “I figured he actually should have labored on this and located somebody who might information him,” the scouting director stated.
Eberflus instructed the Chicago Solar-Occasions in June he did not get session or coaching on public talking. However one supply with direct data of Eberflus’ media preparation instructed ESPN that Eberflus did overhaul his media prep, and that the coach went outdoors the group in the course of the season to enlist additional assist after a viral information convention mishap in Week 9 the place he struggled to reply easy questions on injured quarterback Justin Fields’ recreation standing. Fields was listed as uncertain, not out, the day earlier than the sport, regardless that Eberflus started the presser by saying Fields wouldn’t be enjoying. He stumbled by way of solutions starting from no, he isn’t medically cleared however he is shut, to he would possibly heat up, to “the possibilities are uncertain, 51% that he is in or out and we’ll see the place it’s.”
Reporters had been annoyed. Followers had been confused.
“The Chicago market is rather like New York,” stated the AFC professional scouting director. “You’ll be able to’t say, I am not speaking about that, as a result of you are going to get crushed. He was attempting to therapeutic massage it, however on the identical time, you might want to be savvy sufficient to beat across the bush and provides them one thing with out giving them something.”
Eberflus’ agent, Hint Armstrong, declined to touch upon whether or not Eberflus had acquired additional assist. “Many coaches are pushed, aggressive folks, and the actually good ones proceed to adapt, evolve and enhance,” Armstrong stated.
That bumbling presser on Fields’ standing was the final of a run of uncomfortable moments for Eberflus, who earlier final season was so caught off guard by questions on an inactive Chase Claypool {that a} public relations staffer needed to alert reporters that he misspoke in regards to the receiver half-hour after the postgame information convention ended. And earlier than that, he needed to reply for the mysterious and sensationalized absence of defensive coordinator Alan Williams throughout Week 2, when it might have been extra acceptable for the staff president or proprietor to take questions first.
“Particularly with the extra controversial issues, it does not mirror solely on Eberflus,” stated Bernstein, the radio host. “Bears followers discovered it indicative of an organizational difficulty. If the coach is that this confused, what does that say about how they’re doing enterprise?”
Bears staff president Kevin Warren spent his first 12 months on the job taking notes on what the group was lacking. In March, he transformed the entrance workplace to fulfill his requirements.
“I am respectfully grasping for this group,” Warren instructed ESPN. “I need each single division on this group to be seen as the perfect within the trade.”
He fired the VP of public relations who had been chargeable for getting ready Eberflus for his each day information conferences, and gave these duties to director of soccer communications Aaron Clark. Warren shifted the SVP who oversaw soccer communications to a brand new position overseeing public and governmental affairs and employed Ted Crews away from the Chiefs for a newly created senior government position overseeing company and soccer communications.
Crews was concerned within the Netflix “Quarterback” collection that featured Patrick Mahomes, and Warren stated having Crews within the constructing is one cause he felt comfy opening the doorways to “Onerous Knocks,” a chance that Warren sees as a approach to “message” to the fan base as they “evolve as a corporation, particularly into the twenty first century.”
Every NFL membership is primarily chargeable for establishing the coach for media success, however not all golf equipment prioritize public relations equally. For some organizations, the concept of consistency in messaging is extra of a advertising and marketing idea that does not prolong to the coaches and gamers who give info to the media frequently.
Final season, Fields created a weeklong information cycle when he instructed reporters at a information convention that he felt “robotic and never enjoying like himself” within the Bears’ offense, and Claypool turned a headline when he answered “no” when requested if he felt the teaching employees was placing him in the perfect scenario to succeed. These gamers both did not know the staff’s messaging or selected to disregard it.
Many gamers have their very own publicists and advertising and marketing brokers. Groups will usually herald outdoors consultants to do media coaching workshops with all of the gamers and coaches, nevertheless it’s much less frequent for a head coach to look outdoors for employed assist.
“There are loads of guys which are actually good soccer coaches that do not perceive the massive image. Calling the perfect performs on O or D, properly, no, that is not it. They’ve to have the ability to promote tickets, promote followers, and loads of that’s by way of the media.”
A former NFL head coach
One former repeat NFL coach stated most coaches he is aware of do not hassle as a result of they rapidly study successful is the one helpful media technique. (The coach requested anonymity as a result of he did not win in his final cease).
“Invoice Belichick — I would not say could be checked out as glam with the media, however what did he do? He received,” the previous coach stated. “Much less is extra. It’s aggressive, so you do not wish to be giving an excessive amount of info. You do not wish to calm down an excessive amount of since you get diarrhea of the mouth and also you say one thing that you simply remorse. It’s a must to be on guard.”
Eberflus instructed the Solar-Occasions that he’d been too guarded. Too nervous to say one thing he should not say. Folks round him say he isn’t a naturally evasive particular person, which made it much more troublesome to stroll the superb line of withholding info and nonetheless feeling good about himself when speaking about troublesome conditions.
However he knew he was in hassle as a result of the staff was dropping and wanted to hunt any edge he might to maintain his job. On the sector, he modified the best way he referred to as his protection, normal supervisor Ryan Poles traded for game-changing go rusher Montez Sweat and the unit reworked into one of many NFL’s finest. And off the sector, he labored to keep away from additional media pitfalls. When requested how he acquired extra comfy talking to the media, Eberflus, ever the soccer coach, credited getting in additional reps, “simply the time on process.”
Eberflus hasn’t given out any extra specifics on his course of, and the Bears’ public relations employees declined to make him obtainable for an interview with ESPN on the matter. The trade of sports activities public relations fixers is mysterious and even a little bit bit underground. One professional within the discipline (who does not work with Eberflus) does not actually have a web site, and declined to talk on the file as a result of their contracts with shoppers embrace a privateness requirement.
EBERFLUS IS 54 years previous with 33 years of teaching expertise. His first NFL job was on Eric Mangini’s Browns employees, the place the ethos of Mangini’s mentor Invoice Belichick dominated: Defend each piece of knowledge.
When Eberflus turned a defensive coordinator in Indianapolis in 2018, he spoke to reporters weekly. Colts reporters keep in mind him as a pleasant man, however one who did not give them something to work with.
“There are loads of guys which are actually good soccer coaches that do not perceive the massive image,” a former head coach stated. “Calling the perfect performs on O or D, properly, no, that is not it. They’ve to have the ability to promote tickets, promote followers, and loads of that’s by way of the media.”
That is how Eberflus was raised in soccer. So nevertheless he did it, and whoever helped him, he has fought these Belichickian instincts.
Simply how a lot has Eberflus improved? From a D grade to a B+, stated message and media strategist Brett O’Donnell, who has labored with a number of political candidates over the previous 20 years, together with former President George W. Bush. O’Donnell reviewed Eberflus’ earlier than and after information conferences to judge his efficiency.
“Consistency is a large consider communication,” O’Donnell stated. “So in case you begin with one reply, it’s important to persist with that reply, and whenever you change your reply, that invitations extra questions.”
“It’s totally clear that when he approached these conditions [before], he did not assume by way of, first, what the robust questions had been, and second, how he was going to deal with these questions.”
Bears lengthy snapper Patrick Scales, the staff’s longest tenured participant, stated Eberflus “does appear a little bit extra polished” when he speaks in entrance of the staff.
“There’s what he is doing, and there is additionally why he is doing it,” Bernstein stated. “This has nothing to do with how good a coach he’s, or whether or not he will maintain his job, however the concept a middle-aged assistant coach, NFL soccer man, lifer, for him to care sufficient to do that is basically cool.”
“Most individuals in his place, it would not matter, you are the coach of the Bears. You are able to do what you need.”
Head coaches discuss to the media greater than some other staff worker. Former Ravens public relations czar Kevin Byrne stated that he counted one 12 months, and coach John Harbaugh spoke to the media 119 occasions. “On the time we had been leaving John out on the plank on a regular basis,” Byrne stated. “Nobody else was talking.”
Byrne all the time reminded Harbaugh that his viewers wasn’t the reporter asking the query. It was the staff proprietor, and his gamers and coaches. They’re listening to the coach’s message, and if they are not listening instantly, somebody near them is.
The NFL is ready up for each staff to go 8-9 or 9-8, so, “in case you’re 7-10, and also you’re speaking about this factor positively, you can most likely win an additional 12 months speaking in regards to the features and specializing in the positives,” stated Juan Lozano, teaching agent for Purple Envelope Sports activities.
Chicago’s earlier regime, with Ryan Tempo and Matt Nagy, made the playoffs in two out of 4 years, in a division that also had Aaron Rodgers. However they failed to pick the precise quarterback and misplaced management of that narrative. The Bears appeared like a staff in chaos.
“You want a powerful voice that is aware of what he is doing in a press convention,” Lozano stated. “The way you discuss this cannot be this wishy-washy B.S.”
When Mangini was employed because the coach of the New York Jets in 2006, he’d held just one information convention in his teaching profession. That have did not put together him for the New York media market, the place his Belichickian model did not translate and though he took the Jets to the playoffs his first season, he rapidly fell out of favor.
He stated it did not take him lengthy to rent a guide to observe all his information conferences as a result of he wished the opinion of somebody who wasn’t biased, who might consider him from a world view as an alternative of a Jets perspective. Mangini spoke to his guide about twice every week, however the work wasn’t sufficient to avoid wasting his job after his third season, when the QB-starved franchise failed to fulfill excessive expectations after Brett Favre acquired harm.
“It wasn’t for lack of effort,” Mangini stated. “It simply did not all the time fairly hit.”
“When you get labeled one thing, it is fairly exhausting to dig out of that label. So in case you get labeled as being troublesome to work within the media, even in case you change, even in case you open up, that is the stigma.”
EBERFLUS AND GENERAL supervisor Poles held a joint information convention on coaching camp report day. This January, Poles stated it was his resolution to retain Eberflus, with enter from Warren and Bears proprietor George McCaskey. Throughout their two seasons as coach and normal supervisor in Chicago, Poles has been the recipient of a lot of the constructive protection. He has finished the seen heavy lifting in assembling a roster that could be the perfect scenario a No. 1 general rookie quarterback has ever landed in, whereas Eberflus has needed to reply for a lot of the staff’s challenges.
If the Bears do not win, many will think about it Eberflus’ fault. In the event that they do win, Williams figures to get a lot of the credit score. Thus far, it might probably really feel like Eberflus is simply there. A sidekick to Williams and Poles.
However not final Friday. Twice in the course of the information convention, reporters directed inquiries to Poles that Eberflus felt he was higher suited to reply. And this time he did not hesitate.
“I will take that one,” he stated.
ESPN reporter Courtney Cronin contributed to this story.
