Jay Feely Says Marc Trestman Was "Awkward When He Spoke To The Team" Which Is Just About The Meanest Thing Ever

(Source) Kicker Jay Feely spent a few weeks with the Bears as their dismal season was coming to an end in December, giving him a front-row seat for quarterback Jay Cutler’s brief benching and the final days of Marc Trestman’s head coaching tenure. Feely was left with some strong impressions. During an appearance with Adam Schein on Mad Dog Sports Radio, Feely said he thought Trestman failed to inspire the players because he “was a little awkward when he spoke” and that problem was exacerbated by a lack of leadership from players. One of the players who failed to lead was Cutler, who Feely spoke highly of as a player while saying the team would be much better off if the quarterback was a leader off the field as well.

Feely doesn’t think Cutler’s going to change who he is at this point in his career, which means the Bears have to make other arrangements on the leadership front. “That’s not who he is. You’re going to have a vacuum there,” Feely said. “So you have to know that as a general manager or a head coach, ‘Hey, we’re not going to have that leadership from this position, so we’ve really got to have other guys that are going to step up and are going to be our verbal leaders.’”

Feely did add that he thinks John Fox would provide the team with the leadership that was missing with Trestman at the helm and that he thinks there’s plenty of talent in Chicago to fuel a turnaround if the other issues can be dealt with this offseason.

First of all, the Trestman comment. Calling another man “awkward when he spoke” is so ruthless. I’d rather be an asshole, a jerk, a douchebag, basically anything but “awkward” when I speak. Add in the fact that when it comes down to it, that really is the Coach’s most important job, to inspire the players and get everyone on the same page moving in the same direction, and you’ve probably got Marc Trestman crying into his cheerios this morning.

The most important question here though is this. What the hell is Jay Feely doing? You’re a kicker dude. A kicker that takes himself WAY too seriously, as we already know, but at the end of the day you’re a kicker. Going around gossiping about the inner workings of the locker room when you’re a kicker just seems weird and tacky. If this were Lance Briggs or Peanut Tillman I would pay attention to an interview like this a lot more. And honestly it’s not even all the kicker thing. When Robbie Gould talks, I listen, because he’s been with the Bears for so long and understands how everything works. But a kicker who the Bears signed for a month and a half after the season had already been flushed down the toilet? Get the fuck out of here. Just trying to stay relevant in the headlines and it comes across as lame.

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PS

I think the problem with the Bears locker room, and this is all conjecture obviously, is identity. The Bears identity has always been Defense, Urlacher was the guy in that locker room for a decade. Remove him, try to make your identity about Offense even though the Offense doesn’t work and you get the vacuum. I think the lack of on field identity hurts off field stuff and not vica versa. Also even if you think he’s right about Cutler, a veteran Head Coach that commands a room will solve all of that as the team’s de facto leader……ding ding ding JOHN FOX!