The reported firing of a long-time Bears front-office employee is evoking an angry response from at least one former member of their peronnel department.
According to a report by Brad Biggs of the Tribune, the Bears have fired Cliff Stein, who was their chief contract negotiator over most of a 22-year stint with the team.
Stein came to the Bears under Jerry Angelo in 2002 after team president Ted Phillips had been negotiating contracts. Stein did this for 13 years until Ryan Pace became general manager. Then Joey Laine took over the duty but Stein remained on staff and started doing it again briefly when Ryan Poles took over as GM,, prior to Matt Feinstein taking on those chores.
The reported firing greatly angered former Bears college scouting director Greg Gabriel, and this became apparent through social media. Gabriel was with the Bears through 2010 and has been involved in football scouting or media for 40 years.
Gabriel, found on X at @ggabefootball, was with the Bears under Angelo and is now involved in media as a host for “Gabriel Talks Football,” on the Barrroom Network. He also contributes to the website Windy City Gridiron.
First Gabriel said on X: “Going forward for a while my account will remain private. I will not post on anything Bears as they aren’t the organization I once worked for. Any comments I have on hirings, signings, trades, picks etc will come in @WCGridiron and GTF on the @BarroomNetwork. In short (Expletive) em!”
At one point Gabriel appeared to threaten to reveal some skeletons in the closets at Halas Hall, tweeting, “Tune in Tuesday at 11:00 to GTF on the @BarroomNetwork as I will tell some stories I have remained quiet about for some time.”
Changes at Halas Hall in the front office were probably to be expected considering new president Kevin Warren has been at Halas Hall about a year and has familiarized himself with their operation, and also because of what he said at the postseason press conference.
“I watch everything,” Warren said. “I had one-on-one meetings with over 211 of our employees, from practice, to walk-throughs, to games. This is my life.”
More changes at Halas Hall in the near future wouldn’t even be surprising after he said this.
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