Report: Bears Continue to Conduct Interviews Amid Erroneous Reports of Marc Trestman Hiring

FOX analyst Jimmy Johnson created a Twitter storm this morning when he tweeted that Marc Trestman, the current head coach of the Montreal Alouettes, had locked up the Chicago Bears head coaching job. While Johnson was ‘reporting’ the news, Bears beat writers back in Chicago were left scrambling as to how a guy hundreds of miles away with no track record of breaking stories had beaten them to the punch.

Turns out, he hadn’t beaten anyone to the punch.

Brad Biggs from the Chicago Tribune and Sean Jensen from the Chicago Sun-Times both have told Bears fans everywhere to be very cautious about what looks to be an erroneous ‘report’ by Johnson. The Bears have declined to comment up to this point, but national writers like the guys at ProFootballTalk, ESPN and other outlets have backed up what the Bears beat is saying.

From PFT.com’s report:

"The Bears have interviews scheduled with Texans offensive coordinator Rick Dennison, Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and Colts Bruce Arians in the next three days and there’s no word that those interviews have been scrapped. Beyond that, the Bears sent out word early in the process that they would have a second round of interviews with finalists before making their choice. The first round hasn’t wrapped up yet, which is further reason to believe things are still unsettled in Chicago."

It would seem very surprising had the Bears made the move to hire Trestman before bringing in guys they’ve been scheduled to meet with for sometime. However, it’s not out of the ordinary for a team to be so blown away by a candidate, that they cancel all future interviews and hire the guy who just left. We need to go back only as recently as the Kansas City Chiefs, who had interviews on the books until they met with Andy Reid, whom they hired hours after interviewing.

What Johnson likely meant, was that at this point Trestman could be the front runner for the Bears job, but with plenty of deserving candidates still yet to interview with the team, it’s doubtful that anyone has the job “locked up” at this point, especially if it’s not sentiment being echoed by the local sports writing community.