On the players’ first day back at Halas Hall, Thomas Brown delivered a message: “No more divisions.”
Brown, who became interim head coach Friday when the Bears fired Matt Eberflus, stood in front of the team during a meeting Monday morning.
“Before we we talked about Xs and Os, before we talked about our game plan for San Fran, I talked about making sure our house is right,” he said. “The initial goal is to unify this football team. Everybody’s on the same accord, moving in the same direction, speaking the same language and attacking with effort. No more divisions.
“As far as the outside noise, we ignore it. It doesn’t matter, whether it’s positive or its negative. What matters is our daily approach, us working together and executing when it’s time to go execute. So I started with that first.”
Bears players were increasingly frustrated with clunky finishes to their games. That boiled over Thursday when Eberflus held onto a timeout as the clock ran out on his offense.
“Also when it comes to moving forward, I know there was a lot of scrutiny, talk, dialogue, about what has happened at the end of some of these games,” Brown said. “I am not exempt from responsibility in those actions, because we’re a team. I believe in doing things together. We get rewarded together, we also get criticized together. We will have an internal process we’ll go through on a weekly basis to prepare ourselves for those opportunities. And on gameday, go execute. Don’t panic.”