Lovie Smith Will Be Back Next Year

Sunday's Bears game against the Baltimore Ravens has been pushed back from a noon start time to 3:15 due to a snowstorm that hit the Baltimore area.  That's not the only news of change to come out of Bears camp this weekend.

Though the second bit is more about a lack thereof.

Comcast SportsNet's Moon Mullin reported on Saturday that Lovie Smith's job is not on the line over the Bears final three games of the season and he will be back for the 2010 season.

CSNChicago.com has learned, in the strongest terms to date, that Lovie Smith indeed will be back as Bears coach in 2010.

That has been my take of the situation for some weeks before this. Now two highly placed individuals within the organization have separately indicated that there will not be a change at the top of the on-field org chart, due in some measure to the looming prospect of a strike/lockout. The same assurances were not there with respect to changes on the staffs for offense and defense.

This news does not surprise me in the least.  I didn't think a Bears organization that has never been known as a group willing to pay people millions of dollars to not do anything -- well, unless they're a player -- was going to pay Lovie $11 million not to coach the next two seasons. 

Now I'm sure this is going to anger Bears fans who want the team to go after a Bill Cowher or a Mike Shanahan but I'm not one of them.  I know that if the Bears did fire Lovie neither of those guys would be the next head coach here anyway, and it's for the same reason they're not going to fire Smith.

If you think the Bears would be willing to spend $22-$25 million to two different head coaches over the next few years, then you obviously don't pay a lot of attention to this team.  If Smith was fired the next head coach would be some assistant who has never been a head coach before just like every other head coach this team has had in its history.