At least one former employee of the Bears personnel department is furious about the alleged termination of a long-time front-office staff member.

The Bears have fired Cliff Stein, who served as their principal contract negotiator for the most of his 22-year tenure with the team, according to a report by Brad Biggs of the Tribune.

After team president Ted Phillips had been involved in contract negotiations, Stein joined the Bears under Jerry Angelo in 2002. This was Stein’s 13-year tenure until Ryan Pace took over as general manager. After that, Joey Laine replaced over, but Stein stayed on staff and briefly resumed his duties when Ryan Poles became GM before Matt Feinstein took over.

Former Bears college scouting director Greg Gabriel was clearly incensed over the rumoured firing, as he made clear on social media. Gabriel has 40 years of experience in football scouting and the media. He played for the Bears until 2010.

After playing for the Bears under Angelo, Gabriel (accessible on X at @ggabefootball) is currently a media personality, hosting “Gabriel Talks Football” on the Barrroom Network. In addition, he writes for Windy City Gridiron.com.

Given that new president Kevin Warren has been at Halas Hall for approximately a year and has become familiar with their operations, as well as his remarks during the postseason press conference, changes at the front office were presumably to be expected.

“I monitor everything,” declared Warren. “I met one-on-one with more than 211 of our staff members during practices, walkthroughs, and games. This is how I live.”

Coen led Kentucky to fifth place in the SEC in 2021 in terms of scoring offence (32.3 points per game), fifth place in terms of rushing offence (199.5 yards per game), and eighth place in terms of total offence (425.2 yards per game). In the SEC, wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson and running back Chris Rodriguez had the second-most receiving (1,334) and rushing (1,379) yards, respectively.

As UK won ten games for the second time in four years and just the fourth time in school history, Coen also assisted in turning backup quarterback Will Levis of Penn State into a top-tier NFL Draft prospect and eventual second-round choice.

The 38-year-old Coen rejoined head coach Sean McVay’s staff as offensive coordinator after serving as the Los Angeles Rams assistant wide receivers coach from 2018 to 2019 and assistant quarterbacks coach in 2020.