March 29, 2024


Bears News

Olin Kreutz unloads on Bears chairman George McCaskey after McCaskey accuses Kreutz of lying

Former Chicago Bears center Olin Kreutz talks with his teammates during a game against the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010 in Detroit.

Chicago Bears chairman George McCaskey didn’t just address the firings of general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy during press conference with reporters Monday.

He also started a feud with former Pro-Bowler Olin Kreutz.

Kreutz last week told the Parkins & Spiegel Show on 670 The Score that the Bears offered him $15 an hour as a player consultant to work with the offensive line in 2018.

When asked about the offer during Monday’s press conference, McCaskey responded that he takes “just about anything Kreutz says with a grain of salt.”

“That’s the way it is sometimes with Olin,” McCaskey said when asked if that meant Kreutz’s story wasn’t true. “You don’t get the whole story. Olin knows (what) the story is.”

Kreutz, who was named to six Pro Bowls in his 13 seasons with the Bears, joined Parkins & Spiegel on Monday after McCaskey’s comments and said he wasn’t surprised and thought McCaskey doesn’t like him as a person.

“If that man would’ve said that to my face, we would’ve had a problem,” Kreutz said.

Kreutz told the show’s hosts that he called former Bears offensive line coach Harry Hiestand and general manager Ryan Pace following McCaskey’s comments to make sure he remembered the story correctly. Hiestand told Kreutz that he remembered correctly. Pace, according to Kreutz, confirmed the team made the offer and that it was a standard offer that they make to people who went to camp with the team.

Kreutz said it wasn’t fair of McCaskey to comment before asking someone about it, especially after the many years Kreutz played for the organization.

“All George had to do is to look at the story a little bit and say, ‘man there’s our side and there’s Olin’s side, and there’s a misunderstanding here somewhere and maybe we’ll talk to Olin about it one day,’ that the people in that building do have my number,” Kreutz said. “But instead he went out there and said that about me.”

The former lineman said that he didn’t have many encounters with McCaskey during his time with the Bears, but did remember a time when he got into a shouting match with McCaskey. According to Kreutz, a young linebacker had his shirt off at the ticket office window when McCaskey was in charge of the organization’s ticket office and McCaskey started yelling at him, which led to an argument between Kreutz and McCaskey.

While Kreutz said he didn’t hate the Bears even though he’s not fond of McCaskey right now, he doesn’t plan on reaching out to the organization.

“I won’t call them there, they’ve made it very clear to me what they feel about me,” Kreutz said. “I don’t feel that way about them, there’s no need to talk to them about anything when somebody says that about you, I don’t think there’s anything else to hash you, he let you know immediately.

“When someone basically calls you a liar on a live Zoom call, there’s really nothing to hash out anymore.”

Michal Dwojak

Michal Dwojak

Michal is a sports enterprise reporter for Shaw Local, covering the CCL/ESCC for Friday Night Drive and other prep sports for the Northwest Herald. He also is a Chicago Bears contributing writer. He previously was the sports editor for the Glenview Lantern, Northbook Tower and Malibu Surfside News.