As it turns out, the Bears’ unwise decision to let coach Matt Eberflus hold his press conference the next day before firing him was neither spontaneous nor accidental.

It was strategic.

Facing widespread criticism for putting the cart before the horse (and then shooting it), the Bears have aired their version of events to the media, some of which they own. Which published the team’s version without comment, question or review.

“My understanding is George McCaskey, Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles a meeting had just started “This went on for several hours as Eberflus’ regular press conference began,” NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero tweeted on Friday. “A delay would have indicated a change that had not yet been decided at the time. By the time the decision was final, the press conference was long over and Eberflus was informed.”

So basically, the Bears have confirmed that things happened exactly as they appeared to. They deliberately and deliberately allowed Eberflus to continue with his press conference, knowing full well that they were actively discussing the possibility of his firing.

The best approach would have been to expedite the process and set 9:00 a.m. CT as the deadline for decision making. The next best approach would have been to postpone the press conference and come up with an excuse if necessary. (Not that we condone it, but conjuring up semi-plausible lies to hide the truth is like the second line of the PR job description.)

The worst approach was to let Eberflus embarrass himself by expressing to the world his confidence that he would not be fired when the meeting to discuss his firing had just ended Small talk that no one cares about Stage.

This is the kind of thing that makes the Bears’ coaching job less attractive to other coaching candidates who have multiple targets to choose from (e.gBen Johnson). Simply put, the next man needs to look very closely at how he treated the last man.

And while Bears management probably learned a valuable lesson that should prevent something like this from happening to the next coach they inevitably fire, the flaw in the organizational wiring that led to Friday’s outcome needs to be identified, diagnosed and be repaired.