The Chicago Bears have been under the ownership of the Halas-McCaskey family since the team's inception, and the Bears' current principal owner, Virginia Halas McCaskey, has seen it all.
And she couldn't help but show her happiness after the Bears' most recent rout of the Buccaneers, according to son and Bears chairman George H. McCaskey.
"Her quote to me in the postgame after the Buccaneers was, 'Let the good times roll,'" McCaskey said Friday afternoon on the "Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000 in Chicago."Which I thought, 'What 95-year-old person talks like that?' She's excited, but she knows she's been through it a million times, that only a quarter of the season has gone by, so there's plenty of work to be done. We've got a lot of areas to improve in, and we've got some stiff competition in the division and in the conference."
The Bears chairman joined former Bears receiver Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman on their show as part of the radio station's special 20th anniversary celebration.
McCaskey noted there's still plenty of work to be done, and deflected any credit for the offseason work that landed the team linebacker Khalil Mack.
"I thought [general manager] Ryan Pace did it very well," McCaskey said. "An opportunity to get a premier player at a premier position which happened to be a position we needed, and you see the results. He's a game-changer."
While everyone else is talking about Mack, McCaskey has found it helpful to leave his team's new defensive star alone.
"I've said hello to him in the hallway, that's about it," McCaskey said. "I'm trying to stay out of his way, he's trying to transition here to the greatest city in the world, and I'm sure he's got a lot on his mind."
While the chairman stressed it wasn't his job to deal with the day-to-day operations of the team and its personnel, he did mention one thing he originally thought he might do differently as the coach.
"I'm not a big fan of winning the coin toss and then deferring," McCaskey said. "But the defense stops them and then you get the ball back and you score on your opening drive. Then you become a big fan of deferring calls."
McCaskey has been impressed with coach Matt Nagy and is happy he's the Bears' head man.
"Well, we're still getting to know him, but everything we've seen is positive and it's great to get off to a great start to the season," McCaskey said.
McCaskey can't help but be pleased with the team's success, but he noted that most of all he's happy for the Bears' fan base.
"The fans have been through hell, quite frankly," he said. "When we went 2-1, that was our first winning record, at any point in the season, in four years. So it has been a long rough sled for Bears fans and we're off to a good start. There's a long way to go, but we like the direction we're headed."
