Kevin Warren ‘very pleased’ with Bears’ energy, avoids talk of future

Bears president/CEO Kevin Warren isn’t ready to tip his hand about coach Matt Eberflus future.

“As we said all along, we just continually will stay focused on finishing the season strong and take a big picture, methodical look at everything,” he said Friday when asked whether the Bears had made a decision about whether Eberflus will return in 2024. “I’m looking forward to heading to Green Bay [Saturday] and hopefully the team can keep playing well.

“I’m very pleased with the energy of our team. And it’s not only on game day, it’s around the practices, around Halas Hall. Just the energy … Guys are playing hard, they’re competing.”

The Bears are 7-9 and have won five of their past seven games entering Sunday’s finale at Lambeau Field.

“I’m really energized as a franchise where we are,” Warren said, “with what we have going on with the stadium, what we have going on internally — building our brand — and what we have going on with our football team.”

The Bears’ stadium site could be picked in a matter of months, he said. They own land in Arlington Heights but have looked on the lakefront and in other suburbs.

“When I started [in April] I said hopefully within the first year,” he said. “I think we’re right on target with being able to do it. I’m pleased with the progress that we’ve made … Look forward to the game this weekend, and to continue to make good progress on the stadium.”

Warren is expected to address the Bears’ on-field future further next week.

Warren spoke Friday at Lurie Children’s Hospital, where he and his wife Greta announced a $1 million donation to its Center for Cancer and Blood Directions. Most of the money will be routed toward helping families manage financial burdens that come with a cancer diagnosis.

“Whatever we can provide to soften the blow on any level, we’re in,” Greta Warren said.

The timing of the gift was important, Kevin Warren said. It honors his late sister, Carolyn Elaine Warren-Knox, who died of brain cancer in 2014. Before she died, she told her brother to do what he could to make things easier for cancer patients and their families. Warren was in Green Bay, Wis., for a Vikings-Packers game in October 2014 when he found out his sister had died. The Bears leave for Green Bay on Saturday.

Warren has first-hand experience with the hospital experience for children. In the summer of 1974, when he was 10, Warren was hit by a car while riding his bicycle in Tempe, Ariz. He was put in traction, spent months in the hospital and had to lay flat on his back for about a year.

“My passion at the Bears? Yes, I’m here to lead us to multiple Super Bowls. Yes, I’m here to build a new stadium. And yes, I’m here to build a culture and become the most fortified and strong franchise in the world,” he said. “But one of the reasons why I work every single day and I’ll work until the very end is to be able to be in a position for our family to be resources to give.”