Bruce Arians Was 'Bothered' By Several Developments In 2013 Interview With Bears

(CBS) As the Bears have struggled in a 3-5 start, the Cardinals have surged to the top of the NFC with a 6-1 mark. Naturally, this has spurred debate of whether Chicago made a poor decision in passing over Bruce Arians in its coaching search in early 2013. The Bears interviewed Arians but instead turned to Marc Trestman, who is 11-13 in his Chicago tenure. Arians was hired by Arizona, which he has led to a 16-7 mark thus far.

In a Wednesday article, 670 The Score host and Tribune special contributor Mike Mulligan shed some new light on some of Arians' dealings with the Bears. As Mulligan wrote, Arians was "bothered" by several developments when he interviewed with the Bears in early 2013.

From the Tribune:

For one, (Arians) was asked to do a mock news conference in the course of his interview. Apparently it wasn't enough that he was the reigning coach of the year after taking over the Colts and had been doing news conferences all year.

The mock news conference was a variation on the actual news conferences that the Bears requested of Smith and runner-up Russ Grimm in 2004 after failing to come to terms with Nick Saban. The message is that perception matters as much as performance to the Bears.

Arians was also skeptical of the Bears' request that Rod Marinelli remain as defensive coordinator, Mulligan wrote. That sentiment echoed an Arizona Republic report earlier in the week that quoted Arians as saying, "It seemed awkward in Chicago because they wanted me to keep some of their (assistant coaches), which wasn't going to happen."