One of George’s highlights so far during his time at Halas Hall was a meeting with Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren. George was impressed with Warren’s attention to detail and mission to transform the Bears in a championship organization.
While George is relatively new to coaching, Shannon boasts 31 years in the profession, 28 in college and three in the NFL—all as a Dolphins defensive assistant from 1998-2000. The head coach at the University of Miami from 2007-10, he is entering his third season at Florida State and second as co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.
Despite Shannon’s three decades of experience, he’s still finding the time he’s spending with the Bears to be invaluable.
“It’s been tremendous and very fun,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity, a great chance to meet people and learn football and also see how operations are run … Whether it’s small or big, anything that you can take back with you is a tremendous help to make you a better coach and also a better person.”
This is the second time that Shannon has worked with the Bears as part of the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship; he previously spent part of an offseason in the 1990s with the team in Lake Forest when Dave Wannstedt was coach.
As a player, Shannon was a four-year letterman at linebacker for the University of Miami and starter on Miami’s 1987 national championship team. He was selected by the Cowboys in the 11th round of the 1989 draft and became the first rookie to start at outside linebacker for Dallas since 1963, opening all 16 games.
Just like in previous years, the Bears will welcome six additional Bill Walsh Diversity Coaches to join them for veteran minicamp and training camp. In the meantime, the team is benefiting from working with George and Shannon.
“It’s great to have those guys here, [with] their wealth of experience as players and as coaches,” Eberflus said. “We’re certainly leaning on those guys for that information that they have.”