Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Mystery staffer: Whom is Ryan Poles talking about in this sound bite?

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris tried to solve a mystery surrounding a comment from Bears general manager Ryan Poles at the NFL Combine.

Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's tidal two on Chicago Sports Radio. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie at 1043 The Score. Are we really going to play the Who's Your Guy on this? I like it. I like it. For whatever reason, our computer system just decided to log me out of a bunch of stuff. So Ray is being kind enough to log me back in if you're watching on Twitch. Twitch.com. Tv.com slash The Score, Chicago. And in the meantime, so I'm going to have to move the mic on the air. Noise.

In the meantime, Tina Wynn is here from Fox 32. Tina is kind enough to stay for another segment. Ryan Poles was on the Todd McShay podcast, and we spent a lot of time in our first hour talking about that. But then there's also something that Ryan Poles said that, man, in the spirit of transparency, he will tell you some things. But then this led us to all ask a lot of questions. I don't want to get like two names involved.

Well, you don't have to... I will say this. Staffing-wise, I would say, you know, like, the theory of, like, the talented ass... Yeah. Just there's been a situation where a really smart person that was doing some really good work, but maybe not the best teammate. And I probably held on too long, and it created some harm in terms of just stress on other people. So just the learning point there is, you know, if it goes against being a good teammate, which is one of our things, it's okay to move on maybe even quicker than you think because of the effect that it can have on others.

So that was Ryan Poles saying like that there was somebody on the bear's staff. Staff. Right. See, you're already like, what is staff? Who on the bear's staff? And I don't know if he means coaching or front office. I tend to think coaching. Yeah.

What was the question? What was Todd's question to him? It was sharing a time in your career where you feel like you failed. And he's basically saying I had a jerk on my staff who was really, really talented. And because he was so talented, it took me longer than it probably should, well, definitely should have. Because if you get rid of somebody, the earlier the better, then it definitely should have to get rid of said person. And we're like, well, who is he talking about? And not the best teammate.

Not the best teammate. And so I would guess maybe an in-season firing of an offensive coordinator. Oh, so you think it's OC because I know you were thinking for an office. Yeah, initially when you said coaching, I said maybe OC, but yeah. So that's, that's, well, when you say, offensive coordinator, you're implying a Shane Waldron. Exactly. So what made you think it was on the coaching staff more so than it was in the front office? Because I'm just identifying real problems that I saw in real time get solved.

And Shane Waldron clearly had a problem with how he was communicating with whether it be the head coach, the front office, because Matt Iberfluse ultimately is responsible for Caleb Williams development, but he's the one working closest with Caleb Williams in his rookie season and his development. And he didn't make it through the year. And they may have thought before then to get rid of him. And the same could be true for the head coach, if we're being honest. Yeah, I thought maybe it might have been Matt Eberfluse, but I don't know that bad teammate has ever been used to describe him.

Although, Zaire Franklin had a lot to say when it came to how he was treated as a rookie on the Colts. I'm leaning with Marshall on this one. I think especially since you said mid-season, someone on the coaching staff, I initially thought, it said, Shane Waldron that he's talking about because you,

and then I don't have any insight info, so I'm just speaking from, yeah, but you obviously saw the offense in 2024, you're one with Caleb, like it just looked like

there were so many times you're watching, like, what are they doing? And then Ryan pulls, what did you say, how it affected other people too? So I don't know, I'm kind of leaning with you

more on this one. I'm thinking maybe Walter? And maybe, maybe it is just a front office member that we don't know about that was doing great work in scouting and everything else and to just be like but but also ryan polls if you look at certain reporting he likes yes men if you look at certain reporting well i will say this you know we mentioned the tyler dunn piece just from the just from the aspect

of polls talking about the media and the influence that might have on a pick of his i'm like well was that the was that tyler dunn's source that polls is talking about Someone angry and clowning him for the way he was talking about players in meetings. Mm-hmm. Maybe so. I don't know. Fast forwarding through certain quarterbacks and focusing like Caleb is our guy, Caleb is our guy. When I consider the sources of that piece that that might indicate one of them might have been in that article.

Who, wait. Who do you think it is? Well, at first I thought Iber flus, but I don't know that there's enough. I don't know that, first of all, I don't know that I don't know that Iber Fluse would have been a source on the article. So those two things are separate. I don't see that. Secondly, I think that I don't know that teammate is the right word. But then again, the evidence of how many times Iber Fluse basically said it was on the players as to why they didn't win.

Like they had the right plan. And, you know, it was basically a lack of execution or this play was supposed to go like this or like, oh, we were supposed to have intercepted Joe Flacko a fourth time. Despite your defense also drawing up a play in the same game where Justin Jones was in past coverage. Okay, cool. So, you know, maybe it was him. The lack of accountability from Iber Fluse, that might be the bad teammate thing if we're, yeah, for being honest. But it's not like Shane Waldron ever came up with some accountability in any of his press

conferences ever. Right. I don't recall, you know, that's the thing. At least with Fluse, I recall. That's just how the nature of the job is, though, where the head coach is going to get that kind of, that kind of criticism. And the other thing with Shane Waldron, too, is he just wasn't very good. and he wasn't good at explaining things either.

And so you got to either be a good communicator or a good tactician or at least a good explainer of what went wrong. And I felt like he didn't take any of the accountability. And so that's why a bad teammate thing strikes me. Yeah, that was pointed. Now, Tina, you're doing something really cool at Fox tonight that I wanted to make sure we got to because there's a huge game tonight in college basketball.

Huge. How big? Yeah, Illinois taking on Michigan. This is a battle royale, third ranked Michigan, 10th ranked Illini. And it's on Fox tonight. It is. And we've got a post game show right after the game with Kendall Gill. So super excited for it.

Yeah, this is going to be such a good game when it comes to, obviously, Big Ten, the seeding in the NCAA tournament too. Both teams are coming off losses. I think for Michigan, right, if they could get the swim, huge because they just lost to Duke. But for Illinois as well, their last three losses have been overtime losses, and they've been by single digits. I talked to Andre Stoyakovich yesterday. I love saying that last name.

Paja, I think of his dad. Yes. Yeah, I mean, obviously, like execution late down in the game, especially in those closest games, it's going to be huge for them. But Michigan's good. They've got loaded with talent. This game in general, a lot of lottery picks here. So you know from like an NBA standpoint,

you're going to have a ton of scouts watching this one. But Michigan, like top five, I believe, in offensive and defensive rating defensively, they're so physical. And Illinois, like, they can shoot the ball and they can score in so many different ways. Their bigs can really stretch teams out. So it's going to be really, I feel like it's a bit of like a chess game here between these two teams. So, yeah, super excited.

And then obviously Kendall Gill is going to be on with us, too, to break it all down. So, yeah, really pumped. What's your favorite thing to cover? I'm just curious. My favorite thing to cover. People ask me this often. And I'm like, because there's so much to cover. I know.

I honestly love, like, kind of being everywhere. Like love everything. So I was in Vegas for two and a half years before this. Dipped my toes a little bit and some betting. So that's kind of fun to understand it involved in when you're winning. Just so I, people understand. When you're winning. I text. She's one of my consultants.

I will text Tina. Am I really? Do Tina post some gems about a game she'll be watching? Like you do not shy away from a good bet and a good wager. Many times I've texted on a Sunday morning, A, what do you think about this game? What do you like for the individual parlay? spicy parlay.

Oh my God, during the NFL season. I'm like, yes, yes. And Marshall was hitting, which means I think you were too on some bets. I was on a massive losing streak for a while, so I like took a break because it's time to step away from it. But two nights ago, I believe when was it, when the Spurs played the Pistons, I won like back-to-back parlates. And I was like, I think she's kind of bad.

But the thing with betting, though, once you feel good, it humbles you real quick and you're like, all right, off my high horse. Yeah. I like to cover. So when I was in Vegas, the gold knight's one, the state. Family Cup and I was there for Bruce Cassidy. And if you're a big hockey fan, Bruce Cassidy, listening to him just talk about hockey, oh my goodness gracious. You learn so much about the game. So definitely have an appreciation for hockey. Obviously, like I'm from Texas, like same as Layla.

Like you grow up learning to throw a football. Like you don't learn how to skate. You learn to throw football. So obviously like high school football, obviously going to A&M too is huge. And then like here in Chicago, I've always been a baseball fan, but having two teams, like just learning like true ends and out of baseball here. I honestly love all of it, which is probably kind of a bad answer. Just want to let you know. I was in Vegas for the parade.

For the Stanley. You were? I was on the bus with it. I was on the bus with, oh my gosh, Nick Hague, Chandler Stevenson, and Aden Hill.

And they brought on the, oh, I probably saw you somewhere. Well, I wasn't there for the parade. It just happened to be going on as I'm trying to get to the Usher concert. My girlfriend got his tickets at the time and went to Vegas and saw Usher

and it just happened to be the night the parade was going on. Did you attend the parade in person? You can't miss it because if you're down, you know the route of the parade. I got videos. You just like, they went down the strip. Like, they stopped at T. The end point was T-Mobile Arena. I just,

being on the bus, which I can only imagine what it was like here in Chicago when the Hawks are on the run. Like, I've just seen photos and videos. And I'm just so mesmerized. Yeah. Like, so mesmerized by it.

But there was just bodies, people like little ants. It was so cool. So, Wait, did you go to the concert? Yeah, we made it. Where was it? It was, I think, MGM?

MGM. Yeah, yeah. Vegas never sleeps. I know. We got to do, there's a bet that Marshall and Tina have made. And I think we can't, we don't have time to follow up. We don't have time to follow up. Darned food.

It involves food. But I think, I think we've got to, you may have to come collect on our show in a couple weeks. Let me know. Yeah. I'm not winning the bet. I'm not winning the bet. That's all you need to know is.

I don't think he's winning the bed he made with me either. So I get the steak dinner at some point. Yeah, so Tina, you're going to have to collect on the show. I think that I think those are the rules. I don't make the rules. Yeah, she does. You make the rules. I follow Layla's rules.

We all chip in on the rules and then we just sigh at the end. But you don't squelch on a bet. So there's that too. You're a man of your word. I pay up. All right. So next time you're on, we'll have to do the ceremony where Tina wins the bet. Oh my gosh.

Thanks for having me on. I have to tell you guys, I was so pumped about this all week. I was telling Ray, I was like, I have to contain my excitement and be professional and not getting it to. I adore you both. How professional do you think we are? Yeah, we're not doing. Look how we're dressed.

You're dressed nicely. I'm just kind of like, I got to go to the TV later on today. I'm typically not dressed as nice. Like Tina mentioned, a huge game tonight on Fox 32. Michigan, Illinois, basically a March Madness preview. Very exciting game. And you've got a line I post game with Kendall Gill, who I think is going to love being able to talk about his alinae tonight so this should be fun for sure for sure excited for it that's

tina win thanks for joining us here in rehemi harrison grody coming up next it is halftime and there was a lunch mistake made that is terrifying for one child we will get into it next