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Kevin Warren offers up brief, blasé response to Greg Sankey's comments over the weekend

On3 imageby:Andrew Graham01/17/23

AndrewEdGraham

Chicago Bears Introduce Kevin Warren as Team President and CEO
LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS - JANUARY 17: Kevin Warren poses for a photo after being introduced as the Chicago Bears President and CEO at Halas Hall on January 17, 2023 in Lake Forest, Illinois. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)

One of the worst kept secrets during the roughly three years that Kevin Warren served as commissioner of the Big Ten was that not many people in college athletic were terribly fond of him. And with Warren officially leaving the league to be president and CEO of the Chicago Bears, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey let fly a thinly veiled remark over the weekend, pretty blatantly calling out Warren.

On Tuesday after his introductory press conference with the Bears, Warren was tracked down by The Athletic’s Matt Fortuna, who asked him about the Sankey line. Warren might’ve been brief in response, but still managed to be blasé.

“Tell him I love him,” Warren said, reportedly, after a smile and chuckle.

The critical context is what Sankey said over the weekend at the national championship celebration for the Georgia football team.

“We need leaders today in college football and college sports,” Sankey said. “Not leaders who make a stop to build a resume and go on to something else, but those who understand the problems ahead are real and demand our attention.”

Warren, speaking at his introductory press conference on Tuesday, did say that he thinks he left the Big Ten better than he found it.

Warren now leaves the Big Ten with USC and UCLA set to join next year and a multi billion-dollar media rights deal after a tenure that started with a decision to cancel the football season and subsequent change to an eight-game, conference-only schedule.

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“I just felt in 40 months there for us to be able to come in and handle the pandemic in a matter that I thought kept our student-athletes healthy and safe, for us to be a leader in social justice initiatives, for us to be a leader in the mental health space, for us to be able to set records from at television network creativity standpoint and to be able to expand with USC and UCLA, I would say I left the Big Ten in a demonstratively better position,” Warren said. “I’m a big believer — I wouldn’t even feel good with myself if I just kind of stayed there and let that kind of drain out over the next years and say, ‘OK, it’s time to go.’ I just felt it was the right time.

Warren continued: “I had done what I was called there to be able to do. And that’s what I feel is different about me. I go by a calling. This is bigger than sports, to me. This is really about life, this is where God wants me to be. I just felt that I had made the impact at the Big Ten at that point in time, it’s in a phenomenal position, and someone else should be afforded that opportunity to recognize their dreams.”

For what it’s worth, Sankey didn’t seem to be upset by the changes but rather Warren not having to deal with the consequences, good or bad. But for Warren, an NFL lifer, a chance to run a storied franchise like the Bears wasn’t an opportunity he was likely to pass up.