They call him Doc. Doc graduated college in three years on a pre-med track, has a Ph.D. and a master’s degree, and he teaches an MBA class at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.



Sean Desai is Doc to Bears players and coaches — Sam Acho says Doc is “brilliant.” — but his title is defensive quality control coach. He has an impressive resume, one academically unlike many, if not all coaches, in the NFL. But in the football lens, his greatest accomplishment might be simply surviving a third head coach. Desai is the only member of the Bears’ coaching staff who worked under Marc Trestman.



Sure, quality control is near the bottom of the coaching hierarchy. But it’s noteworthy that an assistant whose playing career ended after high school, and someone who holds the distinction of being fired by the same head coach twice in three years — we’ll get to that — is earning staying power and respect in the...