Chicago Bears: These players spoke out against the NFL

These Chicago Bears players used Twitter in a coordinated effort

The NFLPA and players across the league staged a coordinated Twitter effort to bring awareness to the NFL and fans about their concerns regarding playing this season. Quarterbacks, Drew Brees, Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes were a part of the hashtag “we want to play”. The Chicago Bears did not have any players use that tag, but Khalil Mack joined in on the effort too.

Not sure if Mack was supposed to be involved in the hashtag movement or not. If he was, well he needs someone like Tarik Cohen or Akiem Hicks to help him with his Twitter account. His tweet was a direct tweet to the NFL. In fact, if you search for his tweet on his timeline, you will not find it unless you click “tweets and replies”. He also used his own variation of the hashtag and this could be why he only saw 2.6 thousand likes.

It seems that Mack was the only one to create his own message to throw at the NFL regarding growing concerns for health and safety surrounding the current pandemic. Most players state they want to play, but not enough information has been made known to them by how the NFL plans to address precautions as explained further by J. J. Watt.

Other Chicago Bears who spoke up

The only other players I found to somewhat respond to the situation were Bilal Nichols and Allen Robinson. Nichols just retweeted Drew Brees original tweet, but Robinson quote tweeted many tweets with comments of his own. Robinson retweeted Russell Wilson’s tweet and former Chicago Bears player Sam Acho’s tweet.

Then today, he quote tweeted a conversation with former ESPN analyst Andrew Brandt. The quotes revolved around the fact that the NFL has offered the NFLPA to not play any preseason games this year. Brandt and Robinson both want to know what the NFLPA has to give up as consideration in the negotiation.

Beyond that, the two went on to discuss the economics involved with the pandemic. Brandt speaks about how the NFL and NFLPA came to an agreement about most of the COVID-19 related safety protocols, but Brandt is concerned that NFL owners will find a way to make the players feel their wrath by demanding a drastic cut to the salary cap. Robinson, the smart guy he is, wants to know why the money cannot be spread out over 10 years (as it should be).

We are going to have to watch how all of this plays out over the course of August into September. My assumption is a season will happen, but will the risks outweigh the rewards? Only time will tell. Until then, Bear Down.