Chicago Bears: Justin Fields OSU’s 2020 Male Athlete of the Year

Well, well, well, another accolade for Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Justin Fields.

Justin Fields is officially the 2020 Ohio State Male Athlete of the Year, following 2020 AP Defensive Rookie of the Year Chase Young. So, hopefully, Justin Fields can follow in Young’s footsteps by starting his NFL career with the Chicago Bears on a high note.

The resume continues to grow for Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields

This accolade feels a little more obvious than some of the other accolades Fields has been able to stack on his impressive resume, since Fields had a record-setting year while at Ohio State University. If anything, this just adds more fuel to the Justin Fields hype train. Fields has been proven to be able to handle the spotlight, but the Chicago Bears fanbase seems to be his ultimate test.

Head coach Matt Nagy even spoke up about the fanbase in an interview on The Sports Extra Podcast.

"They are going to let you know when you are doing really well and are going to support you. When things aren’t going great they are going to let you know, too."

It’s hard to disagree with that kind of analysis of this fanbase. Before the 2021 NFL Draft, the aura around this team was so much different than it is now. That just shows the difference in what a single player or a couple of players can do to hundreds of thousands to millions of fans.

Now, why is that important to Justin Fields? Well, not to compare the two given that they’re very different players, but look at what Chicago did to Mitch Trubisky. The roller coaster of emotions was high when Trubisky was performing, and low when he wasn’t.

It is fair to be critical of players, as they’re making quite a living to do so, but to the degree it seems Chicago takes it, you need thick skin to “survive”.

Without even playing a single NFL snap, Justin Fields seems to be somewhat conditioned for this kind of tough love market in Chicago though.

He’s been under the spotlight for most of his adolescent to adult career, so living under the microscope doesn’t seem to bother him, especially if he’s able to perform at the level he does.

Now, let’s look at what Fields did in the eight-game 2020 season to deserve such an award:

• 158 completions of 225 attempts – 70.2% completion
• 2,100 passing yards – 9.3 yards per attempt
• 22 TDs
• 6 INTs
• Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year

Along with the statistics, Fields made himself a leader within the movement to get the Big Ten to return to play. Not only does that show his ability to get people to follow him, but it shows that he can handle being a leader when something of this magnitude relied somewhat on him to be the voice of the people.

Whether this is all looking way too much into little things or not, there’s a lot of reasons to believe Justin Fields will be a successful player in the NFL, and earning the 2020 Ohio State Male Athlete of the Year is just one more reason to add to the list.