Before you call protective services, the yelling and screaming followed by panting you're hearing from my basement every morning isn't a reason to call 911. I am yelling at the television. Or, my girlfriend. Let me explain.
My girlfriend is a Packers fan. The season is about to start, and we live in Wisconsin. As a Bears fan with B-E-A-R tattooed on the knuckles of my right hand, and D-O-W-N on my left, you would think I would be more discreet. Normally, I would save my super fandom for when I am no further than a 10-mile radius from a decent pizza or Italian beef. However, I have to hear constant ignorance, hate, and moronic takes on Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears, and I have had enough.
Stop me if you've heard this one before, "Justin Fields can't throw". If you haven't, is there enough room for one more under that rock where you've been living? Find your favorite sports talk show and just wait. Wait for the stats — 21 interceptions, 59.7% completion percentage, only six wins, and 21 losses. Talking heads love stats. They especially love stats that paint a player in a negative light.
What are the positives the national media offers Justin Fields? Amazing running highlights that will only fuel more shallow opinions about how he's really a running back, all too eagerly and furiously typed by the keyboard GMs who, like my stepson would say, "don't know ball".
Highlights and stats. That's all sports debate is about now. There are no in-depth or nuanced discussions being had by these talking heads. To these click-bait and overreaction-obsessed "experts", your attention matters more than the truth. To them, the full truth is boring, takes too long to explain and you're either too dumb or easily distracted for them to waste their time.
YouTube exists, right? You would think with how obsessed everyone is with highlights, it would be impossible to have such a false narrative be so popular when the proof is just a few clicks away. I can't be the only one who saw Ohio State play Clemson in the Allstate Sugar Bowl-CFB Playoff in 2020, where Justin Fields went 22/28 for 385 yards and 6 touchdowns. Fields had a pretty bad injury to his ribs as well. Trevor Lawrence also played in that game. Doubters will say, "Yeah, but he had an amazing offensive line and wide receivers". Well, thank you for helping me make my point.
Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence have been 1a and 1b with how they have been rated by scouts ever since high school. Fields outplayed Lawrence in the Sugar Bowl and had similar or better stats as Lawrence in college, yet Fields still was drafted 10 spots lower in 2021.
Trevor Lawrence went to Jacksonville, a team that spent more during free agency than any other team in the NFL to build around their prized franchise quarterback. Justin Fields was drafted by the Chicago Bears who notoriously don't spend big, and if they do, it isn't on offense. In addition to the lack of spending to protect, support, and show faith in Fields, the Bears' head coach (Matt Nagy) was fighting to keep his job.
Now, I won't assume to have any right to tell a man how to fight for his job, but I will comment on it. Let's be honest, Matt Nagy didn't have enough faith in Fields to put him in a position to not get his head torn off, much less win. I'm even told Nagy wouldn't give his undervalued quarterback the whole playbook and intentionally put Fields in bad positions to give himself an excuse for pulling him. Both players struggled in their first seasons, but only Fields got the disparaging comments. Nobody questions if Trevor Lawrence can throw.
Here is where the talking heads chime in. "Justin Fields didn't have the second-year jump that other quarterbacks had". Or, "Fields can't read defenses, make adjustments, or recall plays". Let's address his second year. A new coach, a new playbook, a terrible offensive line, a paltry wide receiver room, and a bad defense are what Justin had to work with in his second year. Still, Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears had seven losses by a touchdown or less.
Flip those to wins, and the Bears are in the playoffs. Justin Fields proved to be possibly the most dangerous player on the field at any given moment by running for 1,143 yards. Fields didn't run because he can't throw. He ran because his receivers dropped balls, couldn't run routes, or simply to save his own life.
Now, where I really get heated enough to ignore the choking sounds of overzealous cheeseheads struggling with their 5th brat in two minutes is the assertion that Justin Fields can't read defenses or recall plays is just lazy. You don't have to go far to hear this lunacy.
Thankfully, Alyssa Barbieri, of BEARSWIRE on May 3, 2021, wrote " Fields scored the highest rating ever on an aptitude test by a sports psychologist, Dr. Goldman". This test was given to over 6,500 professional athletes including Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen who scored 108 respectively. Justin Fields scored a 130. Have you heard that fact?
I bet if it were done by Trevor Lawrence you would have. Mark Sanchez even made an appearance on the Pat McAfee show in April of 2021, where he talked about just how ridiculous doubts concerning Fields' football intelligence were. Did anybody listen? No. Maybe Mark Sanchez should have a nickname like "Shady" or insult his cohosts if he wants enough clout to be listened to.
So here we are. The first game of the year is September 10 in Chicago against the Green Bay Packers. A-A-Ron (Aaron Rodgers) is gone. Still, you have to wear blue and orange to pick the Bears to win. The Chicago Bears have finally spent the money needed, as well as drafted accordingly to support Fields on both sides of the ball. They have bought in. The national media won't have the guts to tell the truth until it is proven, and I have been dodging blocks of cheddar throughout the writing of this article, so you know I'm in. Are you?