On Wednesday, 24-year-old Bears quarterback Justin Fields attempted to give detailed, meaningful information to reporters about his early-season struggles. One tweet from one of the team’s veteran beat writers set off an unwarranted firestorm.
Here’s the tweet, from Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune: “Justin Fields acknowledged he has been playing too robotic, then bit the pin off the grenade and rolled it into the building with his explanation for why he believes it is that way: ‘Coaching.’ Wow.”
Not wow. No way wow. Not if you listen to everything he said.
There was no grenade. And if there was, he fell on it.
Beat writers don’t usually fall victim to the temptation to sensationalize. Maybe Wiederer was simply trying to keep up with the nameless, faceless, NFL-related bot accounts that are founded on the notion of WOW and TRENDING and DRAMATIC and CHAOTIC and whatever else they do to boost their pre-bought follows and pre-ordered likes.
In this case, Wiederer’s tweet caused an immediate and widespread perception that Fields had thrown the coaching staff under the bus. That’s just not the case. Watch the attached video for all of the relevant clips. Read the Wednesday story from Josh Alper, who did not sensationalize the “coaching” comment.
Bottom line? Justin Fields most definitely did not nuke the coaching staff.
That doesn’t mean the relationship is free from potential turmoil. There are issues that need to be resolved, sooner than later. But it’s not what it was sold to be.
Which makes Fields’s effort to explain himself to reporters in a follow-up session reasonable. And which would make it understandable if he becomes guarded to the point of non-responsive with reporters moving forward.
