LAKE FOREST – No one had to ask him about it. The quarterback was willing to bring up the biggest thing that many online have been chatting about since the past two days
“I’d like to address this now to get everything cleared up,” said Justin Fields when asked a question about how he moves on after a loss, like the one on Sunday to the Packers, in the days before practice for the next week begins.
The Bears’ quarterback was well aware of attention paid to one of his postgame quotes from the 27-10 loss at Lambeau Field that gained traction on social media that some viewed as a slight to Bears fans.
“Yeah. It hurts more in the locker room than the Bears fans. At the end of the day, they aren’t putting in any work. I see the guys in the locker room every day. I see how much work they put in. Coming out of a disappointing loss like this, it hurts. We just have to respond,” said Fields when asked a question about if the loss hurts more because of the rivalry and what it means to fans.
After seeing some of the responses on social media, Fields said that he meant no disrespect to the supporters of the team with his quote, trying to clear up what he said during his news conference Wednesday.
“I should have done a better job explaining what I meant by that. But what I meant by that was; I’m talking about work regarding the game on Sunday, winning the game,” said Fields. “I don’t know any fans. I don’t know what they’re doing in their personal lives, and I respect every fan that we have. I’m glad that we have fans.
“I would never disrespect anybody on what they do and what they love to do. It came off like that and, of course, some social media outlets they quoted my quote, and they got a big buzz out of it. Of course, they did a great job doing that and, of course, social media is going to do that. Yeah, I just wanted to clear that up right now.”
Fields says that he found out that people were upset about his quote from Sunday night from those who were tagging him on his social media accounts. Those only continued to grow over the last two days, with some criticizing the quarterback while others were defending him.
Such is life as an athlete in a time where social media is prevelent and every word is scrutinized. Fields certainly understands that as one of the faces of the Bears’ franchise, and so do those around him.
“I talked to my dad about it. As long as I’m going to be in this position, there’s always going to be stuff like that that pops up,” said Fields. “Just knowing that as long as I’m in this profession that it’s really never going to go away, so I’ve just got to either be really be clear to everything that I say, be really descriptive of what I really mean, or really just not say anything at all.”
Not long after, Fields was asked how he might balance expressing his personality in interactions with the media while also being cautious about what he might say.
“I want to show you guys personality. I don’t want to be a robot up here. So, at the same time, I just have to be more descriptive of my words and really just describe on what I’m trying to say,” said Fields. “I could be up here and be like ‘Yes, we’re going to do this and that’ and, like, just be a robot. But I try to show my personality to the world, try to show my personality to you guys (media) to show that I am a real person and, yes, I do make mistakes.
“So just finding a good balance with that.”