The Chicago Bears have had more quarterback controversies than franchise quarterbacks in their 104-year history.
The city is accustomed to arguing about the position. But what’s gone on over the past few months has been unique.
When the Bears traded Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night, it was the sad, inevitable finale to another attempt to find a star quarterback, but it also ended one of the most contentious periods for Bears fans.
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The debates haven’t been as much about Fields versus Caleb Williams, the expected No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, but the Fields supporters vs. anti-Fields, or Fields vs. everyone. It has been nonstop since the Bears found themselves in position to have the No. 1 pick.
Fields joined a long list of Bears quarterbacks who offered hope and then didn’t pan out, for a laundry list of reasons — some of which have little to do with the quarterback himself. But his popularity, despite the results not being there, has been fascinating if not confounding.
We’ve seen quarterbacks in Chicago who don’t work out. We’ve never seen an outpouring of support for them like we have for Fields. Whether or not it was deserved, it created an entirely new prism through which to view a Bears quarterback.
“I wish I had a great explanation for it,” said Tom Waddle, co-host of “Waddle and Silvy” on ESPN 1000 and a former Bears wide receiver, “but I’ve never seen anything like it, really, in my life.
“The passion never intersected with the production.”
To try to understand the hold Fields had on Bears fans, in the week leading up to the trade, The Athletic spoke with Waddle, 670 the Score host Laurence Holmes, former Bears quarterback and Sirius XM NFL Radio host Jim Miller, and Adam Earnheardt, professor of communication at Youngstown State.
“The reaction to it from people has been like, ‘Man, I really wish they would let Justin figure this thing out instead of moving on to the next name,’” Holmes said.
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‘We’ve been wandering in the quarterback desert for decades’
The night in the Bears traded up for Fields in the 2021 NFL Draft triggered a euphoria among fans not seen in 12 years when they traded for Jay Cutler.
That adoration stuck around for Fields’ time as a Bear, as some glommed on to that hope.
“Almost everyone wanted Justin Fields and didn’t think that the Bears at (No.) 20 would have any opportunity to get him,” Holmes said. “So when they got him, the reaction was unanimous. From what I remember, it was like, ‘Wow, look at what the Bears got.’”
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Unlike Mitch Trubisky, drafted four years earlier at No. 2, Fields had a prolific college career. Miller, who is part of the Bears’ preseason broadcasts, pointed to Fields’ performances at Ohio State as a main reason for fan excitement.
“The performances Justin had at Ohio State, I believe it was the Clemson game where he’s out there and showing his toughness and all those types of things, everybody believed that this is the franchise quarterback they’ve been waiting for,” he said. “I think a lot of Bears fans were hopeful that Justin was going to be that guy. And he may still be that guy (for another team).”
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It’s a fan base that has gone through Rex Grossman, Kyle Orton, Cutler, Trubisky and now Fields. The Bears haven’t won a playoff game since the 2010 season. Fields offered promise unlike any of those before him.
“I do remember that there was enthusiasm for sure, because, look, this town, we’ve been wandering in the quarterback desert for decades,” Waddle said. “And I think we get to the point where after it hasn’t worked out, it becomes anyone but Jay. And then when that doesn’t work out, it becomes anyone but Mitch. So the next guy is always going to be elevated to a level that maybe isn’t fair because we always hang our hopes on that next guy.”
The decision to draft Fields, made by a GM and head coach who would be fired after the season, began the organization’s failure of another quarterback.
For many, it’s always been the team’s fault, and not Fields’, and that belief starts with chairman George McCaskey allowing Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy to move up for a quarterback, then saddling that quarterback with a regime change, a rebuild and a new playbook.
“My thought all along was, if you are thinking about making a change at quarterback, then you should also change the coach and the GM,” Waddle said. “And let’s just move forward because of the potential disaster that could ensue if you bring the quarterback in and then the infrastructure changes.
“And guess what? That’s what happened. And then it led to an unfortunate and, in a lot of ways, unfair beginning to Justin’s career.”
‘He makes jaw-dropping plays that simply amaze you’
Fields has often received the benefit of the doubt that Trubisky never got. Whether or not he deserved it depends on whom you talk to. Like everything Fields, it’s a Rorschach test.
Part of it is the situation Fields was put into. He wasn’t set up to succeed from the start.
“You look at everything that was handed to him, from the way that they misused him in that first season, to them tanking in the second season,” Holmes said. “I think everyone just ignores that, like we accept it and go, yes, he’s been dealt a bad hand, comma, but ‘dot dot dot,’ and we don’t stop and go, yes, he’s dealt a really bad hand, and I feel like this year would be the year to say, OK, there are no more excuses, but it felt like last year was the year that people said that.”
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The Bears having the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft changed the calculus, but Holmes is right. It was Year 3 for Fields but Year 2 in this offense and Year 1 as a starter with some complementary pieces. Patience runs thin in the NFL, especially when a team has a draft pick that can easily allow the organization to move on.
Fans also had an appreciation for Fields the person. The “We want Fields” chants at Soldier Field on New Year’s Eve wouldn’t have come for someone who hadn’t endeared himself to the city.
“He’s a genuine, authentic individual,” Miller said. “When I watch him do his postgame press conferences and anytime I talk to him, I don’t think there’s anything manufactured at all. I think he’s real. I think who he is and how he handles himself, that’s really genuine and authentic. And people believe that.”
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The story of a city’s love affair with its quarterback also can’t be written without noting the historic nature of the Bears drafting a Black quarterback.
“There were a lot of people like, wow, this feels good,” Holmes said. “This feels like a step in the right direction for so many reasons. … There was this kind of level of hope that was associated with him that felt new and fresh, and it felt like the Bears were more than doing the right thing societally. They were doing the right thing from a football standpoint.”
But nothing attached fans to Fields more, and provided them more hope, than the dazzling plays he made. Every time he did something no Bears quarterback, let alone NFL quarterback, had done, it gave fans reason to think, “He’s the one.”
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“’I’ve never seen anything like it,” Waddle said. “I guess the best explanation … (is) that the highlights are so outstanding and so intoxicating, it almost makes you forget about the other stuff.”
Waddle referenced the Christmas Eve game against the Arizona Cardinals. Fields was 10-for-17 passing with two touchdowns in the first half. In the fourth quarter, he threw an interception in the end zone. The Bears punted on two of their other drives, and he completed only five of his 10 passes.
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The same could be said about the Week 4 loss to the Denver Broncos when Fields put up historic numbers in the first half, then lost a fumble, had an intentional grounding called on him and threw a pick in the fourth quarter.
“We’re willing to dismiss (the shortcomings) because the highs are so high, and then we convince ourselves that it’s everyone else but him as to why it’s not as consistent as it needs to be,” Waddle said. “You just see these incredible highlights, and then you come to the conclusion, ‘Well he’s just great.’ I think the conclusion is, ‘Well he does some great things.’ But as a quarterback, it’s still not completely good enough consistently.”
Miller remembered a run against the San Francisco 49ers in Fields’ rookie season when he reversed field “and it almost looked like he was Marcus Allen out there in the Super Bowl.”
“He makes jaw-dropping plays that simply amaze you,” he said.
Statistically, as a passer, Fields wasn’t much different from Trubisky, but no one was shedding a tear when Trubisky left as a free agent after the 2020 season. Anyone who watched the two knows that Fields’ potential was on a different level.
“Justin’s given you enough ‘Wows,’” Holmes said. “There have been so many moments where you go, ‘Oh my God, there are two or three guys that can do that in the league,’ and you go, ‘That person actually plays for the Bears.’”
In some ways, it was reminiscent of Cutler. His abilities often were discussed as scintillating enough to get someone fired. How could you not fall for Cutler’s arm and athleticism? But the consistency wavered.
With Fields, you had fans constantly point out the great moments, while others pointed to the win-loss column, the giveaways, the sacks and the fourth-quarter miscues.
The reality is, it was both, but the Bears needed Fields to be better.
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“There weren’t enough of them,” Waddle said of the splash plays. “They’re spectacular, and then I think in some ways, it intoxicates you and you start to think about it as better than it actually is, and it makes you forget the ball not coming out quick or stepping into a sack or some of the other stuff that happened too frequently.”
‘He has become a representation of the hopes’
Earnheardt has researched and written about sports fans. He co-authored the book, “Sports Fans, Identity and Socialization: Exploring the Fandemonium.”
As a Steelers fan, he had been following the Fields drama. He refers to what’s gone on in Chicago as “the sports fandom identity paradox.”
“You’ve got this fan reaction and dynamics that surround Justin Fields and the situation of the Chicago Bears. You’ve got two competing identities and loyalties at play,” he said. “The first one is you’ve got the identity and allegiance of fans to the Chicago Bears, a team, your franchise and a history and all of that. … Then you’ve got this identity and bond — a bond that is formed quickly in some cases — for Justin Fields as the individual player.
“When the interests of the team and the player diverge, as what’s happening with Fields, it creates this paradox or conflict for fans.”
It’s cognitive dissonance, as Earnheardt said. Fans are reconciling “these two objects of their fandom.”
“There’s kind of this committed bond to the Bears no matter what. Players come and go,” he said. “And the team identity transcends any single player. But then on the other side, you’ve got fans who are heavily invested in Fields himself. They’ve gone out and bought jerseys and they see his talents, they see his potential, they see his persona.
“He has become a representation of the hopes.”
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It’s an identity crisis for Bears fans.
“Do they side with the Bears franchise or with their beloved player? Psychologically then the paradox leads to that set of complex emotions,” Earnheardt said. “Anger with the front office, anger with the coaches, but then sadness with the potential loss of a player.”
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Social media in 2024 has added another dynamic to the Fields debate. It never ends. This generation of quarterbacks can see everything said about them. Grossman and Orton didn’t have to worry about that. It’s the fans’ outlet to argue with one another and go through this conflict.
But what hasn’t changed is the radio station as an outlet. Fans can dial up the number and have their voice heard. January is usually quiet for sports radio shows, especially in cities without a playoff team.
Not Chicago. Not this year. Not with this quarterback. Fields was polarizing, but not in the way Cutler was. This had a different intensity to it, and it was a talking point every day. Holmes said he and co-host Dan Bernstein saw their best January ratings.
“I do think that’s on the heels of talking about this,” he said. “And the audience doesn’t seem to be tired. They have an appetite for it every single day.”
Even with Fields now in Pittsburgh, the conversation won’t end. Bears fans will be watching closely to see where his career goes from here, and then the focus turns to — we think — Caleb Williams.
‘Oh, here we go again’
For most teams that wind up with the No. 1 pick in the draft, the opportunity to take someone like Williams would send a city into delirium — similar to what we saw in Chicago in 2021. But the way the Fields chapter ended has complicated those emotions.
Some fans will always be loyal to Fields and hold skepticism for the next one. Some fans, understandably, believe that the Bears simply cannot develop a quarterback. They won’t let themselves get excited again.
Earnheardt points to the Cleveland Browns as an analogous situation — another franchise that has cycled through quarterback after quarterback.
“They’re always looking for that next guy to step in to be the savior,” he said. “It’s going to be an interesting case study in Chicago for how fans react when emotional investment is ultimately broken.
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“There’s still going to be that sliver of the fan base that is going to feel some sense of betrayal, both for the team for giving up on that beloved player and to some extent toward the player for not living up to all that immense hype, the immense potential.”
It’s the draft pick version of playing not to lose, being afraid that the player will be a bust.
“Those who want Caleb Williams are going to scream for Caleb Williams until he throws his first pick,” Miller said. “And then that reminder plants the seed in their head of, ‘Oh, here we go again.’”
It’s a relationship. Bears fans had this three-year bond with Fields. They rode the Fields roller coaster. He broke their hearts, or the team did, or both.
“I’m very interested to see how this fan base actually responds to a change at quarterback,” Waddle said. “Will you fall in love as readily and as head over heels with the new guy as you did the other guy?”
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(Top photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
