Back in August I wrote a series of articles about pro-sports coaches not being able to get their message across to the current generation. In those articles my focus was on baseball since it is the sport that I follow closest year round. However, today, I want to take a step back and bring my thinking into perspective using football after Justin Fields dislocated his thumb in Sundays Bears-Vickings game because there is a lot of attention on Fields and whether or not he can be the next great Quarterback for the Chicago Bears.
On top of the fact that Fields does not seem to take to the pressure of being in a big market I think there is something bigger going on that will cause him to never be an above-average quarterback. Football is played by running and throwing the ball. It is the quarterback’s job to make a call at the last second before executing a play the coaches called for. Unfortunately, Fields in his third season has not show anything except glimmers of hope. Let me explain further using Sunday’s play which saw him leave the field injured.
He was listening to his coaches and looking for the best throw. The fact is at the last second he should have decided to run the ball and at least more the ball forward. The coaches are not on the field playing the game and on top of that they are playing a chess match with the other teas coaches and have to predict the defensive alignment that will be out there on each set of downs.
Here’s the thing, folks: Fields is not the best in-the-moment decision maker where it comes to going against the play the coaches called for. Now, is that the fault of his coaches. Yes, some of the blame is on the coaches. However, as a bandwagon jumping football watcher who understands the game and will always root for my hometown Bears I blame it mostly on Fields for not being a good listener and also failing to grow into being a great quarterback.
Don’t get me wrong here. I understand that he is only in his third year. Therefore, he can still grow into being the great professional quarterback he probably dreamed of being. I do not believe that will happen in Chicago though and I blame the coaching staff for not doing a better job of getting their lessons across in between games and in the off-season.
With that… it’s time to prepare for Tyson Bagent or Nathan Peterman to start next Sunday.
If you cannot play with them, root for them!