Lincicome: Advice to Justin Fields, best to get to know Bears Fan while he is still on your side
Bears Fan, meet Justin Fields. Justin Fields, meet Bears Fan.
You will know each other on sight. Bears Fan is the one wearing the jersey with the No. 1 and the name "Fields" on the back. Justin Fields is the one wearing a hoodie and dark glasses.
Possibly it is no fault of either that you have not met, that you really don't know each other at all.
Let me set the record straight. Bears Fan thinks Fields is the promise of better days and Fields thinks Bears Fan is a stranger.
"I don't know any fans," Fields said. "I don't know what they are doing in their personal lives."
Here is what Bears Fan is doing, young Justin. Bears Fan is wishing you are better than you obviously are. With all evidence to the contrary, Bears Fan is still confident that you will be good enough. Bears Fan is convinced that each of your rare and random successes proves that the next Sunday will be better than the last.
Bears Fan is not yet ready to concede that you are not the face of the franchise but that you are ... well the other end. But be alert; unrest is noticeable; patience is wobbly. Best get to know Bears Fan while Bears Fan is still on your side.
No sports fan is more patient than the Chicago sports fan, treating the rare yesterday like the inspiring tomorrow, anniversaries like encouragement, one champion for each generation. Bears Fan is the most tolerant of all, finding silk purses in an endless string of sow's ears, or sow's stomachs, considering the offensive line.
The point is, young Justin, Bears Fan aches and suffers as you do, maybe not with the slings and arrows of blocks and tackles, but does one measure psychic misery less than physical jolts? And not for millions of dollars but from simple devotion.
Bears Fan and has been doing this for more than three decades, collected in common misery, united in shared hope. Bears Fan may never be sure you know what you are doing, young Justin, but one thing Bears Fan will insist on is that you care as much as Bears Fan does.
The example is still fresh enough for Bears Fan, the churlish Jay Cutler playing better quarterback than most for the Bears, but always suspected of wishing he were anywhere else but here. Best look at the Cutler case to understand Bears Fan.
Failure is tolerated as long as Bears Fan is convinced that you care, young Justin, that you have some appreciation for what was here before you, that some rivalries are more crucial than others, that Bears Fan has endured too much to be dismissed.
"I respect every fan that we have," Fields said. "I'm glad that we have fans."
Bears Fan was here before you, young Justin, and will be here after you are gone.
Cubs fans are still here after the greatest sports rant of all times, manager Lee Elia raging at the "nickel and dime people" who dared come to Wrigley Field and boo his players. Young Fields made a thoughtless suggestion that Bears Fan is "not putting in any work," not like his teammates and his coaches, when, of course, that is their job. Bears Fan's job is to suffer when the work does not work out.
Young Justin can be forgiven, and yet the face painted, tattooed, costumed menagerie that gathers at Soldier Field on game day expects as much effort in return; otherwise, Bear Fan is just cheering laundry and not heroes.
Respect is a prize that comes with achievement and Bears Fan's memory is littered with the debris of failure. There is space for you, young Justin, there with the Trubiskys and the Cutlers and the Grossmans and the Harbaughs and the McCowns.
Inevitably Bears Fan will realize that Bears Fan has been suckered again, that faith is no substitute for actual accomplishment, that fantasy is fuel and illusion is fiction.
Bears Fan has had a sustained familiarity with the scenario, new coaches, new managers, new players, old promises, usual results.
The road goes on forever and the party never ends.