Jim O'Donnell: Bears are as thick as a brick if Fields plays vs. Green Bay

THERE IS DUMB, there is inept and then there is Chicago Bears-style thickheadedness.

If Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull could still play a halftime show, they would call it, "Thick as a Brick."

That legacy brain freeze will be on display Sunday if Justin Fields plays a single snap vs. the Green Bay Packers (noon, FOX, Adam Amin and Mark Schlereth).

Despite the strained posturing of local sports talk simpletons and Halas Hall media sycophants, there is no case whatsoever to be made for playing Fields any more this season.

At best, the 2022 Bears will go into the Rue Morgue as a steppingstone to better fourth quarters ahead.

Trending toward worst - as it has been since September - the inaugural crew of Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus may indeed be the poorest gaggle of Halasites since the ill-pawed 1-13 laydowns of 1969.

HERE'S AN INDISPUTABLE FACT about the transcendent athleticism of Fields:

When he competes by instinct, No. 1 quite frequently is saving the backsides of overwhelmed offensive teammates and the play-calling of OC Luke Getsy.

To allow that masquerade to teeter on into January - at enormous risk to the well-being of Fields - is organizational lunacy.

Or maybe merely pedigreed thickheadedness.

IN JORDAN LOVE, Matt LaFleur and the Packers have a properly incubated young QB who they're trying to get on the field.

With Fields, the Bears have a shellshocked 23-year-old who has already survived more than 20 excruciating months in the swerving systems of Getsy and Matt Nagy.

They don't emphasize football confusion at Georgia and Ohio State - nor gratuitous and low-reward playing time.

IF FIELDS AND AARON RODGERS are to compete Sunday, maybe a humanitarian group can arrange for it to be with nerf footballs into Dr Pepper targets in the south parking lot of Soldier Field.

FOX is on to the low-jacks in the "storied rivalry." Only 27 stations - less than 10% of America - will air the lame game.

The opening line of Tull's "Thick as a Brick" is: "Really don't mind if you sit this one out."

Do they still listen to applicable classic rock around the draining fields of Lake Forest?

STREET-BEATIN':

Rece Davis and Kirk Herbstreit will lead the overkill Sunday as ESPN begins 20 hours of coverage on the CFP Four plus the other New Year's Day bowl games at 11:15 a.m. That's 17 hours too many, although one contributor will be SEC beacon Paul Finebaum. He offers a rare ray of continually fresh texture as a sports yakker. ... While weekday daytime American TV audience numbers for the FIFA World Cup haven't been eye-popping, they have been big enough to prompt some to wonder if Major League Baseball may return a World Series game or two to sunlight slotting. Once upon a time - before Bowie Kuhn - there wasn't supposed to be any midnight Jack Frost in baseball. ... Chris Kuc reports that Wolves winger Brendan Perlini is exceptionally conversant on World Cup nuances. (He's a British-born Canadian.) ... Sure the Astros retain the aura of cheating Texas weasels. But the addition of Willson Contreras would be yet another sustaining masterstroke. Contreras could also play some LF at Minute Maid Park, one of the smallest greenlands in MLB. ... Chuck Swirky's new book - "Always a Pleasure" (Eckhartz Press, $20) - continues to receive solid reviews. Deep back pages, before the 1983 season, "The Swirsk" turned down a chance to be Cubs PA announcer at Wrigley Field and instead recommended a chum at the Daily Herald. (Who also passed, citing "an awful lot of showing up.") ...

Excessively personal: A very happy birthday to the extraordinary Mrs. Ruth Lundstedt, who once tipped her paperboy $50 close to 40 years after he lolled through his last delivery. Seeing her four sons together - former Cub Tom, All-Big Ten shortstop Dave (Illinois) and real estate scions Bob and Paul - was like being at a reunion of a more athletic Osmond family. ...

For those attempting to keep count, ESPN is claiming it streamed more than 4.1 billion minutes of live college football this season. (That's longer than a farewell tour by Elton John with Kiki Dee.) ...

And Eddie Zaleski, on Sunday's empty-calorie Bears-Packers rollover: "As a rivalry match, this is more like a Civil War re-enactment."

• Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears Sunday. and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.