Lincicome: Looks like the Bears are again stuck trying to fix Justin Fields
Lint pickers and favorite aunts may still love Justin Fields, and yet the number is dwindling, given voice by hometown boos barely one half into another broken promise.
I assume that was Fields the opening game crowd was booing, although the candidates were many, most notably a lump of a tackle named Braxton Jones who should be arrested for penalty flag littering. Otherwise, Jones wanders side to side while a befuddled Fields ducks and dodges, something he does do well but much too often.
Or maybe the boos were for a casual wide receiver named Chase Claypool, one of two solutions imported to fix the Fields problem; that is, no one to throw to, while erstwhile No. 1 draft proxy, DJ Moore, commits the unforgivable lapse of outrunning Fields' arm.
My point is it took Bears fans less time to see what is wrong with the Bears than those in charge of repairs, Matt Eberflus, et.al, having had a whole offseason and training camp to do it.
If the plan is to be even worse this season than last, this time using the No. 1 pick instead of arrogantly misusing it, then at least it is a strategy and Fields is just the guy to make it happen.
"He knows he can play better," Eberflus said. "He knows that."
Even the head coach's endorsement is reduced to a Martin Short routine. To quote Short's Nathan Thurm, they know that. You think they don't know that? They know that.
The NFL needs the Bears to be successful, needs a storied franchise to rise again, needs to rinse and repeat. They know that. They just don't know how to do that.
The Bears live on the fumes of fame, "the once proud Bears," and while there is a compliment implied in there somewhere, "once proud" is one of those negative preambles like "With all due respect" sure to be followed by anything other than respect, or pride for that matter.
The incessant search for a quarterback by the team that invented the position mimics the detachment best reflected by the Millennial slogan: "Whatever."
And yet, swapping out the incompetent for the inept is the Bears business model, and then shrugging it off.
"There are a lot of reasons why things happen," offensive muddle-mind Luke Getsy is reported to have concluded. Who is to argue with that, or to wonder at the same time, who is in charge of the Bears, anyhow?
Curiosity more than real confidence accompanies these things, the Bears long since forfeiting the illusion that anyone knows what he is doing at Halas Hall.
Fields' special kind of torment has been to be just good enough - make that exciting enough - often enough to cause overreaction, Fields dashing about sometimes from desperation, more often from confusion, always with wonder.
Inevitably, failure comes with chagrin, and the redundant apology.
"Just want to say sorry," said a postgame Fields, "to teammates, to all the fans that were rooting for us."
The Bears are committed to Fields, there being no replacement of note. Usually, the best Bears quarterback is the one who is not playing. And yet, among the boos, there was no call for ... uh, like me, the crowd probably just couldn't remember a name.
The Bears are stuck with trying to fix Fields. The excuses are ready. There is too much there to give up on him. A team can be built around him. The problem is not the quarterback, it is the quarterback's support. No need to get a new quarterback, just get a new plan.
Rebuilding is a valid and honest strategy. For the Bears building around Fields seemed sensible. Players were shown both sides of the door, coming, going, standing around waiting to know whether to push or pull.
Who are the non-Fields Bears, the ones who earn the boos? They are just passing through. No reason to commit to memory any of the vagabonds who wear the blue and orange, or the all-orange for Tampa Bay. For two weeks the Bears have the peace of the road, able to play without censure.
And, by the way, no need to boo every Bear. That Cairo Santos is a pretty good kicker. Just to stay positive.