Earlier this year, Justin Fields inadvertently set the internet on fire by sparking rumors of a homecoming to Atlanta with an innocent video. In it, Fields was all smiles, jumping around the room with joy. What made the video viral, however, was its timing, coinciding with the rumors of the QB hitting free agency. Seven months later, Fields has finally cleared the air around it.
Advertisement
In his latest appearance on ‘Not Just Football,’ Fields revealed that the intention behind the video wasn’t to convey a subliminal message. In fact, the QB simply saw it as a joke, trying to emulate high school kids’ animated kickoff routine.
“It was just making a joke you know… I was emulating how guys on a high school kickoff be like (pumped up) before the game, like jumping and boom, doing a little jump, the high knee jump tuck or whatever. That’s basically what I was emulating.”
Considering how joyous Justin looked in the video, fans speculated that the source of his happiness was his rumored move to the Falcons. Justin, however, found this theory amusing and hilariously noted that with theories like this, it feels like “it’s a crime to be happy on social media.”
That said, the most interesting part of the interview was Fields’ surprising admission that his exit from the Bears wasn’t as unexpected as we thought it was.
Fields knew his fate
During the offseason this year, rumors were rife that the Bears were trading their starting quarterback and using their first-overall pick to sign Caleb Williams. On paper, this sounds like a stellar deal, but for the Bears fans, Fields’ quick trade symbolized a player brimming with potential leaving too soon.
So, most fans wanted the Bears to build a stellar offensive lineup by having both Fields and Caleb on the roster. However, after the front office revealed that it would be impossible to keep both, fans saw the writing on the wall for Fields. Justin felt the same based on the comments from the Bears personnel around him.
While the officials didn’t outright tell Fields that he was out, they also didn’t express full confidence in him. Instead, they bought time by calling it a tricky situation.
“We’ve been dealing with coaches our whole life, so you know how to read somebody, you know how and what they say… I mean, they kept it pretty much brief. They said you know, we’re in a tricky situation right here, a situation that we’ve never been in.”
Fields initially found this ironic because the Bears were in the same situation last year as well: “But you know we were in the same situation the year before because we had the number one pick the year before with the Panthers.”
However, as more and more personnel around him echoed the same sentiment, Fields revealed that he knew his time was up in Chicago. The rest, as they say, is history.
