Jackson said an already difficult situation has been exacerbated by fans booing the team at home and chanting for coach Matt Nagy to be fired.
The Bears caught a little bit of a break in the public relations department by having Soldier Field empty all last season. While they took a hit financially, they avoided the ugly scene of coach Matt Nagy and his team getting booed off the field every other week as it did in 2019.
But fans have returned this season and they haven’t held back.
From booing starting quarterback Andy Dalton in the preseason opener to chanting, “Fire Nagy,” and, “Nagy sucks,” this month, they’ve been loud. And exasperated. They’ve had enough, and they are disgusted with everything that has led to a season in which they sit 4-7 and have scored the fourth-fewest points in the NFL.
And safety Eddie Jackson implying Monday that they should stop is most likely going to have the opposite effect.
“We hate it, honestly,” said Jackson, who has heard his share of heckling over missed tackles this season. “The fans gotta understand that doesn’t help anything. Y’all want us to play better, [but] that’s not helping when you’re all sitting up there and chanting that.
“But I get it. The frustration... Bears fans have been going through this for a long, long time, so I understand it, but it’s not helping the situation. It’s just making it worse.”
There’s no doubt it’s making Sundays more unpleasant for Nagy and his players, but booing and railing against Nagy is their best avenue to be heard. And if the Bears get off to a rocky start again Sunday when they host the league-best Cardinals, Soldier Field is going to get loud again.
Jackson was measured and reasonable in his comments was nowhere near scolding fans, so let’s not blow this out of proportion. He made sure to empathize and added, “We owe it to Chicago to go out here and play our best ball.”
But if he’s annoyed by booing, he should direct his complaints to those who created this hostile work environment. The Bears’ home stadium would be much more amicable if they were playing better or at least showing signs that they were headed the right direction.
Instead, chairman George McCaskey’s decision to keep virtually everything the same after back-to-back 8-8 seasons put Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace in the haphazard position of trying to rebuild but also needing to win now.
Those conflicting missions created a problem from the beginning, with Nagy wanting to play Dalton rather than accelerate rookie quarterback Justin Fields’ development.
And when it was clear Nagy couldn’t save this season, it became obvious to everyone that he wouldn’t be able to save his job. It’s a foregone conclusion to most people that he’s going to get fired, but the Bears’ inaction is exacerbating an already maddening situation for fans.
At this point, the booing is so inevitable and irrepressible that there’s no point in Jackson or anyone else trying to quiet it.
“If we come to y’all jobs and boo y’all, how y’all going to feel about it?” Jackson asked rhetorically. “So [Nagy] is still human. We’re still human. Nobody likes it. So we just continue to fight and just block out the noise.”
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/3HYqSe5
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