Too much load for one shoulder

We know Justin Fields can run, so it's time to cool it on a team going nowhere

Too much load for one shoulder

The Bears had done it again. Lost the lead late, gotten the ball with a chance to drive the length of the field for a win or a tie and the drive had, as it ever has, sputtered, coughed and died not far form its origin point.

The game ended, Justin Fields limped off the field, the weight of the team on his cramping hamstrings and he was wincing as he touched the spot where his collarbone meets his shoulder.

Nobody should be surprised that Fields is banged up. The Bears offense only works when he’s doing most of the running and all of the throwing, and he’s really good at one of things and pretty good at the other.

But there’s really no reason for a 3-8 football team to keep letting opponents see how hard they can hit their only good offensive player. Justin Fields is a big guy, listed at 6’3 and 227, and he’s really fast and he’s strong, but if you hit something hard enough, often enough, no matter how big or strong or fast it is, it will eventually break.

And, when the insurance salesmen, personal injury lawyers and bus drivers who the NFL pays to work weekends and enforce rules to protect the players decide to never protect that player, it speeds the process up.

The people who cover the Bears were all a titter on Twitter when, after the game, Fields (gasp!) rode a cart to go get his x-rays and/or an MRI on his sore shoulder. He wasn’t in a wheelchair, gang. The game was over, the machines are on the other side of the stadium from where the Bears’ locker room was and somebody gave him a lift.

The most likely diagnosis will be Fields having a sprained AC joint. It’s a painful injury, one that heals on its own and requires things like Tylenol, a sling, rest and not sleeping directly on it. If you or I sprained our AC joint, we’d look at seven more weeks of the NFL schedule and say, “You know what, I’ll see you at mini-camp.”