Matt Nagy, Mitchell Trubisky Make Pleas for Unity
Bears coach Matt Nagy continued to try to bring his team together while it seemed the rest of society was pulling apart.
The Bears' coach canceled the team's scheduled video meetings as part of their virtual offseason program in honor of blackout Tuesday, a situation brought on by the unrest following the death of George Floyd.
Nagy had gone on Good Morning Football on NFL Network and spoke about the situation and how he was addressing it Monday when talking in the video program with his team.
"I think as you go through these situations it's very important to listen," Nagy said. "It's very important to be honest and open."
Nagy said he actually talked to some players over the weekend.
"What I like to do is I've reached out to several of our players and our leaders this weekend and just let them know, No. 1, that they have my 100 percent support. Ive got their back 100 percent," Nagy said. "And they needed to know that. No. 2 was I was going to listen and just be quiet and let them talk. I thought those conversations with the guys I was going to talk to went real well."
The direction of the talks were positive, Nagy said. He added he "put Xs and Os on the back burner. We don't care about that right now.
"We talked about togetherness and being unified and obviously there's a lot bigger picture to whats going on right now but what we can control right now within our building is how we do things with the Chicago family and the Chicago Bears family. Togetherness is one way, and just listen to others."
He had one other emphasis.
"Here's a word that I think gets lost a lot in this whole experience that we're all going through and it's a powerful word in my book and that's love," Nagy said. "Especially in the football world I don't think It gets used enough."
The team's approach apparently hit home
Rookie defensive lineman LaCale London from Western Illinois tweeted:
@LaCaleLondon44
The meeting I just had with my team I love them boys already. I just feel the team love, I'm just happy to be apart of the organization. Y'all stay safe
Rookie tight end Darion Clark, the basketball player they brought in as a tight end said much the same:
@darionclark23
"I was apart of a very Healthy and Productive conversation this morning with my brothers! I've been blessed with a platform and I'm going to use it to my best ability to help bring Change! WE IN THIS TOGETHER"
Bears running back David Montgomery had a message bringing people together.
@MontgomerDavid
I LOVE MY PEOPLE BUT GUESS WHAT I LOVE ALL PEOPLE WHO LOVE BACK !!!
Defensive end Brent Urban voiced understanding.
@urbanlegend96
It kills me to see my brothers hurting. I can’t imagine what you go through. I’m not really into lip service but know I’m committed to doing all I can to help change this human issue. “I can’t walk in your shoes but I can walk with you.” Love & positivity
Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky had the longest player tweet as he broke a longstanding policy of not using social media to put on Instagram:
mtrubisky10
Throughout my life I’ve been blessed to share the field and locker room with countless black men. These men and teammates have become family to me. Although I could never understand what they have to experience I empathize with them and love them like brothers. I stand with my brothers and sisters in the fight against racial injustices. We need to do more. We must do better. Posts, tweets, and statements aren’t enough. We need to take action. We must take the steps together to make systematic changes to prevent these evil acts from occurring.
Love is stronger than hate. Peace and Unity will overcome violence.
Black Lives Matter.
#JusticeforGeorgeFloyd
The Bears will resume their meetings on Wednesday and also will hold their first press conferences of these "virtual OTAs," with Allen Robinson, Akiem Hicks and Danny Trevathan all speaking, three of the real vocal leaders on the team.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
