While the excitement level surrounding Bears rookie quarterback Justin Fields has reached a fever pitch, veteran Andy Dalton remains the team’s starting quarterback heading into Week 1 of the regular season.
Dalton met with the media on Wednesday, where he was asked about the Fields hype that has taken over Bears camp, noticeable by the cheers for Fields by fans at camp, online and pretty much all throughout the Chicago area.
While Dalton would love support from Bears fans, his focus remains on bettering himself and leading his team to wins.
“Do I want the fans behind me and this team and all that kind of stuff? Yes,” Dalton said. “Do I want them behind Justin? Absolutely I do. But that’s not my focus, I can’t focus on all that right now. Justin’s gonna have his time and Justin’s gonna have a great career, but right now it’s my time and so right now my focus is on being the best player I can be for this team and do everything I can to help this team win.”
But it’s this part of the quote that has people talking:
“Justin’s gonna have his time and Justin’s gonna have a great career, but right now it’s my time.”
Mostly because it reminds them of this quote uttered by former Bears quarterback Mike Glennon:
“My focus is on right now getting better every day to get ready for the start of the season because this year is my year and I’m not going to worry about the future.”
For the record, Glennon’s “year” lasted exactly four games before he was benched in favor of rookie quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.
As you can imagine, Twitter had a field day (no pun intended) with Dalton’s quote, which, to be fair, wasn’t disrespectful or cocky. That’s the attitude you want your quarterback to have. But it was too eerily similar to Glennon’s words for people not to react.
