Justin Fields (born March 5, 1999) is an American football quarterback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). Following a stint with Georgia, he played college football at Ohio State, where he twice won Graham–George Offensive Player of the Year and appeared in the 2021 College Football Playoff National Championship. Fields was selected by the Bears in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, with whom he set the single-game regular season record for quarterback rushing yards. Fields attended Harrison High School in Kennesaw, Georgia. Fields also went to Lost Mountain Middle School. In two years as the starting quarterback for Harrison, he totaled 4,187 passing yards, 41 passing touchdowns, 2,096 rushing yards and 28 rushing touchdowns.[1] In the summer before his senior year in 2017, he attended the Elite 11 quarterback competition and was named MVP of the event.[2] Late in his senior year, in a game that was nationally televised on ESPN, he suffered a broken finger that required season ending surgery. After his senior season, he was named Mr. Georgia Football by the Touchdown Club of Atlanta, as well as first-team all-state.[3] In addition to football, Fields was also a standout baseball player for Harrison High. Fields was rated as a five-star recruit and was the highest rated dual-threat quarterback in the class of 2018 by ESPN, Rivals.com, and 247Sports.com.[4][5][6] ESPN listed him as the top recruit overall, while Rivals and 247Sports ranked him second behind fellow quarterback Trevor Lawrence. In October 2017, Fields committed to the University of Georgia to play college football after withdrawing a previous commitment to Penn State.[8] His senior year was documented in the second season of the Netflix series QB1: Beyond the Lights (2018).[9] In Fields' first season with the Buckeyes, he helped lead the team to a Big Ten Championship with a 34–21 victory over Wisconsin, and a spot in the College Football Playoff.[20] Fields finished in third in voting for the Heisman Trophy, was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and first-team all-conference.[21] In the 2019 Fiesta Bowl against Clemson, he had 320 passing yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions in the 29–23 loss in the College Football Playoff semifinal.[22] He finished the season with 3,273 passing yards, 41 passing touchdowns, and three interceptions to go along with 484 rushing yards and ten rushing touchdowns. Fields entered the 2020 season as a leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy. The season was played amid the ongoing pandemic, with the Big Ten Conference ultimately opting for a shortened conference-only schedule after initially canceling the season. Fields was vocal in his support of playing the season, and he started an online petition that gathered over 320,000 signatures in support of that goal. Fields helped lead the Buckeyes to another undefeated regular season and Big Ten Championship with a 22–10 victory over Northwestern. Ohio State received another bid to the College Football Playoff, playing a rematch against Clemson. Ohio State was victorious in the rematch, 49–28, with Fields throwing 385 passing yards and six touchdowns in the game. Fields took a hard hit to the midsection in the game, and played through the injury in a performance that Sports Illustrated dubbed "legendary".[26] The Buckeyes advanced to the College Football Playoff National Championship, where they lost to Alabama, 52–24. Fields finished the shortened 2020 season with 2,100 passing yards, 22 passing touchdowns, six interceptions, and added 383 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns on the ground.[27] He repeated as the Big Ten's Offensive Player of the Year and unanimous first-team all-conference. On January 18, 2021, Fields announced that he would be forgoing his final two years of eligibility to enter the 2021 NFL Draft.[28] Fields' 2022 season began with a 19–10 victory over the San Francisco 49ers, completing 8 of 17 passes for 121 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. The Bears lost four of their next five games, including a three-game losing streak, which saw Fields complete 56.1% of his passes for 748 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions, and rush for 254 yards on 43 carries. The losing streak ended in Week 7 with a Monday Night Football victory over the New England Patriots, during which Fields completed 13 of 21 passes for 179 yards, a touchdown, and an interception, and rushed for 82 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries to secure the 33–14 upset. In Week 9 against the Miami Dolphins, Fields set the NFL single-game regular season record for quarterback rushing yards at 178, surpassing Michael Vick's 20-year record.[53] He also became the first NFL player to have three touchdown passes and rush for at least 150 yards in the same game, and set the Bears franchise records for both the longest quarterback run and quarterback touchdown run off a 61-yard rushing touchdown. Despite his performance, the Bears lost 35–32.[55] Fields was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week following the game.
In the National Football League (NFL), the team captain designation is a team-appointed position that designates certain players as leaders on and off the field. The captains program was implemented by the NFL Player Advisory Council established by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in conjunction with the NFL Players Association. Starting in 2007, the league began permitting teams to name up to six players as captains. Players who have been named a team captain typically wear a "C" patch on their jerseys. There is a standard design used by all teams participating in the captaincy program. The patches are in team colors and are worn on the front left or right breast (depending on other patches, etc. worn by the specific team). The number of gold stars on the patch represents the number of years that player has been named captain by a team. If he has been named captain for longer than four years, the "C" on the patch is gold. On some teams' color rush jerseys, plus the Cincinnati Bengals' white uniforms, the stars (and "C", for captains with over four years of service) use team colors. During special recognitions, the patch may be a different color such as pink for breast cancer awareness or camouflage for military service recognition. In 2018, NFL began an partnership with the American Cancer Society using a multi-color captain patch. Some teams (e.g. Pittsburgh and Baltimore) do not use the patch on their jerseys but still designate captains. The decision to wear or not wear patches can come from the coach or a team vote.[4] Pittsburgh and Baltimore have never used the patch during the respective lengthy tenures of their head coaches Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh, although they have named permanent captains. To date, these two teams have never worn the patch. Other teams who do not use the patch designate captains weekly. John Harbaugh has followed this practice since becoming head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. In the case of the Green Bay Packers, the team named weekly captains during the regular season, but would switch to assigning captains (who wore patches) whenever they qualified for the playoffs.The Kansas City Chiefs followed the same practice in the 2019 regular season and postseason, naming six captains in advance of their divisional round game versus Houston. With the hiring of head coach Matt LaFleur in 2019, the Packers began assigning three weekly captains alongside three permanent captains. By and large, teams do not adorn the jerseys of weekly captains with patches. However, in 2019 the Carolina Panthers voted Gerald McCoy as a captain for their Week 2 matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and affixed a patch to his jersey. He continued wearing the patch as the season continued in light of an injury to Kawann Short. Similarly, London native Efe Obada was voted a team captain for the Panthers' game there in 2019. In 2019, the NFL changed captains' patches slightly, removing the white outline at the patch's edge. Also, instead of stars "filled-in" with gold coloring to indicate years as a captain alongside "unfilled-in" white stars (i.e. a player who was in his second year as a captain would have 2 gold stars and 2 white stars on his patch), the patch now simply has gold stars indicating years served.
The 2023 NFL season is the 104th season of the National Football League (NFL). The season began on September 7, 2023, with defending Super Bowl LVII champion Kansas City falling to Detroit in the NFL Kickoff Game, and will end on January 7, 2024.
The playoffs are then scheduled to start on January 13, and conclude with Super Bowl LVIII, the league's championship game, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, on February 11.
