Where Justin Fields’ social media analogy falls short | Inside Coverage
Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and Jori Epstein discuss the Bears quarterback’s decision to unfollow the team on Instagram, his analogy comparing the move to a relationship and why it was always going to up for public interpretation. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” - part of the “Zero Blitz” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: We're talking about it for a valid reason here. He went on the St. Brown brothers podcast. And they asked him a very difficult question, obviously, that they get to ask him because they're teammates, about unfollowing the Bears. I have a lot of thoughts. I want to get your thoughts on this. But I've got to start here because I think everybody's missed one important thing. People love his analogy of, oh, you're messing with the girl. Just because you don't follow her on Instagram doesn't mean you're messing with her.
What he's wrong about is, if you are already in a relationship with a girl, and then you unfollow her on social media, you think that's going to go-- you think that you're in a relationship, everything's good, and suddenly you press the unfollow button, and you ain't going to get a question from somebody? That's the part of his analogy that's absolutely lost, because he's in a relationship with the Bears. And they're going through a little tough patch. And he just unfollowed her. So I don't see how we can let that skate.
JORI EPSTEIN: What's interesting about this is he's basically being like, just because you make one public move doesn't mean it's the same in private. But the whole point is, we are interpreting this in public. He is a public figure. He knows that any move is going to be interpreted in the public. And if he's still messing with them, well, then why bother making this public move? Also, has the man never heard of the mute button? There are so many other ways to go about this. And it was clearly an intentional move that he knew would be publicly interpreted and perhaps even wanted to be publicly interpreted.
JASON FITZ: Justin Fields has to accept the fact that the perception that he's now living in, his reality, was created by his own actions. The fact that he did this-- he's been in the league long enough to know that who he follows matters. He's been in the league long enough to know that what he does matters. He's been in the league long enough to know that this was going to create conversations. So to your point, could have muted.
JORI EPSTEIN: A team's not holding against him who he follows and unfollows on social media. And I don't even really think they're going to see it as a sign of immaturity. I don't think they care. And so in that regard, maybe he did this well. Maybe it was just enough that it'll placate him. He can talk about it in a funny way, in a humorous way on this podcast, and then go along. And now, let's take him ax throwing to make sure that the next thing doesn't happen.