Always Be Scoring

    You knew it was gonna happen. For a man who's so self-absorbed, who refused to give up playcalling despite running some of the best offensive weapons into the ground for the better part of two years, who so disproportionately values his own identity over objective evaluation that his mantra is literally "be you", you just knew that he couldn't sit back and let his team succeed without him.

You are you, Nagy. That's the problem.

 

    Of course Rashaad Coward saw the field against the Packers, despite not showing any skills other than "medium-budget strip club bouncer". Of course Wims saw an uptick in snaps again despite the offense's resurgence being almost entirely while he was on the bench. Of course we saw the resurgence of shotgun passes, inside zone runs, nonsensical trick plays in redzone in goal line situations that make you wonder if he even understands that their is no "style" portion of the scoring system.

       This may not be a philosophy blog, at least not until the Bears finally break me and I disavow breaking down tape forever in favor of breaking down Echo and Narcissus over several bottles of bottom-shelf whiskey. Still, it's worth noting that, in general, people fall into two categories: those that believe you're defined by the sum of your actions, and those that believe your identity is who you are on the inside. People who believe in the second may call the first, at best, "practical", at worst dehumanizing and demoralizing. People who know fancy words may call it "extrinsic". I call it reality.

 

 

The reality is, your receiver doesn't know how to run a route.

 

   For those of you who believe in the second line of thinking, you live by "it's the thought that counts". When a speaker you're not familiar with brings up an idea you're not able to evaluate on its merits, you start looking into that speaker to understand "what kind of man they are". You're not able to objectively evaluate information or ideas, you look for the identity of the speaker, and judge the value of their ideas based on the value of them by proxy. It doesn't matter what studies they have in their back pocket - if your doctor tells you to lay off sugar and dairy and simple carbs because your BMI is unhealthy and they're overweight, you're not spending the rest of the day looking up carb manager apps and new recipes to retool your diet with - you're spending it fuming at that hypocrite. When Alec Baldwin yells at you to get off your ass and seize the day already, you're the guy who feels the hard edges of reality threatening the soft cocoon of your ego and angrily responds "what's your name?" Know who doesn't respond that way? Bill Belichick.

    Bill Belichick lost his starting QB, half his roster to COVID, and hasn't picked in the top 20 in the draft since World War II. He went into the season with a QB1 whose rotator cuff has been keeping Sir Nearly Headless Nick company haunting the halls of Hogwarts for three years, and had less cap space than the Hey Arnold! kid.

You couldn't even fit a Mariota under there.

    His team wound up with one less win than the Bears did this season. Meanwhile, the Bears spent nearly $40 million on free agents this season to win, because Nagy's identity is being threatened by the hard, unforgiving reality that is an NFL season. Opposing defensive backs don't care how much of a creative genius you think you are - if you're not able to understand what they're good at and take it away from them, if you're not able to see what they're expecting and fool them - and you're not, Nagy, I've seen you - then all the pep talks and identify affirmations into the mirror in the world won't change the stat sheet.

   While that second group of people is buying up self-help books, watching Youtubers prattle on about actualization, and trying their damndest to make reality finally acknowledge the identity that's in their heads, the first group is spending that time working. They're watching tape, ruthlessly and objectively self-scouting. They don't care about "identity", hell they barely even think about it. Aaron Rodgers watches old film of himself to ruthlessly and obsessively critique his mechanics over thousands of snaps, ironing out every little hitch and wasted millisecond that could be spent more efficiently, resulting in the unending terror he is on the field today. 

    On the other hand, Nagy responds to his stuttering offense by watching a broadcast version of the game with Trubisky to see what kind of man he sees.

    That second group has a hard time with the world, because they don't recognize that all we are are the sum of our actions, and if we want to change who we are, we have to coldly and objectively evaluate our actions, hold all our flaws up to a magnifying glass and go through piece by piece with a fine-toothed comb, not being afraid to wind up not liking what we see and changing it, because that process of unflatteringly changing who you are is antithetical to their unspoken belief that their identity is intrinsic and also the most important thing.

   Fancy psychology folks call that second group "narcissists". I call them "delusional".

   If you're wondering who understands that all that matters is what you do, and who's stuck up holding onto their identity and raging at a world that doesn't care how they see themselves, just know that the greatest coach in the history of the game Bill Belichick's motto is "do your job".

 

"But why don't the linebackers appreciate me for who I am?"

    Matt Nagy's motto is not that.

 

    When reality does clash with the fragile identity Nagy holds onto, when he's shown you actually need to change to be the best, when his identity threatens to be revealed under the bright lights as less than what he imagines himself, what's his response? "This is not who we are."

   Gonna have to agree to disagree there Nags. No matter how many times you say your narcissist's prayer, reality is never wrong.

Don't you know who I see myself as am?

   Ultimately, when you put a narcissist who's so incapable of letting go of his identity that he actively suppresses the people around him that could succeed otherwise, who'd rather see the whole thing go up in smoke than rescind control, who's so obsessed with personal validation that he throws a tantrum when the people around him who know better try to take his keys away even for his own good, you get the Chicago Bears.

    When you put them in charge of a country, you get the United States today.

    Do your job.