Bears Cancel Practice And Play Dodgeball Instead
These are the kinds of things that make it fun to be a current Bears fan.
Bears players showed up to their sixth week of offseason workouts expecting more of the same. Drills, workouts, and meetings. It's what an NFL player does in the offseason. Not a ton of fun but necessary.
Well Bear's coach Matt Nagy decided that they should all have some fun and canceled everything for a planned "Field Day."
According to their website, Nagy divided the camp into 10 11-man teams and had them all compete in an obstacle course. The top four teams then played a little dodgeball tournament to determine the winner. The obstacle course included:
- Hitting the crossbar with a thrown football from 15 yards
- Putting a golf ball into a bucket
- Doing 50 pushups
- Running four sprints across the width of the field (coaches only)
- Throwing a ball through the goalposts from 55 yards
- Juggling two tennis balls for 10 seconds
- Shooting volleyballs into garbage cans
- Balancing a baseball bat in an open palm while walking the width of the field
- Eating six crackers (with no water)
- Knocking a cone off a pad with a football from 15 yards away
It was basically what they do with elementary school kids on "field day."
There was some skin in the game.
The first-place squad picked a fancy steak dinner at training camp, the second-place finishers chose one fewer rep at a pre-camp conditioning test, the third-place team selected a curfew extension for one night at camp, and the fourth-place squad picked free haircuts from a professional stylist.
It's a lot of fun just watching these guys have fun. They look like a real team, which can mean a lot in football.
Looks like Matt Nagy was taking a little page out of Joe Maddon's book. Can't wait for the whole team to dress up as Ron Burgandy.