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Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields said he isn’t interested in being featured in the next season of the popular Netflix series “Quarterback,” preferring to keep preparations for his third NFL season within Halas Hall.
Fields said representatives of the docuseries reached out to gauge his interest in appearing in Season 2 of the show. Season 1, which was released this month, featured the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, the Minnesota Vikings’ Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota, then with the Atlanta Falcons, as they navigated the 2022 season on and off the field.
“I’d rather keep everything the way it is around here,” Fields said. “Having cameras around the building, that might change the vibe of everyone. I want to keep it natural and organic and really focus on what’s going on in the building.
“Maybe down the road, but I don’t think I see myself doing it this year at least.”
Fields said he watched Season 1 and enjoyed seeing how the quarterbacks prepared and balanced their personal lives and football.
“I think a lot of people realize (from watching the series) how much work goes into being a quarterback, especially on the mental side of things, how much we have to prepare and know everybody’s jobs,” Fields said. “It really gave everybody our perspective (about) what we go through.”
Executive producer Peyton Manning told “The Pat McAfee Show” this month that Netflix greenlit Season 2, and Manning hoped to have an easier time pitching participation to quarterbacks after the Season 1 reception.
“I don’t want to hear it’s going to be a distraction because that’s not true,” Manning said. “Patrick Mahomes proved that. Right? Kirk Cousins proved that. Marcus, the way he handled that, proved that.
“I’d love to document three different types of quarterbacks again at three different points in their careers. We’re hoping guys after seeing it realize: ‘Hey, this could be a cool thing I can show to my kids when I’m older. I can show to my grandkids one day what it is their dad or granddad used to do.’”
Fields has experience working on a docuseries. When he was a quarterback at Harrison High School in Georgia, he was featured on the Netflix series “QB1: Beyond the Lights.” Fields said a lot of people approached him afterward to ask about the show.
“The first time the cameras were around, being that young, it was kind of awkward at first,” Fields said. “But as time passed I got more and more used to it. It was a cool experience.”
Fields said his consideration of “Quarterback” didn’t get to the point of discussing it with the Bears.
Chairman George McCaskey has made his preference known that the Bears not be on HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” in which Bears coach Matt Eberflus participated while he was the Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator. The Bears were one of the teams eligible to be mandated to do the show during this year’s training camp, but the New York Jets, with new quarterback Aaron Rodgers, were picked instead.
General manager Ryan Poles said having cameras around Halas Hall would be tough, but he also sees the benefits of doing such a show.
“That’s an internal conversation we would all have to see if it benefits the club,” Poles said. “‘Hard Knocks,’ that’s a tough one because I really believe this is a family setup where we have a lot of things going on in our building that you want to keep private. There’s conversations. That’s really tough. If we all threw a couple of cameras in our house, our bathrooms, kind of weird, right?
“But I also understand the access part of it and the fan part of it that is cool to see. So I’m kind of split on it, to be honest with you. But from my position it’s a tough, tough deal to have cameras.”