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Following the Chicago Bears’ brutal 19-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night, safety Eddie Jackson stood up in front of his teammates in the locker room and delivered a powerful speech where he preached accountability as a football team.
“You see guys coming off the field with their head down, no one says something, no one says nothing to them,” Jackson said. “That has to change if you see somebody holding his head. We’re a team. It’s not going to go perfect. You see these [last] four weeks. It’s not going to be perfect, so if you see a guy with his head down, ‘lift your head up, come on, next play.’ Have that mindset, that next play mentality that no matter how bad it gets, we’re going to continue to fight.”
Specifically, Jackson singled out some veteran leaders that haven’t been speaking up. He encouraged his teammates to speak up and “use your voice” when it comes to holding themselves and each other accountable for the product they’ve been putting on the field.
“We got a lot of guys on both sides of the ball that can speak up, that has a powerful voice but feel kind of afraid to use it,” he said. “You can’t be afraid to use your voice. If you’re a leader on this team, guys look up to you. You got to use it, regardless what coach thinks or whatever or whoever thinks, you got to use your voice. You got to hold each other accountable.”
Bears head coach Matt Nagy praised Jackson for his powerful words, which came after the team’s fourth straight loss heading into an important bye week. Then again, that’s why Jackson is one of the leaders on this team.
“That’s what leaders do,” said Nagy. “We talked about ‘leaders create leaders.’ Well, he’s being a leader after the game at a tough moment where we’re all pretty emotional, we’re all pretty frustrated, we’re all pretty pissed off.”
Nagy said that having Jackson stand up and address the team went a long way with getting an important message across, especially at the lowest point of this challenging season.
“A player at Eddie’s magnitude, when they talk, I think that [means] ten times as much as what I say,” said Nagy. “I hope that some of our players take that to heart and understand where he’s coming from. I want more of that. I love that. I want more of it. It’s not an attack personally. It’s task related. That’s what I liked about it.”
The Bears have a bye week before they head to Green Bay to face the Packers on Sunday Night Football in Week 12.
