Gerard Gilfone, better known as Jersey Jerry for Barstool Sports, started a kerfuffle on Twitter last weekend when he spoke out against Justin Fields. His reasoning was the Chicago Bears quarterback supposedly treated him poorly when asked for a picture. Even though Fields gave Gilfone what he wanted, the lack of enthusiasm led the 45-year old to go on a rant in his car about how terrible of a person Fields is.
Here’s the thing. This happened at the GT Sports Marketing event in New Jersey, where athletes spent the day taking pictures with fans. Other people in attendance stated to SM that Fields looked “tired.” It is possible he was fulfilling an obligation despite not having his usual energy. Any human being can understand how difficult it is to sound enthusiastic when all you want to do is go home and crash in bed. Gilfone likely caught the Bears QB at a bad time. Instead, he took it as a personal affront and blamed fans for having the gall to support the young man.
Sure enough, his story didn’t take long to fall apart.
Justin Fields resurfaced at the United Center where the Chicago Blackhawks played the Seattle Kraken. Several teammates were with him, including his entire offensive line and running back Khalil Herbert among others. The QB seemed far more refreshed this time around. When cameras at the game caught him, he waved to the cheering crowd. This also didn’t stop him from walking around and getting selfies with fans.
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Chicago’s quarterback is in the building!! @justnfields #Blackhawks #Bears pic.twitter.com/ZZhVnhr7D7
— Genna Rose (@gennarosetv) April 8, 2022
Justin fields pic.twitter.com/ps5TMQj3Ou
— mandyhawk19© (@Mandyhawk19) April 8, 2022
All smiles here and no eye rolling. @justnfields was more than happy to take this picture with me at the Super Bowl. My QB is a real one! 🐻⬇️
Don’t ever try to disparage my QB! 💯 pic.twitter.com/6gUNoIlDcl
— Terence M. Young (@Terence_M_Young) April 3, 2022
This should serve as a reminder to people. Don’t let one man alter the perception of another without context. It would be one thing if this supposed “incident” with Gilfone were the latest in a string of them. Instead, it was an outlier. Fields has a longstanding reputation of being receptive to fans going back to his days at Ohio State. This was further proof of it. He makes it easy to cheer for him on Sundays.
