Germain Ifedi returned in time from a medial collateral ligament injury to face his old team Sunday in Seattle.
It's safe to assume he never expected to do it as the source of so much controversy with Bears fans.
Ifedi has been roundly chastised by Bears fans in social media for pushing teammate Teven Jenkins after the rookie tackle had stuck up for quarterback Justin Fields by drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for shoving a Minnesota Vikings player Monday night.
"Just in that moment, I understood why he was upset," Ifedi said Thursday. "I understood why he kind of went over there and did what he did. But what you have to do in that moment is, OK, I don't like what he did but I have a lot more opportunities versus this player and I have a lot more opportunities to impose my will against this player between the whistles and do it the clean way, which is what we can do on the offensive line. We can get aggressive and do it the clean way."
It was the same thing said by Fields himself after the game, although the Bears quarterback also applauded Jenkins for thinking of him.
"In that moment, in any moment, down 14 and you're trying to move the ball, we hadn't been finishing drives at that point," Ifedi said. "You get behind the sticks and there are no plays on the playbook that can account for second-and-22 and thirrd-and-15. You're punting then and in bad field position.
"So, just in the future, I love the aggression. I love the passion he plays with. And I love the kid. But in the future, we don't want to get those penalties. The message I sent to him (with the shove), and what I talked to him about, is there's no good situation to cost the team in any scenario. No matter how upset you are, you can't do it."
Ifedi was berated in social media and some of the comments on Twitter brought up how he had been the one drawing too many penalties when he played for the Seahawks. Ifedi acknowledged his past and use it to further his own argument. He did have four unsportsmanlike conduct or unnecessary roughness penalties with the Seahawks, although most of his penalties were for false starts or holding. In 2017 he had 19 penalties in all.
"Look, I've been that guy in my career getting bad penalties," Ifedi said. "It may look like you're doing it because of this and that. But at the end of the day, it hurts you and it hurts the team. We just can't have that in any situation because 15 yards, you can't get that back."
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of it all was seeing a Bears player shoving a teammate twice, and it was replayed ad nauseum on television and, of course, plastered on social media.
He doesn't regret shoving his teammate was the bottom line.
"No, no, I did not, because I was there," he said. "It's just tough love.
"He's a good kid. We're a close-knit group so we can hold each other accountable. People can say what they want about how it looked, I pushed him–we're big boys. We're asked to do a lot. We're all grown men, at least in our room. Nobody's feeling were hurt. We're all men and we're all accountable to everything. Just like they all hold me accountable to do my job and not hurt the team."
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