Justin Fields is winning fans and influencing people in his days leading up to training camp.
Besides working with youth at his annual camp, Fields managed to meet up with Scott Morrow and offer him some words of encouragement. Some Bears fans may have remembered his name from a story Mina Bloom of Block Club Chicago (blockclubchicago.org) penned.
It was about how Morrow, a proof reader and music writer, was a victim of June gun violence in Chicago. Morrow was shot in the back while walking to a friend's house from the Puerto Rican Day Parade.
In the ambulance, he fought for his life on the way to Stroger Hospital.
"I just kept thinking about all of the family and friends I didn't want to leave behind, and all of the things I still have to do: 'I'm working on an album. I can't die before this album gets done.' And stupid stuff like, 'I can't die before I see Justin Fields on the field for the Bears'—just trying to focus on all of the stuff that I'm looking forward to, and thinking about my mom," Bloom reported him saying.
A 28-year-old woman was shot in the head after a minor auto accident and one of the shots hit Morrow on the sidewalk.
After six days in the hospital and subsequent trips back for complications, Morrow faces a long recovery. He lost his left kidney, part of his pancreas and his spleen.
Other than watching out for infections, it was reported Morrow should be able to live a normal life if all continues as it has.
At Fields' camp, he said Sunday he is out to convert Ohio football fans to the Bears.
"The more fans that we can get the better so I'm just going to try to convert all these kids to be Bears fans for sure, all of them," Fields said.
Fields told Ohio reporters he hopes they remember him at Ohio State for who he is and not necessarily what he did.
"I just want to be remembered as a quarterback and a teammate that was always there for his teammates and always willing to do whatever,” he said. "Not necessarily on-the-field stuff. Of course, I want to be remembered as a great player, but that's not the most important thing to me. The most important thing to me is what kind of person I am and how did I affect other people?”
Morrow might say Fields has succeeded at this already in Chicago.
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