Justin Fields defends Ohio State’s handling of injury, insists he’ll ‘be good by Monday’
The adrenaline of the Ohio State Buckeyes’ semifinal romp was subsiding and Justin Fields laid down in bed not knowing what Saturday might bring.
The star quarterback had thrown for a career-high six touchdowns in Ohio State’s 49-28 win against the Clemson Tigers with most of them coming after he took a helmet-to-ribs hit in the first half of the 2021 Sugar Bowl. He threw for a touchdown a few plays later, got “a shot or two” from the Buckeyes’ medical staff and finished of a record-setting performance in New Orleans.
For the next week, questions swirled about the junior’s health, his ability to play in the 2021 College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday at Hard Rock Stadium and, most of all, Ohio State’s handling of the injury.
Fields mentioned those pain-killing shots. He admitted the whole right side of his torso was “messed up.” He said team doctors didn’t give him any diagnosis as to what the injury was and the Buckeyes still haven’t publicly said what specifically was ailing their superstar. The story Fields told in the immediate aftermath of the Sugar Bowl was mostly of a one-sided conversation.
On Monday, No. 3 Ohio State didn’t make Fields available to reporters for undisclosed reasons — the Zoom press conferences were supposed to be for the most valuable players of the two Playoff semifinals — so he didn’t get to fully elaborate on his side of the story until Thursday when the Buckeyes wrapped up media days ahead of the CFP National Championship.
He kept any updates on his status to six words.
“I’ll be good come Monday night,” Fields said.
Naturally, his response drew a follow-up. Does he expect to be affected at all when he faces the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide?
Again, six words.
“I’ll be good by Monday night,” Fields reiterated.
Ryan Day didn’t offer much clarity either.
“No real update. Don’t really give out injury updates,” the Ohio State coach said. “We’ll do what we think is best in the game based on our opponent, based on our personnel and where we’re at during the game. That’s kind of what we’ve done for every game that we’ve been in.”
Instead, coaches and teammates spent Thursday heaping praise upon Fields for the performance, which could have solidified his spot in the top five of the 2021 NFL Draft.
The final line in the Sugar Bowl was astounding, especially since it came against No. 2 Clemson: 22 of 28, 385 yards, six touchdowns and only one interception, plus another 42 yards on eight carries.
After one of the worst games of his career against the No. 15 Northwestern Wildcats in the 2020 Big Ten Championship, Fields bounced back with the signature performance in a career already dotted with them.
“It’s just a perfect example of how tough that guy is,” tight end Luke Farrell said. “You take a hit like that and come back pretty much right away and make some of the throws that he made, it’s just like, you just stand there in awe of like the toughness and his ability to execute after taking a hit like that.”
Fields also took his chance to defend the way team physician Dr. James Borchers and the Buckeyes’ medical staff handled the injury, which only kept Fields sidelined for one play.
“I have my full trust in the trainers here at Ohio State and Dr. Borchers,” Fields said. “I wasn’t — I guess — hesitant on taking anything that they would give me, but I was just trying to do whatever I could do to get back on the field. I think those guys handled it the way I would have wanted it to be handled.
“I just put my full trust in those guys and I see how they deal with guys here, and I have personal relationships with all of them. I just don’t want anything I’ve said in the postgame interview to kind of get taken out of context and to be like, Oh, they just shot him up and sent him back out there. No. It wasn’t like that. I think they did a full — I guess — analysis of my injury and how it was, and they did what they thought was best. Yeah, I was fully comfortable with that.”
Fields isn’t done under the microscope. The Buckeyes (7-0, 5-0) still haven’t provided any real clarity about Fields’ injury, which means the first hit he takes against Alabama (12-0, 10-0 Southeastern) next week, speculation will begin about whether there’s anything structurally wrong with the torso. If he looks uncomfortable throwing a pass in the Championship Game, analysts will wonder how much pain he’s truly in.
With four days until kickoff in Miami Gardens, Fields just wants to make sure he’ll be able to avoid these questions.
“The day after the game, I woke up definitely better than expected, but the days that I didn’t expect to wake up kind of hurting was two or three nights after the game,” Fields said. “I really haven’t thought about how this injury is going to affect how I’m going to play. I’m just thinking about getting as much treatment as possible and trying to get my body right so it’s 100 percent to be able to perform at a max level come Monday night.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 6:20 PM.
