Just in time for the holiday season, Cradles to Crayons Chicago (C2C) and Stan’s Donuts team up to help Chicagoland kids stay warm and safe this winter. Now through December 19, Stan’s Donuts is accepting donated new and like-new winter coats, boots, hats, gloves and scarves, warm clothes, and hygiene items at five of their citywide and suburban locations.

Customers are invited to bring an item of clothing to drop in the contactless purple donation box located near the entrance of the Stan’s Donuts location. Most-needed items include winter coats and warm clothing in sizes ranging from newborn to adult medium; winter boots sizes infant/toddler 5 to adult 10; winter hats, gloves, scarves; and pajamas sizes 2T to adult medium.

Drop-Off Locations

Donation items can be dropped off during Stan’s Donuts’ business hours at the following locations:

Oak Brook Terrace (17W615 Butterfield Rd. Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181)

Orland Park (15646 S. LaGrange Rd. Orland Park, IL 60462)

Hyde Park (5225 S. Harper Chicago, IL 60615)

Lakeview North (3300 N. Broadway. Chicago, IL 60657)

Wicker Park (1560 N. Damen Ave. Chicago, IL 60622)

Gear Up for Winter

The Stan’s Donuts Collection Drive is part of C2C’s annual “Gear Up for Winter” (GUFW) initiative, a seasonal-long drive that supplies warm winter gear to 54,000 Chicagoland kids whose families struggle just to stay warm. Though the Stan’s Donuts’ Collection Drive runs through December 19, the GUFW initiative runs through March 2022 with drop-off locations throughout Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. All collected items will be distributed to children through C2C’s network of service partners.

Additional information about C2C and the GUFW initiative can be found at https://www.cradlestocrayons.org/chicago/the-latest/events/gearupforwinter/.

Cradles to Crayons launched in Boston in 2002 and currently has operations in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The nonprofit provides children from birth through age 12 living in homeless or low-income situations with the essential items they need to thrive—at home, at school, and at play. They supply these items free of charge by engaging and connecting communities.

Cradles to Crayons collects new and high-quality used children’s goods and engages thousands of youth and adults in volunteer activities each year on behalf of local children in need. For more information, visit www.cradlestocrayons.org/chicago.

It’s Giving Season

The holiday season has always been the perfect time to give back to the community. With the harsh winter weather in Chicago, donations from everyone are especially valuable to the vulnerable populations. If you’re looking for ways to help others out, check out the list of soup kitchens and pantries in Chicago currently looking for volunteers, and other fundraisers happening across town.

Featured Image Credit: Stan’s Donuts

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After over 30 years, Home Alone still stands the test of time as one of the greatest Christmas movies ever made. And now, you can book a stay in this iconic holiday home for $25 a night! So in the spirit of the season and the best holiday deal ever, let’s do a deep dive on the iconic McAllister house, located in a cozy suburb at 671 Lincoln Ave, Winnetka, Illinois. Check out these fun facts on the Home Alone house! 

It took time to find the perfect house

Remember before the internet? Apparently, Home Alone’s location team drove across northern Chicago ‘burbs for 10 hours a day until they found the perfect house. They were looking for something timeless and inviting – and pricey enough to attract Harry and Marv. Mission accomplished! 

The interior was actually built in a gym

Even though it’s 4,200 square feet, the inside of the home was too small for some scenes. So the crew found an old high school and reconstructed the set. Things got expensive…fast. Which led to Warner Bros halting production. But then 20th Century Fox saved the day and gave Home Alone the budget it deserved. 

A family lived there during filming

Built in the 1920s, the Georgian-style home has five bedrooms with a four-room master suite, which spans the west wing of the home, and three-and-a-half bathrooms. Owners John and Cynthia Abendshien, along with their six-year-old daughter Laura, didn’t relocate during filming (which lasted 4-5 months). Instead, it was business as usual. Imagine Macaulay Culkin chilling in your living room between takes. Wild. 

Since filming, the house has gotten a facelift

Goodbye outdated wallpaper and wood cabinets! Before listing, the home’s owners made some modern tweaks. The kitchen was transformed with white cupboards and stainless steel appliances. Walls were painted neutral grays and the staircase was completely remodeled. Thankfully, they didn’t touch the timeless exterior.

The house is worth a pretty penny

We all know a five-bedroom home in a Chicago tree-lined suburb ain’t cheap. In 2012, the Home Alone house was listed for $2.4 million and ended up selling for a whopping $1.585 million (Kevin not included). Compare that to the median list price of homes in Winnetka: $1.4M. That’s a causal 11.9% higher. But the Hollywood memories made in that house? Priceless. So, while you have the chance, better book your stay via Air BnB’s website!

Featured Image Credit: Air BnB

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Two people were shot, one fatally, Dec. 9, 2021, in Chicago Lawn. | Sun-Times file

About 5:15 p.m., the pair was in the 2400 block of West 63rd Street, when they were struck by gunfire.

Two men were shot, one fatally, Thursday night in Chicago Lawn on the Southwest Side.

About 5:15 p.m., the pair was in the 2400 block of West 63rd Street, when they were struck by gunfire, Chicago police said.

A male, whose age is unknown, was struck in the chest, and pronounced dead at the scene, police said. A second man, 36, was struck in the hip, and foot, and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.

Area One detectives are investigating.

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A rendering of the Chicago Fire’s proposed facility at Hanson Park. | Provided

The ambitious proposal would have yielded a training and practice center at Hanson Park, but Gilbert Villegas (36th) said the club could not reach terms with Chicago Public Schools, the property owner.

The Chicago Fire soccer club has scuttled plans for a $90 million training and practice center on the Northwest Side, according to the alderperson closely involved in the project.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) said Thursday the team has walked away from the plan because it could not reach agreement with Chicago Public Schools. CPS owns the Hanson Park site southeast of Fullerton and Central avenues, 32 acres that includes a prep sports stadium and three schools.

The Fire had promised benefits for school programs, including renovations to the stadium. But Villegas, relaying information from a staffer who has dealt with the issue directly, said CPS did not support the development.

“I just think personally CPS didn’t know what to ask for,” Villegas said. “I think there just wasn’t an aggressive effort by CPS to do a deal.”

There was no immediate comment from CPS or Fire officials.

The Fire, owned by Joe Mansueto, executive chairman of Morningstar, had proposed a “performance center” on the property that would include six soccer fields for team practices and youth sports. The club also wanted to put an inflatable dome over Hanson Stadium so it could host cold-weather events.

The team had sought to lease the land, which would have put the publicly owned property on the tax rolls. A source at the Fire had said it was seeking no public subsidies.

The Fire practices at the former site of its home games in Bridgeview, but Mansueto has expressed interest in a move to Chicago to get closer to more soccer fans. Regardless of where it practices, the Fire is playing home games at Soldier Field, where its lease, with renewal options, could go to 2030.

The Belmont Cragin project would have been the daily base for 220 team employees, the Fire said. Its plan included a three-story building for various functions, and the team insisted its activities would not interfere with schools on the property, including Prosser Career Academy.

Villegas said most people in the area liked the project, but many details had to be worked out. The alderperson was particularly impressed with promised improvements at Hanson Stadium, which he said needs significant work on its field and bleachers.

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A man caught with a small baggie of heroin is taken into custody by Chicago police in the 3600 block of West Flournoy Avenue in 2018. He was offered drug treatment instead of jail. | Frank Main/Sun-Times

By helping people get treatment and begin to rebuild their lives, deflection is a benefit to the individual, his or her family members and employer, and the community as a whole.

There’s an ever-growing consensus that treating drug abuse as a crime rather than a public health problem is an ineffective waste of taxpayer money and criminal justice resources.

Now there is additional evidence: Tens of thousands of cases involving small amounts of illicit drugs churn through the Cook County justice system each year, only for these cases to be dismissed, as the Sun-Times and the Better Government Association reported in their recent investigation, “The costly toll of dead-end drug arrests.”

These dismissals, however, do not happen until after taxpayers already have been saddled with the costs of arrests and court processing; 95% of the cases go nowhere. Worse, the system does not address the real issue that underlies the overwhelming majority of drug arrests in our country: individuals with substance use problems are not getting treatment. Absent treatment and recovery, police routinely see the same familiar faces of people in need as they are arrested repeatedy.

Something can be done — and already is happening — across the United States.

A significant part of the solution is a rapidly expanding approach called “deflection.”

Through this approach (also sometimes known as pre-arrest deflection), police and other first responders “deflect” people with substance use disorders from entering the justice system at all, and instead expedite handoffs to community-based substance use disorder treatment, housing, recovery, and other services. At a time when people are dying in record numbers from overdoses, deflection offers first responders a direct and effective way to help people access the treatment that will not only address their drug use, but interrupt the cycle of drug and related low-level offenses, rather than choking the justice system with a case that will soon be dismissed.

In deflection, there is no booking or prosecution. There are no wasted costs to taxpayers. The individual does not enter the criminal legal system. There is no stain on an individual’s record, no need for expungement (an extremely difficult process to complete). Deflection eliminates much of the undue burdens, in time and money, to the justice system and taxpayers. It also reduces the burden society places on police to respond to issues such as substance use disorders that truly require a public health response, not a law enforcement approach.

Additionally, by helping individuals access treatment and begin to rebuild their lives, deflection is a benefit to the individual, his or her family members and employer, and the community as a whole.

The use of deflection programs has increased over just the past few years. About 1,000 of the nation’s 18,000 police departments, plus a number of fire departments and emergency management services agencies, are involved in some form of deflection initiative.

A win-win-win approach

Deflection already has a growing presence in Chicago and Cook County. The Chicago Police Department and several municipalities in suburban Cook County — through a partnership with the Cook County Department of Public Health — have active and expanding initiatives. Programs in East St. Louis, southern Illinois, and other areas around the state are coming to fruition as the state takes the lead in these efforts that reimagine police work and public safety to align with a public health response that is grounded in the community.

It takes leadership on both local and state levels, in both practice and policy, to implement more deflection programs. For example, in 2018, state Sen. Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake) and state Rep. Marcus Evans (D-Chicago) won approval from the Illinois General Assembly of the nation’s first deflection legislation: SB3023, the Community-Law Enforcement Partnership for Deflection and Substance Use Disorder Treatment Act.

In 2021, the Act was updated to provide for the expansion of deflection to include “co-responder” models that incorporate other community partners such as emergency management services and community responders. Local leadership and flexibility are essential, because every community has unique needs and resources.

By accelerating deflection initiatives in Illinois, we can move towards a real and better solution to address drug use, and avoid, as your article suggests, the “colossal waste” our current system has created.

Reducing the cycle of substance use, crime, and incarceration through deflection is a true win-win-win.

Send letters to [email protected]

Joel K. Johnson is president and CEO of TASC, Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, which provides substance abuse and mental health assessment and case management for people referred by legal systems and family services.

Jac A. Charlier is executive director of the Police, Treatment, and Community Collaborative, a national collaborative of which TASC is a partner.

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In this screen grab from video, Alayna Albrecht-Payton, a passenger in Daunte Wright’s car during a traffic stop testifies as Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu presides over court Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in the trial of former Brooklyn Center police Officer Kim Potter at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. Potter is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 shooting of Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist, following a traffic stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center. | AP

“I grabbed whatever was in the car. I don’t remember if it was a sweater or a towel or something … and put it on his chest like you see in movies and TV shows,” Alayna Albrecht-Payton testified. “I didn’t know what to do.”

MINNEAPOLIS — The woman who was riding with Daunte Wright when he was pulled over by police tearfully testified on Thursday about the chaos right after an officer shot him, saying she screamed at Wright trying to get a response but that he “wasn’t answering me and he was just gasping.”

“I grabbed, like, whatever was in the car. I don’t remember if it was a sweater or a towel or a blanket or something … and put it on his chest like, like you know, you see in movies and TV shows,” Alayna Albrecht-Payton, who was Wright’s girlfriend, testified. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Albrecht-Payton answered Wright’s cellphone as his mother tried frantically to reestablish contact after a call with him was cut off right before he was shot. Wright’s mother, Katie Bryant, testified tearfully on Wednesday that she first saw her son’s apparently lifeless body via that video call.

“I pointed the camera on him,” Albrecht-Payton said. “And I’m so sorry I did that.”

Kim Potter, 49, is charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in Wright’s April 11 death in Brooklyn Center. The white former officer — she resigned two days after the shooting — has said she meant to use her Taser on the 20-year-old Wright, who was Black, after he attempted to drive away from a traffic stop as officers tried to arrest him, but that she grabbed her handgun instead.

Albrecht-Payton, 20, took the stand on the second day of testimony, after opening statements Wednesday in which prosecutors portrayed Potter as a veteran cop who had been repeatedly trained in Taser use, with warnings about avoiding such deadly mix-ups.

The defense countered that Potter had simply made an error. Attorney Paul Engh also said Wright might have averted tragedy if he had surrendered to Potter and the other officers at the scene.

Defense attorney Earl Gray pressed Albrecht-Payton on Wright’s actions immediately after Potter shot him, in an apparent attempt to show that Wright deliberately tried to drive away even while gravely wounded.

Albrecht-Payton said Wright’s hands “were never on the wheel” and that the car moved away from the scene because his foot was on the gas.

Gray also questioned Albrecht-Payton about the couple’s activities before the traffic stop. She testified that they had smoked marijuana that day.

The jury was shown police videos that showed the scene after Wright’s vehicle slammed into another car. The collision was captured by the dashcam of Officer Alan Salvosa’s police car, which was behind the car when Wright’s vehicle struck it.

Salvosa’s body camera showed him calling for aid as he drew his weapon and repeatedly ordered “Put your hands up!” to the occupants of Wright’s car. The passenger — Albrecht-Payton — is heard saying “I can’t.” Salvosa testified that he couldn’t see into the rear of the car, which he knew had just left a location where officers were seeking to make an arrest.

As Salvosa waited for backup and ambulances, about 8 1/2 minutes passed from the moment of the crash before officers moved in to begin trying to help Wright. Testimony showed that officers weren’t sure what they were dealing with and took time to approach the car safely. Salvosa’s body camera footage shows that officers at the scene of the crash did not immediately know that Wright had been shot.

In her opening statement, prosecutor Erin Eldridge told the jury that after Potter shot Wright, she didn’t try to render aid and didn’t immediately call in the shooting. She said this meant that officers approaching his crashed vehicle “didn’t know what they were dealing with” and waited for almost 10 minutes before they “dragged Daunte Wright’s dead body out of the car.”

Brooklyn Center Officer Anthony Luckey testified that he reported seconds after the shooting that shots had been fired.

Judge Regina Chu on Thursday denied a mistrial motion from Potter’s attorneys, who argued that prosecutors were spending too much time presenting prejudicial evidence such as photos of Wright’s body.

“I didn’t see any evidence directed towards the proof of guilt today, but rather evidence of sordid pictures and prejudicial impact that had little relevance,” Engh said.

Prosecutor Matt Frank said the evidence presented showed that Potter’s actions created a danger to others, which is something the state will have to prove as it seeks a longer sentence for Potter than is called for under the state’s guidelines. He also said the medical testimony addresses the cause of Wright’s death.

Chu also said that she ruled in chambers that the state must eliminate duplicate autopsy photos. She said that any images of Wright with his eyes open must be blacked out above the nose.

“The jury is not supposed to be deciding this case based upon sympathy, passion, or anything of that sort,” she said.

Prosecutors on Thursday also called the wife and the daughter of a man who was in the car struck by Wright’s to testify about the toll the crash took on the man’s health. Denise Lundgren Wells testified that her father, Kenneth Lundgren, had health issues before the crash but that his decline accelerated afterward. He is now in his 80s and in hospice care, she testified.

Video dominated the first day of testimony, with officers’ body cameras and a different police dashcam that showed Potter threatening to shoot Wright with a Taser as another officer tried to pull him out of his car. After she shot him with her gun, Potter can be heard saying, “I just shot him. … I grabbed the wrong (expletive) gun!”

A mostly white jury was seated last week in the case, which sparked angry demonstrations outside the Brooklyn Center police station last spring just as former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin was on trial 10 miles away for killing George Floyd.

First-degree manslaughter requires prosecutors to prove Potter acted recklessly. Second-degree requires them to prove culpable negligence. Neither charge requires proof that she intended to kill. State sentencing guidelines call for just over seven years in prison on the first charge and four years on the other.

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Bolingbrook’s Josh Anecito (3) drives, makes the shot, and draws a foul as the Raiders play Marian Catholic. | Allen Cunningham/For the Sun-Times

All the scores from around the area.

Please send scores and corrections to [email protected]

Thursday, December 9, 2021

CENTRAL SUBURBAN – SOUTH

Glenbrook South at New Trier, 6:30

INDEPENDENT SCHOOL

Morgan Park Academy at Elgin Academy, 6:00

LAKE SHORE ATHLETIC

Waldorf at Wolcott, 6:00

METRO PREP

CPSA at Hinsdale Adventist, 6:30

NOBLE LEAGUE – GOLD

ITW-Speer at Comer, 7:00

Johnson at Bulls, 7:00

Rowe-Clark at DRW, 7:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE RED-SOUTH / CENTRAL

Brooks at Curie, 5:00

Corliss at Kenwood, 5:00

Longwood at Hyde Park, 6:30

Morgan Park at Bogan, 5:00

Phillips at Simeon, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE WHITE-CENTRAL

Catalyst-Maria at Dunbar, 5:00

Hubbard at Tilden, 5:00

Kennedy at Richards (Chgo), 6:00

King at Urban Prep-Englewood, 5:00

Solorio at Lindblom, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE WHITE-SOUTH

ACE Amandla at Fenger, 6:00

Harlan at Dyett, 5:00

Perspectives-Lead at Agricultural Science, 5:00

South Shore at Carver, 5:00

Vocational at Urban Prep-Bronzeville, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE-CENTRAL

Back of the Yards at ACERO-Soto, 5:00

DuSable at Hancock, 5:00

Englewood STEM at ACERO-Garcia, 5:00

Gage Park at Instituto Health, 5:00

Kelly at Excel-Englewood, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE-SOUTH

Air Force at Hirsch, 5:00

Bowen at UC-Woodlawn, 5:00

Excel-Woodlawn at Washington, 5:00

Goode at Chicago Military, 5:00

Julian at EPIC, 5:00

PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE-WEST

Little Village at Juarez, 6:30

SOUTH SUBURBAN – CROSSOVER

Tinley Park at Evergreen Park, 7:30

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN – CROSSOVER

Bradley-Bourbonnais at Lincoln-Way East, 6:30

NON CONFERENCE

Beacon at Rochelle Zell, 6:30

Christian Heritage at Harvest Christian, 7:30

Islamic Foundation at IC Catholic, 6:30

Marian Central at Johnsburg, 7:00

Mooseheart at Somonauk, 7:00

Rock County Christian at Christian Life, 7:30

Roycemore at Lycee Francais, 6:00

Schaumburg Christian at Neuqua Valley, 7:00

Zion-Benton at North Chicago, 7:00

HALL

Putnam County vs. St. Bede, 5:00

Hall vs. Fieldcrest, 6:30

Bureau Valley vs. Stillman Valley, 8:00

LAKES

Lakes at Waukegan, 7:00

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Aaron Rodgers (12) celebrates with teammates after rushing for a touchdown to clinch the Packers’ 24-14 victory over the Bears on Oct. 17 at Soldier Field. | Kamil Krzaczynski/AP Photos

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson admitted Rodgers’ “I own you” taunt cut deep. “But [bleep], we’ve got to play football. We’ve got to win. We’ve got to do something about it. So all the talking doesn’t mean nothing.”

Aaron Rodgers was right. But an insult is an insult. So of course Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson took Rodgers’ “I own you” taunt personally.

“Is it an insult?” Johnson said, turning the question back to a reporter. “As a man, if somebody’s tell you he owns you — if I told you I own you, would that be an insult?”

Sure.

“Yeah, [bleep], that’s an insult to us, too,” Johnson said. “We’re all men, too. We all bleed the same way. So things like that aren’t fun to hear. But [bleep], we’ve got to play football. We’ve got to win. We’ve got to do something about it. So all the talking doesn’t mean nothing.”

Ever-confident and in control, Johnson knows knows he can’t win a war of words with Aaron Rodgers. He embraces the challenge of responding on the field — in Lambeau Field against one of the best quarterbacks of all time.

“I’ve worked my whole life for this, so this is not anything I’m not prepared for,” Johnson said. “It’s not anything I can’t handle. I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job at it … just being able to focus in every week and reset and just keep my mind fresh.

“And just having tough tasks week-in and week-out — whether it’s a quarterback or wide receiver, it just makes you better and gives you more confidence.”

The Bears won’t be trying to get even Sunday night against Rodgers and the Packers because they know they can’t do that in one night. They’re just trying to win a football game. They heard the insult, but it’s not dominating their preparation for the rematch.

“No, not at all,” safety Tashaun Gipson said. “If you have social media, I think you’ve seen it. [But] I don’t think it was bulletin board material. It’s nothing that … we have harped about.

“I think everybody is aware of what was said and obviously, playing them now, I think that the statement would come again in the spotlight. But for us in the locker room, we can’t control that. We can’t control what happened when we played them [in October].

“All we can do is t control what we do Sunday night. And that’s our focus right now. I don’t think it was necessary to harp on what was said. We have other things to worry about — and winning a football game is the main priority.”

The Bears know what they’re up against. “He’s a threat with his arm. He’s a threat with his feet. And obviously with his mind,” defensive coordinator Sean Desai said. “You’ve gotta play the mental game with him. All 11 of us do.”

How do you win a mental game with Rodgers? He seems to have all the answers.

“I don’t know if it’s a win. It’s playing it,” Desai said. “You keep playing the chess game with him. From all 11 — 12 including myself. You’ve got to keep doing it and you’ve got to strain mentally through that over the course of a game.”

The trick is to throw something at Rodgers he hasn’t seen. You almost have to try to use his strength against him — that he knows exactly what you’re going to do.

“You can try — that’s part of the chess match,” Desai said. ‘You try to play to our strengths, to his weaknesses and try to bait some things the best you can. Obviously he’s seen all those things in his career. You keep playing it and keep putting some stress on him — just force him to think longer than he normally would like to.”

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Bears quarterback Justin Fields is tackled last month. | Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

It’s Fields’ job — and that of his coaches — to not expose him to any unnecessary hits. That’s a challenge every Sunday, but the stakes are raised this week. Fields’ ability to take the field the rest of the season might be the last thing keeping the Bears relevant.

Bill Lazor was working for a Super Bowl-winning head coach years ago when he kept insisting during a game that he call a specific pass play. The head coach overruled him, and later explained why: even though the play was set up to work, he couldn’t justify exposing his quarterback to a seven-step drop — and the threat of injury behind a leaky line. He prioritized his quarterback’s health over one, likely successful, play.

The Bears’ offensive coordinator told the story Thursday when asked whether he had a personal responsibility to protect Justin Fields’ ribs Sunday night against the Packers.

“I learned a valuable lesson from that,” he said. “I think it’s part of all those factors that go into calling the game. Hey, we want explosive [plays] — can we protect it right now? And then obviously [Fields’] ability to be a runner is another added risk to that. “

The rookie quarterback has been cleared to start Sunday at Lambeau Field after cracking three ribs against the Ravens — but acknowledged he’ll hurt.

“The pain’s just not unbearable,” Fields said.

It’s his job — and that of his coaches — to not expose him to any unnecessary hits. That’s a challenge every Sunday, but the stakes are raised this week. Fields’ ability to take the field the rest of the season might be the last thing keeping the Bears relevant.

“You’ve got to take that responsibility of protecting the quarterback,” Lazor said. “So do we have a heightened awareness because he’s coming off an injury? I think that’s fair.”

Lazor said he doesn’t need to remind Fields to protect himself — the pain will probably handle that for him.

“He probably understands better than I do, how it feels,” he said.

All too well. On. Jan. 1, Fields hurt his ribs and hip when he was hit — illegally — by Clemson linebacker James Skalski in the national championship semifinal game. He missed only one play, but was hampered the rest of that game and during the championship.

“I think January was way worse, by far,” Fields said this week. “It’s the same thing pretty much. Not really that much of a difference — just not as much pain.”

How much was Fields in pain in January? He said it took him “probably four or five weeks” to feel back to normal — and that was when the season had ended and he was no longer practicing or playing football.

“I just didn’t do anything to let it fully heal,” he said. “But, again, that was way worse.”

That won’t make getting tackled in the cold feel any better Sunday. Fields figures to wear a flak jacket to protect his ribs.

“I’m going to have to be smart this upcoming game with not taking as many hits as I usually do,” he said. “So I’m going to be smart about that and cognizant about that, for sure.”

Fields has said that before, with mixed results. His insistence on trying to spin around defenders — and getting hit in the same rib area — made those inside Halas Hall cringe. Quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo said the Bears talk “frequently” to Fields about sliding properly to avoid getting tackled. Despite being a former baseball player, Fields’ slides have looked awkward at times.

“Whenever you have a quarterback like Justin’s running style, I think you always have to be cause for concern for the amount of hits that that player’s taken,” he said. “If you don’t, then, I don’t think that’s right.”

Fields’ coaches will try to protect him with the playbook Sunday. David Montgomery’s return to practice bodes well for the Bears relying on their running game. Lazor’s pass selection will take Fields’ health into play, too, and might not given him the option of running as often.

But Fields has got to protect himself, too.

“You’ve gotta be careful the times you play with that reckless abandon against a defense,” DeFilippo said.

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