Losing a playoff game is tough to deal with in the first place, but Chicago Bears tight end Trey Burton has been left facing questions about anxiety after a groin injury flared up the day before the team was set to face the Philadelphia Eagles on Wild-Card Weekend.
And while Burton admits it’s been “tough” to deal with, he doesn’t think anxiety issues were the problem that led to him missing the game.
“I don’t think anxiety played a factor,” Burton said, via Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “The problem is, when people are so set on one thing being the cause …
It’s hard for me to explain because I don’t really know what happened. It was an overnight thing. It’s tough because any time you open up and are honest and truthful to the media, it can easily get switched around.”
This marks the second time Burton has opened a window into what happened leading up to the Bears-Eagles game. He did so after the loss to Philly, which was bitter enough to swallow in the first place. But to deal with inquiries regarding injuries and mental health in the wake of the defeat made it? Sheesh. It makes the loss that much tougher.
Medical tests confirmed Burton’s groin injury, but he admitted the questions regarding the role his anxiety might have played in his absence against the Eagles on Wild-Card Sunday were fair. After all, Burton talked about the anxiety he felt when the team angled to get get him to re-visit his role as the quarterback in Oompa Loompa – Chicago’s version of the “Philly Special.” That type of honesty isn’t found often in athletes, so I understand where Burton is coming from regarding his fears about possibly being too open.
Burton’s openness is probably a good thing in the long run, so long as he continues to be comfortable in his own skin. The 27-year-old tight end was an instrumental part of the offense and a key cog who helped Mitch Trubisky in his development as a second-year quarterback. Burton set career highs in catches (54), receiving yards (569), and touchdowns (6) in his first year with the Bears.
We’ll leave the 2018 season behind us soon enough. And with that, we’ll say good-bye to a storyline that left plenty of questions with little to no concrete answers.