Most Chicago Bears fans don’t want to think about the name Kevin White these days. It’s not hard to understand why. They see him as nothing more than a gigantic ball of unrealized potential. A 6’3 wide receiver with a chizzled physique who could run a 4.35 in the 40-yard dash. The kid out of West Virginia should’ve become a central piece of the Bears offense for a decade. Instead, he lasted just four seasons and is currently out of football.
So what happened?
For the first time, the 27-year old opened up about his career in a Zoom interview with J.J. Stankevitz of NBC Sports Chicago. He was quite frank in his statements, chalking up his “bust” status not to his talent or work ethic. Just an insane amount of bad luck. One could sense the emotion in his words.
“I think I would be able… I would be okay with the injuries if it was like, I knew I was BS’ing,” White said. “If I knew I was partying and getting drunk and smoking weed — like I don’t even smoke weed. If I was doing that I’m, okay, I deserve it. I deserve it. I see why the injuries happen.”
White added: “I got dealt bust cards and can’t cry about it, complain about it,” White said. “But it is kind of a punch in the stomach where it’s like I got all the talent in the world, done it the right way, like why, God? What am I doing wrong? What do you want me to see out of being hurt year after year after year?”
Kevin White seemed to feel his fate was sealed by two key moments
There were a lot of moments that led to White’s unceremonious exit from Chicago. However, it seems there were two that were the most critical. The first was his severe high ankle sprain and fractured fibula against Detroit in 2016. He’d just started to play well at that point. He was making tough catches and looking faster and faster on the field. Then an awkward tackle against Detroit led to the injury and he was done. Just like that.
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A year later the pressure was clearly high as the team was beginning to wonder if his body could hold up to the rigors of a full season. They got their answer in the first game when another awkward hit led to White fracturing his shoulder blade. One of the rarest injury types in football. He chalks it up to gutwrenching timing as he didn’t like the pair of shoulder pads he’d been wearing at that point and had a different set coming. They just arrived too late.
After that, it became clear his status on the team had changed. John Fox and the coaches who helped bring him in were fired in favor of Matt Nagy and his staff. Allen Robinson and Taylor Gabriel arrived in free agency. Anthony Miller in the draft. Suddenly his status as a former high draft pick meant nothing. White hardly played in 2018 and became a free agent that subsequent offseason.
He hasn’t played a regular season down since. So sad.