Mitchell Trubisky spent the last four years of his life not making any money as an NCAA athlete. Since he still has not signed his rookie contract, the Bears rookie quarterback is basically still a broke college student, only now without the college student part.
So, just as he promised Bears general manager Ryan Pace when they met in Chapel Hill, Trubisky drove his grandma’s old 1997 Toyota Camry with over 170,000 miles, the same car he drove in college, all the way from North Carolina to the Bears rookie camp facility just north of Chicago for his first day of work.
Here’s what Pace had told Trubisky when he first saw the old car in Chapel Hill, from Chris Emma of CBS Chicago.
When general manager Ryan Pace saw the car, he learned a little something about Trubisky. So the night the Bears moved up a spot in the draft to make the surprising selection of Trubisky second overall, Pace made the quarterback promise he would drive that car from Chapel Hill to Lake Forest.
“I don’t care if you have to change the engine, but you’ve got to keep the shell,” Pace had said to Trubisky.
Here’s Trubisky arriving at the parking lot, still sporting his UNC plates.
Lots of rookies spend their big contract money on expensive, new cars. Some even buy such cars for their parents. But he may stick with grandma’s wheels for now, according to Emma:
“I’m a very simple person,” Trubisky said. “That’s who I’ve always been, that’s how I was raised, to be conservative and stick to who I am. That’s who I’m going to be.”
Chicagoans already booed Trubisky when he appeared on the video board in attendance at a Bulls playoff game against the Celtics two weeks ago. I just hope that ’97 Camry has enough juice left in it for a quick getaway if he doesn’t pan out as a top draft pick. Just in case.
