Crystal Lake's Streveler Works Out With Bears As Contingency

CRYSTAL LAKE, IL ­­— The jury may still be out on the future of Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields, but if the Bears need a backup in their season finale Sunday against the rival Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, a Crystal Lake native may be waiting.

Chris Streveler, the former Marian Central standout quarterback who went on to play at Minnesota and South Dakota, worked out for the Bears on Thursday after backup quarterback Tyson Bagent missed his second day of practice due to illness.

Streveler last played in an NFL game last season with the New York Jets, who cut the 28-year-old veteran in June. Streveler spent much of last season on the Jets practice squad but appeared in two games last season in New York. Streveler spent the previous two seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and has appeared in nine NFL games in his career, throwing for 231 yards, one touchdown, and one interception while completing 61.5 percent of his passes.

Streveler appeared in five games for the Cardinals in 2020 – his first in the NFL. Streveler previously played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League and helped to lead the team to a Grey Cup championship in 2019. However, Streveler may have been best known for showing up for the championship parade wearing a cowboy hat and a fur coat over his bare chest and smoking a cigar.

“At the time I didn’t think anything of it,” Streveler told the Winnipeg Sun in 2022 when he returned to Canada for a visit. “It was just in the middle of a Grey Cup celebration, and we had talked about that as a quarterback unit. I did not know what it was going to become. And now four years later there’s still people wearing them and hitting me up about them, and it’s still as much of a thing as it was in 2019.”

After graduating from Marian Central in 2013, spent part of two seasons at Minnesota before transferring to South Dakota, where he was one of five team captains and started all 13 games at quarterback. He finished the year throwing for 1,947 yards, 22 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. He also ran for 823 yards and nine touchdowns.