It is not normal to be like Caleb Williams. Most people will assume that means a blue-chip athlete with a top 3 arm in the NFL. That is also true, but in this context, we’re talking about mentality. Most professional athletes go out of their way to avoid public discourse about themselves or their team. Such noise is an unnecessary distraction that always skews towards the negative. They don’t watch sports shows and avoid social media. The Chicago Bears‘ young quarterback is not in that same category.
If anything, he is the opposite. It feels as if Williams gets almost a perverse pleasure out of hearing people talk trash about him. The louder the hate, the better he feels. It is why he is on social media all the time. He also watches several of his games during a season, and not just the game footage. He’ll watch the television broadcasts too. This has brought him across plenty of criticisms from announcers calling games. He admitted on Pardon My Take that he takes such things personally.
This explains so much about Caleb Williams.
One of the most notorious stories around the Bears quarterback came last year. Reports stated he was supposed to have a meeting with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman ahead of Monday Night Football last year. Buck revealed that Williams ghosted them, which greatly offended Aikman. It was said Williams just lost track of time and tried to call to sneak the meeting in. The call wasn’t received. Then a few weeks later, the Bears quarterback did it again. One time can be an accident. Twice? That is intentional.
This likely stems from the 2024 season. Chicago played the Vikings in Minnesota on Monday night. It was a rough game. The Bears’ offense struggled, and the Vikings ran away with a 30-12 victory. Caleb Williams took a lot of heat on the broadcast. He barely completed half of his passes and didn’t manage much scoring until garbage time. It’s likely the quarterback didn’t appreciate the opinions of Buck and Aikman during the broadcast and had no plans to give them the time of day afterward.
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Williams is petty, and that is awesome.
People will always say they want that classic star player who is nothing but class. The type of guy you’d let your daughter date. Few people will admit they prefer somebody who is competitive to the point of pettiness. Forget turning the other cheek. Their goal is to make all of those haters look stupid. Many Chicago legends were like that. Michael Jordan was, Jonathan Toews was, and even the iconic Walter Payton was. It is a mentality you often find in star players. So it’s not surprising Williams is like that.
Not that Bears fans will complain. They hate the announcers, too. Several groups have always seemed to have a bias against Chicago. It’s gotten so bad at points that they just mute the TV broadcast and either watch it in silence or turn on the radio. Williams feels like the first quarterback since Jim McMahon to take personal delight in giving such people grief. While Williams has never taken his antics as far as Mad Mac did, it’s clear he isn’t above holding grudges.
