I saw all the hisses and boos when those reports were flying last year. I got plenty of pushback for noting the validity of the whispers.
But now, it seems, Chicago Bears fans can no longer hide from the truth of the matter.
Franchise QB hopeful Caleb Williams and his father, Carl, wanted no part of the Bears in last year’s NFL Draft, according to longtime NFL reporter Seth Wickersham’s revealing new book.
They did try to circumvent the draft process to land somewhere else—maybe even the Minnesota Vikings.
They did express doubts about the coaching staff and Chicago’s dubious history with quarterbacks.
They did end up in Chicago as expected after Ryan Poles made it clear he wasn’t going to make a trade.
And the worst part? Their fears (and some of ours) about the Bears’ incompetence proved correct, leading to Williams having a far less stellar season than many of us dreamed he would.
Listening to Chase Daniel commiserating with Williams and criticizing the Bears’ lack of foresight in not having a seasoned veteran back Williams up and show him simple things like how to watch film each week hit even harder than the alleged quotes made by and to Williams’ father.
Fortunately, the Bears seem to have a head coach who’s up to the task of developing and shepherding along a young quarterback in Ben Johnson, who expertly handled questions about Williams’ trepidations during his interview with Colin Cowherd this week.
“I see a chance for greatness here for him,” Johnson told Cowherd. “He’s been communicative that way. He feels the same way. I don’t know about what’s gone on before I joined the organization, but he’s very proud to be a Chicago Bear. That’s what our conversations have included.”
Good for Johnson, who showed tremendous savvy and leadership to get ahead of this conflict, and (hopefully) good for Caleb Williams. With luck, the two of them can finally deliver on the elusive future Bears fans have looked forward to so long. At some point, we have to put the past behind us.
But let’s be clear: until that happens, that past continues to come back to bite the Bears and their fans.
History is not just something we can brush off and leave behind. Where we’ve been helps determine where we are and where we’re going.
The Bears lost their history of greatness decades ago, replacing it with a culture of dysfunction and mediocrity. The 40 years after the Bears’ last championship season have reconfigured the organization’s DNA into something incompatible with winning.
Turning things around will take more than one year, one coach, or one player. The Williamses saw past the smokescreen of “charter franchise” and “huge media market” to see what the Bears really are—the place where QBs truly do go to die—and knew both the expectations that would be placed on Caleb as well as the likelihood of failure.
That’s what the possible savior of the franchise thought of playing in Chicago before he came here. And given how the team failed the guy before him, along with many others, how can you blame him?
Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson aren’t just battling the NFC North or the likes of the Eagles and Chiefs for supremacy. They’re literally warring against the franchise’s own ghosts.
If they can see it, we need to stop pretending it doesn’t matter.