Caleb Williams didn't want to play for the Chicago Bears, dad slammed team, reveals new book

Caleb Williams, the top overall selection in last year’s NFL draft, faced a tough year as the starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears, with the team finishing at the bottom of their division. After an encouraging 4–2 start, they went on a ten-game losing streak. In late November, head coach Matt Eberflus was dismissed, marking the first time in franchise history that a coach was fired mid-season. Williams was under constant pressure throughout the season, running for his life on the field, and was Caleb Williams was sacked a league-high 68 times last season! And now a new book has revealed that quarterback Caleb Williams was so cautious about joining the Bears before the draft that his family consulted lawyers to explore options to bypass the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement.In Seth Wickersham’s upcoming book “American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback,” Williams’ father Carl, described Chicago as “the place where quarterbacks go to die” in the months leading up to the 2024 NFL Draft. Williams himself mentioned that “I don’t think I can do it with [Bears offensive coordinator Shane] Waldron,” as noted in the book.Williams admired the Vikings and head coach Kevin O’Connell during the pre-draft process and had admitted that he wanted to play there. However, he believed the Bears were unlikely to trade the pick to a division rival.Aware that Bears general manager Ryan Poles was probably going to select him first overall, Williams and his father thought the only way to prevent the Bears from taking him was to launch a smear campaign against the team. Ultimately, according to the book, Caleb Williams decided he “wasn’t ready to nuke the city.”At the NFL Scouting Combine, Williams stated he was open to playing for the Bears. “If I get drafted by the Bears, I’ll be excited,” Williams said on March 1, 2024. “If they trade the pick, and I get drafted by someone else, I’m just as excited.”After visiting Halas Hall the following month, Williams told his father that he was excited to help rebuild the Bears. “I can do it for this team,” Caleb told his dad, according to the book. “I’m going to go to the Bears.”Wickersham followed Williams during his college career for a book about quarterbacks at every level of the sport. A Bears spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by the press.The book stated that Carl Williams told agents before the draft that “I don’t want my son playing for the Bears.” He also criticised the rookie wage scale as “unconstitutional” and “the worst in sports history,” and even considered steering his son toward the minor-league USFL. Williams could have chosen to return to college but decided against it.The Bears selected Williams first overall. Williams was correct about Waldron, though; the Bears dismissed both the offensive coordinator and head coach Matt Eberflus during Williams’s rookie season. Williams revealed that sometimes last year, he would watch a film without coaches present to guide him, which is no doubt a concerning detail.“No one tells me what to watch,” he told his father. The Bears replaced Eberflus with the highly sought-after candidate on the market, Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, partly by doubling their head coaching salary.When Johnson was introduced in January, Williams said he was “extremely excited” about the appointment. Johnson was his top choice. “Once I got off the phone — I was driving on the highway, I don’t know if it was safe or not — but I gave out a loud yell and scream of just excitement,” he explained.