Windy City Gridiron
In a cover story for Esquire magazine, the Bears QB talks Eberflus, goals and the friendly nature of the NFL
A Chicago Bears quarterback being on the cover of a lifestyle magazine is pretty unusual.
Mostly because Bears QBs haven’t been magazine cover material since the days of Jay Cutler or before that Jim McMahon. And while being on the cover of a magazine isn’t as big of a deal as it once was (gather ‘round Gen Z while I tell you what print media is, kids!), it’s something worth mentioning.
Anyway, Caleb Williams is on the cover of this month’s Esquire magazine for their “Mavericks of Sports” issue.
The writer of the piece caught up with Williams back in February in Copenhagen, where Williams was spending time with his Danish girlfriend.
Here are some of the best bits from the piece.
On the friendly nature of the NFL
But while he says they are all “probably great guys,” he doesn’t have a particular bond with any of them and doesn’t plan to cultivate one. “I think the NFL game has become very friendly, and I don’t necessarily want to be friends, because I want to keep that competitive advantage,” he says.
On losing 10 straight games in his rookie season
“When I got home, I got in my bed. I just dropped a few tears,” Williams admits. “And I was just so beat-up mentally, physically, spiritually.”
If you remember the dumb narrative about him crying in the stands in college, this is sure to come back.
But he also doesn’t care if you care that he cries.
“The thing is, I don’t think about what other people have to say about me,” he says. “I can’t please everybody, so it’s not something I’m trying to do. I do have people in mind that I want to make sure that they know I care and know I work my tail off. And that’s my teammates, my family, people that actually know me. And then from there I couldn’t care less, is how I go about it.”
Anyway, more on last season. The writer doesn’t go super deep into Williams’s thoughts on Matt Eberflus, but I think we can read the room a little bit. Following the Hail Mary and the coach’s comments that previous sideline completions “didn’t matter,” here’s what Williams says:
Williams acknowledges that this moment was a turning point. “How he handled it at that time, for that game, was, I think, one of the things that throughout the locker room people talked about and were annoyed by.”
But on to Ben Johnson and 2025!
Williams was rooting for Johnson to get the gig, and he says he’s been blowing up Johnson’s phone with texts while preparing for the first official team activities under the new staff. “I’m definitely excited,” he says. “Ben and I, we’ve been working on our relationship. I’ve asked him a boatload of questions. He’s probably already tired of...
