Windy City Gridiron
Well, at least C.J. Stroud and Caleb Williams have a sense of humor.
With the two together on stage with Kay Adams, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning at FanDuel’s FanaticsFest this weekend, Adams asked Stroud what advice he might give the Chicago Bears star as the latter goes into his second season. Given Stroud’s battle with a sophomore slump after a Rookie of the Year campaign in 2023, it’s a natural question for the third-year passer.
But the Houston Texans signal-caller learned his lesson from the last time he tried to impart some wisdom onto the former Heisman Trophy winner, which resulted in a less-than-receptive reaction from Williams and criticism from Bears fans.
“I don’t know if Caleb likes my advice,” Stroud quipped, earning laughs from Williams.
The humorous exchange comes about a year after Stroud held Williams up after their Week 2 game last year, which the Texans won, to pump the then-rookie up while also giving some pointed advice
Hey, stop taking this hits,” Stroud told Williams before he could walk away. “Look, come here. Learn from those mistakes and everything that you got bro, is already in you bro. You going to be a hell of a player in the league.”
Not a few fans and pundits took issue with those words since Stroud has just one year more of professional experience than Williams, noting that the latter seemed perturbed at being instructed by a peer. (It’s also worth noting Williams was probably more irritated with his performance in the loss, having thrown two interceptions and no touchdowns, than the exchange itself.)
But it seems they don’t have any hard feelings about the whole thing, which was always way overblown from a talking heads perspective.
Maybe we can all laugh about it now.
