Caleb Williams Tried to Dodge the Bears, Even Considered UFL: “Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die!”

Carl Williams, the father of Caleb Williams attempted to prevent his son from being drafted by the Bears by planning to send him to the UFL for a year.

Caleb Williams Tried to Dodge the Bears, Even Considered UFL: “Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die!”

Caleb Williams (Image via IMAGO)

The Chicago Bears have had a string of unsuccessful performances in recent history. So much so that the team has begun to be considered as cursed in some form by the most loyal of its fans. Last season, before the draft, the Bears had made up their mind that they intended to move on from Justin Fields as their franchise quarterback.

Fortunately for them, Fields’ replacement was going to be available in the draft, and their record enabled them to select the top quarterback talent, Caleb Williams, out of USC. The franchise had informed Williams of their intent to pick him weeks before draft day. In fact, Chicago had gone a step beyond by facilitating dinners between him and members of the team so that he could get a head start in building chemistry with his teammates.

At the time, Caleb Williams was optimistic about his role as the Bears’ new franchise quarterback. However, a recent book titled American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback, penned by ESPN’s Seth Wickersham, contains information that suggests that both Caleb Williams and his father did not want him to end up in Chicago.

Williams despised the idea of playing for Chicago, so much so that he almost considered going to the UFL to avoid playing for the Bears.

“Do I want to go there? I don’t think I can do it with Waldron,”

Williams said he doubted he could play for the Bears under former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Interestingly, he did not have to put up with Waldron for long, as the OC was fired 9 weeks into the regular season. This proves that the quarterback had no interest in working with the OC from the start, and his subsequent regression throughout the season worsened things between them.

More than Caleb Williams, his father, Carl, was the one who heavily opposed the idea of his son playing for the Bears.

Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die…I don’t want my son playing for the Bears…

He’s not wrong because Chicago has had the worst luck when it comes to drafting quarterbacks. They bring aboard talented prospects with a bright future, but they wound up ruining their careers. The same happened with Mitchell Trubisky and Justin Fields. Carl Williams did not wish to risk seeing history repeat itself on his son.

Caleb Williams wanted to play for the Minnesota Vikings

However, Chicago’s GM Ryan Poles did not care for Carl’s concerns. He made it clear that the franchise will be “drafting (Williams) no matter what.” Due to this, the father-son duo explored an alternative way to play in the NFL. One that would give Caleb the power to choose his employer. Their plan was to go around the league’s draft rules and sign with the United Football League before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2025, and subsequently pick a team of their choice.

Caleb Williams
Caleb Williams (Image via IMAGO)

Carl Williams left no stone unturned in finding methods to help his son. Wickersham’s book claims that the father met with labor lawyers and agents to ensure Caleb could pick his own team. The quarterback wanted to play for the Minnesota Vikings. He had bonded well with Kevin O’Connell at the NFL Combine, and expressed his wish to join the Vikings to his father.

Despite this, the father-son duo knew that the Bears would ultimately be the ones drafting him. His father suggested that he go after the city of Chicago, and take a page out of Jack and John Elway’s playbook that they had used to get the latter out of Baltimore and into Denver despite the former team drafting him in 1983. However, Caleb Williams did not want to do that. He gave Chicago a chance, and after his pre-draft visit to the team’s facility, he gained confidence that he could turn this franchise around.

“I can do it for this team. I’m going to go to the Bears.“

Williams finally came to peace with his fate. Since then, the quarterback has embraced his role. Even though his first year was nothing short of a roller-coaster ride, which got his offensive coordinator and head coach fired, Caleb Williams is here to stay. His numbers were good considering his situation, with a 62.5% completion rate, 20 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions. Williams has a bright future under his new coach, Ben Johnson.

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