Bear Digest

Chicago Bears relent and slate QB Caleb Williams to talk to media

The second-year quarterback hadn't been slated to speak with media since the QB book controversy but is now scheduled to speak to the press Wednesday.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams when he spoke to media last, at the outset of the Bears' strength and conditioning program in early April.
Caleb Williams when he spoke to media last, at the outset of the Bears' strength and conditioning program in early April. | Chicago Bears On SI Photo: Chicago Bears video

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Chicago Bears

Caleb Williams will no longer avoid talking to the media.

Apparently the Bears QB will speak about the controversial coming ESPN book on quarterbacks.

The Bears didn't bring Williams in for a press conference during Week 1 of organized team activities but on Wednesday, May 28, they scheduled him to speak after their second Week 2 OTA practice. He'll talk to reporters along with Case Keenum, Montez Sweat and Ben Johnson.

Last year Williams didn't talk at OTAs and waited until minicamp.


The book, by Seth Wickersham, includes parts in which Williams and his father, Carl, were reported by ESPN to have wanted to either go to the UFL or find another way to dodge the NFL draft in 2024 because the Bears were perceived as a place "where quarterbacks go to die."

The other controversial aspect of an article by ESPN on the book by Wickersham, who writes for ESPN, is the suggestion the Bears coaching staff under Matt Eberflus did not help Williams with film review. The claim in the article was Williams told his father, "No one tells me what to watch. I just turn it on."


The article also said Williams had hit it off with Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell in predraft and wanted to go to the Vikings, who were supposed to select 11th.

The Bears play the Vikings in the season opener on ESPN's Monday Night Football Sept. 8. The release date for the book is slated for Sept. 9.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.