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Bear Digest

Defiant Caleb Williams Plans to Keep Wearing Unauthorized Cleats

Regardless of the fine, the Bears QB says he is going to keep wearing shoes during games that he feels provide the proper support.
Gene Chamberlain|
Clad in his Cladix cleats, Caleb Williams looks to throw against the Atlanta Falcons.
Clad in his Cladix cleats, Caleb Williams looks to throw against the Atlanta Falcons. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Caleb Williams isn't necessarily being a Jim McMahon rebel type, defying the league by wearing a headband bearing messages not certified by the NFL.

However, he has been wearing cleats not a part of the NFL apparel code for games, and as such was fined last week. This could get expensive because does not plan to give up those shoes.

The Bears QB is wearing Caddix cleats instead of a brand with an NFL certification, like NIKE, adidas or Under Armour. It cost him $11,941.

"As we’ve known for the past couple of years now, I’m huge into my body, I’m huge into trying to stay on the field," Williams said. "I’m huge into trying to be healthy. It’s a rough game and things like that.

"So the cleats, they’ve been great. They’ve been super comfy and they’ve worked. They are a science type of cleat. It’s something that focuses on when you plant, on the hard plants on turf or grass, they call them SmartStuds, and they move when you move in these hard plants. They take tension off of your tendons, your joints and all of that. So over the course of a long career or over the course of a long year, when you can take some percentage — it could be one, it could 50, it could be 12, it could be whatever, you know. When you take that percentage off consistently over a period of time, you know, you get to have the chance, a higher chance of being healthy."

The problem with Williams' explanation is he was injured for the first time in his career this year in Week 2 and sat out three games with a hamstring issue suffered while making a cut.

Williams admitted he can't say how much it helped him avoid being hurt worse on the cut he made or if it even had an impact.

"Obviously, if I had that answer, I’d be a trillionaire and sitting somewhere nice," he said. "So yeah, I don’t know that, but I think it does (help). I think my joints, my ankles and my knees and my feet haven’t bothered me as much from the other cleats that I’ve worn, that you’ve seen me wear throughout the week or throughout games and throughout the weeks of games where you’re consistently playing and you get up one day and your knees hurt or your ankles are hurt and your feet hurt or anything like that.

"Like I said, they’ve worked for me and I feel that I feel a difference. That’s my opinion, and somebody else can have another."

It's league overreach as usual

He is going to keep wearing them regardless of what the league thinks.

"Yeah, like I said, focused on my health, I’m focused on being able to be out here for the guys," Williams said. "And if that can give me a small percentage up and it works, then that’s what I’m gonna do.

"And so that’s what I focus on. I try to be healthy. They’re smart cleats. They’re science cleats, and they’ve been working for me. A bunch of other guys wear them in the league, and they’re forward-focused on making sure players stay on the field, and that’s what I’m always focused on."

The league has long focused on trying to restrict players, coaches and others too much. Too much scrutiny for a player's apparrel is ridiculous. They legislate celebrations and restrict anyone's creativity. The league should focus more on its own problems, like why the officiating seems to draw more and more criticism each year and get worse and worse while the rules seem to become more confusing by the season.

A fine for a pair of shoes that aren't bearing some sort of a statement or message contrary to the values of the country or the league is a case of overjurisdiction. In other words, they need to lighten up. Williams isn't even going to pay the fine, anyway. The shoe company says it will do it.

So the league should use it as a means for doing away with fines for things like this.

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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.

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