Bill Simmons Tries to Revive Debunked 'Caleb Williams Doesn't Like Chicago' Storyline
The NFL Draft is still two excruciatingly long weeks away so everyone is still playing guessing games about which players will be taken in which order by which teams. The only thing that seems certain is that the Chicago Bears, who recently traded Justin Field to the Pittsburgh Steelers, will draft consensus number one prospect Caleb Williams with the first selection.
Enter Bill Simmons.
On his April 10th podcast Simmons took a detour between topics to ask good friend and Ringer personality Joe House if there was any possibility that Williams might not even want to play in Chicago. Or if the Bears might trade the pick. Or whatever.
Bill Simmons wants to know why Caleb Williams hasn’t said he’s excited to play in Chicago yet. pic.twitter.com/BfWMUTJW7O
— Stephen Douglas (@Stephen_Douglas) April 10, 2024
Simmons threw in enough that he'll be able to pretend this was to tease his friend and trap those pesky aggregators, but how does saying something like this make anyone but him look silly?
"Have you read a quote yet from Caleb Williams saying 'I can't wait to play in Chicago?' 'Cuz I haven't. I Googled it today. I didn't see anything."
Huh?
If all this sounds familiar, that's because this is a recycled Colin Cowherd storyline from February. It was debunked by Cowherd himself and then Williams himself had this to say in that ESPN interview.
"If I get drafted by the Bears, I'll be excited," he said. "If they trade the pick, and I get drafted by someone else, I'm just as excited. Speaking about Chicago, they have a talented team, a talented offense and defense. For anyone to be in that situation, I think they'd be excited."
Williams pushed back on any notion that he would request a trade or wants to play elsewhere.
"I'm not pushing any agenda," Williams said. "At the end of the day, the Bears have the last say. Regardless of how I feel, I'm not pushing an agenda of, 'Yeah, I want to go. Or no, I don't want to go.' I'm excited for whatever comes."
Was this another swing and miss at a Hottest Take? A podcaster trying to stretch an episode that nearly clocked in at two hours and twenty minutes with commercials? To quote Simmons, "Who knows?"