The Williams family considered steering Caleb away from the Bears with a hostile public relations offensive before Caleb decided he “wasn’t ready to nuke the city,” Wicker-sham wrote. After visiting Halas Hall in April, just weeks before the draft, Williams reportedly told his father he was comfortable becoming a Bear.

In 2024, quarterback Caleb Williams and his dad were so determined to avoid being drafted by the Chicago Bears that the duo thought about signing with the United Football League, asked legal experts about avoiding the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement and considered avoiding the draft entirely,