Caleb Williams Was A One-Man Electric Factory At The NFL Draft, Already Broke Caitlin Clark’s Draft Night Merch Sales Record

Matt Fitzgerald·
CULTURESPORTS
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Caleb Williams
ESPN

This isn’t meant to be some dig at Caitlin Clark, where I take a misogynistic victory lap whilst shouting, “SEE!? The NFL and men’s sports are king! You don’t stand a chance!”

Quite the contrary. Clark has been an unprecedented shot in the arm for women’s basketball, and women’s sports in general. She single-handedly drove ladies’ Final Four ticket sales several fold past that of the men’s, and made Iowa’s national title game against South Carolina the most-watched hoops contest since 2019. That’s brand building, uncanny influence, and an individual box office draw the best marketing/PR teams and limitless sums of money can’t buy. Caitlin Clark has the X-factor. The “IT” factor. She is HER.

So again, I am taking nothing away from Clark or what she’s accomplished. Rather, I’m using her brilliance to underscore just how big of a deal it is for the Chicago Bears to draft Caleb Williams first overall in the NFL Draft. Chicago is a massive market. A traditional, throwback football city. It’s just that, the Bears haven’t been any good for a long, long time. Why? Because they’re stuck in the glory days of the ’85 defense and refuse to develop a quarterback in any sort of competent fashion.

Many have failed before Williams. Justin Fields was the latest ballyhooed prospect to go up in flames, and I don’t blame JFF 2.0 exclusively for that undoing. What I do sense when it comes to Caleb Williams is, this legitimately feels different. The Bears faithful are so giddy for Williams’ arrival that, less than two weeks after Clark set a merchandise sales record for a draft night in any sport when she was chosen No. 1 by the Indiana Fever, her mark has already been eclipsed.

Put aside Williams’ on-field accolades and accomplishments across his collegiate career at Oklahoma and USC. The Heisman Trophy winner has a supposed enigmatic personality that seems to rub some people the wrong way. Antics like painting his fingernails, crying to his mom in the stands, and — oh the haters will be sick! — being moved to tears by his mom’s surprise video tribute on draft night:

…These sorts of things make Williams hard to root for in the eyes of certain folks. I’m firmly on the other side of all that. I couldn’t be more amped up by Williams going to the massive market of Chicago and giving the Bears their biggest rockstar quarterback. See, if Williams really was this standoffish weirdo with a raging self-hard-on and superiority complex, he could’ve just went along his merry way on draft night, phoned in any and all media obligations, and chosen not to show his emotions so as to be, in the made-up term used by Colin Cowherd, more “quarterback-ial.”

Instead, Williams just decided to take it all in, and I’m sure that didn’t hurt the real-time merch sales.

It’s dope that Williams is open to just cutting loose, letting his raw feelings out into the open, and being himself, like his mom encourages him to be in the video above. Look at his reaction when he hits the stage to hug Roger Goodell. Dude is FIRED UP — and he’s in enemy territory, where the rival Detroit Lions play to boot. He couldn’t care less.

Look how eager Williams is to bond with his new teammate, ex-Washington wide receiver and No. 9 overall pick Rome Odunze. The bromance is alive and well!

The data says the Bears will have themselves a dynamic rookie duo with these two highly drafted studs.

Little did anyone know that Williams was also hiding a custom-made, one-of-one Chicago shirt underneath his sporty coat. TAMPERING!? I kid, I kid.

This man is full of surprises. Just listen to how he ended his proper full-on media session.

How do people not like this guy? He’s quirky, sure, but far from off-putting or over-the-top cocky. He’s comfortable in his own skin, he knows how much work he puts into football, and he’s not shy about chasing a legacy as towering as that of Tom Brady. If Williams wins even one Super Bowl for Chicago, his legendary status will be cemented given the state of the franchise of late.

The Bears won seven games last season with an unsavory QB situation. Their defense is legit. Odunze, DJ Moore and Keenan Allen give Williams three excellent wide receivers to target. Although the NFC North is quite the gauntlet to navigate, you can see why the buzz around Williams is so fervent. He’s the real deal. It’s good for the rest of the NFL that somebody this gifted on the field and capable of handling the spotlight away from it is in the Windy City. Buckle up, because it’s about to be one hell of a ride.

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