Feuds in sports are nothing new. Hell, a popular YouTube channel has a series called Beef History covering all sorts of them. They can range from player vs. player, player vs. coach, coach vs. coach, player vs. owner, owner vs. city, and so on. Beef can make for great drama, which is another thing that makes sports so alluring. However, Caleb Williams may have cornered the market on weirdest feud in modern history. The Chicago Bears quarterback is usually careful with his comments regarding media criticism, which is why he doesn't get much attention.
His actions, on the other hand? That is a different story.
Most Bears fans probably remember the puzzling issue a few months ago when Williams supposedly ghosted ESPN's announcer duo of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman before the Monday night opener against Minnesota. Players usually have pre-game production meetings like that. Williams insisted he just lost track of time. Aikman clearly didn't appreciate it and made his displeasure known on the broadcast by repeatedly criticizing Williams.
Well, it seems the Bears quarterback decided to escalate the situation, because he did it to them again before the Monday night game in Washington in October. Buck revealed this on SI Media With Jimmy Traina.
“We had that same issue Week 1 with Caleb,” Buck told Traina. “And then we had it again. I guess he brought it up saying, ‘Well, I didn’t talk to Troy before the game.’ But we sat on a Zoom waiting forever and he just never came! I don’t know what else we can do...
...That’s the part that bothered me the most…this was on your guys’ schedule. And we sat there and we had it happen twice within the first six or seven weeks…I thought the intimation that we weren’t there or [Aikman] wasn’t there was not an accurate description of how that all went down.”
Caleb Williams certainly lives up to his reputation.
He has always come across as somebody a little bit different. He likes things you wouldn't normally expect an NFL quarterback to like. Williams also keeps receipts. You'll often find him retweeting or liking videos that criticize him, reminding everybody that he isn't ignorant of what they're saying, and he uses it as fuel. It is hard to know where this supposed icy attitude towards Buck and Aikman started. The only feasible explanation is from last year. Chicago played the Vikings in Minnesota on Monday night.
They were crushed 30-12.
Caleb Williams didn't play poorly, finishing with 191 yards and a touchdown. However, that didn't save him from some critical commentary during the broadcast. Maybe the Bears quarterback didn't appreciate it. Or maybe he really did make a mistake the first time, bristled at Aikman's retaliation, and decided to blow them off deliberately the second time. Whatever the case, this feud is by far the strangest fans have seen in years. There is no other recorded instance of a professional athlete beefing with a specific commentary team.
Points to Caleb for creativity, I guess.
