Caleb Williams is a proud, confident person. He recently displayed those qualities in an hour-long interview on "The Pivot" with Ryan Clark.
During the interview, he and the group delved into social media. Bears fans learned quickly from Williams' X profile that he likes to keep receipts in his likes. He keeps posts that doubt him so he can look back on them for motivation.
And sometimes he responds. He responded recently to a comment ESPN analyst Greg McElroy made about Williams' lack of adversity.
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"I do wonder [if] there's a sense of entitlement," McElroy said. "Is there that chip on his shoulder that's going to keep him going 10, 12 years down the road the way it does [Patrick] Mahomes, who's still pissed that he got drafted 10th?"
Here's how he responded.
We all know McElroy's statement isn't true. Williams has faced more than enough adversity in his football career to qualify. So the question becomes --- why respond?
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"My most recent thing that I put out about the adversity thing," Williams said on the podcast. "If it's something where it's somebody's opinions, I don't care. Opinions are opinions. If you think somebody's supposed to go No. 1, cool, whatever. But if you're saying stuff like the adversity thing. And I have facts for you. If there are facts to it then I'm gonna respond.
"I was so bored because I was in Jacksonville. I was done with my meetings on Zoom. I was done with my workouts for the morning. And I was just laying in bed and I was just bored. And I said it too 'I'm bored right now!' I also respond in a harmless way. I don't attack people. Anything like that, that's not how I do it. I just kinda be a smart a-- about it."
Williams said he responds, too, because it's fun. Clark, a former NFL player, shared the same sentiment with Williams. As players, they put in a litany of work to try and perfect their craft. Anyone who tries to tarnish it without reason or fact is a flawed attempt at trying to discredit that work. It doesn't matter, but it's fun to prove them wrong.
The USC quarterback has faced an incredible amount of adversity, for what it's worth. He jumped in as a starter at Oklahoma over Spencer Rattler late in his first college football season. He transferred to a new team at USC, settling in as their starting quarterback. Even in high school, Williams faced adversity in some of the greatest high school games to have been played. Just reference his response.
There's an overwhelming amount of social media talk about Williams. His character, his flash, his confidence --- or cockiness, as some see it ---, the painted nails, the pink phone case, crying in the stands after a loss, etc.
You name it, people have said it about Williams.
Through it all, Williams showed maturity and wisdom about the talk. Claiming he won't survive in a media market as large as Chicago's? I beg to differ.
"The cliche thing is if you don't have those people saying things, if you don't have people speaking on you, whether it's good or bad, about going No. 1 or something stupid that comes up in social media ... If you don't have those things, you really ain't doing something right," Williams said.