“I Don’t Really Care What People Have To Say” – Bears QB Caleb Williams Proudly Paints His Nails To Honor His Mom

Football is probably the most grown-man game you could ever set out to play. High risk of injury. Short shelf life for the average career. Should you be so extraordinarily gifted and hard-working to make it to the NFL, every single day somebody is out there grinding their rears off to take your job. So when you, in essence, go to college in Hollywood at USC, lap the competition with superior athleticism and arm talent en route to a Heisman Trophy, and become the No. 1 overall draft pick tasked with saving a franchise, you're already going to have a massive target on your back. Never mind that Chicago Bears rookie dynamo Caleb Williams has made the decidedly, traditionally anti-masculine choice to paint his nails on game days. This has backfired on Williams before already. When he played against Utah in college, his nail polish spelled out, "F**K UTAH." And he and the Trojans proceeded to lose. Now Williams is really in the big leagues. You could argue the Bears haven't had a long-term star QB in their entire history. Playoffs are the expectation due to all the hype surrounding Williams coming out of college. Already, he's faced adversity, not least of which comes via the man drafted right after him, Jayden Daniels. The ex-LSU stud and Heisman successor to Williams has had a historic rookie year to date, leading the Washington Commanders to a 4-1 record. In the midst of all that noise, though, Williams is still sticking to his guns and still painting his nails. In an interview excerpt just shared by Good Morning Football host Kyle Brandt, the topic was broached as to why Williams bothers with the nail painting in the first place — knowing the baggage and toxic feedback that accompanies that bodily accessory. His reasoning actually ties back to his mother. "My mom, she's done nails for I don't know how many years now. But ever since I was young, she's been doing nails, and so one day just kind of at the nail salon I was like…forget it. I'm just going to try it. That was in high school, and now I've been doing it all through college, so now it's been, i don't know, 6-7 years now that I've been doing it. "There's been times where I’ve thrown certain motivation on it. There's been times where I've thrown awareness on my nails for different causes and things like that…It's unique to myself it's me. […] Everybody has their own opinions. I came to a certain point where I kind of treat it like my football career. I don’t really care what people have to say about it, especially from people that I wouldn’t ask for advice from. It’s me. It’s how I am. It’s unique to me." https://twitter.com/KyleBrandt/status/1844798166698164441 Props to Caleb for being so comfortable in his own skin. I guess he's been in the spotlight for years now and has disciplined himself to navigate that by blocking out certain negative noise. How easy would it have been for someone else to cave after a couple bad games to start a rookie season? Williams didn't, and in fact, even as everyone is blown away by Daniels' incredible first five games, Williams has steadily improved each week in guiding the Bears to a 3-2 record. They're indeed very much in the playoff mix in the NFC, despite a couple close losses to the Texans and Colts. May just be that we have two budding superstars on our hands. It simply happens that one of those guy's hands is covered in nail polish. https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1843093543734165936