‘LIKE PRINCE PLAYING QUARTERBACK’: SKEPTICS UNWITTINGLY GAVE INCREDIBLE COMP FOR CALEB WILLIAMS

When you wake up three days from now, Caleb Williams will be the new starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears. And to hear one scout and anonymous general manager, you should party like it’s 1999.

Well, not exactly, but we’re going to have fun with this.

The context:

On a new episode of former ESPN personality Pablo Torre’s podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out”, ESPN senior writer Danny Fleming relayed some notes from a scout he spoke to that remains critical of Williams’ football character.

In particular, said scout had a visceral reaction to Williams crying after USC’s emotional loss to Washington last season.

“Raw emotion is great, but Caleb’s thing? That was ridiculous to me. That threw up major red flags,” the scout reportedly told Fleming. “I will tell you, he scares the sh*t out of a lot of NFL teams too. The book on him is he’s just kind of a weird kid. One GM told me it’s like if Prince played quarterback.”

At this point, we’ve talked at length about the tears, nail-painting and fashion sense of one Caleb Williams. No need to rehash that part of the discussion.

But I want to focus your attention on the former GM quote that hit me with a 2x4 in the head: “It’s like if Prince played quarterback.”

Many of us born in the previous century know the catalog, or at least the reputation, of one Prince Rogers Nelson.

“When Doves Cry”. “Kiss”. “Let’s Go Crazy”. “Purple Rain”. You know what I’m talking about.

Now, a good number of people saw him primarily for his androgynous physical appearance, occasional falsetto vocals and flamboyant outfits and found him uncouth and unmanly. (See where I’m going with this?)

The late artist also was very outspoken about the music industry as a whole and how it preyed on others in his position, which naturally rubbed a lot of people the wrong way as well.

What the detractors missed, of course, is that Prince was proficient in more than 20 different instruments, including being able to shred harder than most peoples’ favorite guitar heroes, and was one of the great live musicians we’ve ever seen. For example, I try not to re-watch too much of Super Bowl 41 itself (aside from the first 14 seconds or so), but I’ll throw on Prince’s halftime show almost once a month because it was that awesome.

In short, Prince was a f—ing virtuoso at what he did, whether you liked him or not. And only a complete loon would compare Williams to Prince as if it was a bad thing.

You can complain about his nail polish color, pink phone cases, cross-dressing outfits or whatever you want. Personally, I think you need to go outside and touch some grass or, I don’t know, grow the hell up. But you can have that if that’s how you feel.

But those of us who want to appreciate someone who’s badass at what they do — especially when they might be about to be that for the Chicago Bears — are going to enjoy this.

Because if Caleb Williams is actually anything like Prince, we’re going to be talking about him in 40 years like he was one of the best who ever did it.

2024-04-23T16:13:16Z dg43tfdfdgfd