Bears QB Caleb Williams adds a new wrinkle to the bizarre Troy Aikman situation following Week 6 win over Commanders
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams provided more behind-the-scenes details on the Troy Aikman situation.
The Chicago Bears are five games into the regular season and it’s been an up-and-down start. Chicago opened the season 0-2 and have since won three consecutive games, the previous two came in close, last minute games.
Beyond the close win and struggles throughout the games against the Las Vegas Raiders and the Washington Commanders, those two games had another similarity that had nothing to do with the product on the field, with the broadcast team becoming a larger story than it needed to be.
Going into Week 4, the story was about whether or not FOX broadcaster and Raiders minority owner Tom Brady gave the Raiders an advantage over Chicago after calling the Bears game a week prior against the Dallas Cowboys. It was a silly narrative, but it gained a lot of momentum for two weeks.
After the Week 6 win on “Monday Night Football” another silly situation has been unfolding with another former NFL quarterback turned commentator in Troy Aikman. Aikman had some criticism for the Bears and quarterback Caleb Williams throughout Monday night that seemed a little biased, to the point head coach Ben Johnson had to address it during a press conference on Tuesday. And now Williams added more to the story.
Caleb Williams did not meet with Troy Aikman ahead of Week 6 game
“I didn’t get to meet with him (in the week leading up to the game),” Williams said of Aikman. “Tried to meet with him, reached out and tried to meet and that didn’t happen. Moved on from it, went and played the game. I was here late and times didn’t meet up, lifting or whatever the case may have been. Tried to call him after that day that I was supposed to meet with him and it didn’t get through.”
Usually, leading up to the week, coaches and selected players meet with the broadcast team to go over the upcoming game and help the commentators prepare to call the game. Most often than not, those selected players are the quarterbacks. So, it’s a little strange Williams didn’t meet with Aikman during the week leading up to the game.
Regardless, that doesn’t give Aikman the excuse to criticize Williams on national television, whether that was intended reason for that or not. And Williams wasn’t happy about some of the comments Aikman made during the broadcast regarding how he played and how the team performed.
“Obviously, he had some stuff to say about us, or me, and we came out victorious in the end,” Williams said. “Made a little fun moment of it (on social media) and that was about it.”
Williams noted he could “care less” about some of the criticism he receives, whether it’s fair or not, from people outside the building, which is the right mindset for him to have. And it’s not like Aikman was being overly harsh in the way he criticized Williams’ play on Monday, for the most part.
One point of criticism Aikman mentioned more than once was that Williams was struggling with placing the ball in the right position for his pass catchers to make a play after the catch. While speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Williams did have a response to that critique.
“I think that’s always something, every game you play” Williams explained. “You always want to be able to put your receiver in the best position, that doesn’t always happen. You always try to give them a catchable ball, at the least, at the maximum you want to give them the best ball so he can go run. I think there was opportunities for that. I think there was opportunities that we missed, I think there’s opportunities that we’ll hit. It’s still our fifth game that we just played. It’s early and obviously getting in rhythm with everybody, it’s a long season.”
That was a great point Williams brought up. It’s the fifth game of the season for the Bears, not everything is going to be perfect on every play. It was also Williams’ 22 career game in the NFL.
There’s some criticism can certainly be had, but it can also go too far at the same time. One could hope that Aikman’s criticism was made with the right intentions and not with any bitter intentions. But, regardless, it’s something the team, and everyone else, is ready to move on from.
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