Caleb Williams Says Book Excerpt Claiming He Tried to Avoid Being Drafted by the Bears Is a 'Distraction'

Caleb Williams is setting the record straight about his commitment to the Chicago Bears.

As teams start preparing for the 2025 NFL season, the 23-year-old quarterback is pushing back on an excerpt from a forthcoming book that claims Williams and his family had reservations about signing with the team.

"This whole storm that happened, It wasn’t something that we wanted to happen at this point," Williams told reporters on Wednesday, May 28. “We’re focused on the present, we’re focused on now, we’re focused on getting this ship moving in the right direction, so far that’s what we’ve been doing."

He added, "For this to come out, it's been a distraction, so coming up here and addressing it is important today."

In an excerpt from American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback released by ESPN earlier this month, author Seth Wickersham reports that Williams and his father, Carl, had other possible motives about the Heisman Trophy winner’s future.

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In the book, the ESPN reporter writes that Carl was so concerned about his son playing for the Bears that he and Williams thought about signing with the United Football League instead of the NFL, asked legal experts about avoiding the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement and even considered avoiding the draft entirely.

On Wednesday, the former USC standout sought to clarify how he and his father came around on the team after a visit with the Minnesota Vikings, stating that any reservations about playing for the Bears were just “thoughts,” not actions.

"I wanted to come here and be the guy, be a part or the reason of why the Chicago Bears turn this thing around," Williams said.

The No. 1 pick of the 2024 NFL Draft also elaborated on his strong ties to his family — as evident in an interview with PEOPLE in 2023 — and his relationship with his father.

"He cares so much about me, about my future," Williams said. "We’ve been on this journey so long. All he wants is the best for me."

The quarterback added, "I love him to death and I’m super fortunate to have him. But we had talks about it, understanding it's a right place and a right time, and there's times where it's not."