Caleb Williams finally talked about his hamstring on Thursday, and he spent most of it telling everyone they had been wrong for a month.
“There’s nothing that has come out that has been right about what it is and what it has been,” the Bears quarterback said. Then he described the injury himself: “It was a hamstring tear, and a pretty serious one.”
That is not the language that has been attached to this injury since Sept. 20. Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport both reported a Grade 2 strain with a three-to-four-week timeline about a week after it happened. Williams says that reporting missed.
He has the grade and will not share it
Asked for the actual grade of the injury, Williams said the team has one and he is not releasing it.
“We got a grade, but I wouldn’t say it’s deserved to be put out there after all the false ones,” he said. Pressed on why, he was shorter: “Just not deserving. Next question.”
He also set a rule for the rest of it. Unless information comes from head coach Ben Johnson or from Williams himself, he said, it would probably be wrong, which in his view every report so far has been.
Worth noting before anyone declares a scandal: a Grade 2 strain is, by definition, a partial tear. No doctor and no team source has reconciled the two descriptions, and the Bears have not disputed the earlier reporting. What is certain is that Williams believes the coverage was wrong and said so on the record.
The injury itself
Williams, 24, pulled up on a scramble late in the fourth quarter of a 9-3 loss to Minnesota on Sept. 20. It was non-contact. He left the field on a cart with a towel over his head.
He addressed that image too. He said he cared about the team, the organization, winning and his teammates, that not being able to be out there was frustrating, and that the frustration was what the tears were about.
He has missed three games, against the Eagles, Jets and Packers. Chicago went 2-1 without him and sits at 3-2. Before the injury he had thrown for 407 yards and two touchdowns while completing 65.5 percent of his passes.
Sunday is still open
Williams practiced in full Wednesday and Thursday. Johnson listed him questionable for Sunday at Atlanta and said Friday that the team would know more by the end of the day about whether he is cleared after stacking practices. A stress test was the last hurdle.
Part of the confusion Williams is angry about came from his own building. Johnson called the status week to week the day after the MRI and declined to give any detail, and did not rule Williams out for the Week 3 Monday nighter in Philadelphia until late in the week. When a team says nothing, reporters fill the space, and then the player is annoyed about what filled it.
The rest of the Bears injury report for Sunday: running back Kyle Monangai is out with thumb and toe injuries, defensive lineman Dayo Odeyingbo is out with a quad, and linebacker T.J. Edwards is out with a hamstring. Cornerback Kyler Gordon is questionable with a calf and Tyrique Stevenson is questionable with a hip.
Williams is right about one thing. He is the only person who has been inside the MRI tube. He is also 24 and under contract to a team that has every reason to keep medical details vague. Both things can be true, and they are.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.