How Bears QB Caleb Williams broke his former OC’s wedding ring as 16-year-old

It hasn’t even been a week since the 2024 NFL Draft began with the Chicago Bears on the clock, and the legend of Caleb Williams is already growing in the Windy City.

In fairness, if you’re a Bears fan like myself, or if you’re familiar with the tortured history of Bears quarterbacks, then you had to know that this was coming. When someone comes along who is the embodiment of hope and excitement on a football field, it’s natural that a fanbase that hasn’t had much of either of those things over the past thirty years would gravitate toward him like he was some sort of demigod. This is especially the case in Chicago, a city that has been craving a superstar quarterback since, well, forever.

Everything that Caleb Williams has done since being drafted by the Bears has been a smashing success, and every story that trickles out about him only seems to add to his legend. Take for example this story which was told to ESPN’s Courtney Cronin by Caleb Williams’ offensive coordinator at Gonzaga College High School in Washington D.C. regarding an incident that happened in training camp ahead of Williams’ sophomore season.

“About halfway through a practice in 2018, Danny Schaechter, who was Gonzaga’s offensive coordinator, noticed his left hand started to throb and there was blood dripping from his ring finger,” writes Cronin. After a moment of confusion, Schaechter realized what had happened.

“Oh crap — my wedding ring is split in half!” Schaechter told Cronin, recounting what had happened on that summer day back in 2018.

Cronin continued, explaining that Caleb Williams, “had whipped a pass so hard that it splintered the metal of Schaechter’s ring and cut his finger. When the OC relayed the story to his wife, her anger quickly turned to disbelief over the velocity of the throw that came from a 16-year-old sophomore’s arm.”

Let’s pause here for just a second: even if you’ve never played a down of organized football in your life, surely at some point — gym class, tailgate party, backyard football game — you’ve thrown and/or caught a football. Now as you take a moment to recount all of those instances, and I want you to see if you can recall a time when someone threw a football so hard that it hurt your hands when you caught it. We’ve all been there, right?

Well now imagine that someone threw a football so hard that it was able to crack a wedding band. How do you think your hands would feel after that?

Everyone who is part of the Bears organization — players, coaches, ball boys, equipment managers, etc. — should heed Danny Schaechter’s warning regarding Caleb Williams.

“Because of Caleb, I take my wedding ring off anytime I’m going to go do some football stuff. I don’t want anybody to break my wedding ring, but he was the only one who actually did it.”