Sunday sure looked like it was about to become an infamous day in Chicago professional sports history.
In the middle of a day-plus downpour of rain, star quarterback Caleb Williams went down in a heap while trying to scramble for a touchdown run in the late stages of the fourth quarter in a loss to the Minnesota Vikings. The city's greater diaspora held its breath watching Williams lying on the turf. In fact, when Williams was carted off the field, the Bears' home stadium may as well have fallen as quiet as a church. One week after it looked like Ben Johnson's Bears were going to deliver on the promises of an extended era of Super Bowl contention with a gifted young quarterback like Williams, it now looked like everything had gone up in flames.
Just like that.
Another dagger to the already collective broken heart of one of the NFL's most tortured fan bases this millennium. Hope extinguished and what could've been, gone in a flash.
They say time heals all wounds. In the case of Williams' scary-looking injury scene, I think it's actually that time allows more information to come in.
On Sunday night, NBC's Mike Florio reported that the Bears are optimistic that Williams' injury looks a lot worse than it really is. Given that it looked like it could change Williams' entire career and the Bears' near-future at first, that would be extremely lucky news for both the Bears and football-obsessed Chicagoans everywhere.
More from NBC:
It looked bad. It ultimately could be much better than the Bears could have hoped for.
Quarterback Caleb Williams will have an MRI on Monday to determine the extent of his hamstring injury. There’s currently optimism that it’s not serious.
The hope, we’re told, is that it will be diagnosed as a Grade 1 injury. That’s the lowest level, with minimal tearing of the muscle fibers.
Only a Grade 1 hamstring strain? That's so promising!
Of course, Williams' MRI will still tell all. It will let us know whether the Bears' early optimism about their franchise player is justified or not. But the mere fact that the Bears are funneling this optimism out to a national reporter feels like a good sign. They still have to cross their t's and dot their i's with a full evaluation, but they likely wouldn't put information like this out there if they didn't feel Williams was ultimately OK. That seems encouraging.
When all is said and done, if it really is a Grade 1 hamstring strain, Williams probably only misses a few games, at most. That is a survivable stretch for an ascending Bears team that figures itself a strong playoff contender. Given what Williams' injury initially seemed like, the Bears and their fans would take this much more favorable outcome 10 times out of 10. Everyone involved in Chicago, whether they're religious or not, might be thanking a higher power when all is said and done.
Who is Caleb Williams' backup on the Bears?
Tyson Bagent is the Bears' backup quarterback should Williams miss time. He is a former undrafted agent out of 2023.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Bears’ promising Caleb Williams update will have their fans praising higher powers
