Williams knows that the attention he drew and scrutiny he faced at USC will ratchet up considerably while playing the most important position for a founding NFL franchise in a huge media market. But the 22-year-old intends to focus on his job and ignore the outside noise.
“I’m always going to have scrutiny,” Williams said. “I do things like paint my nails. I’m always going to have scrutiny over that. I wear funky clothes, things like that. So just do my job on the football field and win games. I think if you win a lot of games here, you’ll make a lot of people, the majority, happy.”
Bears fans are already happy. How else would you explain Williams breaking the Fanatics record for draft night merchandise sales for any draft pick in any sport, eclipsing the record set last week by the WNBA’s Caitlin Clark?
“It came out that I passed Caitlin Clark’s record,” Williams said. “I had to repost it [on Twitter] and said, ‘I guess that’s Chicago for you.’ All the love and support is strong. I’ve heard about it. So to get some of that love and support that early is really awesome. It’s really exciting.”
Williams is driven to set other records as well. While others may try to temper expectations, he embraces them.
“What’s the reason to duck?” he said. “It’s here. There’s no reason to duck. I’m here. Rome [Odunze] is here. Keenan Allen. The top-five defense that we had last year, special teams, all the new roles. We’re here. I’m excited. I know everyone’s excited. The Bears fans are excited from what I’ve heard and seen, and there’s no reason to duck. Attack it headfirst and go get it.”
