Caleb Williams Put Lil Wayne In Check After Weezy Ripped Him, (And His Painted Nails), On Twitter
In a post-game chat with ESPN’s Courtney Cronin, Williams called the Bears’ win “no fluke.” He reminded everybody that, the Bears have been a second-half team all year, and that you can’t dig a hole every single playoff game and expect to get out. Still, when it comes down to crunch time, he trusts his squad to fight to the finish. And after watching that fourth-quarter magic, it’s hard to argue
Williams finished 24-of-48 for 361 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, which is basically the full Caleb Williams experience in one night.
Some chaos, a couple mistakes, and then a couple “ohhhh that’s why he went No. 1 overall” moments sprinkled in like crack. The biggest one was that 27-yard strike to Rome Odunze on fourth-and-eight in the fourth quarter, a “season on the line” throw that’s going to get replayed in Chicago forever if this thing keeps going the way it feels like it’s going.
And that’s the whole point here. The Bears have been begging the football gods for a real franchise quarterback for what feels like 100 years, and for the first time in a long time, it actually looks like we might have landed one.
Enter Lil Wayne. Die-hard, very outspoken Green Bay Packers fan.
The kind of fan who doesn’t just root for his team, he identifies as them.
So after the Packers choke away a three-score lead in a playoff game to the Bears, and the internet is doing backflips, Wayne does what every emotionally stable adult does in that moment and fires off a tweet saying the Packers just lost to a "guy" with painted nails.
And full disclosure before I'm about to write and post what I'm about to- I love Lil Wayne. I grew up on him. Carter era Wayne is in my opinion, arguably the greatest run a rapper has ever had (Kanye's first 6 albums also make a strong case). I think he's currently the greatest rapper alive.
But let’s not pretend this was some principled stand for “real football masculinity” or whatever. Wayne has had more questionable wardrobe decisions than anyone who’s ever walked into a Hot Topic with a record deal.
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The man has worn enough outfits over the years to make you pause and ask, “Wait, are we sure this is the guy leading the tough guy lecture today?” Not to mention, I’m like 99.9999% certain I’ve seen him with painted nails before too.
So when he took a swing at Caleb for nail polish, you know it’s not actually about nail polish. That one was about pain.
It was about watching his team fall apart on the grand stage, and needing somewhere to put the anger that won’t involve saying the obvious things like “Matt LaFleur just got outcoached” or “the Packers defense played like they had money on the Bears.”
It’s the oldest move in sports fan history- can’t attack the scoreboard, so you attack the shit that has no bearing on the game.
And the best part is Caleb didn’t even give him the satisfaction of a real response. No sir.
He just dropped the Iceman emoji like “Noted,”
then went all in and posted a highlight video set to Wayne’s own music (Mr. Carter) like he was casually using Wayne as the soundtrack to Green Bay’s funeral.
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If I'm the Chicago Bears, that is the exact level of petty I want from my franchise quarterback.
Respectfully.
If you’re a Packers fan and you’re spending your Sunday night tweeting about another man’s nails, it means one of two things. (Or both). 1- you’re obviously rattled. 2- deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you're jealous the guy with the painted nails doesn't play for your team.
When you dress as ostentatious as lil weezy does, you're telling me he wouldn't kill to have a QB1 with a little flair for bold fashion statements as his guy? Think about it.
p.s. - this song is still so good-
If the Bears win this weekend, Williams HAS to drop another video with another Wayne track soundtracking it. My vote is for one of these three -
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p.p.s. - follow up to my blog earlier this morning. Ben Johnson addressed the media this afternoon and told everybody exactly what needed to be said. This is fucking football. Not a tea party. Rivalries are bad just about anywhere, but they're great for pro sports. And we need more of them.