Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams did not make his preseason debut during the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday night against the Houston Texans. But the USC product was still naturally a big talking point throughout the game from the ESPN broadcast team consisting of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
Fans will get a detailed look into Williams on the upcoming season of HBO’s Hard Knocks, which is set to premiere next week.
A sneak peek of the show was shown on the ESPN broadcast of Thursday’s game, which showed Williams addressing his teammates while he “introduced” himself in a team meeting as has become a tradition around the NFL for most rookies.
Williams introduced himself by saying where he went to college and announcing his rookie signing bonus, which elicited a large applause from his teammates.
“Went to USC and Oklahoma. Horns down still, fight on. And my signing bonus is $25.5 (million),” said Williams as his teammates began to shout in excitement.”
Buck and Aikman then began to discuss this clip on the broadcast.
“Such a great reaction from Tyson Bagent, who was undrafted out of college when Caleb said how much he got as a bonus,” said Buck.
“Right, having a seizure thinking about it. He was hoping that one day he might be able to make that in his career,” Aikman added. “But times have changed. Thank you networks for some of these signing bonuses the players are now getting.”
We got a sneak preview of the Bears “Hard Knocks” season, with Caleb Williams detailing his $25.5 million signing bonus.
Troy Aikman: Times have changed. Thank you, networks, for some of these signing bonuses the players are now getting. pic.twitter.com/xtmDuUk5ij
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 2, 2024
In addition to the NFL’s longstanding media rights deal with networks like NBC, CBS, and ESPN, the league has also of course recently begun to expand in the world of streaming, inking deals with Amazon and Netflix in recent years.
We will perhaps only see signing bonus continue to climb like this in the future with the league bringing in all of this additional revenue. Especially considering perhaps the biggest roadblock in player salaries continuing to increase, the Sunday Ticket lawsuit, was thrown out on Thursday by a federal district court judge.
