Former UCLA QB Cade McNown has advice for Bears top pick Caleb Williams: «You’ve been drafted as the future, you have to live in the present.»
Twenty-five years ago, UCLA quarterback Cade McNown was selected 12th overall by the Chicago Bears and spent the 1999 and 2000 seasons with them. He later was a backup with the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers. He spoke to Times NFL writer Sam Farmer about what he learned in Chicago.
On Thursday, the Bears made USC quarterback Caleb Williams the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft.
There are lots of opportunities and lots of challenges ahead for Caleb Williams. And even though it has been 25 years, I still have vivid memories of those times.
The good and bad of it for Caleb and Bears fans is there’s been a long trail of tears when it comes to quarterbacks and Chicago, and this is another chance to alter that trajectory.
If I were talking to Caleb, and I hope I will at some point, I’d say, “Listen, you’re getting drafted based on what you did and what people think you can do in the NFL, but not based on what you have done in the NFL. That’s really what’s going to matter.”
It’s day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year that you’ve got to build your reputation as a professional, as somebody who really needs to earn your way into the job. Even though they’ll tell you, “You’re this, that and the other,” you really need to earn it. Otherwise, they take it all away from you.
I didn’t live up to those lofty expectations, but I learned a lot in the process.
It’s not always easy to talk to a 22-year-old, especially one who suddenly has money to go along with fame, but if I were to go back and talk to that younger me, here are some lessons I would share:
Focus on football, not on the stuff you can buy. There always will be time for that later.
When I was coming in, that’s the first time you really have two nickels to rub together. You immediately start spending some time buying things. Caleb’s financial situation is different. He made money at USC. Hopefully that’s all out of his system for the most part.
