Why Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams paints his nails for NFL games

Billy Heyen

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Why Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams paints his nails for NFL games image

Caleb Williams isn't afraid to be different.

The Chicago Bears' rising star quarterback, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft out of USC, expresses himself in a lot of ways. That includes, sometimes, painting his nails for games.

He didn't do it in every game of his rookie season, but he did it in his NFL debut and for a chunk of games afterward, as well.

This is what they looked like for Williams' first game in the 2024 regular season:

It's not clear whether Williams will break out the nail paint for his second season, but he's got a good reason for it.

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Why does Caleb Williams paint his nails?

Caleb Williams paints his nails in large part because of his mother.

“It started, I would say, three years ago,” Williams said during a 2023 USC Athletics interview. “It was my last year of high school. My mom does nails. Let’s just start it off there. She’s done it my whole life. It’s just kind of always been around me. Nobody else does it. I just kinda like to do new things.”

Williams doesn't mind standing out. When he has been at NBA games courtside or other public events where he's not playing QB, he often chooses some bold outfits.

When you're a star quarterback, though, you can pull it off.

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Caleb Williams' record with his nails painted

Thanks to OutSports, we have this statistic:

Williams and the Bears started 4-3 in the 2024 season, seven games in which he painted his nails. And then he stopped painting his nails, and they lost seven in a row.

Is there any actual correlation? Almost certainly not.

But if Caleb is at all superstitious, maybe it's worth giving it another shot.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle