The Heartwarming Reason NFL Star Caleb Williams Sometimes Has Painted Nails

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams joined the nation's premier football league to much fanfare. The former USC Trojan was picked first overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. Over the course of his rookie season, Williams threw for over 3,500 yards and 20 touchdowns. Beyond his actual playing, however, Williams has been known to make a fashion statement on the gridiron in the form of painted fingernails. And while men are painting their nails more than ever these days, it's still a pretty rare and bold look for a pro football player. But the heartwarming reason Williams sometimes wears painted nails goes far beyond mere style.

Notably, Williams was painting his nails for football games long before he was tapped to lead the Bears' offense. It's something he started doing during his final year of high school and continued through his college career. According to the QB, it's a tradition he shares with his mother. "My mom does nails. Let's just start off there," Williams explained during a video interview shared by the USC Athletics TikTok account in 2022. "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." He added that as a quarterback, it's important to keep his hands looking and feeling good. "This is where all the gold comes from," said Williams, who took home the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, and the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award that year.

Painting his fingernails isn't the only way Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has bucked gender norms when it comes to his fashion choices. However, those choices haven't always been met with the warmest reception by football fans. Back in March 2024, shortly before he was drafted to Chicago, Williams caught flak on social media after he was spotted not only with pink fingernails, but also a pink iPhone, a white wallet, and what appeared to be pink lip gloss. Williams clapped back at his critics in a video shared to X, formerly known as Twitter, by USC's Gavin Morris a few days after the initial deluge of comments. "Wallet white ... phone is pink, case is clear ... nails are clear ... lips are pink, your girl love 'em," the QB said.

To be fair, not all football fans were so quick to write Williams off based on his appearance. Even before the 2024 Draft took place, it was presumed that the Bears would select the USC quarterback — and one user on the NFL team's subreddit happily embraced Williams' fashion statement in a post that garnered over 2,000 upvotes. "No other team's QB's phone, nails, and lip gloss be coordinated and poppin' like this. So there's that," the user wrote. Another user on the same forum pointed out that Williams' look was positively tame compared to some of the things worn by fellow Chicago athlete and one-time Madonna paramour Dennis Rodman.