Caleb Williams, Please Stop Giving the Internet Material

As a Bears fan, watching Caleb Williams fall to the turf screaming in pain was bad enough. Watching the hopes of what looked like a Super Bowl-type season seemingly come crashing down with him was even worse.

Immediately, the thoughts started racing. Was this now a lost season? Was this something much more serious? Could we be looking at a career-threatening situation for the former No. 1 overall pick?

The news and diagnosis the next day made me feel much better, and suddenly the clouds began to lift. Williams was expected to miss only a short amount of time, if any at all.

What a relief, I thought.

Then came the memes.

We live in a meme and social media culture, but, ouch — pun fully intended — did Williams get raked over the coals on this one.

Williams has always been a little eccentric, but his screaming and flopping on the ground over what was ultimately considered a minor injury resulted in a social media feeding frenzy. From Mr. Miyagi jokes about healing his leg quickly to comments about how a man feels when he gets sick, the jokes kept coming. Some were harmless. Others were much more personal, particularly those aimed at Williams and his painted fingernails.

As happy as I am that Caleb wasn't seriously injured, this episode did reveal something else: He has officially become an open target for ridicule.

And honestly, most of the memes were pretty funny.

Look, when you back a player as your franchise quarterback, you have to have his back. That's part of the deal. I will defend Williams, and I will be thankful that he wasn't seriously injured. That's the most important thing.

But this time, the memes won.

As much as I wanted to be angry at the jokes, I found myself cracking a smile. There may have even been a chuckle or two. I particularly like the one where the Chicago born Pope intervened on the situation.

Hey, I'm a Bears fan. We've suffered enough.

I think we're allowed to laugh when the joke is actually funny.