Rob Gronkowski is pushing back on the backlash aimed at Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams over his reaction to a hamstring injury during Week 2 at Soldier Field.
Williams’ leg dragged on the wet turf as staffers helped him off the field. He was carted to the locker room with a towel over his head, then pulled the towel off and pumped his fist to the sold-out crowd. When it later came out that Williams would only be week-to-week rather than out for the season, critics online accused him of exaggerating the injury.
Gronkowski, the former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end, disagrees with that read.
“Here’s the thing is that he’s never really been injured before from what I believe, so he doesn’t know truly what an injury is,” Gronkowski told OutKick at a New York City event for his partnership with Bounty. “And he was riding on a high. He had a great game Week 1, he was ready to play all year going into this season. I feel like it was more about passion that he showed than being hurt with the injury – that’s the thing.”
Gronkowski said the way Williams pulled up looked to him like it could have been a Grade 3 hamstring strain.
“If looked like it was a Grade 3 [strain], and Grade 3 I understand you’re like, ‘Oh my God.’ That one would hurt. You’re going to be pissed, you’re going to be sad, and you know it’s blown out,” he said.
But Gronkowski, who played through multiple injuries across an 11-year NFL career, says a week-to-week designation tells a different story.
“If he’s week-to-week, it wasn’t the pain because I’ve had injuries. That’s not that much pain the way he went,” Gronkowski explained. “But I would say he had so much passion going into the season, going into the game that. From my view and my opinion is that he was more hurt because he wasn’t sure how long of an injury that was and he wanted to be out there. He was just disappointed in that aspect.”
The Bears have not officially ruled Williams out for Week 3, but head coach Ben Johnson has described him as week-to-week while the team evaluates the injury. Backup Tyson Bagent, meanwhile, is in concussion protocol and may not be available for Chicago’s Week 3 matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil, though Bagent did practice on Saturday.
If Bagent can’t play, third-string quarterback Case Keenum would be in line to start the primetime matchup on “Monday Night Football.”
