Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams show how you extinguish a fire at Halas Hall

A vocal throng of Bears fans on social media blasted Bears reporters for demanding that Caleb Williams be made available to address revelations in ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham's upcoming book "American Kings: A Biography Of The Quarterback." Among the issues revealed: that Williams and especially his father did not want the Bears to draft Caleb in 2024; that Caleb preferred to play for the Vikings; and that he was left on his own by the Bears in film study as a rookie last season.

The majority of the substance was very arguably old news, water under the bridge, with Williams pretty clearly all-in with Ben Johnson hired to replace head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. But the revelations themselves were still news, and by any previous standard of Bears-beat happenings, absolutely needed to be addressed by Williams.

Caleb Williams downplayed the revelations that he did not want to play for the Bears when he talked to reporters on Wednesday. "All of the things that were supposed to be these big things that everybody's been talking about recently ... never happened ... they were all thoughts. After I came on my visit here, it was a deliberate answer ... that I wanted to come here." (Adam Hoge photo)

A lot of Bears fans either didn't understand that, or just didn't see it that way. But their "take" was undercut by none other than Bears coach Ben Johnson, who acknowledged the reality that the Wickersham book was something the Bears and Williams could not ignore. Johnson, in fact, addressed it unprompted at a press conference last Wednesday during the first week of OTA practices to "get out in front of [the story] a little bit." If Bears fans aren't going to take our word for it that the revelations were a story, they can at least take it from Johnson. They believe in everything else he does.

But, with all due respect to Johnson, if he really wanted to "get out in front of it" as he said, the Bears would have made Williams available to address it as Johnson did and move on. (Johnson rightfully claimed it wasn't his table, because he wasn't here at the time. So Williams was the one who needed to address it.)

At the time, it was disappointing that even though Johnson acknowledged the issue, he either didn't want to make Williams available or — more likely — did want Williams to be available but it wasn't his call. It signaled a "same-old, same-old" m.o. at Halas Hall when it comes to managing touchy public-relations issues that have plagued the Bears forever.

On Wednesday, though, we saw a move in the right direction on that front. Williams initially was not scheduled to be available during media access following Wednesday's OTA practice. But when reporters arrived at Halas Hall, Williams was included on a list of players who would be available.

And he was, and he addressed the issue head on — in a professional, non-combative way that respected the notion that even if it wasn't his favorite thing to talk about, he still understood the newsworthiness of it, his responsibility to address it and the importance of getting it out of the way now, so everybody could move on. (Bonus points for avoiding a tone and body language that could have indicated he was doing this only because he had to.)

That the Bears moved up Williams' scheduled availability to do this is not insignificant — a sign of progress at Halas Hall. People inside the building who literally didn't understand what all the fuss was about were overruled by somebody. My guess is Ben Johnson, who seems to have been given a measure of respect, if not authority, that recent coaches have not had post-Dave Wannstedt. And as the person with the least amount of time at Halas Hall, he's the most likely to know how to put out these fires, or just realize that a public relations fire is something that needs to be put out in the first place.

Either way, the Caleb/Carl Williams episode has been addressed and Halas Hall is still standing. See how easy that was? And if it re-ignites in September when Wickersham's book is published, there's at least some hope that the powers that be at Halas Hall — Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams, anyway — will know how to deal with it.