How Caleb Williams' inner circle features Chicago star power

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  Courtney CroninOct 22, 2026, 06:00 AM ET

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  Courtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, originally covering the Minnesota Vikings before switching to the Chicago Bears in 2022. Courtney is a frequent panelist on Around the Horn and host of Best Week Ever and GameNight on ESPN Radio. She also co-hosts The Chicago Bears Podcast on ESPN 1000. She previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News as a multimedia sports journalist.

Matas Buzelis started his postgame treatment the night of Jan. 10 shortly after the Chicago Bulls beat the Dallas Mavericks. Less than five miles away from the training room inside the United Center, the blustery conditions on the lakefront were the backdrop for the Chicago Bears' fourth-quarter fight in a wild-card playoff thriller. Buzelis had a special interest in the game.

As the 22-year-old small forward lowered himself into a cold tub filled with ice water, Buzelis watched his friend Caleb Williams go to work.

Buzelis, the Bulls' 2024 first-round pick, doesn't claim to be much of a football fan, but he understood the significance of what he was witnessing as a Chicago native. Williams, one of Buzelis' closest confidants, was in the midst of a career-defining moment when he led the Bears back from a 21-3 halftime deficit to beat the Green Bay Packers 31-27.

Buzelis recalls celebrating "that crazy throw" Williams made on fourth-and-8 to Rome Odunze that kept a touchdown drive alive. Inside a suite at Soldier Field, Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong erupted as Odunze made the catch.

"My head was about touching the ceiling," Crow-Armstrong told ESPN. "We were all jumping up and down. I feel like that's something you can't really [describe]. Maybe a walk-off homer or something like that evokes sort of a similar feeling, but that one's tough to beat."

That game helped transform Williams from an ascending, young quarterback into national stardom. The play -- specifically Williams' jump pass -- was commemorated on the cover of Madden NFL '27. Williams' "Ice Man" nickname started generating national buzz, and he emerged as the most recognizable star in Chicago sports. But he has company. And the Williams-PCA-Buzelis group text chat should be popping Thursday after the Bears host the New England Patriots (8:15 p.m., ET, Prime Video).

The increased visibility and expectations for the Bears (4-2, 0-2 NFC North) in Williams' third season is what he has been primed to manage his whole career. At every juncture, from winning the Heisman Trophy at USC to becoming the No. 1 pick, the quarterback has followed a curated plan to keep grounded. A big part of that includes the people he welcomes into his circle.

In Chicago, the place where Williams says he wants to be forever, he does so in close proximity to others who hold an intimate understanding of the type of demands he encounters daily. Because they, too, navigate a similar burden of success.

"This isn't even about us going against each other, but that's how we look at it," Buzelis said. "We want to one-up each other every time.

"We see Pete hit three home runs in one game. Now we want to do something in our sport that's that outstanding in that type of manner, but it's all about us competing against each other. I'd say Caleb had a great game. Now I'm looking forward to my season, and that's the excitement it brings of all of us knowing each other."

What it's like hanging out with Caleb Williams

The three-member group chat lights up multiple times a week. It's the way these 20-somethings with hectic, conflicting schedules stay connected, whether to offer words of encouragement, share TikToks and memes or plan an outing.

"We just talk a bunch of s--- and also love on each other as well," said Crow-Armstrong, who's expected to be named the National League MVP on Nov. 12.

The Cubs slugger made his major league debut in September 2023, more than two years after the New York Mets traded him to Chicago. In the spring of 2024, Williams became the first quarterback selected by the Bears with the top pick in the draft. In June 2024, the Bulls drafted Buzelis 11th.

The foundation of Williams and Buzelis' friendship was set during the quarterback's junior season at USC, where the former NBA G Leaguer's team trained. The two snapped a photo after one of Buzelis' practices and stayed in touch as they both made their way to Chicago.

Crow-Armstrong and Williams were a more traditional Gen-Z match by following each other on social media and trading direct messages back and forth.

When plans make it out of the chat, the group expands to include Odunze and Cole Bennett, the Illinois native and Lyrical Lemonade founder who has directed over 500 music videos for the industry's biggest artists, from Eminem to Future.

Bennett met Williams the year after his Heisman campaign when the quarterback asked him to direct an eventual documentary on his life and career.

"I left the first time we ever met feeling like, oh no, he's a superstar and he knows it," Bennett said. "It's a really unique trait because it's really hard to walk that line of being incredibly confident and not being arrogant but being uniquely yourself and knowing the path that you're on. And he's figured it out."

Conversations about shared passions, sports and music are held over s'mores and bonfires at Bennett's Chicago-area home. These are sacred occurrences because of how difficult it can be aligning schedules; evenings that hold special meaning for the space they create for vulnerability away from the spotlight.

"We just sit, talk, we get to vent if we need to about anything that's on our minds," Buzelis said. "Everyone's understanding in that group, and they know the caliber of what we're talking about."

Other nights it's bowling, showing up at each other's games or attempting to move inconspicuously as they leave restaurants whose reservations are nearly impossible to snag.

Lately, it's no surprise who among the group gets recognized the fastest.

"When I go out with him, it's always about Caleb, and personally I kind of like that," Crow-Armstrong said. "It's a different kind of night out when he's around just because people f---ing love the dude."

Williams had "no room to breathe" when he and Crow-Armstrong sat on the glass for the Chicago Blackhawks-Winnipeg Jets game in January, one day removed from the Bears' season ending in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Like Williams, Blackhawks' captain Connor Bedard was also drafted No. 1 and carries the mantle of a franchise savior. The night before the Bears-Los Angeles Rams divisional playoff game on Jan. 18, Bedard arrived at the United Center for the Blackhawks game against the Bruins wearing Williams' orange Bears jersey.

"I wanted to order one, but obviously it wouldn't get there the day of, so I DoorDashed that [the night before the game]," Bedard told reporters.

Williams returned the show of support on Jan. 19, donning Bedard's No. 98 sweater as he and Crow-Armstrong were mobbed by fans as they climbed the aisle from their seats.

It was a similar scene the following night as Williams and Crow-Armstrong's offseason tour de Chicago sports continued. Buzelis was reminded that his friends were in attendance by the loud ovation Williams and Crow-Armstrong received when shown on the jumbotron.

Sitting on the baseline for Bulls-LA Clippers, the two cheered as Buzelis dropped 21 points in the win.

"Once I hear them coming, I want to put on a show," said Buzelis, who made All-Rookie second team last season. "And that's something I've been approaching in every game, not just when they show up, but them showing up shows how real they are and what kind of friendship we have."

When Williams went incognito at a Kanye West concert

As the Bears broke training camp in early September and were given four days off, Williams hauled it from Halas Hall to Wrigley Field through heavy Chicago traffic to take advantage of the only respite he would get until after the season.

His group, which included Buzelis, Bennett and Bulls rookie Caleb Wilson, arrived just in time to watch PCA launch his 39th home run of the season into center field, powering the Cubs to a 2-1 victory over the division rival Milwaukee Brewers.

Williams' group had tickets in a private suite but relinquished them in favor of a front-row view.

"I like being out with the people supporting one of my friends, Cubbie Pete, and so it was just kind of spur of the moment, wanted to sit out there," Williams said.

Crow-Armstrong wasn't aware his friends had witnessed another milestone on his way to becoming the seventh player in MLB history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases. It wasn't until he heard the "P-C-A" chants started by Buzelis, "all seven feet of goofy," Crow-Armstrong laughs. Williams and the rest of the crew clad in PCA's pinstriped jersey joined in and started slapping the top of the home dugout, prompting the center fielder to turn around and smile.

"You just get to feed off of that," Crow-Armstrong said. "As much as he is my friend, it juices me up when the quarterback of the Chicago Bears is getting people to chant for me."

The spotlight belonged to Crow-Armstrong that evening as the group celebrated his triumph and posed for pictures together in the locker room.

The following night, Williams avoided the spotlight completely. On the second night of Kanye West's sold-out homecoming concert at Soldier Field, Williams swapped his celebrity for anonymity.

"He had a suite ticket, and I was like, 'I'm going to watch it on the floor,'" Bennett said. "I want to experience this. I want to be in there.'

"He's like, 'I want to do it too.' I was like, 'Alright, if you do it, you need to wear a mask and glasses. You have to really, really be incognito.' So he came and was all masked up with glasses on, and no one recognized him, not a single person."

On the same field where he set the Bears' single-season passing record (3,942 yards) and gives tens of thousands of fans that pour into the stadium for games a reason to believe in the direction of the franchise, Williams immersed himself in the crowd wearing a black ski mask and dark sunglasses. For that night, he got to be a normal 24-year-old, simply one of nearly 71,000 fans in attendance, not his usual experience of being the one fans come to watch.

These moments and those with whom he has gotten to experience them keeps Williams grounded through a season that will undoubtedly shape the next chapter of his career in the NFL. In a city that he has grown to love surrounded by the relationships that support his ascension, Chicago holds a special place for Williams.

"I obviously want to be here forever," Williams said. "That's a goal of mine.

"When I made my goals, [it's] to be at one place until I'm done, until I decide that it's over for me and I want to go home and ride off into the sun."