A college football legend made a surprise cameo in the season premiere of “Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Chicago Bears,” while an Olympics icon made a less surprising but still notable appearance as well.
Nick Saban was a guest of the Bears for a day during one of their opening practices of training camp, meeting with several members of the team, including one in particular with whom he shares a longtime bond. Long before he won six titles at Alabama, Saban coached Bears head coach Matt Eberflus when the latter was a linebacker at Toledo in 1990.
[Read more: ‘Hard Knocks’ preview: Key storylines to follow at Bears training camp]
The freshly retired Saban gave his former player some tips on how to handle Caleb Williams, the highly-regarded No. 1 overall pick from the 2024 NFL Draft.
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“Here’s my theory on why NFL quarterbacks fail at such a dramatic rate: To me, expectations are a killer,” Saban told Eberflus in the episode. “This kid you got, this kid’s got so much media, so much hype, so much expectations on doing well and he has to develop so quickly to meet the expectations everybody has of him, it’s almost impossible.”
Eberflus remarked that “there is a development phase” with Williams and all rookies, saying that players should understand by Year 3 “once they’re in our system.”
Saban continued to harp on managing the expectations for Williams in his conversation with Eberflus, but agreed that development is the most important aspect.
“I think that’s the biggest thing you’ve got to worry about with your quarterback,” Saban said. “The expectations are a killer, but yet, to use your word, development is the key for him. Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions when he was a rookie. It was the most in history [for an NFL rookie]. But it didn’t affect him. It’s like the scoreboard, the scoreboard don’t mean anything until the game is over. Human nature is to be average. It’s just survive. It’s not to win championships. It’s not to be the best you can be. It’s none of those things.
“We think as coaches that just because a guy’s a good athlete, he wants all of that. Now, every now and then, you get a guy who’s got all the right stuff, who’s a great leader and does everything right … but there’s not very many guys like that. You’ve got to make them that way.”
Eberflus at one point asked Saban, who like him has a defensive background, if he ever did anything special with his quarterbacks. Saban responded that he would always stand behind his quarterback during practice in order to “hear their version of what was happening.”
“I was never negative with them in front of the rest of the team,” Saban continued. “It was always more effective to me to show them than it was to tell them. Your position is hard to play if the people around you don’t play well. So, what are you going to do to enhance that? How are you going to get the guys around you to play well? You’ve got to have good work ethic, you’ve got to be able to overcome adversity, you’ve got to reinforce positive performance from the other players. You can’t be a transactional leader.”
Nick Saban on Caleb Williams and rookie QBs: ‘Expectations are a killer’
Much of the opening episode was focused on Williams and his development early on in practice. NFL Films offered a peek into one of the conversations Williams had with Eberflus between practices. The Bears coach told his quarterback that he had already notably improved through the first seven practices of training camp.
“You have [gotten better]. It’s night and day,” Eberflus told Williams when they were discussing ball placement.
Here are some other highlights from the season premiere of “Hard Knocks.”
Simone Biles makes an appearance
If you watched Biles perform at the 2024 Summer Olympics, you likely saw her husband, Bears safety Jonathan Owens, watching her in the crowd. He got an excused absence from Bears training camp and the Hall of Fame Game in order to watch his wife in Paris.
While Owens was overseas, his work didn’t stop. Eberfus requested him to bring his iPad so he could receive the team’s installs. Owens also packed a football.
Biles was keeping tabs on things stateside as well. Just before Owens left the couple’s house to meet his wife in Paris, Biles FaceTimed her husband to give him some travel tips — and check in on their three dogs. Owens also shared what parts of Biles’ routine he likes the most.
“Floor, I like floor because you get to see how powerful she is,” Owens said. “I try to remember her routine. So, there’ll be random times where she’s on the floor, she does something and I try to be up there knowing the beats just so I know what’s going on.”
Biles won gold medals in the team and individual all-around events as well as the vault. She added a silver medal in the floor exercise.
The Bears put the finishing touches on their standout receiver’s deal in the opening weeks of training camp. They wound up giving Moore a four-year contract worth $110 million with $82.6 million guaranteed.
“The why behind it is the dependability, durability and production have been so consistent,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles told team staffers on why Moore was getting a large contract. “We feel really good about this. He can play free and take care of his family. That’s what it’s all about.”
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Moore was pulled out of practice to sign the deal. He played it cool when he returned a few moments later.
“That’s a mood alterer. One less thing to worry about,” Moore said.
Caleb Williams gets booed during rookie karaoke session
The Bears rookie quarterback was humbled in one of his first team-bonding experiences of training camp. During the traditional rookie karaoke session, Williams opted to sing John Legend’s “Ordinary People.” After flubbing one of the first lines of the song, Williams’ Bears teammates jokingly heckled, hollered and booed him. Some even threw some things at him.
Undrafted rookie offensive lineman Theo Benedet stole the show during his rookie karaoke time. The native Canadian sang “God Bless the USA” shirtless — accompanied by a teammate playing cymbals — before removing his pants in front of his teammates to reveal a speedo with a bald eagle on his crotch. Eberflus called him, “The Canadian Eagle,” following the performance. Unfortunately, Benedet suffered a groin strain in the Bears’ Hall of Fame game against the Houston Texans that will sideline him for the rest of training camp.
Danny Parkins weighs in on Caleb Williams not playing in the HOF game
All the Chicago love
Bears fans will notice several tributes to the city their team calls home throughout the episode. The opening sequence features narration and clips of the Bears’ history as the “Monsters of the Midway” as current players wave to fans as they take a boat down the Chicago river, all with the iconic “Hard Knocks” theme playing in the background. The scene immediately after that is a pitch-perfect homage to the opening scene of the 1980 musical comedy hit “Blues Brothers,” which is set in the Chicago area.
The “Hard Knocks” team even got famed former Chicago Bulls public address announcer Ray Clay to recreate his iconic lineup introductions that Michael Jordan and his teammates would walk out to in their 1990s NBA dynasty. This time, though, Clay introduced Caleb Williams in this trademark voice.
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