A pair of former Cleveland Browns players are eager to hang up their cleats
and retire from the team. Both wide receiver Rashard Higgins and linebacker
Christian Kirksey will sign one-day contracts with the team in order to finish
their careers wearing brown and orange.
After being selected in the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft, Kirksey played
his first six seasons with the Browns. Over the last three years of his Cleveland
career, he led the club as captain and started 54 games while wearing the
brown and orange. After that, he went on, playing for the Green Bay Packers
for a season and the Houston Texans for two.
Two years later, Higgins was selected by the Browns in the fifth round of the
2016 NFL Draft. Additionally, he played for six seasons in Cleveland prior to
agreeing to a one-year contract in 2022 with the Carolina Panthers. In
Cleveland, Higgins accumulated 1,900 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Congratulations, Christian and Rashard, on your successful professions
The Chicago Bears, the pride of league founder George “Papa Bear” Halas, are
the only NFL heirloom team that has survived the last century. Everything
about the squad is antiquated, including their neoclassical stadium, their 101-
year-old owner-matriarch, and their steadfast admiration for “Bear Weather,”
which refers to lake-effect winter conditions that solely impact the other side.
In a league where the passing game rules, the Bears’ ability to choose a
quarterback with the first pick in this month’s draft comes nearly thirty years
too late. Notably, the person they have their sights set on is not some
statuesque golden kid, a Harvard man, or the reincarnation of 1940s hero Sid
Luckman. Caleb Williams, General
On paper, Williams would seem to have just the kind of resume that the
owner-matriarch in question, Virginia McCaskey, might refer to as “the cat’s
pajamas.” He attended USC, a university football team that the numerous
Notre Dame supporters in Chicagoland at least have some respect for. After
winning the Heisman Trophy, he was compared to Johnny Lujack, an early
Bears two-way star. Williams shouldn’t be a snob about the uneven quality of
the Bears’ natural home turf because he spent the majority of his collegiate
career playing in the LA Memorial Coliseum, one of the few stadiums still
standing that can match Soldier Field’s historic status.
Paper, however, is a holdover from the analog world—the one the Bears
formerly ruled, winning eight titles prior to the Super Bowl era. Williams,
however, is a product of our always connected society. He marches to the beat
of his own drum and wasn’t even born when Tom Brady was drafted. The 22-
year-old chooses to energize himself for games by listening to John Legend’s
Ordinary People, which is a very un-Zoomer song. He pushes the boundaries
of fashion; he memorably posed for GQ wearing a red dress, white sneakers,
and gym socks. Traditional football fans took exception at that. “I’m not taking
him with my no. 1 choice,” a sports analyst from Barstool wrote on TikTok.
“I’m not even close to
And keyboard crusaders lost their minds again when Williams turned up to a
USC women’s basketball game this month with fingernails painted to match
his pink iPhone and wallet – which some predictably took as a sign that
Williams might be gay and, thus, unfit to be the face of an NFL franchise.
(Never mind that Williams has a girlfriend and that, besides, Carl
Nassib proved how few people actually care about pro footballers’ sexuality.)
“The most important qualities in a leader are being confident, being secure
with yourself, being bold and having everyone you’re leading want to follow
you,” the NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt said in Williams’s defense.
