Earlier this week, Caleb Williams tasted defeat for the second time in his NFL career after the Bears lost 13-19 to the Texans. The talking point, however, was the awkward post-match interaction between Caleb and CJ Stroud, where the rookie looked to be disinterested while CJ was sharing words of wisdom.
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This visual of “lil bro-ing” led to the Texans QB receiving a lot of flak online. But CJ and his mom are unfazed by the criticism.
Yesterday, during the Texans’ pre-match media interaction, Stroud clarified that both he and Caleb knew that he wasn’t belittling the rookie. Stroud, by his own admission, was simply acting as a wellwisher. He further added:
“I had so many guys coming to me after games last year and that meant the world to me that those guys even thought about giving me advice. I just try to give back to what the game is giving me. I wish him the best man. I want him to do amazing in this league. I think he will.”
While some netizens still didn’t believe CJ’s statement, his mother, Kimberly, certainly did. Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, she reassured her son that he need not pay heed to the haters.
Kim did so by sharing the clip of CJ’s media address and paired it with a caption urging the QB to continue being himself:
Keep being you C.J. Your a blessing https://t.co/SOS84cYkjs
— Kim Stroud (@KimStroud510) September 18, 2024
Kim’s message for Stroud instantly went viral as hoards of netizens flocked to the comment section to leave positive remarks. This warm reception also reflects just how Stroud is heralded by many as one of the most likable personalities in the league, despite this being his sophomore year.
Thus, it’s baffling to see fans hate the QB for simply giving tips to a rookie. And for what it’s worth, unless someone has a personal beef with CJ, it’s hard to dislike him for what he shared with Caleb.
What did Stroud tell Caleb post-match?
After the Texans routed the Bears, Stroud marched over to Caleb and first gave him some false assurance after he had a stinker of a game.
“Good job out there bro,” said the Texans QB to the rookie. He then asked Caleb to sort out one glaring mistake he made today, which is to “stop taking those hits”. The Bears QB, at this point, seemed tired as he dryly acknowledged CJ before walking away.
It is at this point when Stroud went the extra mile as he got hold of the departing Caleb. “Hey, learn… look, come here,” he said before asking him to learn from his mistakes, as that’s all he needs to do to be great. “You are gonna be a hell of a player,” said the Texans star to Caleb before leaving.
For fans, CJ’s act of catching hold of a departing and seemingly disinterested Caleb to give advice was the tipping point. Netizens saw this as an act of “lil bro-ing”. But as CJ clarified, he just wants the rookie to do the best.
As someone who was in a similar position to Caleb last year, CJ is ideally the best mentor the rookie could have. So instead of Bears fans contributing to trolling Stroud, they should perhaps be grateful that a rival QB cares so much about their star player. Especially since kindness is a rarity these days.
