Source: Bears QB Williams fined again for cleats

Caleb Williams' decision to wear Caddix cleats is becoming costly. The NFL has fined the Chicago Bears quarterback $23,882 for sporting Caddix cleats in Week 7, a source confirmed to ESPN on Thursday. That is double the fine ($11,941) Williams received for wearing the same shoe in his return from a hamstring injury in Week 6, issued because the shoe contains an "unauthorized logo." Only Nike, Adidas and Under Armour have partnerships with the NFL, which is why Williams was fined for a uniform violation. If a player chooses to wear a shoe by another brand, the logo must be covered. Williams told ESPN on Wednesday that he does not plan to cover or black out the Caddix logo when he wears the cleats for Chicago's game at the Seattle Seahawks on Monday. He has already appealed his Week 6 fine, according to a source, which Caddix says the company will pay if Williams loses his appeal. "From a safety metric perspective, Caleb's cleats are one of the safest pairs players can wear," Caddix founder Jack Rasmussen said in a statement to ESPN. "Regardless if this is a marketing fine or not, I'm happy to pay it." Williams wore Caddix cleats throughout the preseason and during the Bears' first two regular-season games. After missing Weeks 3 through 5 because of a hamstring injury, he returned to action against the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots, becoming the first Bears quarterback since Mitchell Trubisky (2018) to record back-to-back 300-yard passing games. Founded in 2015, Caddix was built around patented "SmartStuds" technology, which is "designed to flex and release during cutting and pivoting, reducing rotational torque transmitted through the foot and into the knees and ankles, a force associated with noncontact ACL tears and other knee and ankle injuries," according to the company's website. Williams said the decision he made to be one of an estimated 40 NFL players currently wearing Caddix cleats was due to the shoe's focus on injury prevention. The quarterback also noted how his joints, ankles, knees and feet have not bothered him "as much from the other cleats that I've worn." "As we've known for the past couple of years now, I'm huge into my body," Williams said. "I'm huge into trying to stay on the field. I'm huge into trying to be healthy. It's a rough game and things like that. So the cleats, they've been great. They've been super comfy and they've worked. They are a science type of cleat. It's something that focuses on when you plant on the hard plants on turf or grass, they call them SmartStuds, and they move when you move in these hard plants. They take tension off of your tendons, your joints and all of that. So over the course of a long career or over the course of a long year, when you can take some percentage -- it could be 1, it could 50, it could be 12, it could be whatever, you know. When you take that percentage off consistently over a period of time, you know, you get to have the chance, a higher chance of being healthy. And so that's what I focus on. "I try to be healthy. They're smart cleats. They're science cleats, and they've been working for me. A bunch of other guys wear them in the league, and they're forward-focused on making sure players stay on the field, and that's what I'm always focused on." ProFootballTalk first reported the news of Williams' second fine.