“Bears fans shouldn’t rush to judgement after Caleb Williams’ first preseason action.” The other day, a local reporter said that was what everyone was going to do regardless of how he did.

Human nature dictates that we rush to judge-especially when it comes to professional sports. Years down the road, who will remember the initial reaction? It’s more than a hot take or being the first to comment. Football fans are so starved for actual games that they’ll put too much on any bit of action.

I’m neither naive nor provincial enough to believe that this headline wasn’t running in other NFL cities this weekend. Bears fans have been waiting for this debut forever. 110% of Bears fans can’t imagine Williams not being the best Bears QB ever. A small band of fans and media want to see him not live up to lofty expectations because it will fit their narrative of the Bears organization being a bunch of bunglers. It’s fitting that his first pro game (albeit an exhibition) had him facing a former Bears’ 1st round pick in Mitch Trubisky. Comparisons between the two are natural and expected.

Across the board, fans and media in 29 other cities are making ridiculous claims about players and coaches with an equally shoddy foundation as one preseason game. It doesn’t mean any of us are bad people, it proves we’re likely not to be the best judge of talent etc.

What’s funniest about the particular headline (not created by the author) is that this paper and every other paper in town, is going to rush to judge Williams based on this 17-snap performance. Although not spoken, that’s what we call verbal irony.