Dave Portnoy didn’t let Caleb Williams’ viral response go unanswered.
After Williams was carted off during the Bears’ Week 2 game against the Minnesota Vikings and initially appeared to be dealing with something far more serious, the quarterback became the center of a brief panic when he left the field in tears and gave the crowd a thumbs-up. Once the medical updates clarified that the issue was only a minor hamstring strain, Portnoy went after the reaction on Wake Up Barstool.
“The man tweaked his hammy and acted like both ACLs, MCLs, and everything else… What are we doing here?” Portnoy said.
Williams then pushed back by reposting a tweet that called Portnoy soft, followed by another post from an X account named Daemar that took aim at what it framed as hypocrisy. The reposted text read: “The guy that had a kid arrested and expelled from school for throwing pennies at him is calling someone else soft LMFAOOOOOO.”
That line pointed to a 2025 incident in Mississippi, when a college student yelled antisemitic slurs and threw coins at Portnoy during a pizza review. The student was later arrested for disturbing the peace and then withdrew from his university.
Portnoy saw Williams’ repost and answered by accusing the quarterback of spreading disinformation about him on social media. He denied that he personally had anyone arrested or kicked out of school, saying instead that the student was a moron who threw items at him on camera during a live pizza review and adding, “play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
Even after that exchange, Portnoy said he wouldn’t hold the repost against Williams. He still took another shot at the Bears quarterback, though, calling him emotional and saying he was in his feelings after tweaking his hamstring. Portnoy also added a sarcastic line about the injury, saying he can’t wait to see number 18 back on the field this week after that “season-ending injury.”
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