Caleb Williams Blogs About Perspective, Protesting and Power

Caleb Williams is the top quarterback prospect in the 2021 class with scholarship offers from elite programs coast to coast. He has agreed to give Sports Illustrated exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from his experience as a high profile recruit to his home life and preparation for his senior season. This is …

Caleb Williams is the top quarterback prospect in the 2021 class with scholarship offers from elite programs coast to coast. He has agreed to give Sports Illustrated exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from his experience as a high profile recruit to his home life and preparation for his senior season. This is 'All on the Line.'

Hey guys, welcome back to another week. I know last week was a pretty exciting week, announcing the (commitment) date.

Announcing the final date, July 4, was the main topic. This week has been a deliberate type of week. I have had football meetings at Gonzaga, still been talking to coaches, still building bonds with a few players that I've come close to in this recruiting process. I worked out.

We had to travel. My family and I had to go to a funeral, we had a loss in the family. We had to take time and collect ourselves. This week definitely was more of a perspective week.

Things in life are coming into perspective. I have big things in my life that could be setbacks. Setbacks that could be progressing, good or bad, that you've got to get through. You have to push through, you gotta find a way. It was a perspective week for me.

Another perspective thing this week, with a lot of things going on in my life and everybody else's life right now with the protesting. I went protesting in Washington, D.C. A peaceful protest with a few of my teammates, a few classmates, a few people from other schools, teachers from others schools and my school. This is real to me because some of the people dying and being brutalized are around my age or even younger. The 13 year old in Tulsa arrested for jaywalking and the Atlanta college students tased and pulled from the car. This all is insane.

It was a peaceful protest. We walked the streets of Northwest D.C., had signs, we didn't say a word. It was peaceful about the Black Lives Matter movement, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor that keeps happening over and over. History just keeps remaking itself. We all supported, walking through the streets of D.C., went to the Capitol, said what we had to say and came back on the same route. We went to the Capitol to direct our attention to where laws actually are made.

It was an awesome experience to be a part of. This was not organized as an official Gonzaga school event. One of my teammates, he's an African-American student at my school who plays football with me, he's actually my running back. Joseph Hammond, number 20, he was one of the main guys who set this up. I'm proud of him; he stepped into a leadership role, which is what Coach T (Randy Trivers), my coach at Gonzaga, teaches us to do. Always step into the role you know that you are and that's what Joseph did. He also had an awesome poem, in the beginning, written by another African-American Gonzaga student and teammate, Richard Scott.

Joseph Hammond was one of the guys to set it up, one of the leaders of it. It felt like it would be an awesome way to let our voices be heard. They also came up with an awesome formation we were walking in to the Capitol, from North Capitol Street to the capital. It was basically African-Americans and other minorities lined up in a line. We were surrounded, like in a rectangle shape, by the white students and the white teachers — the people there supporting us. It was a pretty cool and unique formation and a pretty awesome experience. We were literally in the middle of the street, stopping traffic.

This week wasn't as fun as previous weeks, but sometimes life is like that. Next week will be more fun.

Signing off, Caleb Williams: All on the Line.

Make sure you're staying positive, staying safe, staying strong and washing your hands.