Bears QB Caleb Williams admits he was catfished by Ben Johnson imposter

Bears QB Caleb Williams was catfished by a Ben Johnson imposter, and Amon-Ra St. Brown played a part in why.

Over the weekend, a text exchange and video went viral, appearing to display a couple of kids tricking Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams into thinking they were Detroit Lions coordinator Ben Johnson and he was the Bears’ next coach. The video shows—from the kids’ point of view—Williams eventually hopping on a FaceTime to confirm their identity, only to find out he was tricked. Both had a good laugh about it. No harm, no foul.

On Tuesday, Williams joined the “St. Brown Brothers” podcast and confirmed the story was indeed true. In fact, Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown played an important part in the story.

It’s still unclear how the kids got Williams’ number, but when he got the text from the imposters, Williams reached out to St. Brown to see if the number was actually Johnson’s. As St. Brown recalls, he essentially scoffed at the idea of Johnson joining the Bears.

“He texted me, ‘Yo, what’s Ben’s number? I got these random dudes trying to hit me up saying they’re Ben’ and whatever,” St. Brown recalls. “I go, ‘Fuck outta here. Ben ain’t coming to Chicago.’”

Williams jumped in.

“He thinks I’m trying to play a joke. I’m being deadass,” Williams said.

Williams texted back, explaining what was happening, but it fell upon deaf ears. By then, St. Brown was out to dinner and wasn’t looking at his phone. By the time the Lions wideout saw Williams’ messages, the catfishing had already been done. Williams had FaceTimed the imposters, and just hours later, the video was on the internet and going viral.

Williams credits the authentic-looking text as the reason he took the bait.

“The text was so, like, official,” Williams said. “Like, I’ve gotten that text from college coaches and other coaches before getting drafted and all that in different ways. So it looked mad professional. So I was like, ‘Alright, I’m just going to reach out.’”

Williams admitted he was immediately “fuming” after getting catfished. But with a couple of days to take it all in, he admitted it was a pretty good prank.

“I ain’t gonna lie, it was a classic prank,” Williams said. “It was a Grade-A, S-tier prank. I gotta give him props. I wasn’t locked in in the moment.”

And in case you were wondering, yes, Williams has changed his phone number since.

Here’s the duo explaining what happened, and you can watch the entire podcast here.