Caleb Williams answered Dave Portnoy’s “thespian” jab after his Week 2 hamstring injury with a repost, and Portnoy didn’t let it end there. A month after the Chicago Bears’ 9-3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the Barstool Sports founder has a new criticism, this time over Williams’ driving. He is now urging head coach Ben Johnson to take action before the next game.

“I think regardless of who you are rooting for tonight, we can agree it’s extremely reckless for Caleb Williams to be texting and driving. I’m not saying the league should suspend him for a half, but maybe if Ben Johnson is the leader of men, Bears fans say he is, he makes a point about driving safely. Some things are bigger than sports,” Dave Portnoy posted on X.

Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears welcome Drake Maye and the New England Patriots to Soldier Field for Thursday Night Football in Week 7. Both teams come in with matching records of 4-2.

Hours before kickoff, Williams drew heat over what he was doing behind the wheel. Dave Portnoy shared a video of the Bears quarterback texting on his phone while driving a blue luxury SUV through daytime traffic.

Portnoy and Williams have already had a public back-and-forth. In September, the Barstool Sports founder criticized Williams after the player was taken off the field on a cart with a hamstring strain. Portnoy called him a “thespian,” saying his reaction seemed more fitting for an ACL tear than an injury that would keep him out week to week.

Williams hit back on X by reposting a comment from a user named Daemar, who pointed to Portnoy’s past dispute involving a student who allegedly threw pennies at him.

“The guy that had a kid arrested and expelled from school for throwing pennies at him is calling someone else soft LMFAOOOOOO,” Daemar wrote.

Williams’ repost drew 1.3 million views and 35,000 likes, with little pushback from fans or the media. Now, Portnoy had another chance to criticize the player, this time over his driving.

However, that criticism is happening away from the field only. Williams returned from a three-game hamstring injury in Week 6 and led Chicago to a 31-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons.

He finished 30 of 36 for 305 yards and a touchdown, pushing his season completion percentage to 72.5%. His 83.3% on the day is the best single-game mark in Bears history for a quarterback with at least 30 attempts.

He talked about how he got there during the week as he prepared for New England.

“I said that I could do it, and we’re going to keep figuring out how to keep getting to that,” Williams said. “Part of it is just building confidence in myself, building confidence in the playbook, building confidence in my wide receivers and where they’ll be, even if I can’t see them. It’s putting the ball where they will be and just trusting them. That’s what we’ve been doing; that’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

The performance earned him NFC Offensive Player of the Week. It’s his second time winning the award, following Week 3 last season, when he threw for 298 yards and four touchdowns, with a career-high 142.6 passer rating, in a 31-14 win over the Cowboys.

NFL Next Gen Stats also noted he completed all 24 passes from a clean pocket, the most completions without a miss in that situation since 2018.

Williams hasn’t addressed the texting video publicly. Meanwhile, the Bears feel good about having him back.

They went 2-1 without him, then moved to 4-2 once he returned, and with him at quarterback, they look like a real Super Bowl contender.