Last summer, a controversy brewed in Dallas after rookie receiver Dez Bryant refused to carry the pads of teammate Roy Williams.
Now Williams is in Chicago, and he had no trouble finding a rookie to carry his pads.
Jimmy Young, an undrafted rookie receiver from TCU, said he was surprised anyone even questioned whether he’d hold up the longstanding tradition of rookies having to carry veterans’ pads.
“I got a text message from somebody, and they were just like, ‘Man, I’m glad you didn’t pull a Dez Bryant.’ I’m like, ‘What?’” Young told ESPNChicago.com. “They just said something about me carrying Roy Williams’ pads, and I told them that it wasn’t a big deal to me at all. I had a free hand. I just grabbed them and went with it. It wasn’t a big deal.
Williams was pleased that Young did as he was told.
“Oh man, it was lovely,” Williams said. “I was like, ‘Hey 19, take my pads.’ ‘Yes sir.’ There was no, ‘I ain’t got to do this’ -- none of that, so it was good.”
At a time when Jack Del Rio has outlawed rookie hazing at Jaguars camp, things are different in Chicago: Williams is still trying to put rookies in their place.