Posted by ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert
Here's an interesting admission for all you Chicago Bears conspiracy theorists out there.
First-round draft choice Chris Williams acknowledged Sunday that he had been diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back before the Bears selected him in the April draft, according to this report in the Chicago Sun-Times. That injury flared up on the second day of training camp, leading to major surgery Aug. 7.
Team officials have said repeatedly it was a new injury. They are hopeful he will return this season and have not placed him on injured reserve, but nothing is certain at this point.
Here's what Williams said Sunday, courtesy the Sun-Times:
"I had a herniated disc before I got here. We knew that. Everyone knew that. It just was a thing where most people it doesn't affect. It wasn't affecting me so if nothing is broke, you don't fix it. Then something happened in practice that second day, the disc started moving and that caused some problems."
In terms of truth-telling, this could be a matter of semantics; the Bears could well consider the "something" that happened on the second day of camp to have been a new injury.
Regardless, we won't make excuses for them. Williams' admission doesn't put the Bears' front office in the best light. Williams' medical history, specifically his back, scared off some teams but the Bears selected him with the No. 14 overall pick in the draft. They re-arranged their offensive line under the assumption that he would be their opening-day left tackle, and ultimately will have to patch things together because of an injury that -- at best -- shouldn't be a surprise.
Seifert joined ESPN.com in 2008 after covering the Minnesota Vikings for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for eight years. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and daughter.
