Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - 5 On It: Reacting to optimistic injury news on Caleb Williams

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote discussed a variety of sports topics in the 5 On It segment.

The hour is being brought to you by vasectomy clinics of Chicago. It's time for five on it. Rahimi and Grody. Bring you five topics on their minds today. On 104-3, the score. I got five on it. Number one. You're listening to a Plummer's 911 football Monday presented by Bucie Bank and great clips.

Here's question number one. NFL insider Tom Pelliserra posted this update on X regarding the status of Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, writing that Williams, quote, avoided any major injury to his hamstring Sunday. Test confirmed today. And the team isn't even ruling him out for next Monday's game against the Eagles. Sources tell him the ringer and Netflix sports. So here's the question on a scale of 1 to 10. The optimism meter.

The optimism meter. Try to say that 10 times fast. Trademark. Where would you rate your level of optimism about this Caleb Williams injury update? Let's do it. Optimism meter, optimism meter, optimism meter, optimism meter, optimism meter. Optimism meter. Optimism meter.

Optimism meter. We went to college for this, Ray. But then I'll just mess up basic words and sometimes my name. I love how you have a degree, Grotie, and saying optimism meter, 10 times fast. Hey, the 10 times fast drill, famous at Wrigley, at Illinois State. That's what it takes to be a Hall of Famer. That's a unique New York. Oh, yeah.

That's a big North Texas thing right there. How about Brunk out. Yes. Mm-hmm. Would you like to go first, ma'am? What is your optimism? Since we did the optimism meter? Since you showed up, Ray.

Yoll. Yeah. No. Thanks, Leila. Yeah. You heard our producer. But you know I mess up basic words. That's out there.

Bears. Yeah. Focus. I really want to believe this, but I think we need more information. I know Ben Johnson said, Caleb Williams is week to week, but you know what the retort is on that. Aren't we all? We don't know the grade of the hamstring until the bears say what the grade of the hamstring strain is. And also, don't we all know how finicky soft tissue injuries can be?

Did we not just deal with this with Mune and the White Sox, for example? And, oh, I don't know. The White Sox over years. And maybe that's the worst example I can give. But point being, this is not necessarily a simple process when it comes to how you feel about it. So I'm putting my optimism meter at like a, because it wasn't something else. It truly was a hamstring. I'm putting it at like a six.

Okay. It's still optimistic. But I just don't necessarily know. Red leather. yellow leather. Work with that one, kids. Ten in a row. Red leather, yellow.

Oh, error. Oh, yeah. I'll be working on these like Hail Marys for messing up the optimism. We're going to coach you up, Ray. We're going to turn you into a broadcaster yet, kid. We got you. I'm actually at like a 7.5. I always thought about going to an 8 relative to what we thought to be hearing things like

week to week and not serious. Like, I still think he'll probably miss a game. and maybe like two games, but considering what it felt like it could have been and could still be, we don't know, I feel pretty good about this. I also like the fact that this and this will frustrate the hell out of all of us and we'll all be wanting to know what it's going to be.

This provides Ben Johnson with a week's worth of gamesmanship. If they are telling Tom Pelliserro that they haven't ruled out playing them on Monday night, Let the games begin. Let the games begin. You talk about preparing for two different quarterbacks. My goodness, between Caleb Williams and Tyson-Bajant. That is a lot. That is a discernible difference between the two.

So I am here for what could be a week of, we'll see about Caleb and game time decisions and things like in the drama that will occur throughout the week. My prediction is he doesn't play. But who knows? So much better than I thought. So it went up to an eight. Oh my God, it just got to eight for me, my optimism meter.

I just don't do what the Ravens did with Lamar last year, where you say he's ready and that he's not and he get fined big money. Just don't do one of those. Unless it helps the team win. You do what you need to do. Oh, really? Take one for the team. Bend the rules. Cheat.

Do what you got to do. We're all here for the gluttony. I don't think George McCasky is willing to pay for any fines. That's true. They were fined $100,000. Is it worth $100,000? That's the question. Yes.

no. George might say no, but would another owner say yes? Number two. Outside of the biggest story of the game, which was Caleb Williams exiting the game with a hamstring injury, what was your biggest takeaway from the Bears 9-3 lost to the Vikings' social field yesterday? I mean, I guess from me, it is that the defense got better and the conditions were favorable for better defense, but the fact that the bears go through a week in which

the defense was tortured for 478 yards and then it goes down to 246 and you do a good job and you play inspired. We saw improvement from T.J. Edwards with a couple of nice open field tackles. We see Austin Booker get on the board with a sack. We see Diodangbo with the coverage sack. We see Malik Mohamed with the third and seven blitz getting home. That is a sick play and I love that Dennis Allen went with that. We see the progress of Dylan Theanman. And so a week after we were all like, oh, man, like, is this going to be what screws you over come postseason time?

It was nice to see the Bears defense have a good game in conditions that were favorable to having a better game, for sure. Did you guys know that Carson Wentz is 5'0 against the Bears? No. What? Yeah. For all of our Kevin O'Connell undefeated at Soldier Field and all that mess. Lost on me was the information about Carson Wentz's success against the Bears. He's this era's Brock Osweiler.

Oh, my God. E. Yeah, yeah. That was the surprising, one of the more surprising nuggets in Brad Biggs 10 things. I was like, what? How? And then there's also, oh, yeah, by the way, the KOC undefeated streak still goes. Like, that sucks.

Seven in a row at Soldier. Yeah, seven in a row now. That is the franchise record. for consecutive road wins over a division opponent. I might have to start getting a little bit angrier with Vikings fans. Boy, our algorithm found Vikings fans. I tell you what, they're into our mentions, man. I wish it I could say like, oh, they're not, no, some of the replies are pretty funny.

Yeah. Like, the whole thing has gotten to be amusing and the madcapness of it all. I've enjoyed it, actually, because we all, of course, pick the bears to win. That is loud and proud on Instagram right now. And the Viking, our friends from the North have, joined us here on the score and they are coming after us mightily. Yeah, but it's, they should be able to gloat right now.

I know. They took down Green Bay. You were down 12. I wish that I could say I'm like upset or defensive. Well, I was walking in. I was walking into Soldier Field yesterday. I was making my walk from the South Loop going through the tunnel through the museum campus. And there's bears and Vikings fans hanging out enjoying a little game of Green Bay sucks. There they were. The enemy of my enemy is. my friend. But not at the end. At the end, those

Vikings fans walking out were laughing at the Bears. So, I might have to come after a little bit. They've got a mixed bag too. Like, ultimately, that's why I'm like, okay, what are your answers for your season? Is it whence? No, it's Kyler Murray. He's in the protocol. So how do you really feel

about everything? Yeah, well, give them this. We'll move on to the Vikings. They only scored three points. We all know it was the rain. We all know. The biggest takeaway for me is actually the fact that they didn't run the ball enough. It's it. That's it. They started to run the ball more in the second half.

Then they stopped for some reason I don't understand. And then it stopped working again. So it's okay to be simple and basic and not always sexy. Sometimes you just got to chip away at people. Sometimes you've got to do death by a thousand cuts. And I know poor DeAndre Swift had a peanut punch and lost a football. And I know that there are still risks that are associated with the run game. Like we said, sometimes they were just running for no gain.

But it doesn't mean you abandon it all. together because your passing game wasn't really working for you either. So these are your options? Well, then run the ball. And then, I don't know, roll out like you do a Tyson-Bajit. Move the pocket. Mixing a screen. Some simple stuff.

Sammy Sosa sells seashells by the seashore. Try that one. Irish, oh, this is a good one. Irish wristwatch. I can't even, I started to laugh. Irish wristwatch. Number three. It's 500.000.

the score. Green grapes. Greek grapes. Greek green grapes. This is five out and I 104 through this score with Leila Rahimi and Mark Grody. Here is question number three. Which bears player disappointed you the most yesterday? Who has let you down? Who has hurt you, Leila? I can't. I know a lot of people are going to say Sam Roush. I know a lot of people are going to say Garrett-Bradbury.

Oh, you're going hipster here. I know that those are two. Sam Rosh is a rookie. I still have a longer leash with him. I just don't understand why he was the one. being passed to at times when you have Colston Loveland and you have Colquemette. That is a great mystery to me, but that's not on a player. That's on a guy named Ben Johnson. So as far as I think most disappointing, outside of that, it's really hard to say. The offensive line got the game ball last week.

Do I give it to, quote, the line? But it's not really their fault. Now you're giving on game balls? this question. No, no, no, I'm saying the disappointing. If you, if you can get credit as a unit, can you take their ball away? Yeah, I just, but that, that's not even really fair, but like, Darnell

right got beat at times in this game. The left side had people, like, they were mixing it up on the left tackle side. Like, we haven't even talked about that part. Yeah, Theo Benedet, I mean, it was a plan, by the way, it's been a plan rotation two weeks in a row at left tackle. Theo

Benedict's spelling Braxton Jones. Good response. It's definitely an offensive player. Can I give mine? Yeah, because I can't, I can't name it. It is Carrey Bradbury. I mean, how could it not be?

Like, from my perspective. It could be Sam Roush, but he's a rookie. I don't really. Yeah. Take Sam Rosh then. It was disappointing. I mean, it was very disappointing. Like, you can't cost your team points, man.

It's okay. It's okay. And you drop too many balls. And Ben Johnson was like, well, we don't want our players to drop balls. Like, he talked about that in the off season. Well, here we are again. Here we are again, friends. Garrett Bradbury and Sam Roush.

Those are your answers. All right, fine. Guys, rubber baby buggy bumper. There's another one for you. It's an Irish wristwatch. Ray, you nailed it. And I'm like, Ruh.

Red light, green light. Oh, wait. Toy boat. Toy boat. That's good. Toy boat. Toy boat. Try boat.

Try boat. Toy boat. Oh, toy boat. Toy boat. That's the correct answer. Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat.

Toy boat. Yeah. Sounds like the disappointing ones are us. You lost, buddy. It's the friends we've made along the way. You know, don't go to that broadcast school, man. You got to go for your college if you want to talk like us. You know who didn't disappoint me yesterday?

Joe Tooney, who also even had some downfield blocks. Old Joe Tooney. Yep. What do we got next? Number four. Down in a hole. What stood out to you about the Cubs and White Sox this weekend? They both took two of three.

Yeah. Yeah. That was fantastic. We needed that. here we are talking about all the malaise and the baseball teams are like, what the heck, Leila? We tried over here. And I'm like, yes, you guys did.

I'm worried about Alex Bregman. I've been asked about whether or not we would get an update on him today. I'm assuming since the Cubs are off, unless it comes from Bregman himself, which he did post a picture of that foul ball to the face. And oh, my God, it's gross. I don't think we get an update on him until tomorrow. By the way, friends, you better go while you can because fan appreciation days on Saturday. Yeah, yeah.

And the White Sox had a clunker of a game on Friday, as we know. That one absolutely slipped away from them. Blue an 8-2 lead. Yeah, and that was historical for the Tigers, I believe. I don't think that the Tigers at that point had never won a game when trailing by more than six, at least six or more runs or something. Or maybe it wasn't never, it was something outrageous, like over 140 games. Newcomb and Hudson both giving up home runs in that game.

Not good. And David Sandlin certainly did not follow up his, the perfection he had had for five and a third in the previous hour. That was not how you take the first game of a series. But then they came back and were able to take a game to the Saturday game and then the Sunday game. Yeah, because I know that was. So I was really happy to see that. So over the weekend set, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. That's what they were able to do.

And then the Cubs, same thing. You know, they were able to respectfully get two out of three. And that made me really happy. So go baseball teams. I'm still waiting to see if Alex Bergman is okay. Oh, by the way, PCA is 45. Yeah, man, it's pretty amazing. Both teams have the day off today.

Sox are at KC tomorrow. The Cubs will host Miami tomorrow, then at Boston to finish their series. The Saturday game is what I'll point to for the Cubs, because very quietly in that game, Daniel Polencia, two shutout innings, three strikeouts. He entered in the sixth with the Cubs leading three to, a strikeout right away of De La Cruz, and old Sal Stewart,

that annoying rookie for the Reds, was a K-victum as well. And maybe we'll get into some of this later on the week, but Craig Counsel was great after that game because he was like, this is what I'm telling you guys, I got to keep putting them out there. And he's like, I know I sounded like a broken record, but I got to keep putting them out there.

So I love seeing that. And then I'll do it for the White Sox as well from their Saturday game. Noah Schultz coming into the game in the seventh inning, three one socks, three strikeouts in that inning. Now, he did allow runners on first and second in that inning, but Grant Taylor comes in, cleans it up. Grant Taylor, inning in a third, one hit and the save. My brain is in playoff mode. That's why I'm looking at bullpen here.

So the Tigers were 0 and 149, went down by at least six runs at any point until Friday. And they did take game one, the Thursday game. But since we said over the weekend, that's why I said. Three out of four, but two out of three over the weekend. That was the moon of Takamurakami three-run homer game. And shout out to like everybody. That was also the good defense game. They had good defense on Thursday, too.

Yeah. Yeah, like shout out to everybody who endured yesterday's game, the four-hour rain delay in a socks eight-one win and somehow chased Midroth hitting a two-run homer's 15th of the season. That guy's surprising. Sam Antanachi with a two-run double. I walked home from Soldier Field last night. And the wind was just like, I'm not a small dude.

Wind was pushing me. And like I had that like my earbuds were about to pop out of my, like that kind of wind. That's what they were dealing with last night on the south side. So really shout out to the fans that managed to stick it out. And the players for playing through that, that's like a good win for the White Sox last night to score eight runs. And that crazy, drizzly, tornatic activity is what it felt like. Well, it was just a really strong series, you know, to get three out of four. against the tigers.

That's how you breathe a little easier. You know, that's how you maintain that division lead. Five on it. Number five. Final question here on five on it. You guys all attended Riot Fest over the weekend. So I asked, did your time at Riot Fest make up for yesterday's bad bears game? And I said, I want the division lead.

But yeah, at least playoff. You're in playoff lead. Did my time at Riot Fest make up for yesterday's bad Bears game? So I went on Friday and we all went as a show. So that was fun because we don't spend enough time together, obviously. We got to spend a little more time together in our free time. Five hours a day in a studio. So six, if you count the meeting.

So, yeah, for us it was fun to go to the show. And all American rejects were great. That's the band we saw and then Rise Against who put on a tremendous show. They're very good live. In our peripheral, like we weren't there for it. But it was like, oh, they do a nice show, rise against. Yeah, they alternate the stages there for the, I think, the two main stages, which was really cool. And then I was, I really wanted to see 21 pilots because I had seen them before live.

They put on a fantastic show. And somehow they still found a way to reinvent a festival stage and then still get into the crowd and still play at different levels. There was a drum kit on the top of the stage, like the actual, you know, the upper scaffolding of the stage, which was really neat. Yeah. So it was good, but I don't know that it made up for the Bears game. It was good. But the Bears game is, you know, that dominates our weekly conversation. For me, it did not make up for the Bears game just because it could not have been more opposite than what we expected.

All that's, none of that stuff was supposed to happen in the Bears game. I will just say this because we're to expand our Riot Fest conversation tomorrow. I'll tell you what I thought of 21 pilots because it was my first time seeing it. and Lela and everybody was like, oh, Grady, you're going to love, you're going to love 21 pilots. I'll tell you about that, but I will tell you about my victory on Saturday.

I'll be honest with you guys. I was not quite sure if I was going to go on Saturday to Riot Fest. I just, I gave a lot getting in and out of Riot Fest. It could be very difficult. But I wanted to see Tool. I've never seen Tool. I'm a late bloomer at the Tool. When I heard that they were moving Tool up to 6 o'clock,

I was like, that's it. I'm going. You know what? I'm going on my own terms. Guys, I'm driving to Douglas Park. That was a smart move after a Friday. And I was rewarded because I found a street parking spot about 20 minutes from Douglas Park. An easy, pleasant, enjoyable walk, to be honest with you.

I went myself. I went to the tool stage. Saw Morrissey before that, which was pretty excellent. he's so angry. And then I saw Tool, and it was, here's the thing about Tool. They just rock. There are certain bands that just effing rock.

And that's what Tool did. And I'll talk more about my tool experience and give you the full review. But I went, I loved, I had my Slicker, had my Slicker on as well. I was prepared for it all, walked out of there, walked 20 minutes to my car, went home, and had a great night.

So I am proud of my slicker. for what I accomplished. We have an observant texter here who's bringing up something that's a good point. 6-30. I'm highly doubting the Cubs play in Boston this weekend. Maybe a neutral-site game. You know what we have coming? Grody, take it seriously.

We got Nor-Easterly coming. Take it, take it seriously. Northeasterly. They hurt people. I love a good, Nor' Easter. You know that. I'm sorry. I guess I'm not very sensitive.

You love watching for the Nor'Easter. We're going to have more on Riot Fest tomorrow. Yeah. So, I might wrong feel kind of good about the socks with just the Kansas City and Rocky Series left. Is that, I shouldn't say it, should I? Not on a day like today. What were you going to say? The White Sox?

I just, I. Magic numbers four. Yeah. Quatro. Exactly. Cubs is one. They're only one game back of the Guardian. Is Arizona?

Nobody's playing tonight. I don't think Arizona is playing tonight. No, there's only three games in baseball today. Did not see. I will give that away. right, Fester's, did not see William Shatner. I just, yeah, didn't eat it. How do you feel about watching a combination of either Blue Jays, Orioles,

Nationals, Nationals, Tigers, or twins and giants? Sounds like Monday Night Football to me. Yes, it does. Yeah. All right, let's take you inside. I've been teasing this. I've got some audio from the locker, freshly mined from the Bears locker yesterday,

from Garrett Bradbury, Sam Rosh, and Jalen Johnson. We will take you inside the Bears locker room next. on Rahimi and Grotie on 1043, the score.