Seth Wickersham’s new book, ‘American Kings: A Biography Of The Quarterback’, is an in depth exploration of the nature and history of the position since its inception in 1906, seen through the lives and tales of quarterbacks over the span of multiple generations.
So in speaking to him in an exclusive interview with Heavy, it is natural that the first question asked to him to focus on the important stuff.
“Is buying condoms in bulk for your son doing too much?”, I asked Wickersham.
This was in reference to a section of the book that revealed that Chicago Bears quarterback, Caleb Williams‘ father, Carl, was doing just that during his son’s stint at USC, living in an apartment in downtown Los Angeles.
“That’s a parenting question, right?”
Much of the book focuses on the relationship between quarterbacks and their parents: Carl notoriously felt a keen sense of duty to not waste his son’s immense talent in attempting to prevent Caleb from landing with the Bears; John Elway would sit and eat pizza with his father, Jack, whilst grinding over film tape on Friday nights, instead of spending his weekends partying with his friends and teammates.
But the question always arises as to where the line gets drawn between nurturing one’s child’s talent, and turning their promise and signs of ability into an ego-trip for themselves.
Numerous studies have pointed out, as Wickersham duly explains, that one of the main reasons for children leaving youth sports comes down to the ride home; getting grilled by a well-intentioned but often over-ambitious, “coach-like” parent seeking to break down the day’s performance.
“I think you get into dangerous territory when you see the parents caring about the sport more than the kid does.” Wickersham muses, “That’s where it gets dangerous to me.”
What Makes A Great Quarterback In The NFL?
The “quarterback” itself is posed as the central existential question of the book. Or, perhaps more accurately – the successful quarterback.
Wickersham does not feel that there is one ubiquitous trait that unites all great quarterbacks, but there are individual theories that have paid off in the past.
Of Wickersham’s high school class, where there were 16,000 starting QBs across the nation, just one is in line for a golden jacket – Tom Brady.
And as Wickersham notes in the book, it was Bill Belichick’s theory on the the traits he desired most – decision making and accuracy – that led him to drafting the 7 x Super Bowl champion.
But that does not mean that quarterbacks don’t have any specific character- based commonalities.
“I don’t think you can be a great quarterback without having some level of neediness and preciousness.” Wickersham adds, echoing his written sentiments that describes QBs as “needy loners”.
“It’s closer to being a politician or a pop star…They have to be their sun in their own orbit.”
In the book, Wickersham, with the help of Hall of Famer turned Philosopher of Quarterbacking, Steve Young, attempts to break away from the myth that quarterbacks are artists who are purely a reflection of their own phenomenal natural gifts.
Instead of viewing the “off-schedule” plays from the league’s elite talents; Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes as improvisation, Wickersham encourages viewers to take a different vantage point.
Elite quarterbacks like that are actually just “masters of their craft who are improvising off of a PHD knowledge level of the game”, Wickersham explains, “It’s more like jazz at the village vanguard on a Saturday night. It’s the highest level of mastery, and people adding their own personality on top of that.”
Is 2025 Destined To Be Caleb Williams’ Breakout Year?
After a poor first year, many have felt that this season could be Caleb Williams’ redemption arc, where – equipped now with an offensive guru at head coach, and major upgrades on both the offensive line and at pass-catcher – he could be set to look more like the borderline-generational talent he was espoused to the football world as, coming out of the 2024 NFL Draft.
“I’m optimistic about Caleb’s chances to be successful. It took a year, and even though all of Carl Williams’ premonitions came true,” Wickersham concedes, “finally they have an innovative offensive mind whose fate is tied to Caleb’s. He will give him a chance to be successful – that matters so much more than people realize.”
And whilst Caleb’s rookie season was not spectacular, and had demonstrable areas of needed improvement, it also revealed some important things about the young quarterback.
“He’s got to get rid of the ball faster, he’s got to trust what he sees, and be willing to fire. But I think rookie years are mostly about survival, as much as anything, and you can’t extrapolate a whole lot from it.”
“When he was in some really tough situations this past year, known passing situations where everybody knew he was throwing and he needed to get the team downfield to have a chance to win, he came through quite a bit and so I think that there’s a lot of promise there.”
But since these comments a week ago, Williams and the Bears have started 0-2, including a humiliating 31-point loss at division rivals, the Detroit Lions, this past weekend.
And, perhaps even worse, when asked as to who he believes will take – or indeed, re-take the NFC North – only one team came to Wickersham’s mind.
“The Green Bay Packers.”