Pound-for-pound

  • Scott M. Johnson / Herald Writer
  • Thursday, December 6, 2001 9:00pm
  • Sports

By Scott M. Johnson

Herald Writer

KIRKLAND – Willie Williams could draw up a list. He could, but that’s not his style.

He could list the names of everyone who has underestimated him over the years, and it would probably stretch longer than his 5-foot-9 frame.

It would include the doctors who told him he would never be able to run. It would include the names of dozens of big-time college coaches who didn’t believe he could play Division I-A football. It would include the NFL scout who once told Williams’ college coach that he simply wasn’t big enough to play professional football.

And it might even include Mike Holmgren.

Opposing receivers, NFL scouts, even a few teammates. He could throw them all on the list, then scribble four words at the bottom:

I told you so.

But Willie Williams would never do that.

“I’ve always been a humble guy,” the Seattle Seahawks’ starting cornerback and nine-year NFL veteran said this week. “I’m going to continue to stay like that.”

Williams is who he is – all 5-foot-9 of him. He knows he has limitations, but he makes adjustments. He’ll never have Shawn Springs’ size, Darrell Green’s speed or Deion Sanders’ flashiness. But he is a legitimate NFL cornerback who just won’t go away.

“He’s probably the most underrated guy in the entire league,” teammate Reggie Tongue said. “He comes and he works. Whatever’s said about him, he proves them wrong. He’s been doing that his whole career.”

The doubts about Williams started at a very young age, when a chronic bow-legged condition forced him to wear leg braces and special shoes at the age of 4. His parents would occasionally look out the window and see Willie playing football with neighborhood children, despite the cumbersome braces.

“He could do everything the other kids did, but he’d fall four or five times,” said his father, Willie Sr. “It was a heartbreaker just to see him with those on.”

Doctors said Willie Jr. would have to wear the braces for several years, but after six months the family decided to see how he would fare without them.

“We just said we would trust God,” Willie Sr. said, “so we took the braces off.”

By the age of 8, Willie Jr. had already surpassed early medical diagnoses by being able to run. By the age of 11, he was playing football.

“I never saw any quit in him,” Willie Sr. said. “Even when he got to high school and had some injuries, he never quit. I can’t believe that idea ever went through his head.”

Willie Jr. continued to prove doubters wrong by earning a collegiate scholarship. But his days of being underestimated were not behind him.

During his senior year at Western Carolina University, Williams heard through his coach that a Cleveland Browns scout said he was too small to play in the NFL.

“At the time, I was like, maybe I am too small,” Williams said. “Going to a small school, being as small as I am, I had second thoughts.”

But the Pittsburgh Steelers saw enough in Williams to select him in the sixth round of the 1993 NFL draft. Williams gradually disproved the non-believers again on his way to a four-year, $8.7 million contract he signed with the Seahawks in 1997.

But even in Seattle, he has been the subject of criticism. Fans remember the long touchdowns he yields, not the infinitely higher number of plays in which he keeps opposing receivers from getting open. The media harps on the fact that he’s not as gifted as Springs. Teammates tease him about his size.

And then, last spring, came the most devastating condemnation of all, as Holmgren voided the final year of Williams’ contract so that he would become a free agent. Williams says he would have preferred to stay in Seattle, and after a brief flirtation with the Cincinnati Bengals never flourished into any serious contract talk, he called Holmgren back.

“I didn’t want to go to another team and learn a new system,” Williams said this week. “I didn’t want to be around new guys, new coaches. I didn’t want to go through that again. So I told Mike I really wanted to stay here. I’m just glad everything worked out for the best.”

Williams came back to Seattle with one stipulation: he would be the nickel back while young corners Ken Lucas and Ike Charlton battled for the starting position opposite Springs.

Williams outplayed both his young teammates at training camp, but suffered a setback when he broke his left forearm. After having a plate surgically implanted into the arm, Williams has started the past nine games for the Seahawks.

“Mike (Holmgren) knew that I wasn’t going to accept being a nickel back,” Williams said. “He knew that, because I’m a competitor. I just told myself that I would work hard and make it hard for them to make a decision. And I’m here.”

Williams will make about $600,000 this season – or almost $1.5 million less than what he was originally scheduled to earn. But his value to the team has been incalculable, especially now that Springs has been suspended four games for violating the league’s drug policy.

” (Williams) came back here to accept a certain role,” Holmgren said earlier this week, “and he has been as valuable as anybody on our defense.”

Defensive coordinator Steve Sidwell had even kinder words about Williams, adding, “I love the guy.”

Williams, who used to go by the nickname Mighty Mouse, has even earned a new moniker. Teammates have taken to calling him Pound-for-Pound because of Williams’ knack for getting the most out of his size.

“People get involved with size and all that, but you can never measure the heart. That’s what Willie has,” said middle linebacker Levon Kirkland, who also spent four years with Williams in Pittsburgh. ” … I’m sure he’s been proving everybody wrong. It doesn’t surprise me because I know him pretty well. But it’s great to see him kind of getting his due.”

Williams says his competitive drive comes from his father.

Willie Williams Sr. was a 5-foot-9, 170-pound high school linebacker who had plans to play at Benedict College in nearby Columbia, S.C. But Willie Sr.’s father passed away when he was in high school, and he had to give up the sport so that he could help his mother support a family that included nine children.

Now he’s living vicariously through one of the NFL’s least likely success stories.

“I can see that same desire to excel that I had,” Willie Sr. said of his son.

And although he is speaking into a telephone, Willie Williams Sr. is sporting such a proud smile that it can be felt thousands of miles away.

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