Team mourning death of assistant coach’s son
BALTIMORE — The Raiders will be playing with heavy hearts Sunday, after Tyson Williams, the 4-year-old son of defensive line coach Terrell Williams, died Friday night.
Tyson Williams, who just 10 days ago celebrated his fourth birthday, acquired a sudden illness this month. He died Friday at Oakland Children’s Hospital after battling more than a week for his life.
“We were all shocked by the news we received when we arrived in Baltimore last night,” Raiders coach Dennis Allen said. “Terrell and Tifini have been dealing with unimaginable tragedy this week, and our hearts go out to them.
“We’re all deeply saddened by the passing of Tyson, and our deepest sympathies go out to Terrell and his entire family.”
The Williams family will hold a private memorial service this week.
Allen said the defensive coaching staff will share the workload in Williams’ absence, and Williams will have as much time as he needs to mourn with his family before returning to the team. Lee cut, Spencer on IR: Oakland waived cornerback Pat Lee and placed cornerback Shawntae Spencer on injured reserve. The Raiders then activated cornerback Ron Bartell from the injured reserve/designated to return list, and promoted former Stanford running back Jeremy Stewart from the practice squad.
The move to cut Lee was surprising, because he had started the past seven games after Bartell broke his shoulder blade. Lee had a missed tackle on Doug Martin’s 67yard touchdown run last Sunday, but was otherwise thought to be improving after a rough start in Week 2 in Miami.
The former Packer had 27 solo tackles, an interception, a forced fumble and eight passes de- fensed in eight games.
Spencer started two games before spraining his right foot. The former 49er ran around for the coaches and trainers on Tuesday and Allen said he was making progress. Apparently not enough.
The moves mean that former safety Michael Huff will stay at cornerback.
Stewart will back up Taiwan Jones and Marcel Reece at running back.