Cards TE Williams earns high praise
“I’ve been lucky,” the youngest Williams said. “Coming from a football family and having my dad around, it’s nice to know I can turn to somebody who’s been there, understood it, and was part of the game for so long to help you deal with all the things that we’re going through in a season and will be in my corner no matter what.”
Before the Cardinals traveled back East and beat the Giants, 27-21, on Sunday for their third consecutive win, Williams, 25, couldn’t help but recall some of his favorite childhood memories of following his father around and hanging out in the Giants’ locker room.
Star-studded players such as Lawrence Taylor, Carl Banks, Pepper Johnson, Jumbo Elliott and Phil Simms instantly gravitated to young Maxx and made him feel welcome.
“I grew up around all of those guys and they were just normal people to me,” Williams said. “They were my dad’s friends, just guys. But they were always great to me and they made me love the game even more.”
When Michael Strahan is your babysitter, you’ve got a pretty good head start.
“Yeah, he used to babysit us over at his place,” Williams said. “It was pretty cool. When I was about 13, we went back there for the Giants’ All-1990s team event in 2007 and it was great looking back and hearing them tell me stories about me when I was real little. I was so fortunate to grow up around that.
“I remember when we were leaving, Strahan saw me and my dad in our car and he pulled over and ignored everyone and came over and gave my dad a huge and me a hug just to say bye. It was so cool having those moments and knowing he still cared about me and that him and my dad were so close.”
Williams’ personality, effort and love for the game has made him a popular player in the Cardinals’ locker room, where he’s building more and more special memories.
“He’s the consummate professional because of how he approaches his business,” said Suggs, who spent the previous four season with Williams in Baltimore. “To be in this locker room, you’re either one of us or you’re not and he’s certainly one of us. He’s a joy to be around.”
Things I liked in Week 7
❚ Jacoby Brissett and the Colts continuing to prove they still have a shot at making the playoffs despite Andrew Luck’s stunning retirement announcement just before the start of the season. The Colts (4-2) lead the AFC South and Brissett was dynamite in passing for 326 yards and four touchdowns in Sunday’s 30-23 victory over their divisional rivals, the Texans.
The best play from that game had to be Brissett’s 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end Eric Ebron, who soared to make a fantastic one-handed grab and managed to keep both feet in bounds at the back of the end zone for a 21-9 lead.
❚ Cordarrelle Patterson’s 102-yard kickoff return for the Saints during their 36-25 victory over the Bears. It was the seventh of his career, tied for third in NFL history behind only Josh Cribbs and Leon Washington, who each had eight. Plays like that are another reason why you should hope the NFL decides never to eliminate the kickoff.
❚ This quote from Al Michaels during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcast of the Cowboys-Eagles game: “Jason Garrett has been on the hot seat so long and so often, I’m only shocked that Elon Musk hasn’t launched him into outer space by now.”
Things I didn’t
❚ Watching Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffer a dislocated patella in his right knee during a quarterback sneak against the Broncos on Thursday night. The good news is Mahomes will be back. The bad news is that too many ill-informed critics are spewing garbage about how star quarterbacks shouldn’t be exposed to sneaks up the gut.
“That’s crazy to even have that argument, in my opinion,” agreed Kingsbury, who coached Mahomes at Texas Tech. “The best to ever do it by far (Tom Brady) sneaks it four times a game and the best franchise in pro sports basically allows him to do that, so I think it’s getting overblown.”
❚ Falcons RB Devonta Freeman’s illadvised decision to throw a punch at the head of Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald. Freeman got ejected and it was just another dismal moment in a dismal season for the free-falling Falcons, who on Tuesday traded away wide receiver Mohamed Sanu to the Patriots.
❚ The fallout following Jets quarterback Sam Darnold from ESPN airing his “seeing ghosts” comment while being mic’d up during Monday night’s 33-0 loss to the Patriots. It was great audio, to be sure, but it probably wasn’t fair to Darnold and you can bet the Jets won’t agree to having anyone wear a microphone again anytime soon.
Ask a friend
Normally, we call this segment “Phone a friend” but upon hearing a loud fiasco going on in one corner of the Cardinals’ locker room last week, an executive decision was made to investigate and report what was going on during a ruckus between Arizona’s offensive linemen. Turns out, they were all whooping it up over Pugh being recognized this year as one of the NFL’s “hottest players” by Shape magazine. Someone apparently found the photo the magazine used of Pugh in the story and flashed it on the big screen during an offensive team meeting.
“It was embarrassing as ... ,” Pugh said, “but hey, look at the guys around this locker room. They had me rated as the 17th hottest player in the league, so that means I’m at least the hottest guy in
locker room.”