Super Bowl champ @Jwilliofficial handing out signed pics with his @Chiefs ring at his camp with @FSUBroncos pic.twitter.com/TBxdDW04Rl
— HBCU Gameday (@HBCUGameday) June 22, 2023
Kansas City Chiefs CB Joshua Williams returned to his HBCU alma mater — Fayetteville State University — this past week to host a youth football camp.
A year ago at this time, Williams was just entering the league as a bright-eyed rookie. Now, he returned to Luther Nick Jeralds Stadium in Fayetteville, North Carolina as a Super Bowl champion.
“It was good,” Williams told CBS reporter Chris Clark. “It really reminded me of when I was a kid — these kids are really out here competing.”
One of the reasons that the kids are out there playing with such passion is because they know they’re in the presence of a Super Bowl-winning defensive back. He represents what these kids can achieve with hard work and dedication.
Williams, of course, brought his brand new Super Bowl LVII ring along.
“It’s a manifestation of all the work you put in through the year,” Williams explained. “You know. . . training camp, preseason, the regular season, all the way into the playoffs, all the way into the AFC Championship Game and then the Super Bowl. All of that hard work has paid off. It’s just breathtaking. I couldn’t even speak, all I could do was look at it. Of course, it looks good, but it just feels good to get that. It is ‘blingy’, don’t get me wrong, but it has some real sentimental value.”
The 2022 NFL season is still processing for Williams. He was thrown into the fray early as a rookie and it was a whirlwind of a year culminating in a championship win.
The second-year corner says using his now 20 games of NFL experience to fortify his game for the 2023 NFL season, with the goal of becoming the best version of himself on the field. Last year was about surviving for Williams, but he says this year is all about thriving.
“A lot of those firsts, you’re just thrown into a lot of situations,” Williams said. “Of course, you may have been prepared, but you didn’t have the experience to go along with it. So, I feel like this year has just been fine-tuning everything, building on every good thing I did last year and breaking down any bad thing that I did. You know, working on any weakness I have. Perfecting the playbook. Really trying to master and understand everything that goes on around me. Last year a lot of that was, let me just know what (responsibility) I have for this game, for whatever situation, you just wanted to survive. Now, I’m trying to go out there and thrive and actually be the best I can be.”
With teammates Trent McDuffie and L’Jarius Sneed sidelined by injury early in the offseason program, Williams should certainly receive the practice repetitions necessary to achieve those goals.
