What Happened, Reggie?
By author
Reggie Williams is interested in coming back to the Pacific Northwest to play football with the Seahawks?
“Of course, I’d like to come back and play for the Seahawks,” Reggie Williams recently told reporters, expressing a desire to play back home. “I’d definitely like to come back to the West Coast and play. It seems like I haven’t been there in so long. I went from one extreme to the next when you go from Seattle to Florida. So the West Coast is definitely an option.”
Not so fast.
As much as I’d like to see Williams, a former local prep star and Washington Husky, return to Seattle, it isn’t going to happen – not anytime soon. I wasn’t alone in my support for bringing Reggie back, either. Unfortunately for fans in the Northwest, Reggie Williams is a complete knucklehead not capable of foreseeing repercussion and consequence.
Has Reggie Williams been hanging out with Jerramy Stevens? Early Friday morning, Williams was arrested in Houston and charged with DWI and possession of marijuana. What an idiot. Being involved in an incident of this nature is mindless enough, much less DURING free agency.
This scenario is eerily similar to what happened to Jerramy Stevens only a few years ago: Stevens was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated and marijuana possession in Scottsdale, Arizona just days after free agency began. Stevens was an unrestricted free agent, and had just visited Tampa Bay; the ugly incident likely cost him millions of dollars.
The Rick Neuheisel legacy continues, now presenting itself through former Huskies on an even larger stage: the National Football League.
I was petitioning for Williams’ return to Seattle quietly, hoping he would offer the Seahawks a cheaper, more proficient option to help address the need at wide receiver. It is probably because I’m a homer and he is from the area, but I honestly liked what Williams brought to the table.
Williams has yet to prove much in the league and won’t kill you with blazing speed, but would have been an affordable option at wide receiver. He could have offered size (6’4”, 212 pounds), great blocking, and potential to Seattle – does anyone remember how dominant this guy was at the University of Washington? Yeah, he doesn’t have the stats to show for it in the NFL, but it isn’t like we were going to invest a first round pick on him or anything. He would’ve come in as a third or fourth wide receiver in the lineup.
Unfortunately, Williams is a knucklehead. And Tim Ruskell doesn’t offer contracts to knuckleheads. Ruskell is arrogant and egotistical, and won’t budge much on his top evaluation priority: character. Rightfully so, I say.
So it looks like my dreams of seeing Reggie Williams in a Seahawks uniform are over, far before they had the chance to begin. Thanks Reggie, for your remarkable judgment and great determination. We were rooting for you up here, too.
Well, hopefully the Hawks have some success in luring other potential free agent wide receivers … T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Michael Clayton, or others. We definitely need SOME help at the position, and I’m almost ready to guarantee we don’t draft Crabtree.