Pittsburgh Steelers running back, DeAngelo Williams and I have something in common. Now as a football fan I would love to share something with a player in the NFL. Unfortunately this is something both DeAngelo and I wish we didn’t have in common. Both of our mothers passed away due to breast cancer. Even though our moms are no longer on this Earth we both feel that they are with us every day in spirit.
Last season Williams was a beast at running back position for the Steelers. From his rookie year as a Carolina Panther to now DeAngelo always puts the work in to make sure he is ready for a grueling NFL season. He even works out on his birthday during the offseason. I really hope Williams can have Super Bowl Champion on his resume before he retires from the NFL.
You might not root for the Steelers, but you should cheer on DeAngelo. Not only is he a fantastic running back, but he is a great father and he helps out those in need especially those who are fighting cancer.
I had the great pleasure of getting a chance to chat with DeAngelo last month about football, fatherhood and much more!
Art Eddy: Recently I saw on your birthday you were working out and training for the new season. First off happy birthday! Second what is your offseason training like?
DeAngelo Williams: For an older guy like me being 33 I tell people all the time that the old cliché is what is done in the dark comes into the light. I try to go from that aspect in terms of working out. So you don’t see it than your expectations of me shouldn’t be as high as mine. So as long as it comes out in the light which it did last season and it showed. That is what I tell people. You got to fine tune your body and get it ready for the grueling season.
AE: What was the transition like from college to the NFL?
DW: Being a broke college student to now having money and everyone wanting a piece of it. That was the most difficult part of being in the National Football League. Football is football. The only difference is the terminology.
You go from a broke college student to no one expecting anything monetarily out of you to essentially having no financial stress or strain at all. Now everybody’s bill is due. Everybody’s view of life has changed and the way that they are looking at you has changed. That’s the difficult part of being in the NFL. To everybody else you hit the lottery. To you it is a business and you got to go in and attack your job more than ever.
AE: Quickly off of that I find it odd and an invasion of privacy that your salary is made open to the public. What is your take on that?
DW: This is what I don’t understand. Maybe it is because I don’t know much about other people’s jobs. Can I just go on Google or on any search site and find out what CEO’s and executives make? Would it be an estimate of what they make? Can I just go to any site and find out what the top executive of Bank of America makes?
AE: I am not sure.
DW: Is it public or does it have to be some scandalous situation to find out what these executives make? Or if they are involved in some type of “gate”? I can’t say Deflategate because that is a sensitive topic right now. (Both laugh.) That is when we find out what they make. I think it is a damn shame if you ask me. Our money is so public. You have family members, friends, women, men, and I am not going to even say haters, but you have people that want to separate you from your money. They have their own ulterior motives.
It just makes us a target. That is why the NFL and not just the NFL, but the NFLPA (Players Association) has to go through all these hoops to make sure that we are conscious of the people who are trying to take our money from us. It shouldn’t be that way. That is the way society has shaped it.
AE: Is there one game or season that stands out in your career so far?
DW: No, I haven’t had it yet. That will be the Super Bowl. That will stand out for me.
AE: I want to thank you for the work you do to raise awareness for breast cancer. Like you I lost my mother to breast cancer. I think about the many things my mom taught me. For you what are some of the lessons you learned from your mom that you take to heart every day?
DW: Man, it is crazy that you even say that because I was thinking about that last night. Whenever I feel like I want to do some stupid stuff I can hear my mom’s voice saying, ‘What the hell are you thinking boy?’ She will disapprove of it and it stops me from doing certain things that otherwise had she been here I would have did and just waited on her to reprimand me when I made the phone call and told her what I did.
I go through times like that and I go through times of when she told me something when I was smaller and I didn’t understand it. I will sit there and think about it. I will understand it because it is so clear to me now being a 33 year old man with three kids. She would do something and I would ask her why she did that. She would say that I would understand when I have kids. Now that I have kids I completely understands what she means now.
There are certain things that my mom has taught me that I will never forget. For instance and I am a stickler at doing this. My mom always hated when I opened up more than one box of cereal. On purpose I go through and make it a point to open multiple boxes of cereal because that is like me being a renegade. If my daughters did that I would be pissed. I would be like what are you all doing? You only need one box of cereal.
Stuff like that makes me laugh and makes me remember those memories of my mom. She is not physically here in the flesh, but I know that she is here in spirit. I cling onto that every day.
AE: Besides October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month how can people help raise awareness or money to find a cure?
DW: I am just talking to the ones who have not been affected by breast cancer or any cancers yet. The reason why I say that is because is that there are people who are diagnosed every day, every minute, and every second or going to get those exams for prevention. So the ones that have not been affected by it I want to say this to you. We are all fighting a different cause. I get that. I totally understand that. Some people are fighting cancer. Somebody is fighting diabetes. Someone is fighting something that is near and dear to their heart. You can wear pink. It is not a color it is a culture. You can reach out and go visit chemo centers or reach out and extend some of your services if you run a business to help those who have lost a loved one to breast cancer.
There are a lot of ways that you can reach out throughout either your community or someone else’s community and just help out. I am a firm believer they we all can be a Band-Aid to all the causes that are going on in this world. We may not understand what is going on, but we see a need that needs help we can help it.
AE: Switching to fatherhood now, what are some of the core values you looked to instill in your children as they grow up?
DW: I raise my kids in a similar way that my parents raised me. It is a different era now. I want my kids to play sports not to win or to lose, but to have fun. We have taken the fun out of sports and turned it into you either win and have fun or you lose and have to try harder. So I want my kids to just enjoy the fact that they are playing sports and that it is a privilege. We are going to leave it as a sport.
We are not those parents who scream and yell and talk about other people’s kids who are terrible at that sport. It wasn’t supposed to be like that, but it evolved into that. So I want to teach them to have fun and enjoy life. Not only enjoy life, but if you make a mistake own up to it. Don’t lie. Just do the things that they are supposed to be doing like normal things.
I just want to teach them to be normal citizens. Anything above normal or below normal isn’t normal. It is abnormal. I just don’t want to make anything that is abnormal normal. I just want them to be a normal citizen in terms of taking the business that you are supposed to be taking care of, be a hard working American, don’t lie and tell the truth. These are all the things that are supposed to be normal.
AE: I love seeing all the great pictures of you and your family on social media. What is one thing that your kids will do that will always make you laugh?
DW: This whole sibling rivalry is real. It is a 100 percent real. I don’t care who you are, how cool you are or how down to Earth you are. I tell my kids that they are Sour Patch Kids. They will fight one minute and the next minute they love each other and don’t want to be separated. It is an on again off again thing. It is ever changing though. We will go two to three hours where they will absolutely love each other. This is the sugary portion of the Sour Patch Kids. Then all of a sudden that switch will flip and they are fighting for three hours. I will hear ‘Don’t touch me’ or ‘Stop following me.’
It just goes on and on and on. Then they are back being fine again. We are always waiting on them to fight again so we can police it or stop the wrestling match.
AE: What advice do you have for new dads out there?
DW: First to the moms. We really appreciate you experiencing the nine months of displeasure and carrying the baby. The morning sickness or evening sickness. We don’t appreciate the hell you all put us through in those nine months, but that is one of the cons of having a kid. I totally get that. We really appreciate the changes that your body goes through for us. We as men are very gracious that the good Lord didn’t bestow that great pleasure on us.
To the men, I don’t want you to understand the stuff that she is putting you through. I am not telling you to understand that. There are ways that you can help yourself out like not complaining to your homeboys about her changing. She doesn’t think she is changing. She doesn’t think she has mood swings. She will tell her friends that she didn’t have any mood swings or I didn’t have any hormonal changes when she had her kid. Then you look over at her like, ‘Yeah!’
These are the things that I am helping the new dads out with. Once the baby gets here it completely changes your life. You will know which of the two types of the baby you will have. I am not saying a boy or a girl. You will either have a let’s call my parents and see what I need to do baby or you are going to have a Google baby. (Both laugh.) You Google to see what it is you need to do to stop this baby from crying. That is my advice. You are laughing because you did all of it.
AE: (Laughs.) Yep!
Life of Dad Quick Five
AE: What is your favorite family movie that you guys like to watch together?
DW: I am going to be biased and go with Frozen. I know every song in Frozen and that is my go to movie.
AE: Do you guys have a favorite song that you all like to dance to?
DW: Oh absolutely. It is Love Is An Open Door. We all sing that. All the girls sing the girl part and I sing the guy part.
AE: Describe the perfect family vacation.
DW: What it used to be or what it is right now with kids? (Both laugh.) The one with the kids is we go on vacation and none of them get hurt. They all have fun and they are very sleepy when we get home.
AE: So far in your career you have scored a lot of touchdowns. Do you keep any of the footballs?
DW: There are three special footballs for me. I can still remember them like they were yesterday especially two of the three. The Buffalo Bills last year in the preseason. I kept that one and gave it to my son. All the one I give to my kids, I keep those.
The next football that I keep will be the first receiving touchdown from Ben (Roethlisberger). He is a Hall of Famer in my eyes. I will keep that ball.
AE: Do you listen to music before a game and if so what do you listen to?
DW: I do. Before I get to the game and I am on the bus I am listening to Ed Sheeran, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bon Jovi, and The Beatles. I am listening to stuff like that on my way over to the stadium. Once I get to the stadium I am listening to all Rap and Hip Hop. It gets me in the mindset that I need to be.
Follow DeAngelo on Twitter @DeAngeloRB