Dorian Williams: From Adversity to Triumph

In an eye-opening interview with Lucas Barbu from The Ball Boy Podcast (Instagram: @theballboypodcast), Buffalo Bills linebacker Dorian Williams shared his inspiring journey from Tulane to the NFL, and the incredible obstacles he faced along the way.

Drafted in the third round by the Bills after a standout college career at Tulane, Williams is poised for a breakout year this season. His path to professional football has been anything but smooth. “At the combine, everybody’s like, ‘What’s like, your hardest thing, you know, you went through in your life,’” Williams told Lucas. “I was telling them, like, this process leading up to it. So we played, like, our 14-game season. You gotta go play another week of football, basically, at the Senior Bowl. End up breaking my wrist, like, the second or third day of practice. I have to get surgery on that. So they put two screws in that. It took two weeks. I couldn’t run, couldn’t do anything, no combine training. So I missed, like, an extra week and a half. I started back training. I had cut a cast, cut a hole in my cast for my bone stem.”

The physical setbacks were compounded by personal tragedy. Just two days before the Combine, Williams lost his grandfather to cancer. “Two days before I go up, my granddad ended up passing away from cancer, and that was my guy, man, he was always the one like, ‘Hey, don’t, don’t bother Dorian, like, he’s focused on football,’” Williams said. “Losing him was tough, but I knew he wouldn’t want me to dwell on it.”

Determined to honor his grandfather’s memory and overcome his injury, Williams pressed on. “So I went to the Combine because, leading up to it we I, we didn’t know I was gonna run. And then I tested, like, two days, three days out, and I ran like a, like a, 4.4.” He added, “They were like, ‘Uh, they’re like, No, you’re gonna run. Yeah, you’re gonna run after that.’ So yeah, we put, put the cast down. Ran with the cast at the combine. And yeah, yeah, we got, we got through it. Man, running 4.49, at the combine.”

As he steps onto the NFL stage for his sophomore season, Williams carries with him the memory of his late grandfather, whose encouragement continues to inspire him. Bills Mafia and teammates alike can expect to see him bring the same determination and drive that got him through those tough times to every game he plays.