Williams participates in Q & A – Tulsa World
Related Story: Williams strives to make positive impact
What can you tell me about the latest venture with Pros for Vets, your offshoot of Pros for Africa, and how that thing has taken off?
Pros for Vets is something near to my heart because my grandpa was a vet. So when I heard about Pros for Vets, it was pretty much a no-brainer for me to be a part of it. So with Pros for Vets, we go and see the wounded vets, as well as going to the VA centers and spending time with them. We actually went to Fort Hood and another base, a kind of hospital/base – I forget the name; it’s been a whirlwind of all the stuff I’ve been doing with that organization – but it just basically comes down to common courtesy, just showing appreciation for our fallen and our troops who are having to go to battle while we get to enjoy the fresh fruits of freedom here in the states.
How did you originally get involved in Pros for Africa?
It started off as far as us signing some items so we could raise money, and it went to me saying, ‘Let’s go to Africa. Why don’t we do that?’ So myself, Mark Clayton, Tommie Harris and Adrian Peterson all got on board and we went to Africa. I mean, Tommie had been before, but after that first year, everybody’s life had changed in a dramatic way. Everybody’s kind of like, “We look forward to March coming because we get to go to Africa again.”
A lot of pro athletes are comfortable in their income and their way of life and might not want their lives changed, but it seems to have made an impact on you guys, changed you, made you better people, gave you a deeper appreciation and perspective.
Yeah, definitely. And it’s not about what we have. It just makes you see life in a different perspective.
When you look back on it, can you believe football has given you so many avenues and so many opportunities to impact peoples’ lives?
No. Honestly. It’s crazy. Because if I was just an average Joe Schmo, I don’t think I would be able to reach as many people as I am today being a professional athlete and having so many connections and people knowing who I am, knowing name recognition – you know, Roy Williams, or Adrian Peterson, or Mark Clayton, or Tommie Harris. Just being from Oklahoma – or any person coming from a college town – I think that helps out a lot. I’m really seeing that. Because I don’t think it’d be very successful if we didn’t have professional athletes.
I know you don’t know when, but in regards to the lockout, from a player’s perspective, what has to happen at this point to be able to have football in September?
I just want us to have a mutual agreement on what we’re asking, and that is make sure we’re taken care of; make sure when we retire that we have money to fall back on. The owners, they get paid a lot of money. If we can, honestly, have them not take – I think they’re trying to take a billion off the top or something like that – they’re just being so stingy. It’s a business at the end of the day. But they’re being the Big Bad Wolf and trying to bully us right now and have us settle for anything, and we’re not settling for just the bare minimum. So we’re actually fighting for our rights as one people, as well as football players.
Original Print Headline: Up close: Roy Williams