Free agent running back DeAngelo Williams is looking to play another season in the NFL, but he has some conditions on where his next stop will be. And one of them is a good one!
Recently, Williams chatted with Adam Schefter, and the running back said there were four teams with whom he would not even discuss a contract. Rather than immediately list the four teams, he had Schefter tweet out asking people to guess the four teams. The Patriots, Bengals, Ravens, and Browns were all popular mentions.
On Tuesday, Williams followed up with Schefter and listed the four teams. They were the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers, and Dallas Cowboys.
The Browns and Jaguars were listed because of their history of ineptitude. The Panthers were listed because of what he felt was a bad break with them after the 2014 season. The Cowboys however, were a wild card. They were the last of the four teams Williams discussed, and before mentioning them, he opened his answer with this:
Some will say that I’m a true fan, and I totally get it. And some will say, you’re stupid, you’re crazy. And then the fan base of this team is going to be absolutely livid. But who cares. That’s why we’re fans. That’s where the fandom comes from.
So, I grew up and was raised as a 49ers fan. So this fourth team, you should be able to guess it.
Schefter asked, “Dallas Cowboys?” and Williams confirmed it.
Absolutely right. My fandom for the team I was raised as, will not allow me to go to the Cowboys. I’m an 80s baby, I was born in 1983, and the 49ers ruled. The Cowboys somewhat did something in the 90s. I even refuse to give them that, as a Niners fan. And it’s just, now I’m always loyal to the team that signs my check.
That’s pretty spectacular, I have to admit. Considering Dallas has Ezekiel Elliott, Darren McFadden, and Alfred Morris in their backfield, I’m not sure if they’d be calling while all three remain healthy, but props to him nonetheless.
He wouldn’t be the first person to put his fandom ahead of career. When I worked for the Oakland A’s, one of my co-workers was from just outside Boston, and was a huge Red Sox fan. Following college, he wanted to get into the front office of a Major League Baseball team. He sent his resume to 29 teams. The only team who did not get his resume? The New York Yankees.
When I was still working in professional sports and looking to get into the personnel side of things, I don’t know if I would have been willing to say, no, I will not work for Dallas Cowboys.
Williams then went on to talk some trash about Cowboys fans, and it felt exactly like what you’d hear a fan say about a rival — and particularly about Cowboys fans.
The Cowboys, they win, they just don’t ever show up during the playoffs though. Like they always disappear in the playoffs. I got a great depiction of the Cowboys fan base — during the regular season last year, they were on cloud nine. You couldn’t tell them anything, anything because they were gonna win the ‘ship. That’s all they said. Like fans just got extremely super annoying. And then the minute they lose, they either got cheated, somebody was hurt, like there’s the excuses start flowing. It’s just amazing to me, just that fan base in general, they can’t handle defeat. Still to this day, they say that Dez Bryant’s catch against the Green Bay Packers was a catch!
So there you have it. DeAngelo Williams is officially one of my new favorite players outside the 49ers organization. Hopefully he is able to land a job with one of the other 28 NFL teams, but if not, at least he stuck to his fandom principle!