PHOTO: Bengals president Mike Brown greets fellow Dartmouth alum Reggie Williams after Williams’ first workout following the 1976 NFL Draft.
The Scouting And Selection Of Bengals Legend Reggie Williams 50 Drafts Ago: ‘I’ve Got To Take This Call’
By Geoff Hobson – Senior Writer – Bengals News
I HAVE POTENTIAL UN-TAPPED! I AM READY TO HELP SOME TEAM!!
_Reggie Williams, writing on the line of the Bengals info sheet stamped Nov. 12, 1975 asking for any comments he may wish to add.
His Draft Day call crackled through from the front desk at the YMCA in White Plains, N.Y., where rugged and regal Dartmouth linebacker Reggie Williams was staying while he helped coach a local high school wrestling team.
“The Cincinnati Bengals are calling,” it said.
Williams, the poet laureate of the Bengals’ first two Super Bowl teams, says now, “The Bengals were my first love, and we danced at the prom for 14 years. We just didn’t get the corsage.”
But back then, when the Bengals were calling, Williams already had J.I. Albrecht on the line. And Albrecht, the general manager of the CFL Argonauts who wined and dined Williams in Toronto during a media circus a few weeks before while offering to take him as their first round-pick, was being quite adamant.
(That had been quite a night. Anthony Davis, the former USC running back and World Football League refugee, had picked up Williams in his Rolls-Royce.)
But now in the stark daylight of an NFL Draft Day, here was Albrecht doubling his offer to $1 million for three years.
“And he said, ‘But you have to accept the extra half million right now,'” says Williams 50 draft days later. ” ‘Don’t accept the phone call that is coming.'”
Williams didn’t blink then, and doesn’t now.
A Cincinnati icon. Bengals Ring of Honor nominee. A career of unvarnished honor stretching over 14 years, 206 games, seven more in the playoffs. No Bengals linebacker has more than his 62.5 sacks or his 16 interceptions. Two-time Super Bowl starter, one while a Cincinnati City Councilman. A Sports Illustrated cover as a Sportsman of the Year.
It was all there. A phone line connecting a moment in time to a lifetime moment.
“I’ve got to take this call,” 21-year-old Reggie Williams told J.I. Albrecht.
He’s pretty sure it was Bengals director of player personnel Pete Brown clicking in, telling Williams he was a Bengal, the 82nd player taken in a draft winding through the third round. He would be flying to Cincinnati tomorrow. Then he would head downtown to check into the Netherland Hotel.
Not the YMCA.
“I made the biggest philosophical decision of my life right then,” Williams says. “That money was not as important as opportunity.
“My passion was to play in the NFL. I had zero desire to play Canadian football. My favorite player that I grew up with was Jim Brown. He was my father’s favorite player. It was the dream I never believed would actually come true. Especially since Bo Schembechler said I wasn’t good enough to be a Wolverine when I came out of Michigan.”
When Williams watches the draft this weekend, he says he’ll feel the same things he felt at the YMCA all those years ago.
“It’s so emotional for me when I watch it because you know there are going to be real-life dreams and shattered dreams,” Williams says. “If you choose the sport for passion over money, you’ll still feel it.”
Read the full story here – https://www.bengals.com/news/the-scouting-and-selection-of-bengals-legend-reggie-williams-50-drafts-ago-i-ve-got-to-take-this-call