But Roy Williams, the Lions' premier wide receiver -- at least until a kid named Calvin Johnson unseats him -- should start to be recognized as something else . He's the face of the team, the spokesperson, the leader even. And the Lions haven't had one of those in .... quite some time.
Think about it. Who's the last Lions player whose words you looked forward to hearing, if only because they teetered on outrageous? Who was the last Lion to have a smile that lights up the entire locker room. Who was the last Lion to do something silly on the field, like Williams does with his enthusiastic "first down" dealio? And, most importantly, who was the last Lion to begin to master his position to the point where he should be considered among the top five in the entire league at it?
Williams added to his unusual legacy this week by snatching two youngsters out of the crowd at training camp, because they were wearing his no. 11 jersey, and making them water boys for the afternoon. He provided each child with not only lifelong memories, but autographed footballs and some one-on-one time.
It was great, impromptu P.R. stuff. The kind that will take your mind, albeit briefly, off the Lions' brutal won-lost record since 2001.
"...we went to Dallas and scored 39 points when everybody was clicking," Williams says in defending his outrageous comments after Opening Day '06
Williams was at it again yesterday. Speaking to the Free Press, he defended his comments made after last year's Opening Day loss to Seattle, when he spoke of those 40 points left behind, somewhere on the Ford Field turf.
"People didn't understand that," Williams said. "In Week 17, we went to Dallas and scored 39 points when everybody was clicking. So that's the kind of offense we're in. We're a little bit more comfortable now. So hopefully this year we can put up 40 points a game."
Like I wrote before about QB Jon Kitna's brazen, maybe wacky predictions of 10+ wins in 2007, give me players who think like the glass is half full, if not about to overflow, any day over the dour, gloomy athlete who doesn't believe in what's going on around him.
Chris Spielman is one of the best linebackers in Lions history, for my money. He was one of those special athletes to come thru Detroit whose words I hung on. If you asked Spielman a question, he'd give you the straight dope. No sugar coating. When the Lions got blown away in Philadelphia in the 1995 playoffs, Spielman looked at his eight years with the team and then at his birth certificate, and decided enough was enough.
"The wheels are coming off here," he said as he fled to the Buffalo Bills. Straight dope.
Spielman, last week, was asked about the Lions and Kitna's predictions.
"I wish he would have said they (the Lions) were gonna go 16-0," Spielman said. "I want my quarterback, especially, to think we're going to win every game. Every player should feel that way."
Spielman saw 12-4 and 10-6 seasons as a Lion, as well as 4-12 and 5-11. He saw playoff games (one win) and seasons in which the playoffs were out of the question in October. But I doubt he ever went into a campaign thinking the Lions were going to blow, even when it was painfully obvious that they were.
Roy Williams is flashy. He's colorful. He's outspoken. He's optimistic to the point of being maddening. But he is not a clown. He is not a snake oil salesman, like so many others we've seen. And he just happens to be one of the elite wide receivers in the National Football League.
Face it: when he talks, you listen. Whether you roll your eyes or not.
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