This is part of a series on the Class of 2021 of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. The sold-out induction ceremony is today at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center.
Sean McDermott’s first interaction with Kyle Williams didn’t go so well.
Upon taking the job as head coach of the Buffalo Bills in January 2017, McDermott reached out to some of the team’s veteran players to introduce himself. He wanted to tell them his philosophy on running a football team and take in their input.
Naturally, one of his first calls was to Williams. At that point, the defensive tackle had been in the NFL for 11 seasons, without a playoff appearance. There were whispers about retirement.
“He's at his hunting cabin when I was just getting to Buffalo,” McDermott said. “People didn't know if he was going to play or not play. I'm just trying to get a hold of him, so I call his phone. He doesn't call me back for at least a couple days. I didn't know him, so I didn't know about this hunting cabin. He doesn't get good reception and this and that.”
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As you can imagine, McDermott’s wonders about Williams’ plans only increased from there. Finally, a few days later, Williams got the voicemail, and returned the calls.
“I remember where I was standing in my office” when he called back, McDermott said. “We talked my vision for the team and the plan, but more so just the day to day, how to go about it.”
What they found during that talk was a remarkably similar outlook – and not just on football, either.
“I would have told you probably that we were going to be as close as we are within 10 minutes of conversation," Williams said. “When he was coming in, he really wanted to talk to me and share about what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it, with the kind of people he wanted to work with and what kind of players he wanted.
“When somebody who you've really only ran across at a Pro Bowl one time gets on the phone with you and lays down their vision for you, and I think there's a lot of like-mindedness there. We kind of sees things the same way, value the same things and that's why the relationship is what it is.”
Williams would play two seasons for McDermott, helping the franchise erase a 17-year playoff drought in the process and cementing his status as an all-time member of the organization. For his efforts with the Bills, Williams will be enshrined Wednesday as a member of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2021.
Recalling the rocky way their relationships started, Williams joked that McDermott will never let him hear the end of his days-long wait before returning the call. The friendship that has developed from that moment transcends the typical player-coach relationship.
In July, McDermott played in the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. A big reason he said yes is it meant he’d get to spend a week or so with Williams, an accomplished golfer who was also in the field.
“I would tell you this, I'm not somebody that's going to run around and tell you I have, like, a million close friends,” Williams said. “I mean, I have friends, but the people that I'm truly close to and that I guess let in, are people that I really value. It doesn't dawn on me to be a player-coach thing. It didn't really necessarily feel that way when I was playing, either. I just felt like we had a lot of things in common, we enjoyed each other's point of view.
“He was really good for me, especially late in my career. He breathed some life to me into my mid to upper 30s still playing football. Being like-minded, enjoying each other's company – our kids are the same age, our wives are really close – so all of those things come into play. I think those are special.”
One of the enduring images of Williams’ time in Buffalo is from the locker room in Miami, where he celebrated being a part of the team that ended the Bills’ drought. McDermott, as well as defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, leaned on Williams and fellow veteran Lorenzo Alexander heavily in their first couple of years to get the message of what the coaching staff wanted to accomplish through to the younger players on the roster.
“One of the things that I appreciate about Kyle was not only his play on the field, but his leadership, man,” Frazier said. “I remember last year we won our first playoff game, I texted … to thank Kyle for his leadership because he had so much to do with the foundation that was laid here that has allowed us to have the success that we’re currently having. He really helped me in my first year coming to Buffalo, just being able to echo my message to our defense and even when things got a little rocky at times or we had a tough time in a ballgame, he was one of those guys that was really solid throughout the ups and downs that I could count on in a leadership role and I’ll forever be grateful to Kyle for that.
“Not only was he a great player for us, but just a great person as well. And the two don’t always intertwine. And when you have that, you have a chance to have a special human being on your team and in this case on our defense, and that’s what he was for us and he still is today.”
When he retired following the 2018 season, Williams was regarded as one of the great leaders in franchise history.
According to the Bills, he ranked fifth in team history at the time with 610 tackles. He also still holds a team record with 48.5 sacks by a defensive tackle. A six-time Pro Bowl participant, Williams was also named a second-team Associated Press All-Pro for the 2010 season.
He played in 183 games, starting all but five after being a fifth-round pick in the 2006 draft.
Today, Williams is the defensive coordinator at Ruston High School, his alma mater in Ruston, La.
“I still pop up to Buffalo some and do some things, Williams said. "You might see me here and there. That's really what's taking up most of my time – helping the kids in my hometown and raising my kids, but I come up to Western New York a few times a year at least. Sean and I talk quite a bit. Mostly it’s about community stuff. It’s my way of staying connected, more so with the city.”
