As the Rams prepared to take the field, down by four points with 2:39 to play in their wild-card playoff matchup with the Carolina Panthers, running back Kyren Williams stalked the sidelines, rallying the offense.
“When he has words to say or shares what’s on his mind or on his heart,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said, “we’re always listening.”
What Williams had to say was something he had been repeating all season, in his coarse voice and excitable fashion, the type that allows no room for doubt or second-guessing, especially as the Rams prepared for their game-winning drive in Charlotte.
“Something that he’s been echoing the whole year. He always says, ‘We’re the greatest in the world,’” left guard Steve Avila said. “I feel like the more that he’s echoed it over the years, it’s like, ‘Yeah, you know, we are.’ You just start walking different when you actually believe those things.”
This is who Williams has always been, setting an example with an indefatigable work ethic, a constant desire to evolve and grow.
But it’s as the fourth-year running back has become more confident in his role within the Rams that he has allowed himself to become more of a leader, both on the field and in the community.
“He’s got this authentic energy. He has this consistent belief and this ‘never-say-die’ attitude,” said head coach Sean McVay, who is preparing his team to face the Seattle Seahawks in Sunday’s NFC championship game. “He’s got this mental and physical toughness. He is so authentically and refreshingly himself. I think that’s why it resonates with his teammates. He never asks anything of his teammates that he’s not willing to do.”
SEEING IS BELIEVING
Williams learned the power an example can set during his childhood in St. Louis, from a group of players whose ranks he would one day join.
During their St. Louis days, the Rams held a foster care event during the holidays. Williams attended, and seeing his hero Steven Jackson and other players in the flesh left an indelible impression.
“I remember always seeing the guys that I wanted to be like on TV, not knowing if I could ever be on the TV just like them. But once I saw them out of the TV in person and saw that they were real human beings, it was all believable,” Williams said. “I went home and told my mom, ‘I’m going to be in the NFL one day.’”
Not just in the NFL. Coming off his third straight 1,000-yard rushing season, Williams has a platform as one of the top running backs in the league. And he has used that to pass on the inspiration that he once drew from Jackson to the next generation in Los Angeles.
Shortly after the Rams moved back to California, they adopted two local Pop Warner football programs, the Northeast Lincoln Tigers and the Watts Bears, both of which changed their mascots to the Rams. The teams had been developed by the non-profit Project Blue not only to provide an extracurricular opportunity for the kids, but to bridge the differences between two communities historically divided along racial lines and by gang violence.
With the Rams’ involvement, the two programs have gone from a short fall football season to a year-round enterprise with access to different resources, including clinics with Rams youth coaches.
Williams’ involvement with the Northeast Lincoln Rams and the Watts Rams has been at the heart of his consecutive nominations for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Greeting the teams on visits to the Rams’ practice facility, handing out turkeys to families during the holidays and, perhaps most impactfully, being a part of those football clinics in a tangible way.
“He gets down in the drills. He’ll start running routes with them, he’ll start playing quarterback. He becomes one of the youth engagement coaches,” said Marc Maye, the executive director of Project Blue and general manager of the Northeast Lincoln and Watts Rams. “No one’s expecting him to do that, but he does it.”
In Maye’s experience, most of the headliners who make appearances at these kinds of events do just that – make appearances, take photos, present a check.
But with Williams’ involvement with the two youth teams, May has seen him evolve from “Kyren Williams, Rams running back” in the kids’ eyes to simply “Kyren” – someone who follows them on Instagram and whom they can show whatever video they thought he would appreciate.
“It does something special for our community because they don’t get to see people like that. Not in the flesh like that. Not to that level,” Maye said. “With football, it kind of becomes secondary. It’s what brought them together, but they start asking him questions about him, he’s asking them questions about them. They’re talking about video games, they get so comfortable talking to him on that level that it’s really not about football anymore. It’s really about humanity at that point.”
And Williams does want to learn more about them, not just as individuals but as communities, too.
Williams’ first event with the Watts Rams was held at the Jordan Downs housing project, one of the biggest of its kind in the country. It was not dissimilar to some of the neighborhoods that Williams grew up near, predominantly Black, albeit with a growing Hispanic population. But when he visited Lincoln for the first time, he saw how different the culture was in a predominantly Hispanic community.
“I’m coming from St. Louis, Missouri, where it’s just white and black and you just know where your spots are at in the city. Coming to L.A., it’s a whole bunch of different races, a whole bunch of different ethnicities, it’s a boiling pot, honestly,” Williams said. “So for me to be out here and to interact and not get looked at by the way that I look is definitely the biggest thing.”
Maye was peppered with questions from Williams, intrigued by neighborhoods he had driven through to get to the events and wishing to understand the history of the communities, how they diverged, how football has helped bring some of the youth back together.
Perhaps it’s this fascination with where his feet are now that helps explain the way that Williams framed his contract extension with the Rams this summer: That he wanted to spend his entire career not with one team, but in one city.
“I honestly feel like the city makes the team. The team can be who they are, they can be the best team in the world but they don’t care about the city, then the fans aren’t going to come out and be there for them,” Williams said. “So me just being able to be in the position that I am and the lord has blessed me to be here so I feel like it’s only right for me to go impact not only the people that get impacted every day by the things that we do but more so this city and everything that they bring to it.”
FOLLOW MY LEAD
There are no shortage of examples of how Williams has set the standard for the Rams the past three seasons. Practicing at training camp even amid contract negotiations. Remaking his body to avoid the health issues that plagued his first two seasons, resulting in two years with a clean bill of health. Accepting hard coaching, so teammates know it’s ok to receive similar feedback. Taking copious notes during position meetings, with running backs coach Ron Gould estimating that Williams goes through a notebook every 2-3 weeks.
And internalizing any frustrations about his lack of explosive runs as he embraced the Rams’ methodical, efficiency-focused approach.
“He’s super competitive and so he thinks every run he should have broken it for 40 or 50 yards. That’s just who he is,” Gould said. “But I think it’s a testament to him, just his maturity that he stays through his reads and those kinds of things and allow the game to come to you because when you get frustrated, then you miss opportunities instead of just staying the course, which is what he’s been able to do.”
This year, Williams has been able to break through with some of the longer runs, his excitement oozing out of him on the field and in press conferences when discussing his evasion of a tackler, his cut and the blocks that allowed it.
But then again, it’s not that different than speaking with Williams after a win in which he averaged 3 yards per carry. Or even after losses when he can see the lesson that he believes will fuel his Rams. The energy is always palpable, always moving himself and his teammates forward.
“That’s just who I’ve been my whole life,” Williams said. “So for me, if I’m not being like that then there’s probably something wrong with me. But I don’t know, that’s just who I am.”