darrent williams

Darrent Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Darrent Williams
Darrent Williams.
Position(s):
Cornerback Jersey #(s):
27
Born: September 27, 1982(1982-09-27)
Fort Worth, Texas
Died: January 1, 2007 (aged 24)
Denver, Colorado
Career Information
Year(s): 2005-2006
NFL Draft: 2005 / Round: 2 / Pick: 56
College: Oklahoma State
Professional Teams
Denver Broncos (2005-2006)

Career Stats
Tackles 139
Interceptions 6
Touchdowns 2
Stats at NFL.com
Career Highlights and Awards
No notable achievements

Darrent Williams (September 27, 1982 � January 1, 2007), was an American football player for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League. Williams was also the owner and CEO of independent record label RYNO Entertainment in Fort Worth, Texas.

Contents
1 High school
2 College
3 NFL
4 Death
4.1 Aftermath
5 References
6 External links



[edit] High school
Born and raised in Fort Worth, Williams attended O.D. Wyatt High School where he played cornerback and was also a punt returner. As a senior, he was named 7-4A Defensive Most Valuable Player after posting five interceptions that featured several long returns, including a best of 54 yards. As a punt returner, Williams averaged 30 yards per return with four touchdowns.

Williams received little recruiting attention during high school, receiving offers only from Texas Christian University, Louisiana Tech University, and Oklahoma State University. Reportedly, he was the last player signed to the 2001 class, and was only signed after an OSU coach's wife urged her husband to evaluate his talent further, as she was his school counselor.[citation needed]


[edit] College
Williams then went on to play football for Oklahoma State University. He played ten games his first year, the second half of the season as the starter. As a note of interest, during his freshman year, he returned two interceptions for touchdowns against Baylor. In the postgame press-conference, it was revealed that he had actually predicted he would do this in a statement to then head coach Les Miles. As a sophomore, Williams started all of the team's thirteen games recording 53 tackles and three interceptions, while breaking up thirteen passes.

During his junior year, Williams continued to start for the Cowboys. He posted 66 tackles and six interceptions (third in the Big 12 Conference). He also broke up 17 passes. His performance junior year earned him first team All-Big 12 Conference honors.

His last year at Oklahoma State, Williams played in only seven games. He missed the last three because of injury, and was limited before that because of an arm injury. Still, Williams totaled 21 tackles (18 solo), three pass breakups, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery, which he returned 53 yards. Williams finished his collegiate career tied for first place all-time in Division I-A College Football in career interception returns for touchdowns. He had 11 career interceptions and scored 9 touchdowns on returns (5 interception returns, 3 punt returns, and 1 blocked extra point return).


[edit] NFL
In the 2005 NFL Draft, Williams was selected by the Denver Broncos in the second round (56th overall). He recorded his first career interception on November 13, 2005 versus the Oakland Raiders. The Raiders were driving to score, when quarterback Kerry Collins attempted a pass to wide receiver Jerry Porter. Williams jumped the route, intercepted the ball, and took it 82 yards for the touchdown. The Broncos won the game 31-17. Although an injury kept him out of the Broncos' lineup for the last three games of the 2005 regular season he established himself as the Broncos' starting cornerback, recording 58 tackles and two interceptions. Williams' nine starts at cornerback in 2005 were the most for a Broncos rookie at that position since Louis Wright started 11 games in 1975. He also led the Broncos in punt and kick returns. Williams was recognized as a first-team All Rookie selection by Pro Football Weekly and the Pro Football Writers Association.[1]

In the 2006 season, Williams played in 15 games, recording 86 tackles (77 solo) and four interceptions (returning one for a touchdown), as well as serving as the team's primary punt returner. In his career he had 1 sack, 2 forced fumbles, 6 ints and 2 touchdowns.[1]

His last game was a season-ending loss to the San Francisco 49ers. In that game Williams had three tackles and returned two punts for 50 yards before leaving the game with a shoulder injury late in the second half.[2] In a spooky coincidence, following the previous meeting between the Broncos and 49ers (in a preseason game on August 20th, 2005), 49ers offensive lineman Thomas Herrion died of lschaemic heart disease.[3]


[edit] Death
On January 1, 2007, Williams was shot during a drive-by shooting, at approximately 2:10 a.m. Williams and two other passengers were shot when another vehicle pulled beside his rented Hummer H2 limousine in downtown Denver, Colorado. The shooting occurred near 11th Ave. and Speer Boulevard. It occurred less than 12 hours after the Broncos played their final game of the 2006 season.[4]

Williams had been attending a New Year's Eve party and birthday party for Denver Nuggets player Kenyon Martin at a nightclub, "The Shelter." The Denver Police Department reported that the shooting was preceded by some type of altercation or argument at the nightclub; a spokesman stated that "There was some confrontation between a group of people in the vehicle and a group at the nightclub.".[2][5] Williams was not involved in the altercation. As the details emerge about the circumstances surrounding Taylor's death and Miami police hunt for the person responsible for claiming a vibrant life, this much already is true: The grim, horrible statistic won again.

The leading cause of death for black men 15 to 24 is homicide. Taylor, who died from a gunshot wound early Tuesday in connection with an apparent robbery at his home, was 24.

For the second time this year, an NFL player -- a young, black male -- has been murdered. Tragedy struck on the first day of 2007 when Darrent Williams, a Denver Broncos defensive back, was shot to death during a drive-by near a Denver nightclub after attending the birthday party for Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin.

Denver police believe the shooting was linked to an altercation involving people who were with Williams that day. He wasn't involved in the altercation. Not that the bullet cared. He was 24 when he died, too.

Their fame and wealth and playing for respected professional sports franchises didn't protect Williams and Taylor from an epidemic more lethal and closer than any war overseas, or any boogeyman terrorist we can unearth or create.

Violence in America has laid a special claim on young, black men. When it made its way to Taylor's exclusive suburban Miami neighborhood, it didn't care that Taylor was engaged, the father of an 18-month-old daughter, the son of a police chief, a trusted teammate, the fifth overall pick in the 2004 draft, a hard-hitting safety who teammates nicknamed "Meast" (half-man, half-beast), a Pro Bowler, the Redskins' leading tackler last season. Or that a plaque honoring him for a generous, monetary donation rests in the cafeteria at his former high school, Gulliver Preparatory.

"It sounded like things were getting better," a still-dazed Steve Howey, Taylor's high school coach, said early Tuesday morning. "To find out he'd died this morning, it just knocked the wind out of me."

Howey, now the football coach and athletic director at St. John Neumann High School in Naples, Fla., won a state title with Taylor in 2000 -- the defensive back's senior year. This is the first football player he's ever lost to violence.

"You hear about stuff like this from time to time," Howey said. "It's never been this close."

Perhaps the most pertinent question is, how much closer does it have to get before we realize these unfortunate incidents are reflective of an enormous crisis that requires our immediate attention and action?

A New York Times article reported the homicide rate among young, black men in America was seven times higher than any foreign country studied.

That article was published in 1990.

Why has nothing changed?

Studies conducted in 2006 at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions concluded a black man is more than six times as likely to be murdered than a white man.

This isn't to say Taylor was killed because he was black. This is to say that, because he was black, Taylor was more likely to be killed. The weight of that should be just as jarring as waking up and discovering an NFL player died from a gunshot wound. Please don't roll your eyes, release a frustrated breath, and trivialize this as "playing the race card."

This is an American problem, not just a racial one. The fact that it has spilled into the sports world should indicate just how serious it is.

As unfortunate as Taylor's death is, as representative as it is of a much more substantive issue, the saddest part is his passing may never be put in its proper perspective.

Although study after study shows black men are more likely to be victims of crime, rarely do they receive victim treatment. When black athletes are crime victims, the undertone seems to be they somehow were at fault. Eddy Curry, Antoine Walker and Bucs cornerback Phillip Buchanon all have been victims of home invasions that seem as orchestrated as the one that claimed Taylor's life. In March of 2006, Buchanon was stripped naked and tied up by seven men in ski masks who robbed him and jammed a gun in his mouth. This past July, Curry and his family were bound by duct tape as men robbed him at gunpoint in his suburban Chicago home. The Pistons' Flip Murray narrowly escaped the same fate, slamming the door on two gunmen on his porch before he called police. Yet we seem to think it's much more likely a black athlete is holding the gun instead of staring down the barrel of one.

By now, everyone is well aware of Taylor's past brushes with the law. They should be equally aware that those who knew him best thought he had distanced himself from those troubles; he was someone who had overcome the growing pains associated with being a professional athlete given unimaginable wealth at a young age. No matter what, Taylor's past doesn't in any way justify him meeting this tragic present.

We should, of course, remember Taylor with a heavy heart. But it's even more important that we remember there are thousands just like him in communities within walking and easy driving distance. And they shouldn't have to wear a NFL uniform for us to care about them


About to text message his mother, Williams sustained a single gunshot wound to the neck and was killed instantly, according to Robert Whitmore, chief medical examiner in the county coroner's office.[6] After Williams was shot, he fell in the lap of fellow Broncos teammate, Javon Walker. He was pronounced dead around 2:30 a.m. The two other passengers injured in the shooting, Brandon Flowers and Nicole Reindl, were both released from the hospital the day after the shooting.[7]


[edit] Aftermath
The Denver police have impounded a vehicle in connection with the shooting. The suspected vehicle is registered to Brian Hicks, a 28 year old Crips gang member, who was already incarcerated awaiting trial for attempted murder and drug charges. Other associates of Hicks are being questioned as potential material witnesses to the Williams shooting. Rumors persist that it was a gang related event, however there is no real evidence about this and is actually highly unlikely according to family and teammates.

Williams is survived by his 7-year-old son, a 4-year-old daughter and his 24-year-old girlfriend who live in Fort Worth, Texas. A memorial fund has been set up in their name. Denver Nuggets stars Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin, who were with Williams at the nightclub that evening, possibly plan to honor their friend by setting up a college fund for Williams' children. [1] Meanwhile, a fan constructed memorial has formed on the southern wall of the fountain in front of Invesco Field at Mile High. Javon Walker has also decided to wear his hair in a "fro-hawk", in honor of Williams, who wore his hair in a similar way as a trademark.


[edit] References