It took a long while for Aeneas Williams to make it into the playoffs, but he was a great player from the very beginning. On Saturday, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and gave his speech at the enshrinement ceremony.
Aeneas Williams Hall of Fame speech: DB says his ‘cement is dry’, HOF caps his career
Aeneas Williams gave an impassioned speech at his enshrinement ceremony on Saturday.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Williams started off his speech by thanking current commissioner Roger Goodell, NFLPA DeMaurice Smith and others involved in the current decision-making process. Rather than start by thanking family and friends, Williams said that “tough decisions have to be made that are unpopular,” but that Goodell and everyone else make those decisions with the enjoyment of the fans as their top priority first and foremost.
Then, he went on to say that he planned on crying at some point during his speech. He thanked "Phoenix Arizona Cardinals" fans, and then thanked the New York fans at Canton for a different reason. He said those fans stood up and all let him know that he was "number one." We probably don't need to explain what that means.
Aeneas Williams
He thanked all the expected people, including players and coaches from his NFL career. Then he backtracked and talked about his journey to the NFL and how much he used his brother Achilles as a role model. His speech was actually kind of all over the place, but he told plenty of stories about his time in college and his religion.
Rob Ryan earned plenty of thanks -- he was Williams' defensive backs coach for a time. He also said that Darrelle Revis and his "Revis Island" is something that's going on now, but it started with "Aeneas Island," and he owed that to Ryan, who knew that Williams could handle shutting down a side of the field on his own.
He closed his speech by getting the people in attendance to shout one of his mottos: “Begin with the end in mind. Die empty.” He explains that motto an awful lot during his speech.
Williams managed a stellar 55 interceptions and nine touchdowns throughout his long career in the league. He's got eight Pro Bowls to his name and was named a first-team All-Pro four times, with one second-team selection on top of that. He stopped playing in 2004, after three seasons with the St. Louis Rams following his nine seasons with the Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals.
Many have forgotten his play with the Rams, as he was considered on the downside of his career. But those years shouldn’t be overlooked, especially given that he earned two Pro Bowls and two of his first-team All-Pro selections in said years. He was a productive defensive back until he called it a career, and it was only a matter of time before he made it into the Hall of Fame.
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