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Introducing an Athlete of the Rarest Kind - Page 2
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At the end of last season, Williams traveled back to his hometown of Freetown, Sierra Leone, to cut the ribbon for the opening of an elementary school his foundation funded in memory of his mother, Abigail Butscher, a nurse. The school is located in Calaba Town, which is one of the poorest areas in Freetown. It is the first school built for this area.
"I was struck by two things [about Williams]," Gold said. "It was very unusual for someone so relatively young to be thinking in terms of gifts of this magnitude because they're still building wealth at that point in their career, and I also thought it was unusual that an athlete would be giving back to an academic program rather than athletics."
Williams isn't the first athlete to give back to his school. He isn't the first to give to something other than his alma mater's athletic department. But Williams' club is small, maybe the smallest when you consider he is so reticent to tout what he's done. He doesn't call along a TV crew. He just does his thing for someone else's benefit.
"And in each of the cases, he's supported health programs by supporting screening of underserved populations and referrals to care when they've identified people with serious risks to health related to high blood pressure or diabetes or other potential things," Gold said. "He did that in Cincinnati long before we ever talked. It's remarkable. He has a real commitment to education and health."
But Gold said the discussions he had with Williams weren't enough to convince Williams to contribute so mightily. Williams asked to meet with others Gold had mentioned to him to be sure of what he felt he wanted to do. The only time such a meeting could be made to meet everyone else's schedule was during the NFL season, and the only time Williams could spring free from Minneapolis was last week, his only off week.
