Faith and Action Bring Hope

A great article over at ESPN today highlights Arkansas tight end D.J. WIlliams and the difficult road of life that he and his mother and two sisters have faced. With an abusive father, Williams has worked through many difficult situations and feelings, watching his mother be physically beaten by his father. While those times of fear and emotional trauma have had a strong and damaging effect on Williams and his two sisters, they have responded by offering hope to a world that desperately needs it.

“When things get tough for me, whether it’s on the football field or anywhere else, I just think about what my mom’s gone through and the great things football has brought me,” Williams said. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to give back to her and give back to others.

“I want moms and kids out there who are going through what we went through to know that there is a way out. Look at us. We’ve come from living in a shelter and wearing hand-me-down clothes to me standing in front of 80,000-plus almost every Saturday just to watch me play football.

“Even when you think all hope is lost, dreams do come true.”

D.J. Williams and his family have become a source of strength and hope for many in the Arkansas community. Bobby Petrino says of Williams, “In every aspect of his life — whether it’s the training room or the weight room, with his faculty advisors or with the women’s basketball coach — he becomes great friends with them,” Petrino said. “He’s just a great young guy who appreciates life and makes it easy for everybody.

“If you didn’t know he was a star football player, you never would because of the way he conducts himself on campus. That’s what is so special about him.”

D.J. Williams has found the formula for success the EverydayQB celebrates. It is not just about how you ‘perform’ in a sports or business arena that defines what kind of person you are, but how your life, your whole life, effects and transforms others. D.J. Williams is effecting others lives for the good.