Vince Williams Talks “Deep Depression” and the Importance of Being Open

Story by Yinzer Crazy Featured Steelers Writer Adam Davidson. Follow him on Twitter @Adam_J_Davidson

In football, an NFL star’s on-field persona often obscures their off-the-field character, clouding the struggles they endure in everyday life. This works not just for the benefit of PR firms who promote the NFL and its players, it works to further the cause of the players themselves. On gameday, one must leave their worries outside the stadium and commit to sixty minutes of football, everyday life be damned.

But as in any profession, real-life struggles are near-impossible to push aside. For Vince Williams, these struggles came to the forefront after retirement, echoing in small measure the stories of Steelers greats before him - no matter the era they played in.

For better or worse, Mike Webster is most well-known for snapping the ball to Terry Bradshaw and paving the way for the likes of Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier, winning four Super Bowl titles along the way. To most, his on-field accomplishments trump his distinction of becoming the first former NFL player diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). After his death, this revelation sparked a movement to protect players from concussions, an endeavor that continues to the present day.

For modern Steelers fans - and indeed fans of the Raiders, Patriots and Buccaneers as well - Antonio Brown is the case study among primadonna wide receivers, a fact that distracts from his Canton-caliber resume. In Brown’s case, a life post-football entails touring with rap stars to move beyond the infamy of his shirtless on-field antics.

While both cases are the extreme end of the spectrum, there are a plethora of examples of players moving on to healthy, productive lives following retirement. And they’re not just the ones we see on television, presenting NFL games as broadcasters and on-air personalities.

There are cases such as Vince Williams, whose larger-than-life NFL persona included dressing up as WWE legend Stone Cold Steve Austin at training camp and changing his Twitter profile to Bince Billiams - a feeble attempt to be inducted into the Steelers’ Killer B’s. After all these attention-grabbing stunts, Vince Williams moved on to a life post-football with a job coaching Pine Richland High School’s linebackers.

But looming behind these efforts and the humorous wide-eyed stare he offered for NFL team photos was an onsetting despair. A realization that NFL careers do not last forever.

On an episode of The Arthur Moats Experience with Deke Podcast, Williams offered this insight to his former teammate into his difficulties adapting to life in retirement.

“I am not going to lie to you Moats, I fell into a deep depression, bro,” Williams said. “Mostly because I honestly felt like I was still the most talented and productive linebacker, middle linebacker on the team… I had this sense of uselessness, like I’m not useful no more. My entire life I’ve been a football player, I’ve had a role for me but now there’s no role for me. I was kind of lost. You kind of go through kind of like a little ego death, you have a slight insecurity in there. Now what am I going to do? Am I a rotational guy?”

In last year’s offseason, Vince Williams rode the emotional ebb-and-flow most players face at the end of their careers. He was cut in March - a self-proclaimed “cap casualty” - was re-signed in April and then retired prior to training camp, having signed a minimum “veteran benefit” deal. He was found to be too valuable to play special teams, and not valuable enough to be a regular contributor on defense. Thus, he felt “obsolete,” having no purpose or duty to the one team he’s known his whole career.

Despite his somewhat chaotic departure from the Steelers, Williams will be remembered for having an exceptionally great career. After all, he's without a doubt the second-greatest sixth-round pick of the Kevin Colbert era and, it can be argued, one of the greatest day-three picks Colbert and Tomlin ever selected. In terms of overall production and the number of defensive snaps he recorded, Williams far out-performed what’s expected from most NFL players, regardless of pedigree.

The former Florida State Seminole made the most of his time in Pittsburgh; excelling on special teams, becoming a reliable backup, and eventually, a key cog in the Steelers defense for the better part of a decade. When thrust onto the field due to injuries as a rookie in 2013, he held his own. When afforded the chance to be the “Bake” to Ryan Shazier’s “Shake” in 2017 following the loss of Lawrence Timmons to Miami, he became a leader, especially after Shazier’s career-ending injury.

Now, Williams is leading a much younger crowd of linebackers, this time as linebackers coach for Pine Richland. In discussing his life’s turn with Arthur Moats, Williams attributed faith and prayer to discovering the path he’s now on.

“I’m the linebacker formerly known as Vince Williams, I’m not that guy,” Williams said. “That’s not who I am anymore… I can’t lie, that’s why I really got into coaching.”

In mentoring the next crop of high school linebackers in the area, Williams can impart a slice of his life’s story. And in being so candid about his struggles since being cut, re-signed and retiring all in one year, Williams has opened up the door for even more players to discuss their mental health - not just their physical health. Just opening up and being honest can prove to be a life-saving intervention, and it’s a lesson to be learned for all NFL players past, present and future.