Tuskegee Cornerback Prepares for NFL Draft

            Tuskegee, AL – Roosevelt Williams has been playing football since he was 5-years-old.  At Terry Parker High School in Jacksonville, FL, Williams won All-City honors in football and track and field. 

            “I came from a rough neighborhood,” Williams remembers about growing up in Jacksonville, FL.  “Football was my ticket out of the ghetto,” he says.  And he used football to get to college. 

            He took advantage of his “ticket out,” and now Williams is waiting for the April 20 – 21 NFL draft.  He has been told he could go late in the first round or early in the second. 

            Williams will play willingly for any team that drafts him, but he does have some concerns about how early he is selected.  “I feel I am the best cornerback in the draft, bar none,” he says with confidence. 

            The likelihood of his being drafted in the 2002 NFL draft is no surprise to Williams.  It is a boyhood dream.  “I worked hard at it and never stopped believing in myself.  Just because I came from a small school, I always thought I would get looked at,” he says.

            Williams spent two seasons at Savannah State University before transferring to Tuskegee University in 2000.  He was a preseason All-SIAC defensive pick in 1999 at Savannah State and ranked 10^th nationally in kickoff returns in 1998.

            In his first season at Tuskegee University,  Williams earned first team All-SIAC honors as a cornerback and was selected to the 2000 Sheridan Broadcasting Network All-America team, an honor he won for two consecutive seasons.   

            His 2001 season performance at Tuskegee University earned him a position on the Black College Sports Page “Baad” team, an invitation to the 53^rd Annual Senior Bowl,  the nationally televised Blue-Gray All-Star Football Classic, and the 4^th Annual Rotary Gridiron Football Classic at the Florida Citrus Bowl.

            Although he excelled at the cornerback position at Tuskegee University, Williams also accumulated impressive statistics in kick returns, totaling 1,114 yards in 44 attempts.  He averaged a little over 25 yards per return.  His longest was 89 yards.

            But it is at the cornerback position that Williams hopes to fulfill his dream in the NFL.  He has 13 career interceptions, four at Savannah State and nine at Tuskegee University.  

He says the key to being a great cornerback is having “heart.  You have to have confidence in yourself.”  Williams also believes successful cornerbacks must have what he calls a “short memory.  When you get beat on a play, you have to forget about it and move on,” he maintains. 

            “You also have to be a technician out there,” he adds, his reference to “stands and starts, back pedals, and good alertness.”  His 40-yard speed is between 4.3 and 4.4 seconds, which doesn’t hurt his defensive performance, either. 

            As a likely NFL draftee, Williams believes he is representing all football has to offer.  He doesn’t buy the argument that “Black colleges play a lower level of competition.”  Rather, Williams says, “football is just football.  They (the larger majority teams) put on their pads the same way we put on ours.” 

            Although he is concentrating on preparing for the NFL draft, “eating healthy” following a diet prepared for him by professional trainers, and working out twice daily, Williams insists he has not forgotten about his college degree. 

            A physical education major at Tuskegee University, Williams says he realizes that “football will not always be there.  I have to earn my degree.”  If successful in the NFL, Williams plans to complete his degree requirements during several summer sessions. 

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